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Aaron Dustin Chua

MKT199U
Each country has their own start-up ecosystem that are filled with entrepreneurs
looking to enter their respective market. This ecosystem is a structure wherein it is formed by
startups, organizations and services that would support the growth and creation of startup
companies. The composition of a startup ecosystem may include but not limited to education,
entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, competitions and the like. They are also a subject to
external and internal factors that would differentiate one startup ecosystem from another.
According to the plenary talk entitled Start Ups and the Startup ecosystem in Romania,
by Roxana Savescu, a professor of marketing and micro-finance in Lucian Blaga University of
Sibiu, she mentioned that Romania’s GDP per capita at 2016 is only 9500 USD and is a
member of the European Union ever since 2007. From their business demographics
standpoint, out of the 700,00o companies they have, almost 50% of these companies are
composed of individual entrepreneurs. However, these companies’ five-year survival rate is
only 40% which puts these entrepreneurs at risk of losing their business and momentum.
Moreover, a typical entrepreneur in Romania is male and is between 24 to 44 years old that
has a second to post-secondary degree in education.
The entrepreneurship ecosystem of Romania is still emerging. The policies governing
the ecosystem is far from perfect. The cause of this is their under-developed funding
environment and the lack of universities dedicated in supporting the startups for students.
Furthermore, there are only a few organized incubators capable of helping entrepreneurs with
their mentoring and connections to investors. On the other hand, Romania’s entrepreneurship
ecosystem has a domestic market of 20 million, and is considered one of Europe’s fastest
growing economies. There is also a saturation of IT graduates and professionals in the
country, making tech startups like mobile applications a common thing in their ecosystem.
This provided the country international praise and recognition, and has been the favored IT
outsourcing destination for many years. Unfortunately, the lack of opportunities and
underdeveloped funding environment has caused a brain drain in the country which further
proves the emergent state of entrepreneurial environment of the country.
I also learned that given this is the digital age, there is a rising emergence of tech
startups in line with multiple tech startup competitions and events funds the startup who wins
the competition. There is a multitude of these competitions not only in Romania, but also
internationally which encourages innovation and creativity among young entrepreneurs today.
Drawing a comparison with our country, it seems that our startup ecosystem is
friendlier and more grounded with regards to Romania’s startup ecosystem. According to the
2017 Philippine Startup Survey, there is a growing number of medium, small and micro
enterprises (MSMe) in the Philippines. The survey stated that there are over 900,000 MSMe
in the country accounting for 90% of the enterprises at the present, which makes up 70% of
total employment of the country1. Furthermore, according to the survey, 87% of the founders
who were interviewed stated that they have worked outside first before engaging in their
startup.2 This means that employees are now moving to become business owners and
entrepreneurs after their working experience with their respective jobs. This shows the
confidence the people has on the country’s entrepreneurial environment and its governing
policies with regards to startups. In Romania, the presence of multinational companies had
an impact on the entrepreneurial system of the country. Newly graduates are discouraged
from starting their own business because there are readily available jobs presented to them,
but it is mentioned that there is an emerging pattern showing that students are starting to get
bored working at said multinational companies and shift to entrepreneurship after some time.
The rising number of entrepreneurs in the he country was also coupled with several
government and private programs that support these startups. These programs include the
Go Lokal Program, Slingshot Philippines, Go Negosyo Act, QBO Innovation Hub, SME Roving
Academy, and more3. For Romania, there are only limited programs that currently support the
startup culture of their country such as student associations that organize entrepreneurship
seminars and organize business contest in partnership with experience entrepreneurs in the
private sector, and the Romanian American Foundation which supports entrepreneurial
programs in universities. What I would also like to point out is that according to the 2017
Philippine Startup Survey, 64% percent of founders have a bachelor’s degree, and among
these 64%, 27% belong to courses related to information technology while the remaining
percentage include business, engineering and other arts4. Given that most of the startups are
now driven by technology, it is no surprise that IT professionals and graduates are also
engaging in the startup world driven by our love for technology.
Realizing the demand for technology based applications and the surge of mobile
software applications, I would like to immerse myself in the practice of information technology
and how I can integrate my course of being a business major to a growing culture driven by
technology. Knowing now that there are numerous programs that support startups in the

1
QBO Philippines, PwC Philippines. (2017). Off to a Great Start: The Philippine Startup
Ecosystem. Survey, PwC Philippines.
2
QBO Philippines, PwC Philippines. (2017). Off to a Great Start: The Philippine Startup
Ecosystem. Survey, PwC Philippines.
3
QBO Philippines, PwC Philippines. (2017). Off to a Great Start: The Philippine Startup
Ecosystem. Survey, PwC Philippines.
4
QBO Philippines, PwC Philippines. (2017). Off to a Great Start: The Philippine Startup
Ecosystem. Survey, PwC Philippines.
country, our SOMBA business should not just join bazaars and sell online to get capital, but
should also starting pitching and contacting these government and private programs for
support to further improve our SOMBA venture and make partnerships with these programs
in order to sustain our business. Furthermore, what I realize since we are in the initial stages
of our venture, it hasn’t occurred to us the stage of scaling up and how we would manage a
much larger team beside ourselves. My team members and I should create a system of
responsibility and develop a focus for leadership not just to sustain the business but at the
same time improve ourselves in working with different people.
After the plenary talk, I have come to know that the passion for one’s own business
venture plays a big part on the future of the business. When a person has the confidence in
their own product or service, he/she then is able to market and sell his respective
product/service easier. It not all about making money, but having the confidence in one’s
venture and being able to satisfy a need of a market with one’s product or service. Bearing in
mind that most newly graduates becomes work as an employee first, I would still apply for a
corporate job before transitioning to become a full-time entrepreneur someday. During the
time that I am working as an employee, I would observe and learn on how corporations
manage their employees, and how they refine their systems so that I can also apply it in the
future as an entrepreneur.