
Guide to the Philippines Startup Community - Cmccann7
http://thestartupdigest.com/2010/08/04/guide-philippines-startup-technologycommunity/
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Cmccann7
We wrote this in response to the HN discussion "Ask HN: Best Startup City -
Outside the USA?" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1565375>

The blog post is a profile of the Philippines and who you should meet, and
what you should do there if you are thinking of moving or visiting the
country.

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byoung2
_We also have amazing beaches, cheap beer and great (but hard-to-find) coders_

I can vouch for that! My favorite beaches are in Boracay and Bohol. My
favorite Philippine beer is San Mig Light (at less than $0.60 most places),
and the best coders I've worked with outside of Belarus live in Cebu. I have
an outsourcing company and my whole team is based in Cebu. They are 100%
reliable, much cheaper than stateside developers, and they write English
better than some Americans. I'm a year or two away from moving there
permanently to keep living costs down.

~~~
fido
Any insights into the visa requirements? I've researched this a bit and the
information is sparse. I have an LLC based in the US. What does an American
need to do if they want to go over there, rent office space, and hire locals.
I was under the impression that I needed to invest at least $75,000 in order
to be legal.

~~~
byoung2
I just got back from the Philippines (3 weeks in May), and while I was there I
learned about a new visa - SVEG (Special Visa for Employment Generation):

[http://immigration.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&t...](http://immigration.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=473&Itemid=103)

 _The SVEG is a special visa issued to a qualified non-immigrant foreigner who
shall actually employ at least ten (10) Filipinos in a lawful and sustainable
enterprise, trade or industry. Qualified foreigners who are granted the SVEG
shall be considered special non-immigrants with multiply entry privileges and
conditional extended stay, without need of prior departure from the
Philippines._

That may be exactly what you need. I'm looking at it because I already employ
10 locals.

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arvinb
You really can't go wrong with the Philippines. Culture wise the Philippines
is the closest to western culture among the asian countries.

Accent wise we don't have a funny accent :) you won't have trouble
understanding our english. Our alphabet is very similar to the US.

Talent wise - we have a lot of great coders, I agree with the post, the
technique is have a higher than average compensation for developers so you can
lure them out.

Disclaimer: I'm a Filipino.

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peteypao
This is a post that couldn't be more timely for me. I am a US-based software
engineer and entrepreneur, Filipino-immigrant, interested in venturing back to
the Philippines to begin a startup. Thanks HN!

