Event Best Posts in Thread: Dumaguete to host its first Startup Weekend

The internet isn't that bad. People complain, but it's functional. The call centers wouldn't be setting up shop here if the infrastructure didn't meet a certain level of functionality. If the call centers can do it, then a small start-up team could do it.

There is corruption here, but I don't think it's hostile to businesses (they are getting shaken down.) I believe the corruption affects mostly government services - which would also affect things like infrastructure, legal issues and competition in areas which are well defended (telecoms.)

I know a lot of business owners here. Most of the corruption people I know have to deal with is in greasing palms with small payments to get the system to move faster.

Start-ups are small, flexible and can move fast. If they run into an issue and find a dead-end, they can pivot to something that is relatively open.

Selling services abroad might be relatively clear of corruption. You have a lot of options. The free economic zones which are setup to help grow certain services seem to take corruption seriously. I believe many of the call centers here are considered free economic zones.

The great thing about a service related business is that it has relatively little surface area to get hit with corruption. The more infrastructure you need and the more red tape your business has to deal with, the more surface area you have for getting tampered with. A business selling services over the internet can just sort of hop over all that and reach directly to consumers.