Written by Joemarie Ituriaga
The information age challenges young people to prepare and seize new opportunities to make a positive and lifelong impact. The drivers of economic progress and growth are Creative thinking, Innovation, and Passion. To encourage the students of the University of Baguio to take on the challenge, the School of Information Technology (SIT), in collaboration with Research, Innovation, Extension, and Community Outreach (RIECO), launched the seminar-workshop, ‘Innovation Lab: Problem-Driven Startup Creation – Day One of Your Founder Journey.’
It was a whole-day event that took place on August 29, 2025, inspiring young entrepreneurs with the help of Mr. Lou Philip Beltran, a fellow Ubian. It was attended by more than 120 students from the School of Information Technology. Mr. Lou Beltran shared his insights as a venture builder and entrepreneur. He currently leads three businesses: Addavolt, ASDF Groupe, and Samvina
The seminar covers the steps in building your start-up, identifying problems and trends, evaluating problems and trends, selecting the problem to focus on, pinpointing pains and gains, determining jobs to be done, defining overall vision, mission, and core values, gathering all steps, streamlining steps, mastering founder fundamentals, and rounding out founding teams.
Mr. Lou Beltran encouraged and prepared UB students to start their own startups. The seminar workshop provided the foundational knowledge to build their own businesses from scratch. This promotes sustainable employment and entrepreneurship as part of the SDG 8 goals. Through technology, especially with the help of AI or Artificial Intelligence, young entrepreneurs and innovators could solve existing and future real-world problems, which is a component of SDG 9. Participants are taught skills in entrepreneurship, problem identification, and providing solutions for lifelong learning, employment, and specialized knowledge, which is the focus of Quality education under SDG 4. The success of the event was made possible by the internal collaboration and partnership of the Research, Innovation, Extension, and Community Outreach Office (RIECO) and the School of Information Technology (SIT) of the University of Baguio. This activity is a part of the University of Baguio’s ongoing partnership with Samvinna and Adverba, which aims to develop and support new ventures.
