Technopreneurship 101: Introduction to the Technology Business Venture

I was introduced to this term Technopreneur or Technopreneurship during my CS 356 elective course in college. Our batch was the pioneer for the course in the department.  Ms. Mau Bello, who handled the course, was definitely excited about it. She was so eager to reach us out and extract innovative IT ideas. I knew from then on that I am into a technopreneurial venture. I started to call myself a technopreneur since I do home-based I.T. business way back in year 2006, accepting projects from offshore clients. Putting up an I.T. firm has been my dream since. Now, I am waiting for the big break.

Just recently, Ms. Janette Toral shared her presentation about Introduction to Technopreneurship during the Teen Negosyo event. So, I decided write something about what I learned during the course.

What’s the difference between Entrepreneur and Technopreneur?
Just a thin line actually. An entrepreneur is someone who engages in a business venture and willing to take the risk in order to gain profit; any business for that matter. Technopreneur, on the other hand, is specialized into high-tech and innovative business e.g. web technologies, gadgets, medicine and automation solutions.

Technopreneurship is the act on engaging into technoprenuer. A technopreneur is a person who is into innovative technology venture by enhancing or by developing new tech products and/or services. It starts from a good idea, develop this idea into an opportunity, and then commercialize it with a good business model.

Getting into technology venture is not easy as it may seem. You need to consider where you will get your financial resources. Do you have ready capital to dive into this business? Or, will you approach your friends to help you out, loan from financial institutions, or seek for venture capitalist? Yes, you have the idea but you need financing to start your idea “moving.” You may also need some help from the academe or technical people for your human resource needs. Consider also the venue or environment where you want  your idea evolve into a real product or service.  Will you start it from your garage or room, go into an IT park or enroll to an incubation facility?

So how to get that great idea and turn it into a business opportunity?
To have this, you need to do a serendipity walk or so called a discovery trip. This will allow you to discover new opportunities in your surrounding, your community (online or offline) by observing areas which you think needs improvement or needs a solution for a certain problem. It’s like doing a survey to find out the areas that need help.

Then, map your opportunities found during your discovery trip, your skills, and your interest or passion in a piece of paper. Have in a Venn diagram such as below:

Once you located your sweet spot, you can begin developing the idea by starting with a business plan and  present it to people whom you think will be interested to invest their time and money to help you out.

Ready yet? You can start with your discovery walk after reading this. Good luck!

Ms. Bello utilized the presentation shared by Mr. Federico C. Gonzalez during his Philippine Emerging Start-ups Open (PESO), Inc. talks. You can also view modules of Technopreneurship shared by Mr. Gonzalez on Scribd.

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