Aligned with its core objective to empower homegrown local startups in the region, the DOST ISU Smart City Technology Business Incubator (DISC-TBI) spearheaded the second installation of its Touch N’ Go (TNG) Incubation Program for its cohort 2 incubatees. The first week of the TNG Training Series focused on the topics “Are You Cut Out to Be an Entrepreneur” and “Creating a User Persona,” held via Zoom, February 21.

Ms. Shumate Royo, Founder of Curated Ventures Asia and Co-founder of ATT3ND, served as the lecturer for these topics. The first half of her talk focused on challenging the incubatees to reassess their commitment to being entrepreneurs – presenting a stringent list of qualifications, including the desire to solve other people’s problems, finding joy in selling, and the capacity for resilience.

Moving to the second topic, Royo provided approaches and strategies for creating a user persona. She also challenged the startups to create their own user persona, which was marked as one of their outputs in the training.

She ended the lecture session highlighting the need for empathy and understanding among startup founders, especially in the advent of tech and AI where customer behaviors are easily influenced by a radical environment.

Pantreat, Citrush, Bjahe, Hydroguard, Reftrack, Tactile, and Kineticar, DISC-TBI Cohort 2 startups, attended the said training session.