Dennis Velasco: The Reality of the Trust Gap and Building a Tech Startup in Southeast Asia - E692
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
41 min
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 19 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why did Dennis invest $300,000 of his own money to start a startup in the Philippines?
I probably invested about $300,000 of my own money. The Philippines just wasn't ready to digitize. When you don't have payroll for yourself, except for enough gas money to get home, are you gonna continue? If we can stand up, meet and exceed the expectations of Western markets, that would directly benefit Philippine companies.
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on success. I'm Jeremy Al, venture capitalist, Sarah founder, Harvard MBA, science fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources and community at www.bravesdea.com. Stay well and stay brave. Hey Dennis, really excited to have you on the show. You are a founder of Building Aggressively. And you know, you put aside a great technology career in the US to build in the Philippines. And I think there are so many people who are inspired but also have questions about that decision and your learning since then.
So I think this would be fascinating. Could you please introduce yourself?
Yeah, Jeremy. First of all. Welcome to the Philippines. Good to see you and the Brave Nation out here. And uh yeah, just to tell you a little bit about myself. So maybe we can start with our mission. So at Prosperna, our mission is to empower one million small and medium-sized businesses with simple and affordable e-commerce powered by AI. Yeah. And it's been a great journey. But my story really goes back to growing up in the US. And in fact, some people see my professional career in Silicon Valley and San Francisco or the Bay Area, which is obviously well known in our space. But I actually grew up in Texas. Yeah.
Ah
so yeah, uh I do have a little bit of a redneck in me.
Yeah.
But you know, fast forward, you know, my parents were both entrepreneurs. And luckily in one of my mom's trips to Southeast Asia, that's when she started expose me to how much opportunity there was out here. And so it really became part of who I am and who I want to be at a very young age. And luckily for me, things work towards that. And we built and started our company here in the Philippines.
Incredible. So, you know, I think that one just in piece is that, you know, you had this thriving technology career in San Francisco, right? I mean you're saying like you are Salesforce, you are Zero. I mean these are very much the name brand SaaS companies uh that's there, right? And yeah. So, you know, what was that experience like, at least without talking about your position, but what was that career like in San Francisco?
So to be honest with you, in the very beginning of my career Probably like many others, and don't get me wrong, there's no right or wrong path, but in the first few years of my career, looking back, I was chasing what society I think pressured me to be, which before those, you know, big names of who were once startup companies, I was chasing bigger companies to work for. And, you know, I was going after the big job titles and And trying to move up the ladder and hopefully make that big multi six figure. Salary.
What made Dennis decide to leave high‑salary roles at Salesforce and Xero for a “Silicon Valley strait‑jacket”?
And that's all great. There's a lot of people that can do that and are wildly successful, maybe more a lot more successful than what I've been able to do. But it just wasn't for me. You know, and I look back, I was like wondering why I was always feeling like I was in a strait jacket. And then one day, somehow, one of my mentors and someone who believed in my career capabilities in the beginning, he said, Hey. I think we have a great opportunity for you, but it's gonna require you moving to San Francisco. And that's a great offer itself as San Francisco alone is a fantastic place. Yeah. And so I took that opportunity and that's when I started to get exposed to the smaller tech startup side. of the software business.
And that's all of a sudden when I started to feel at home. And so in the beginning the decisions were really more about what society is, you know, telling me.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Dennis invest $300,000 of his own money to start a startup in the Philippines?
0:00–3:37
2
What made Dennis decide to leave high‑salary roles at Salesforce and Xero for a “Silicon Valley strait‑jacket”?
3:37–9:10
3
How did moving his family from the US to Manila affect the startup journey?
9:10–13:39
4
Why did Dennis’s first two ventures (health‑tech and real‑estate) fail, and what did he learn?
13:39–18:53
5
What challenges did he face with government corruption and transparency in the Philippine property‑tech space?
18:53–24:36
6
How did the 2020 pandemic pivot turn Prosperna from real‑estate listings into an AI‑powered e‑commerce platform?
24:36–28:46
7
What is the “Trust Factor Gap” in Philippine B2B sales and how can startups overcome the “scam” perception?
28:46–33:42
8
Why must Philippine SaaS startups expand to Western markets early, and how can they do it profitably?
33:42–41:53
Speakers
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