IGNITE
COMPASSIONATE
OFFBOARDING

When you’ve done your level best
and still you cannot avoid layoffs
offboard your people to us.

We will take care of them for you.

We do this via Ignite’s unique mix of technology,
partnerships, and above all, COMPASSION.

Listen to what inspired our Founder Andre Yap to launch Ignite Compassionate Offboarding

IGNITE COMPASSIONATE OFFBOARDING IS

AN ENABLER PROGRAM

We FACILITATE continuity of income by training and deploying people to MARKETS where they have the possibility to earn.

A DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

We PROVIDE programs that can help them pursue not just financial mobility but PERSONAL GROWTH.

EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTNER WITH US

Click here

LEARN ABOUT OUR FLAGSHIP PROGRAM

BIDA B.O.S.S

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IGNITE COMPASSIONATE OFFBOARDING IS PART OF THE IGNITE RESTART SOLUTIONS.

Learn more about our solutions on how to help individuals, teams and organizations survive and thrive in chaotic change.

Click here

A RESTART SOLUTION
from

Uniquely at the nexus of corporate, innovation, venture capital, and igniting all we touch to their greatest promise.

You’ve never met anyone like us.

Visit Ignite House
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© 2020 Ignite House. All Rights Reserved.

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CONTACT US

Fill in your details and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

    You may also contact:

    Aileen Gutierrez
    📞 +63 917 154 3331
    📩 [email protected]

    MEET THE 100X FELLOWS

    You won’t find a more ready, willing and able gathering of 100X entrepreneurs and investors in the Philippines. Individually, we are super achievers; together as 100X Fellows we will build the greatest generation of Filipino innovations, each in our own space.

    Between IGNITE and KAYA, Andre and Paulo bring 2 of the country's most active early-stage VCs joining forces with Carlo’s AI FIRST at the forefront of PH AI implementations, both applications and capacity-building.

    Then we hand-picked 30 of the country’s top entrepreneurs: half of them are founders we’re already invested in; others are known builders with deep, formidable domain expertise; and still others are captains of industry, including Global 200 and publicly-listed companies who are building their next big thing.

    We all share this in common, the core of our 100X Fellowship: we're each solving important problems for our most important customers, each with a vision and commitment to deliver 100X ROI and impact.

    Note: Expanded bios with co-founders and 100X perspectives will be launched throughout April 2025. Our 100-Day Fellowship jumpstarts 29 April 2025.

    Andre Yap

    Founding 100X Fellow
    Founder & CEO, IGNITE HOUSE OF INNOVATION

    Link
    Expand/Collapse Quote

    AI is changing the rules for VCs and founders. The best VCs have to dive in at the earliest stages, get our hands dirty in the builds, so we can grasp and stay ahead of all the disruption AI is driving– weekly! At the same time, we need to be even more obsessed about the never-changing fundamentals: VC is a 100X game and 100X ROI and Impact demands relentless focus, focus, focus, customer, customer, CUSTOMER!!! There’s a rigor and repeatable process to 100X, and that’s what we’re obsessed about operationalizing via our 100X Dashboard. More than ever, everything still starts with great founders– except in the age of AI the definition of a great founder has become more democratic. That’s what 100X PH is. We’ve personally hand-picked an iconoclastic cohort of the very best founders, each an equally obsessed partner in our quest to build the greatest generation of Filipino startups.


    AI FIRST is a key piece here. AI FIRST isn’t just our brand. It’s a first-principle way of building every layer of a business (products, services, biz models, ops, customer service, admin, etc) by reducing the most important activities into “workflows” (e.g., products are simply workflows that customers use to get something they need) and using the right AI tech and tools to do the workflows 10 times better, faster, cheaper. AI-FIRST is a call to arms for organizations and professionals to become “AI-First” (use AI wherever AI can do it better, faster, cheaper) in everything they do. Because AI-FIRST is now possible for everyone… if you’re not doing AI-FIRST then you’re sprinting your way into becoming very uncompetitive very fast.

    Andre Yap

    Founding 100X Fellow

    Founder & CEO,
    IGNITE HOUSE OF INNOVATION

    Link Linkedin
    🗨️ Now Showing

    AI is changing the rules for VCs and founders. The best VCs have to dive in at the earliest stages, get our hands dirty in the builds, so we can grasp and stay ahead of all the disruption AI is driving– weekly! At the same time, we need to be even more obsessed about the never-changing fundamentals: VC is a 100X game and 100X ROI and Impact demands relentless focus, focus, focus, customer, customer, CUSTOMER!!! There’s a rigor and repeatable process to 100X, and that’s what we’re obsessed about operationalizing via our 100X Dashboard. More than ever, everything still starts with great founders– except in the age of AI the definition of a great founder has become more democratic. That’s what 100X PH is. We’ve personally hand-picked an iconoclastic cohort of the very best founders, each an equally obsessed partner in our quest to build the greatest generation of Filipino startups.


    AI FIRST is a key piece here. AI FIRST isn’t just our brand. It’s a first-principle way of building every layer of a business (products, services, biz models, ops, customer service, admin, etc) by reducing the most important activities into “workflows” (e.g., products are simply workflows that customers use to get something they need) and using the right AI tech and tools to do the workflows 10 times better, faster, cheaper. AI-FIRST is a call to arms for organizations and professionals to become “AI-First” (use AI wherever AI can do it better, faster, cheaper) in everything they do. Because AI-FIRST is now possible for everyone… if you’re not doing AI-FIRST then you’re sprinting your way into becoming very uncompetitive very fast.

    PAULO CAMPOS

    Founding 100X Fellow

    Founding Managing Partner,
    KAYA FOUNDERS

    Link Linkedin

    🗨️ Coming Soon

    CARLO ALMENDRAL

    Founding 100X Fellow

    Founding Managing Partner,
    KAYA FOUNDERS

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    Jojo Concepcion

    Senior 100X Fellow

    Chairman,
    CONCEPCION INDUSTRIES
    Home & Office Solutions

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    JIM AYALA

    Senior 100X Fellow

    Founder & CEO,
    HYBRID SOCIAL
    Social Impact & Faith-Driven Enterprise

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    JOJO MALOLOS

    Senior 100X Fellow

    CEO, PAYMONGO
    Co-Funder, GO TYME
    B2B Fintech, Payments

    Link Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    BARRY O' REILLY

    Senior 100X Fellow

    Co-Founder &CIO,
    NOBODY STUDIOS
    VC & Startups

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    ANA CALUBAD

    Founder & Managing Director,
    BRITANA
    SME ERP

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    ARRIAN LIM

    Founder & CEO,
    PAWDEL
    Vet & Animal Health Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    ASPEN SANEZ

    Founder & CEO,
    TKT
    Event & Entertainment Tech

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    BRYAN YAP

    Group CEO,
    REPUBLIQ
    Marketing + Influencer Tech

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    CARMINA BAYOMBONG

    Founder & CEO,
    INVESTED
    Edu/Career Fintech for BOP

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    CARLO SILVA

    Founder & CEO,
    SHOPPABLE
    B2B E-Commerce & Supply Chain

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    CLARRY HERRERA

    Founder & CEO,
    SEARCHTECH AI
    Marketing/CMO Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    CRYSTAL GONZALEZ

    Founder & CEO,
    NONEAWAY
    Real Estate Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    DAVE OVERTON

    Founder & CEO,
    SYMPH
    Logistics Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    DAVID FOOTE

    Founder & CEO,
    ZENNYA
    Health Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    FABI CARIÑO

    100X EIR,
    OPEN BUILD
    HROD & Mental Health

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    FERDI GUTIERREZ

    Founder & CEO,
    VOX STUDIOS
    Scalable AI Solutions for All

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    GAB ANGELES

    Founder & CEO,
    DUON WAYFINDING
    Indoor Navigation Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    ITONG TORRES

    F100X EIR,
    OPEN BUILD
    Enterprise CIO/CTO

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    JAY FAJARDO

    100X EIR,
    OPEN BUILD
    Startup/Tech Ninja

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    KAT GONZALEZ

    100X EIR,
    OPEN BUILD
    COO/CMO Ninja

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    KENDRICK CO

    Founder & CEO,
    ENTITY GROUP
    B2B Fintech, KYC

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    KIYA BRAUN

    Founder & CEO,
    GO ROCKY
    Mens Health

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    LAURA DEUTSCH

    100X EIR,
    OPEN BUILD
    FMCG, Food

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    MAGNO CONAG III

    Founder & CEO,
    NUECA
    Countryside MSME Tech

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    MARLA RAUSCH

    Founder & CEO,
    ANIMATION VERTIGO
    KPO, Motion Capture

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    PAUL PAJO

    Founder & CEO,
    CYBOTSAI.COM
    Cybersecurity + Data Compliance

    Link Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    RISHI RACHMANDANI

    F100X EIR,
    OPEN BUILD
    Actuarial Science, Retail Tech

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    VAIBHAV SRIVASTAVA

    Founder & CEO,
    MOTORENTO
    Last Mile Logistics Tech

    Linkedin

    AIFirst isn’t just a brand – it’s a mindset; it’s a challenge to change how things are done because every business is up for grabs when you can do something 100x faster, cheaper, and with better quality. Now that AI is within everyone’s reach, clinging to old methods is a dead end.

    Expanded Bio Coming Soon

    Old School Letter
    from our CEO

    Layer 1

    We didn't skip a beat. Started 2024 the way we ended 2023: full throttle on our investment mandate to find and fund 30 of the country’s most ignited founders.

    •

    Q4 2023 saw us pull the trigger on 5 iconic investments and we’re on track to exceed that in 1H 2024 (more on this later, including our 3 key investment criteria and how we’ve expanded our venture capital focus to include steady ships, besides the usual rocket ships).

    •

    In January we broke all records with our biggest Ignite ever. Partnering with Ateneo’s DOST-backed Blue Nest Technology Business Incubator and the Ateneo Intellectual Property Office, we gathered some of Manila’s most badass founders, investors, and CEOs, along with our most promising young professionals and student leaders. For 5+ hours on a chill January afternoon, we ignited on the common ground of Peak Performance and Peak Living in 2024.

    More Than VC

    Our January highlight was the launch of 5VC FITNESS, a hybrid app, online and face-to-face platform for individuals, teams, and organizations to methodically and measurably grow their 5 Cycles of Virtuous Capital in 3-month sprints.

    Check out 5vc.io:

    See how 5VC can power you and your teams to unrivaled growth and performance;

    See how you can partner with Ignite to bring 5VC to schools, corporations, SMEs and LGUs all over the country. This is one of our major KPIs in 2024-- to build partnerships (think franchising!) that bring 5VC FITNESS to every corner of Filipino society.

    Fund 30 of PH’s Most Ignited

    January was also our public unveiling of IGNITE VC 2024: our quest to find and fund 30 of the country’s most Ignited founders, targeting to be the first money in and invest PHP5-10MM per founder in the next 18-24 months.

    Here are the 3 most important finds we’re looking to invest in:

    1) Founders who are obsessed with solving important problems at scale (where revenue and customers grow much faster and bigger than costs).

    2) Founders who are obsessed with customer impact (where everything they do is built around continuously solving customer pains).

    3) Founders who are obsessed with being great at execution and culture (because this is how they’re going to keep great people happy and full).

    If you’re our kind of founder, we will invest in either of 2 scenarios:

    1) Your venture was birthed as a rocket ship (to achieve massive scale within 3-5 years).

    2) You’re currently a steady ship that can be transformed into a rocket ship. A steady ship is a solid business that is currently profitable (or can be within the next 6-12 months) and has a great product that delights customers in ways that are important to them.

    Rocket ship or steady ship, we invest when we see that our Ignite capital, including our 5VC (5 Cycles of Virtuous Capital) can drive 10-100X++ growth in your venture.

    Want to explore an investment from Ignite? Pls message us here and tell us what you have in mind. We’ll pick it up from there.

    That’s all for now. Let’s keep igniting.

    Andre A. Yap
    February 2024

    Joana Alberto is a CoFounder and Managing Partner of Ignite House of Innovations and Ni2, the National Innovators Initiative to power 100,000 Filipino innovators by 2023. She’s also the Managing Director of the Guild by Ni2, a dedicated team that focuses on career and OJT acceleration of college students and fresh grads at scale. The space that she holds is all about nurturing individuals to drive peak performance by discovering Ignite GPS (Genius, Purpose, Service) our personal navigation system that leads us to fulfill our highest potential, under Ignite Centre for Peak Experiences.

    Before joining Ignite, Joana served the aviation industry for almost three decades while thriving in the field of entrepreneurship — from designing and manufacturing her own line of arts and crafts to selling dry goods, managing a flower shop and being an events designer, and never leaving out her social responsibility via community service. She was never content with just being employed.

    “I’ve had many twists and turns in a career that has brought me to hundreds of cities all over the world, first as a flight attendant and cabin manager, then in HQ. After 27 years in aviation, I clipped my wings, and packed the manuscript that I worked on for 4 years entitled, #Metamorphosis: The Ultimate Makeover Manual for 40-Year Olds and Beyond, along with my certifications on wellness coaching and various healing modalities. In a matter of months, I went from wearing two hats in the airline, managing inflight performance while designing and delivering leadership programs to 120 nationalities, to leaving all that and holing up in India for a month – to learn yoga, find myself, reinvent my future.”

    I was 47 then, a wife and mother who had spent the best years of my life flying in and out of my family’s life. I had been an expat for so long. I was finally coming home to Manila with a new career in corporate wellness. I thought that was it, my final chapter, time to get settled before entering my golden era.

     

    But no.

     

    A wise friend once asked me… Joana, you’ve been in a perfect storm! You’re an extreme empath and you’ve met, served and managed so many more people from so many more countries in 27 years than most people do in 3 lifetimes: those dreams and pains and wants of so many people must have a way of sticking on you, haunting you, no?

     

    Yes, exactly; they’ve haunted me.“

    Before I jumped into corporate, I designed a program for Filipina overseas workers – for people and pain I know so well. I designed a 6-month journey that would help them create their Dream Life Masterplan. I included all the right things I did and didn’t do, all the research and study, trial and error, consulting friends and experts, and sleepless nights in search for my truth. So OFWs long separated from their families can speed up their coming home — prepared. Well, my Dream Life Masterplan never reached a single soul. My intention was pure and noble. But I was alone for a huge mission.

    Fast forward to 2017. A friend invited me to an Ignite gathering and I was never the same again. I found my space, found my missing pieces, found my partners and team. And I found the Ignite GPS: Genius, Purpose, Service. It was my finally embracing my own GPS that really put me on a new journey and challenge: to take care of people beyond wellness, so they can be whole – so they can live their deepest truth and so fulfill their highest potential and greatest promise. That’s what I found in the Ignite GPS.

    Today, Joana is leading a team of Gen Z’s to launch a human + app coached program to help colleges students find clarity in their life-career direction. She also just launched the pilot project of her startup  —which partners with farm owners to create viable and sustainable ventures that support agri-eco tourism, farm based co-creation opportunities, tech guided wellness experiences and socio-economic development initiatives. At the rate she’s going, nothing can stop her from founding more winning innovations in the next coming years. A genuine Iska — a graduate of the University of the Philippines, her mission no doubt is to make an impact on the lives of her kabayans, dreaming to make her country a better place.

    Andre Yap is the founder and CEO of Ignite House of Innovation, which invests and operates in venture capital, technology, media, education, healthcare, energy, hospitality, food, agri, HR and enterprise solutions. 

    Andre also serves as Executive Chairman of Ni2, The Philippines’ National Innovators Initiative to power 100,000 Filipino Innovators across key sectors of society. Ni2 is a public-private partnership with national and local governments, business and non-profit organizations, and the academe.

    As a serial founder and startup investor, Andre built Ignite House to be an innovator for innovators – to R&D, build, operate and continuously invest in proprietary systems, platforms, programs and technologies in order to nurture, scale and sustain innovation capabilities, open collaborations and disruptive opportunities uniting key sectors of society (business, education, socio-civic, government, startups, investors), with the vision of establishing the Filipino as a uniquely disruptive force in global innovation.

    Ignite’s mission is deeply personal to Andre: to build and invest in transcendent ventures by building up and investing in transcendent founders and teams, advancing his core belief that innovation is the business (i.e., building sustainable operating models) of solving society’s wicked problems. In 2018 Andre authored the Ignite Manifesto and has relentlessly pushed its growth as an Operating System that has helped thousands of individuals and teams channel deeply personal GPS (Genius, Purpose, Service) into shared Mission and Collaboration, into Innovation and Impact.

    Andre was born and raised in Manila and educated by the Jesuits and the Opus Dei, before moving onto the US, where he earned 3 degrees (Yale, Fordham, NYU) and lived for 15 years. In 2009, based on his pioneering work with CUBED (“Cube Ed”), the Center for University-Based Enterprise & Development, which Andre founded as an innovation accelerator and ecosystem in the state of Connecticut, the US Government granted Andre the status of Permanent Resident on the Basis of Exceptional Ability in the National Interest of the United States of America. 

    Nevertheless, Andre’s heart remains fully in the Philippines, where he wants to do his best work and most meaningful impact. He has called Manila home again since 2011, when he moved back with his wife and their 2 dazzling boys. 

     

    “I’ve pursued my career as a series of ventures and adventures… it’s a path that doesn’t look or feel like any other, that rarely ever really feels like work… precisely by challenging established norms, relentlessly going out of my box and into many other boxes, appreciating how seemingly disparate realities tie together, threading constellations where others barely even see the dots.”

     

    From choosing Yale for its public-private management focus and then following it up with a second Masters in Interactive Marketing at NYU; to deciding against the post-MBA rush into investment banking or management consulting so that I can start the YGroupe and really understand the leverage in my New York, New Haven, Manila connections; to starting CUBED despite my perfectly zero knowledge of tech, incubators or the academe; to choosing to come home to Manila despite CUBED’s success and the US government’s offer of Permanent Residence; to the long and winding road of ventures, investments and partnerships that have now led to the National Innovators Initiative and cross-sector collaborations, not just across industries, but tying together national and local governments and hundreds of schools and MSMEs. I’ve really enjoyed the thrill of going into frontier space that I know nothing about, that no one knows anything about, and making sense and structure out of all that chaos and ambiguity – building value, outcomes, impact where nothing but deep need existed.

     

    “Innovation: that’s what many people call it. For me, I see myself as an artist no less than Da Vinci or Picasso – business is my canvas and if I’m honest and brave there is no other way to paint but my way. Above all, I see innovation as my humbling participation in God’s ongoing work of creation – to help make things new and better all the time and to share that fire and capacity for renewal with everyone I meet. As we say, to ignite all we touch to live their deepest truth and so fulfill their highest potential and greatest promise— for joy, meaning, success, and impact; a life fully-lived.”

    Your people don’t have to suffer.
    Gift them the future they deserve.