I arrived at the airport in Seattle and was asked if I had a return ticket to leave the Philippines. I did not, and told them so, and was informed that I would not be able to get on the flight without a return ticket. I argued with them briefly, telling them that I had bought the ticket from their Airline (Eva Air), and never been warned that I would not be able to board the flight if I didn’t have a return ticket in hand. They told me if I arrived in Manila without a return ticket the Philippine authorities would put me on a plane back to Seattle. As dubious as that assertion seemed, it quickly became clear that this was their airline policy. I relented and asked if I could use their computer to purchase a plane ticket. After searching for a while I found a cheap ticket to Hong Kong on CEBU pacific, a Filipino airline, and bought it. I probably will never use the ticket, and of course was never asked to show it at customs in Manila. But anyways, from that point on the flight went very smooth. I had a window seat, and the two seats between me and the aisle were empty, so I actually got some quality sleep on the plane. Eva air treated me very well, good movie selection, good food, comfortable seats. Once I arrived in Manila, a driver picked me up and brought me to the house of Jim Ayala, founder of Hybrid Social Solutions, Inc. and my boss for the next year.
I knew that I was to attend an event that afternoon, but still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Jim lives in a beautiful house that is also the offices of Hybrid Social Solutions (HSSI). They immediately set me up with lunch and a shower, and I had a chance to chat with Jim and another employee named Jo Jo, who I think I will be working with quite a bit over the next year. I also met Jeff, my new roommate and coworker, along with the rest of the members of the organization.
It sounds like my first task is to work with Jo Jo to get the water filtration line of business up and running. Jim is an investor in a company called Starfish Hong Kong, which has the patent on a water filtration method that, honestly, sounds too good to be true. Their device purifies water to an internationally recognized standard of purity for a fraction of the cost of reverse osmosis. It uses no chemicals, and the smaller versions can run on solar power. The inventors and owners of Starfish are a couple of Australian guys who I will meet this week. HSSI has the exclusive right to sell this product in the Philippines, and will keep 50% of the revenue from each sale. The customer base includes remote locations without access to clean drinking water, as well as businesses and manufacturing plants in Manila. HSSI’s cut of the revenue will be used to fund other less profitable lines of business, including solar lantern distribution (still operating at a loss). Jim believes that even setting up purified water filling stations in remote villages can be profitable, or at least operate at cost.
This partnership between HSSI and Starfish Hong Kong just developed in the last few months, and they do not currently have any paying customers in the Philippines. However, there are at least two water filtration devices in operation here, one of which is in Manila and I will be visiting on Tuesday. Jim also plans to install one in his backyard. At this point it is easiest for the water line of business to operate under the company Jim owns, HSSI, but he intends to break it off into a separate sister company that Jo Jo and I will set up. All of the details of how this will work, cash flow between the new company and HSSI, marketing outreach, sales efforts, the name of this new joint venture, are still to be determined, and will probably occupy the majority of my time over the next year.
So anyways, back to the event at Jim’s. The event was the culmination of a month of work by 11 interns from the local international school (highschool students). About 50 people were in attendance, including many of their parents and teachers. These students visited a number of villages in the Philippines and collected anecdotal stories as well as some statistical data on how people are using their solar lanterns. These presentations were really quite impressive, very high level work for highschool students. They set up a website for the company, and collected the only real survey data HSSI has gathered.
After the event, Jeff and I went back to his apartment. He lives on the 17th floor of an apartment building called Torre Lorenzo, right next to the Rizal sports compound where it appears most professional sports are played in Manila. My room is air-conditioned, we have a tv and kitchen, and I have my own bathroom. The apartment doesn’t have internet, but I am planning to locate a broadband USB stick which Jeff uses and is actually pretty quick. Jeff goes home most weekends (his family lives outside of Manila), so I have the place to myself. This weekend I am just unpacking, doing a bit of shopping, and lounging around the house. More to come.
