Why Most Seminars Fail Filipino Startup Founders—And What The Pillars of Startup Businesses Did Differently

By Alice Eulin Meñez
July 7, 2026

Filipinos have long been praised for their creative talent, tenacity, and adaptability—traits that, we could say, were forged by the harsh reality of living in the Philippines. The country never runs out of problems ripe for startup founders to solve. Ideally, these two things are potent fuel for growing the local startup scene. Unfortunately, the current system makes it difficult, and for some, nearly not worth the effort. Why even bother building a startup when the environment is unsupportive, red tape is so rampant, the processing of documents is grueling, and the tax policies derived from the country's corrupt systems work against us?

But through all the difficulties and challenges of the Philippine startup environment, the silver lining is that many Filipino entrepreneurs who took the risk are willing to share what worked for them, and this type of practical knowledge can do wonders for aspiring entrepreneurs.

On May 30, 2026, at the Asian Institute of Management Conference Center, Concord Partners PH held their debut event, "The Pillars of Startup Businesses: Building Blocks for Startups that Survive and Scale," which targeted startup founders who are struggling to build and scale their businesses because they were not taught the crucial foundations needed for their startups to thrive.

Now, one thing to note is that the Philippine startup industry doesn't have a shortage of business seminars. In fact, if you follow business-focused pages on Facebook, you'll see two or three ads on your feed from different business seminars.

But what I, and many other seminar attendees I spoke to at The Pillars of Startup Businesses, have noticed is that business seminars in our country usually fall into one of three categories:

1. All Motivation, No Substance 

The first category of seminars is those that rely too much on motivation and hype while lacking the practical, technical knowledge needed by Filipino startup founders. For example, there are business seminars that would entitle their events "Startup Summit", yet the main crux of their event is simply to motivate attendees to start a business, but there’s no strategic roadmap at all. They do inspire founders to "follow their passion and hustle hard" but don’t show them how to properly price a product, manage cash flow, or structure their organization. These seminars focus heavily on generic pep talks and theoretical knowledge that looks good on paper but can’t hold its weight against hard realities and practical situations in the Philippines.

As mentioned earlier, these seminars have a knack for making attendees feel hyped up and motivated. So they go home from these seminars feeling inspired, and the dopamine might last a day or two, but they barely gain any practical takeaways, like actionable frameworks and strategies they can actually implement.

2. Designed for the Privileged Few

The second category is the overly formal seminars with speakers who talk about business but have never worked their way from the ground up. These seminars design their topics or line of speakers under the assumption that the average Filipino founder has easy access to capital, connections, and safety nets. This is a far cry from reality. Our local startup industry has many entrepreneurs who don’t have the inherited generational wealth or connections that the rich have the privilege of being born with. The seminars that ignore or are unaware of this reality risk offering one-size-fits-all advice and setting unrealistic benchmarks that only make sense to founders who already have all the advantages.

For the average Filipino entrepreneur, bootstrapping—building from limited resources—is the real score of startups, but this significant factor rarely makes it into the equation of this kind of seminar. 

3. Copy-Pasted from the West

The third category of seminars focuses on copying theories or tips from Western countries or popular Western business coaches without considering that they may not be applicable or suitable for the Philippines’ startup environment. These seminars typically feature a main lineup of foreign speakers, with local speakers acting only as support. For instance, many of these seminars recommend securing funding from venture capitalists or angel investors, just like people do in the West. In first-world countries with robust and supportive startup environments, landing investors is possible if your idea is innovative. But in a country like ours where MSMEs hardly get support, this route is just not as realistic as some people claim it to be. 

While there are valuable frameworks and lessons that we can use from the West, let’s not forget that the people, culture, and challenges local founders face will always be distinctly Filipino.

When the Seminar Is Just a Sales Funnel

If there is one thing I’ve observed that is common across the three categories, it is that the prime motivation of these seminars is to upsell. The sobering truth is that these seminars gatekeep knowledge at the first seminar so they can hard-sell a more expensive one. While there is nothing wrong with upselling per se, as a literacy advocate, I believe a business seminar should first and foremost be driven by a genuine desire to share useful knowledge. As humans, we should remain more interested in people’s growth than their wallets. The upsell must only be for deeper dives. The first seminar itself must already be designed to provide useful learnings from the get-go, and the succeeding seminars are just deeper but still as enriching as the first.

What The Pillars of Startup Businesses Gets Right

I attended the seminar as a sponsor, and I’m convinced I made the right call. As founder of Saturnia Books, I’ve always valued real knowledge over motivational platitudes that lack depth. And that’s what the speakers delivered—practical knowledge and hard truths about their industries. The speaker lineup was made up of powerhouse speakers with expertise in different fields of business: Ismael Bengco III for product development, JZ Cerezo for sales systems, Isaiah Mejia for branding, Mo Tolentino for digital marketing, Arnel Legazpi Jr., CPA for finance, and Alexander Wee Gonzales for organizational development. 

Beyond the invaluable insights of the speakers, the structure of the event was exceptional. Concord Partners was able to consolidate the important "pillars" of building a business into one cohesive event. Most seminars focus on teaching founders how to bring in sales, but The Pillars of Startup Businesses showed them what they need to know about every critical part of their business (e.g., finance, organizational development) and why each pillar is equally important.

The seminar encouraged us to think like an accountant when looking at the financial records of our business, a branding strategist when creating our content, an innovator when transforming our ideas into a market-ready product, a sales expert when offering our product to our target audience, and a Chief Operations Officer (COO) when looking at the structure of our teams.

And the attendees and fellow founders I spoke to felt the same way. There was a common sentiment: they liked how the seminar delivered practical, experience-based knowledge in a digestible and honest way. The frameworks taught were the kind they could immediately apply. They found it refreshing that the event overall wasn't salesy or pushy—rather, it felt like a genuine sharing of knowledge. And unlike other seminars, The Pillars of Startup Businesses did not overlook the critical parts of business, particularly finance and organizational development, which tend to be ignored until a crisis happens. Attendees left with reframed perspectives on these areas. The seminar went beyond the “what” and “why” and gave the “how.” Ultimately, attendees relished that they were able to get a full picture of building a business in a single day. 

As the founder of a growing publishing consultancy, I found it helpful that I got a better sense of every pillar of my business and how they impact the entire operation. While the speakers couldn't go too deep since they had to work within the time allocated to them, they provided enough practical knowledge for us to know what to do next and what to research further. Together with the audience, I found myself nodding along to the insights the speakers were sharing. I felt that this seminar was designed with a meaningful vision in mind, not just for money or ego.

If I were to describe the event with a metaphor, it's a premium donut box with all the best-tasting flavors—and the combination makes total sense. As a founder, it gave me a great overview of everything I need to build and scale my business.

While revenue is necessary to keep an event like this running, their desire to share knowledge remained intact. And as someone who believes in the power of knowledge, I'm looking forward to seeing The Pillars of Startup Businesses impact more startup founders because Concord Partners clearly has its heart in the right place, and I hope they always keep it that way. Just like the attendees I've spoken to, I am as eager as they are for the next event Concord Partners will hold.

Keep an eye on their next event. Follow Concord Partners PH on Facebook here.