Father: Just like what my father said, study hard, do well in school and get a great job after you graduate. I’ll give you the same advice. Study hard and maybe, someday you will be a good employee like me.
You may have had this conversation at one point in your
life. Most people may have taken it by heart and lived by it. But, for Gian
Scottie Javelona, the path of entrepreneurship has a lot to offer than an 8 to
5 lone job. This under 20 visionary is starting to make ripples in the silent
waters of the Philippine startup scene.
So what exactly does it take to be a 19-Year-Old
(This is a two-part interview series of Orange Apps Co-founder
Gian Scottie Javelona.)
How
did you start with Orange Apps? What do you want to achieve with your startup?
I started to work with Mobile Portal, an Android
application for the PUP community, June of this year. I got curious about how
mobile applications work. Using my background in Java, I immersed myself with
online tutorials for Android.
Learning is a step-by-step process. I observed different
functions of apps which led me to ask how these are made. When I have questions,
I make sure to consult tutorials and forums. Then, I applied my new discoveries
when I started to work with the app.
I admire Apple as a company along with the technological
breakthroughs they made. That’s why Orange Apps was born. It’s about time to
have a Philippine Startup version of Apple. My aim is to surpass what Apple has
achieved as a company.
With
Efficiency and Speed as your core operating principles, what exactly does
Orange App offer?
Even though my background is related to hardware, Orange
Apps deals with creating software application programs. My goal is to make
everything instant through mobile and systems software applications.
Philippine
startups encounter different challenges in their entrepreneurial journey. Can
you share any during the initial phase of your startup?
The primary challenge was Financial in nature. We had little capital during the development
phase. I also did not own an android phone. Thus, I had to call my classmate
who owns an Android and we had to debug over the phone.
Back then, together with my co-founder Paulo Benologa, we
were working on a freelance payroll system project. After we got paid, I bought
an Android phone which I am currently using today.
What
compelled you to focus on education for Mobile Portal?
I wanted to focus on apps for education because it’s one
of the least explored areas requiring solutions. PUP Mobile Portal aims to help
students, faculty and even alumni to have a fast access to a list of services
using a single tool anytime and anywhere.
From enrollment applications to news, events, personal
records and many more, university-related and scholastic information is made
accessible. The Portal gives them one space to multi-task and to be informed
about the latest updates within the university. The App is a great tool to know
almost everything about the school.
PUP Mobile Portal is now available for Free download.
Do
you know of any competitors?
At present, I believe we are the only one to offer this
type of educational app.
How
do you plan to leverage your startup with competitors (if any)?
I plan to form partnerships with them rather than seeing
them as competition.
We made an interesting discovery regarding the market of
the App. Initially, apart from being open source, we chose Android because it’s
cheaper and accessible for everyone. However, recent user feedbacks show a
market for iOS.
We need handsets and hardware to support cross platform
development. For marketing purposes, we aim to partner with PUP to promote the
app.
We also need a web developer who will be in charge of web
updates.
