MANILA, Nov 23 (PNA) — “Never stop learning because life never stops teaching.”–those are the words from a saying which the 19-year old CEO shared to his fellow students in a university in Manila.
Gian Javelona, the CEO of OrangeApps, started establishing his company at a very young age. When some students at his age are very busy in their studies and social media, Javelona is working and starting to fulfill his dream to become the Filipino counterpart of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
OrangeApps is a Filipino company which aims to “disrupt or to innovate the educational space” as Javelona describes it. The company is the one behind Khawna, a mobile application where everyone can get online courses from professionals. Teachers may opt to teach through the app and make money online.
Dubbed as the “school in the cloud”, the product has benefitted Yolanda victims from Tacloban who were given an opportunity to learn anytime they want in spite of not being present at school due to supertyphoon damages in their area.
Prior to OrangeApps, Javelona created the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) Mobile Portal where students may enrol, get campus updates, pay their tuition fees and process other school concerns just by using their own smartphones.
The online portal was his thesis idea on his second semester in third year college in PUP. He thought making a mobile portal would ease up the enrolment process in his university composed of around 70,000 students.
Due to lack of resources to build a software, he only borrowed smartphones from his classmates which he used to access the university’s database and eventually launched the app.
Upon learning of the online portal, the President of his university called him up and asked him how the school could actually benefit and generate money from his startup.
With the help of his classmates who helped him create and market the app, he was able to save money to buy his own Android phone.
Javelona’s pathway to success may seem very promising to some, but the young CEO shared that he also encountered difficulties along the way. Some have even discouraged him and ignored his proposal in other schools.
To date, the mobile portal is also being currently used in San Beda College, San Sebastian College and other universities and colleges in the country. It has now become an open source platform which any school can use.
A self-professed CEO who does not actually own a company, Javelona has been able to get investments and partners from foreign industries like Microsoft and known personalities like Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) coach Chot Reyes. He even managed to introduce his so-called company to a business tycoon like Manny V. Pangilinan.
At such a young age, Javelona has a clear vision on what is ahead of him in the coming years.
At present, the young CEO is already 21 and by the end of the year, he targets to reach his seven-figure revenue.
“My goal is to reach our million-peso revenue by the end of the year.”
Ambitious as he is, he aims to make OrangeApps into the stock market, thus making it public by the time he reaches 24. At 25, he sees himself as the youngest billionaire in the country.
Javelona further added that he will start building a new company at 26.
“When I was in second year high school, I told myself, ‘One day, I’m going to beat Apple.'”
From a one-man company, now his company has shareholders who believe in his mission and that is to help others and innovate.
“One day, I promise that OrangeApps will be successful for everyone,” Javelona remarked. (PNA)