Dave McClure

500 Startups

I'm a geek, an investor, former software developer & entrepreneur, occasional blogger and internet marketing nerd. I've lived in Silicon Valley for over 20 years and I'm passionate about startups & entrepreneurship. I've invested in hundreds of companies all over the world.

I'm the founding partner of 500 Startups (http://500.co), a global seed-stage VC fund & accelerator with ~$110M under management. We have invested in over 700 companies including: Twilio, SendGrid, Credit Karma, MakerBot (acq by SSYS in 2013 for $400M), Wildfire Interactive (acq by Google in 2012 for $350M), and Viki (acq by Rakuten in 2013 for $200M).

Previously, I managed early-stage investments for Founders Fund (2008-2010), and led the Facebook fbFund incubator program (2009). After leaving PayPal in 2004, I was an angel investor/advisor in ~15 startups including Bix.com (acq by Yahoo in 2006), Mint.com (acq by Intuit in 2009), Jambool (acq by Google in 2010), TeachStreet (acq by Amazon in 2011), SlideShare (acq by LinkedIn in 2012), and Mashery (acq by Intel in 2013). Before PayPal, I founded my own company Aslan Computing, which was acquired by Servinet/Panurgy in 1998.

500 Startups invests in technology companies building consumer and business internet services. Our headquarters are in Silicon Valley, however our team of 30+ people is all over the world, including the SF Bay Area, New York City, Southern California, Mexico City, Brazil, India, China, and SE Asia. In addition to investment, we help startups with product and marketing, customer development, design and usability, online distribution, business metrics, and fundraising.

Khailee Ng

500 Startups

Khailee Ng is Venture Partner at 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley based global seed fund and startup accelerator, overseeing a $10 Million micro-fund to invest in the next generation of Southeast Asia's most promising startups.

He is also the co-founder of 2 of successful startups: GroupsMore, a company acquired by Groupon, and SAYS.com, acquired by Catcha Group.

Bowei Gai

World Startup Report | World Startup Wiki

Bowei Gai is a serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who sold the company he co-founded, CardMunch, to LinkedIn in 2011. On New Year's Eve of 2013, he boarded his first flight for a 9-month long trip across 29 countries and 36 cities to research the world's startup ecosystems.

Join him as he culminates this remarkable journey at GOAB and get to see the diverse and interesting profiles of the people and places that are sure to have a significant impact on the future of technology.

Jack Madrid

Chairman - Openovate Labs
Board Director and Co-founder - DCOM

Jack Madrid is the President of Digital Commerce Association of the Philippines. Prior to that, he was responsible for the management and operations of Multiply Philippines. He was also the country manager of Yahoo! Philippines, the local operations of which he built as the leading digital news and content provider.

From 2006-09, Jack managed Dell’s customer support organization in the Philippines and from 2004-06 he was the Managing Director for MTV

Jason Torres

Proudcloud

A code junkie. A veteran Rubyist. Jason is a co-founder and CTO of Proudcloud, a Ruby on Rails and Javascript Software Consultancy shop in Manila. He currently leads technology, development operations and making sure that culture is awesome as always.

Besides software consultancy, he likes partnering and working with startups, and has proven it by building startups and apps like Artisteconnect.com, Guestlist.ph, Heygarch.com, Nowshowing.ph and more.

Maria Ressa

Rappler

Idealist. Cynic. Pragmatist. Journalist. Author.

Maria A. Ressa is a Filipino journalist, CEO and Chief Editor of Rappler. Maria has been a journalist in Asia for more than 25 years, most of them as CNN’s bureau chief in Manila then Jakarta. She became CNN’s lead investigative reporter focusing on terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Richard Min

Fashion Technology Accelerator
Seoul Space | Kstartup

Originally recruited by Google to lead Korea operations and a recognized authority on WebMasterWorld, Richard is now Co-Founder of Korea's premier IT startup incubator/accelerator, Seoul Space. He is also a Mentor for the Korean Communications Commission's (KCC) Global K-startup Program, a speaker, panelist and judge at many tech forums and conferences worldwide.

Richard is also an avid birder, former NCAA Championships swimmer and Team captain, martial artist, oldschoolz skateboarder, artist, 9-ball tournament player, equestrian rider and PC gamer. That said, sleep is definitely not his forte.

Jay Fajardo

Proudcloud | LaunchGarage

Jay is Founder and CEO of Proudcloud, an agile Ruby development firm based in Manila. He has been a tech entrepreneur since the mid 80's and runs Roofcamp, a regular gathering that hopes to inspire innovation and entrepreneurship at the grass roots.

Jay's most recent startup cycle was Airborne Access, a Wi-Fi hotspot network founded in 2002 and acquired by PLDT/SMART in 2008.

Mon Ibrahim

DOST-ICTO

Mon Ibrahim is the Deputy Executive Director of Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ICTO)

He was cited for his work in Government, primarily in the implementation of the Philippine Cyber Corridor Initiative, which aims to make the Philippines the Global for IT-BPO services. He was also instrumental in sustaining the development of the Philippine cyberservices industry and led marketing initiatives in promoting the Philippine IT-BPO brand worldwide

Paul Rivera

Kalibrr

A Filipino balikbayan who moved to San Francisco when he was 5, Paul spent time at Mercantila and at Google before leaving to start a BPO company in Makati in 2007. That company, Open Access BPO, went on to work with many top technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Today, Paul is the Founder and CEO of Kalibrr, which is building the talent cloud that helps companies identify, assess and hire the right people.

Stephen Jagger

PayrollHero.com

Stephen Jagger is an entrepreneur who has had businesses since high school. His newest venture is PayrollHero.com, "Optimizing work productivity with Happiness". Stephen maintains offices in Whistler, Canada and Manila, Philippines.

He is also actively involved in a lot of businesses. Ubertor.com, which is a real estate software company that provides websites and online marketing tools to real estate agents across North America. Reachd.com, a training company that focuses on marketing professionals and businesses that are interested in learning more about SEO, blogging, Google Adwords and social media. And last but not the least, OutsourcingThingsDone.com which provides high level outsourced personnel to business owners and managers across North America.

Patrick Cabral

Creative Director

Patrick is a Multi-disciplinary Designer and Artist. A man of a few words, he prefers to let his works speak for itself.

He can draw and paint a piece one minute, and design and code an app in another.

Patrick had also collaborated with Jessica Walsh of Sagmeister and Walsh on social experiment phenomenon Forty Days of Dating, which recently got picked up for a film and book adaptation. His artwork, a calligraphy statement featuring the quote: "Time Enjoyed Wasting is Not Wasted" is one of the most repinned and shared images of the project. Because of its success,it then seeded to another collaboration, this time with Tattly.com, a company that makes temporary tattoos, and 2 of his calligraphy works are now available for purchase. He is currently the only artist based outside the US in their roster.

He just recently released a mobile game app entitled "Pugo".

Camy Francisco-Cabral

Artist & Designer

Camy Francisco-Cabral is a designer and artist, preferring to move her creations by mood. With a decade of experience in Advertising, Graphic Design and Illustration, she handled a myriad of clients ranging from Travel, Web Design, Game Development to Corporate Branding. She's currently a freelance Art Director and Illustrator, while maintaining artistic partnership with her husband, Patrick Cabral.

Koichi Sato

IMJ Investment Partners

Koichi Saito is Director at IMJ Investment Partners, headquartered in Singapore. He sources, evaluates, and executes early-stage investment deals focusing entirely on Southeast Asia.

Prior to joining IMJ Investment Partners, he worked at private equity fund set up by George Soros from 2007 to 2012, and was engaged in several company and hotel acquisitions in Japan. Prior to that, Koichi served as an arranger of the securitization of mortgages at investment banking division of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. He also worked at Orix Corporation where he was responsible for providing loan to small and medium-sized enterprises in Japan.

Koichi holds a Master of Business Administration degree from IE business school in Spain.

John Dang

ZipMatch

John’s professional career spans 10 years of sales, affiliate marketing, digital marketing, and business development experience.

He started in the mortgage industry, becoming a top agent in a sophisticated lead generation and sales environment. He was also a key member of Affiliate Media, Inc., and helped the company become one of the fastest-growing startups according to Inc.com. He has built various website portals, specialized in driving traffic and conversions to monetize through affiliate marketing. He became the affiliate director at VIP.com, and after which he ventured into Asia to help Bodog, one of the world’s biggest gaming brands, penetrate the Asian market as its Head of Business Development. John has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Chow Paredes

ZipMatch

With 8 years of real estate experience in the Philippines, Chow started her career with Rockwell Land, a luxury real estate developer. Rockwell constantly sent Chow to the United States as Sales Manager to lead its international team of sales agents. She then continued her career with newly established real estate developer Arthaland Corp. as its Sales Director, and led an entire division of the company’s in-house sales agents.

Chow is also a practicing Licensed Real Estate Broker specializing in selling properties at prime areas like Makati, and Bonifacio Global City. She has been leading top sales teams and by experience has an extensive understanding of buyer behavior, sales people skill optimization, and the real estate sales process in the Philippines. She graduated from De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Oliver Segovia

AVA

Oliver is the founder & CEO of AVA, an e-commerce company in Southeast Asia, and a Director of the Segovia Group, a 40-year old family investment group with interests in real estate, hospitality, and technology.

For four years, Oliver was based in Singapore where he worked with Procter & Gamble Asia. In a regional strategy role, he spent possibly the most interesting year of his life: selling Whisper feminine care pads. No, he didn't have to test the product.

Oliver holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He co-authored "Passion & Purpose", published by Harvard Business Review Press. He blogs at HBR.org and oliversegovia.com.

Earl Valencia

IdeaSpace

Earl is the President and Co-founder of the IdeaSpace Foundation, a non-profit incubator and accelerator based in Manila. IdeaSpace is funded by First Pacific, one of the largest business groups in Southeast Asia focused on telecom, energy, infrastructure, and agriculture.

He is concurrently the Vice President of Corporate Development and Innovation at Smart Communications. Prior to his move to Asia, he was a Business Incubation Manager at Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group in Silicon Valley. He also was a Senior Systems Engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. He worked in VC firms H&Q Asia Pacific in Manila and Investor Growth Capital in Menlo Park.

Earl obtained a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, from Boston University, a Masters in Systems Engineering from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2012, He was named one of the Manila 40 under 40 by DevEx and honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Amarit Charoenphan

HUBBA

Amarit Charoenphan is a startup ecosystem builder, serial events organizer & entrepreneur. Prior to starting Thailand's 1st startup coworking space (HUBBA) & 1st creatives & design coworking space (PAH Creative Space), he worked in management consulting and ran a social enterprise incubator for a local non-profit. He is actively building the Thai startup community as the Cofounder of the Thai Tech Startup Association (StartupThailand), through events and workshops such as co-organizing Echelon Ignite Thailand, Thailand's biggest international tech startup conference. Over the past two years, he has organized over 200 events and attended over more than the same amount.

He is also working on his own startup, and loves to volunteer his time as a Startup Weekend Organizer & Global Facilitator and other entrepreneur mentoring programs, speakers in classes and judges in competitions. He based in Bangkok but calls Southeast Asia home. In his spare time, he likes to scuba dive and to visit different coworking spaces across the world.

Mohan Belani

e27

Mohan is the Co-founder and CEO at e27.

He specializes in early stage tech investments, startups in asia, business development, strategic partnerships, content strategy, community management, events, media & marketing

Paul Pajo

Smart DevNet

I'm now the Developer Evangelist at SMART.com.ph - check out SMART's APIs at http://developer.smart.com.ph - I'm also a startup evangelist for IdeaSpaceFoundation.org and co-founded SMARTDevNet (SMART Developer Network) - the Philippines fastest growing developer community as of 2014 with Jim Ayson. If you're looking for developers - join us at http://facebook.com/groups/smartdevnet and follow us @smartdevnet .

Past Middle East Experience: Experienced Company Set-up Specialist, Project Manager, Project Discovery/Integration/Proponent, OD/HR Consultant, Web Integration, Strategic Innovator, Content Management/Delivery Platforms, BPO (Financial Accounts, Content & Office Management),

Past Middle East Specialties: Trans-National partnerships, executive search, prototyping and pilot project facilitation of new business models in both post-conflict (Afghanistan) and First World (Dubai,UAE) countries. Also BPO between Central Asia and Middle East, government liaison, arts & media management/Creative Commons consulting

Minette Navarrete

Kickstart Ventures

President at Kickstart Ventures, a Globe Telecom company. Kickstart Ventures was launched in March 2012 to help support and develop a dynamic community of technopreneurs in the Philippines. It is committed to building innovative businesses in cooperation with like-minded individuals and organizations by providing funding, mentorship, and education. Globe Telecom and Kickstart Ventures are the national sponsors for Startup Weekend Philippines (Manila, Cebu, and Davao).

Minette is concurrently Vice-Chairman of the Entertainment Gateway Group (EGG), Globe’s wholly-owned content provider, which was acquired in 2008. She has held CEO/COO positions in various industries, ranging from Philippine start-ups to established multinational players.

Gwendolyn Regina Tan

Tech in Asia

Based in Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City, Gwen is an entrepreneur, investor and community leader focused on technology startups in Asia. She built and sold SGEntrepreneurs to Tech in Asia, where she now continues to track innovation in some of the world's largest markets. Gwen was also a founding partner of early stage technology investment firm, Thymos Capital where she saw two exits (one of which was iHipo) and continues to oversee their investment in Padlet, a Y-Combinator graduate.

She sits on the advisory boards of some associations, was a mentor at Polish tech startup incubator Gamma Rebels, is the Singapore curator for US-headquartered StartupDigest and the Singapore Ambassador for the Sandbox Network - the leading global network of innovators under 30. Gwen is an alumnus of the National University of Singapore, graduated from its University Scholars Programme and spent a year at Stanford University doing technopreneurship.

Gwen has lived in Singapore, USA and Vietnam, given talks across Asia, Europe and the US, speaks 3.25 languages, loves physics, travelling, dance and adventure sports.

Edith Yeung

Dolphin Browser | RightVentures

Edith Yeung is VP of international business development at Dolphin Browser, a Sequioa-backed mobile browser with over 80 million installs worldwide. She also founded RightVentures - seed stage investment firm focusing on mobile and consumer internet companies. Some of her investments include Fleksy, Mighty Text, Pack, Bounce.io etc. She is also an advisor to Strikingly.

Before all the startup world, she worked with companies like AT&T Wireless, Oracle, Siebel, Autodesk, Cisco, Telstra and Hungary Telecom. A few years back, she also founded BizTech, the insightful voice of news, events & research for the SMB internet market and SFentrepreneur, San Francisco's 3700+ entrepreneurs meetup,

You can also find some of her work on CBS, NPR, World Journal News, Techcrunch, Next Web, Mashable, Read Write Web, Small Business Trends, Fora and others. She frequently speaks on mobile, women and international entrepreneurship. And she loves dogs. :)

Rico Sta Cruz

Open Source Developer

Creative individual with diverse experience in multiple visual disciplines spanning print, motion, and web. Supports and advocates web standards and free software. Always interested in involvement at any stage of production from conception, execution, and management. Has worked in freelance, in-house and studio setups.

Specialties: Open source, web development, Ruby, HTML5, CSS3

Janette Toral

DigitalFilipino.com

Promoting the growth of e-commerce in the Philippines since 1997. Janette Toral is the site owner of DigitalFilipino.com She currently serves her community in the DigitalFilipino Club and the public at large through training and consulting in the area of e-commerce, digital marketing, blog campaign, and the likes.

She is a Certified Scrum Master and Certified Scrum Product Owner.

She participated in the IVLP or International Visitors Leadership Program 2011 (individual program) sponsored by the U.S. Embassy. Featured as 1 of the 6 women innovator at the APEC Women and Economy Summit 2011, San Francisco, USA.

She got recognized as Champion of Philippine Internet and E-Commerce Hall of Fame Award given by Asian Institute of E-Commerce in 2010; Globe Tattoo Digital Elder Award 2009; E-Services E-Champion Awards 2008 - Policy and Legal Category by the Department of Trade and Industry / CITEM / Board of Investments; International Schools Cyberfair Ambassador Award 2004 and 2002 given by Global Schoolnet USA; World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) Philippines Awards 2003 E-Learning Category for her E-Commerce Workshop Online.

Janette, as technical consultant / executive director of the Congressional Oversight Committee for the E-Commerce Law, was instrumental for the creation of policies in the area of consumer protection (value added services, e-commerce, electronic banking), data privacy for the private sector, and acceptance of electronic payment in government.

As founding president of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society, she was instrumental for the passage of the Y2K Law and E-Commerce Law. She retired in 2002. Other organizations she served as board member in the past were the Philippine Computer Emergency Response Team (PH-CERT) and Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP).

A Triton Dragon Boat Racing Team paddler. Into 21k runs and cross-fit.

Ron Hose

Coins.ph | Innovation Endeavors

Ron Hose is the co-founder and CEO of coins.ph, Philippine's leading Bitcoin exchange. Coins.ph is developing Bitcoin based low-cost banking products for the underbanked throughout Southeast Asia. Prior to coins.ph, Ron was a founding partner at Innovation Endeavors, an early stage venture capital fund backed by Eric Schmidt.

Ron was also the co-founder of TokBox, a consumer video conferencing company that was acquired by Telefonica. TokBox was backed by Sequoia Capital, Bain Capital, Stanford University and some of Silicon Valleys best-known angel investors. Ron holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from Cornell University, where he graduated at the top of his class. Ron is also an active investor and adviser to several Silicon Valley startups.

Tomas Forgac

CoinsOfSale.com

Tomas got interested in Bitcoin through his education in Austrian economics and voluntaryism. His technical background comes from years in finance and retail IT. He launched Coin Of Sale as a free pet project in July 2013 and transformed it into full-time startup this year. Coin of Sale is a Bitcoin POS payment system. Tomas has been promoting Bitcoin in Signapore since early 2013 by giving public talks, writing and appearing in local and international media.

Sam Kaddoura

BuyBitcoin.ph

Sam Kaddoura is CEO and co-founder of BuyBitcoin.ph based in Makati, Philippines. Prior to launching the business, he spent several years in investment banking and corporate finance, managing a range of portfolios from several sectors, including Financial Services & Technology, Food & Beverage, and Media & Telecommunications. Sam graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2006 with a Bachelors in Finance.

Jojo Flores

Plug and Play Tech Center

Plug and Play Tech Center is a Silicon Valley based tech startup accelerator, which he started in January 2006, and built a community of 350+ tech startups, 200+ angel investors, 150+ VC investors, 200+ large tech corporations and service partners, 50+ domestic and international universities, and numerous experts in various technology fields.

Christina Laskowski

STAC - Silicon Valley

Christina serves as Founder and Managing Director of Alquemie Partners, a management consulting firm providing hands on operations consulting and advisory services to early stage and growth companies. Her career includes 13 years as a branded consumer, life sciences and technology banker FBR Capital Markets, East Peak Advisors and Pacific Growth Equities; and three years in equity research at Hambrecht & Quist LLC. She has participated in both M&A and capital raise helping raise in excess of $2.0 billion.

Christina also serves as President of the Science & Technology Advisory Council - Silicon Valley, a non-profit focused on promoting a tech entrepreneurship focused ecosystem in the Philippines to support startup activity in the country. STAC SV is the creator and organizer of the nationwide ON3 Business Pitch Competition. In June 2012 STAC SV became a partner of the U.S. Department of State’s Global Entrepreneurship Program. In October 2012, the European Union – United Nations Joint Migration and Development Initiative announced that ON3 would be highlighted in the 2013 Global Mapping report.

Jay Aldeguer

The Islands Group

Jay Aldeguer has etched his name as one of the most multi-awarded and creative entrepreneurs in the Philippines. His growing interests have led him to venture into several business concepts in tourism, retail, tours, media, adventure and most recently, hospitality, all under the “Islands” brand. Islands Souvenirs, Islands Banca Cruises, Islands & More, Islands Pasalubong and Islands Stay Hotels now comprise his holdings company “The Islands Group” where he currently sits as Chairman & CEO. He also chairs the Islands Foundation, whose main thrusts are environmental protection and community based entrepreneurship.

Martin Pascual

Pascual Pharma Corp. | Nest Capital

Mr. Pascual is the Chairman of Pascual Pharma Corporation, one of the major pharmaceutical companies in the Philippines. He is also Chairman of ADP Pharma and Pascual Total Health, Inc., subsidiaries of Ondarea, the holding company of which Mr. Pascual is Chairman and CEO. The pharmaceutical companies focus on the specialty therapeutic areas of cancer treatment, cardiology, and pediatrics while the healthcare company, PTHI, concentrates on health, wellness, and personal care products.

Martin is also the co-founder and Managing Director of Nest Capital, a seed fund investing in technology startups and early-stage companies in the Philippines and the Southeast Asia region. He also serves as a Board Trustee of the Philippine Development Foundation, a non-profit organization that regularly works with the Philippine government on education, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Kuo-Yi Lim

Monk's Hill Ventures

Early- and growth-stage technology venture capital investment, covering Southeast Asia, Japan and US.

Ravi Agarwal

500 Startups | engageSPARK | Cuso International

Ravi started his first Internet company in 1997. Over his entrepreneurial career, he has founded three companies in Boston, two of which today employ more than 2,500 people worldwide, and have over 3 million SME customers. One is public (NASDAQ:EIGI) with US $1.5 Billion market valuation and another was later acquired by BestBuy (NYSE:BBY).

Since exiting from his last company, Ravi has been an angel investor focused on social impact and technology startups. He is also an investor (LP) in 500 Startups and 500 Durians.

In 2011, he moved to Africa to volunteer with Grameen Foundation working on poverty alleviation projects. Since moving to Cebu in 2013, he has been focused on building engageSPARK, a not-for-profit business to help improve the lives of the poor worldwide.

He is passionate about poverty alleviation, entrepreneurship, and enjoys scuba diving, rock climbing, trekking, kayaking, and is slowly learning paragliding.

Eric Su

Twidl Inc. | Lifebit

Having worked in the intersection of fun, technology and people for the past 15 years. Eric is now a co-founder of Twidl Inc. building Lifebit - a game layer on top of life. It helps people get more out of life thru a combination of life logging, game mechanics and social features.

As a former Internet cafe owner, network engineer, IT department head, computer teacher, graphic designer, animator, UI and game designer, Eric has the unique insight on how technology can help people enjoy the world more.

Badri Pillapakkam

Omidyar Network

A converted geek. Sources and evaluates early-stage innovative opportunities in South and South-East Asia (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand) in Consumer Internet & Mobile (classifieds, e/m-Commerce, mobile payments, social media, utilitarian mobile applications such as m-health, m-learning, and mobile infrastructure such as low-cost mobile broadband networks) and Financial Inclusion (innovative remittances, credit, savings & insurance products for the BoP).

Works with portfolio organizations such as Healthkart, Newshunt and Scroll Media as Board Member on strategy, growth plans, international expansion, operational excellence, and fund-raising. Passionate about technology, especially mobile, for development and social change.

Richard Eldridge

COO of Lenddo

Richard is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Lenddo, one of the Philippines most successful startups.

He has more than 15 years experience working in various industries and lived in 8 countries. Since 2001 has been based in the Philippines holding various C-level positions and starting 3 successful businesses, including Summersault (now Prople) and Infinit-O .

He is a director of the European Chamber of Commerce and is active in promoting tech startups in the Philippines and part of the founding group of the Manila Angels investing network.

Nick Sullivan

Founder at ChangeCoin

Nick Sullivan drives technology development. As a founder of three companies, and engineering leadership at three others, he understands what it takes to build top quality technology teams that accomplish the goals of the business. Nick has created tens of millions of dollars’ worth of value at multiple companies, driven by an insatiable appetite for getting things done. Nick accelerates the velocity of teams with sound decision making, excellent software development, management practices, and cultural engineering to keep teams happy and motivated.

Over the years, his primary focus has been on Web-based product development, specializing in JavaScript (including Node.js), Python, Continuous Integration, Open Source, Django, Cloud, Linux, MySQL, scaling Web applications, Caching, HTTP, front-end performance, geographic tools, text search, PHP, Texis, and company architecture.

Nick gives back in the entrepreneurial community by helping to run SFJS (the world’s largest JavaScript Meetup), participating in 106 Miles, mentoring and tutoring startups through 500 Startups and Plug & Play Tech Center, as well as advising multiple startups.

With his investor hat on in the Bitcoin community, Nick is an active partner in the largest Bitcoin syndicate on AngelList.

Kaloy Uypuanco

Production Designer

With an Architecture background, Kaloy targets at Production Design and Art Direction in the field of Motion Picture – Feature Movies, TV Shows, TV Commercials, Corporate AVP, Music Videos, and Documentary. He started his career in Bigfoot Entertainment. Working in the Motion Industry since 2004, he has experience in managing Art Department teams all over the World. He helped build the start-up local production house Above The Line Productions in 2008. He’s still working with the team to-date, solving problems through audio-visual communication.

As a Independent Music advocate, as he calls himself. He gained love for local independent music when he first listened to The Roots album packaged in a cigarette box way back in high school and the rest was history. He has always been using independent music or hiring local musicians to do his scores for his AV projects if given the chance. He helped build a local rock outfit production, Rocket One and joined Sonic Boom Philippines in 2008. Since then, he has been making local rock events, national, and regional independently. Creating platforms for these musicians to share their music to the World.

The objective – to put Cebu on the global map in terms of Movies and Music.

Hugh Mason

JFDI.Asia Pte Ltd

Hugh Mason is an entrepreneur, mentor and investor. Born in the UK, he is now a Singapore Permanent Resident.

I co-founded JFDI.Asia, Asia's #1 business accelerator with Meng Wong. We take teams of entrepreneurs from validated idea to investment readiness in 100 days. 60% go on to raise an average $600,000 for their businesses.

My physics degree was sponsored by GEC-Marconi Research, where I worked on projects ranging from digital radar to radio propagation and home automation. After graduation I trained as a TV producer-director with the BBC's primetime science show, Tomorrow's World. I went on to found Narrateo, a TV production company that won a British Academy Award nomination and made over 150 documentaries for Discovery Channel, National Geographic. They were seen by tens of millions of people worldwide.

Building a business around creative people turned out to be more fun than hands-on creativity so, in 2001, I co-founded Pembridge Partners. We provided investment and advice to over 300 marketing, media and technology companies, raising over USD50m for them over the next decade.

I am an Adjunct Associate Professor at National University of Singapore and an advisory board member at the Institute for Infocomm Research. I wrote my first book, Brainfruit: Turning Creativity into Cash from East to West, with Mark Chong. It is published by McGraw Hill.

I co-founded the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme, a UK education charity, with Simon Singh MBE. I am a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company.

Tim Joseph Dumol

Kalibrr

An avid competitor in programming contests, machine learning enthusiast, and a full-stack developer, Tim has been in love with math and coding since high school. Tim's first foray into open source was in his senior year at high school, where he was a heavy contributor to the web UI for the Sage mathematical software package. Thereafter, he discovered the excitement of programming contests, and placed in several national and international contests, such as the Google Code Jam, the Manila Game Jam, and the ACM ICPC. While competing in college, Tim freelanced for a couple of years until he was found by Kalibrr, where he now works as its Chief Hacker.

Outside of his work at Kalibrr, Tim is focused on attracting young talent into technology by improving the competitive programming landscape in the Philippines. As Scientific Committee Head of the National Olympiad in Informatics - Philippines, Tim has helped organize one of the first national high school algorithmic programming contests, and seeks to continue on this path.

Ibba Bernardo

Sari Software Solutions

Ibrahim ‘Ibba’ Bernardo has been working with marginalized and underprivileged groups by giving them access to relevant technology. An IT entrepreneur since he was 22, he is the founder and CEO of Sari Software Solutions, a platform, systems, and mobile applications company that aims to leverage technology to empower the largest, underserved socio-economic sectors of society known as the base of the pyramid (BOP). His passion lies in bringing technology to the BOP with projects like the Solar Energy Foundation's Ride for Light which brought solar energy to far-flung off-grid areas, E-Dalaw which enabled virtual visit of inmates by their indigent families, and Buhayko.org for teaching blogging to underprivileged students living in slum areas.

Ibba also wears other hats as a technology and motorcycle journalist, entrepreneur, social media consultant, and IT lecturer. He represented the Philippines as an ASEAN Young Leader at the 2012 World Economic Forum in Bangkok. Ibba was also selected to be part of the 2013-14 batch of the Asia Society, Asia 21 Young Leaders initiative.

Aurora Soriano

Pinoy Travel

Founder of Pinoytravel.com.ph, an aggregated online service for seat reservations of long distance buses in the Philippines, with a long term goal to provide other relevant and practical technology solutions to public transportation in emerging markets.

Prior to the start-up, 20+years in the mobile telco industry doing business development.

Specialties: E-commerce, Mobile Apps, Mobile Advertising, Inter carrier business, Interconnections, MVNO, telco partnerships, public transportation

Calen Legaspi

Orange & Bronze Software Labs

Passionate about Test-Driven Development, Domain-Driven Design, and other Software Engineering best practices. Committed to bringing these practices to the Filipino developer community and the Philippine academic community. One of my life's goals is that these practices become standard knowledge to every Computer Science graduate in the country.

Thomas Gorissen

JSConf.Asia

My world is entrepreneurs and tech startups with everything involved. I'm coming from a technology background and spent more than 15 years re-thinking, designing, building web applications and tasted all kinds of flavors of technology in various industries I built products, teams and companies in Germany, the US, Panama and Singapore and am currently proudly mentoring at Asia's first tech incubator, the JFDI. I'm the organizer of Southeast Asia's most influential web/mobile developer conference for the 3rd time: Check it out at http://jsconf.asia

Specialties: My specialty is UX design, development processes and culture, especially around the web. I also do love product development, process setup and making sure you use the right tool for the task on hand.

Mike Prasad

Founding Partner, ventureLab

Mike Prasad is a Founding Partner at ventureLab, a strategic development group that advises and invests globally in early-stage startups. At ventureLab, Mike brings his extensive background in product, marketing, and business strategy to drive rapid growth across their portfolio.

Prior to ventureLab, Mike co-founded the hacker foundry Supermassive Holdings and Kinetiq Labs, a hybrid incubator/accelerator program and fund. Over the last 15 years, Mike has mentored and worked with startups from Y Combinator, Idea Labs, 500 Startups, Yetizen, HAXL8R (SOSventures), and others. Additionally, Mike’s work with small businesses', Fortune 500s and leading agencies has received worldwide media attention and has won numerous awards including 2 ADDY's. Notably as part of Kogi BBQ’s founding team, his efforts prompted a worldwide twittering food truck phenomenon and influenced digital food culture everywhere.

Outside of work, Mike is appropriately an uber-foodie, cocktail enthusiast, photographer, and traveler.

Tonyo Cruz

@TweetUpMNL

Tonyo wears many hats, but he is foremost an activist blogger and a champion of the use of digital and social media for social good. He currently writes a weekly column for the Manila Bulletin - - apart from blogging, tweeting and advising non-profits, movements and SMEs on social media strategy. Among others, he has worked as Chief Social Media Strategist for Movent (formerly Netbooster Asia) in 2012-2013; and as Digital OIC for TBWA\SMP in 2011-2012.

Tonyo is a member of the team behind @TweetUpMNL - the organizers of Twitter meetups in Manila since 2009, Twestival Manila in 2011; Social Good Summit in 2012; and Social Media Day in 2012/2013/2014. They helped propel #ReliefPH and #RescuePH -- the collaborative, community-driven, and social media-powered citizens’ response to disasters.

@TweetUpMNL has received honors for its work: "Best Microblog" in 2011 from Digital Filipino- Search Profile Index Social Networking Awards; "Hashtag Heroes" in 2012 by Inquirer; "Digital Heroes" in 2012 by tech site TheNewMedia; and "Social Engineer" in 2013 by Nuffnang PH.

Follow them on Twitter at @tonyocruz @TweetUpMNL

Sharan Balani

Quickfire Games

Sharan balani is the founder of quickfire games, the philippines first media & game company to get funded on kickstarter.com

Sharan is passionate about all things technology, games and entrepreneurship. He is very active in the game development and startup communities, and is a strong advocate for better education.

Pieter Kemps

Principal, Business Development & Venture Capital, APAC
Amazon Web Services

Pieter Kemps is responsible for establishing and managing relations with the venture capital (VC) community for Amazon Web Services in Asia Pacific. He engages frequently with the leading Incubators and VC's across the region to help them create value in their portfolio companies by leveraging the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud platform. In doing so, he supports startups that use AWS to better develop, market, and monetize their offerings, and connects them with VC’s where appropriate.

Pieter has a background in technology commercialization, which includes product development and incubation, go-to-market strategy, business development and deal structuring. He has over 12 years of experience in the technology industry, spanning across infrastructure, networking, location-based Services, mobile, and Cloud computing.

Pieter has been living in Asia for over 6 years. He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (Summa Cum Laude) where he specialized in Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital.