RJ David started his career as a mechanical engineer but had a passion for programming. He took a job as a software test engineer and excelled in predicting how software could fail due to his engineering and programming background. However, he still felt restricted and wanted to start his own business. He co-founded Sulit.com.ph, one of the largest online classified websites in the Philippines, with his wife. The document outlines his journey from mechanical engineer to internet entrepreneur.

1. From
Mechanical
Engineer
to
Technopreneur
RJ
David

2. Who
is
RJ
David?
— 31
years
old
— Co-­‐founder
and
Managing
Director
of
Sulit.com.ph
— Married
to
Arianne
David
who
is
the
other
co-­‐founder
of
Sulit
— Netrepreneur
(Internet
Entrepreneur)

3. Who
was
RJ
David?
— Chairperson
of
the
Philippine
Society
of
Mechanical
Engineers
–
UP
Student
Unit
— Instructor
at
the
Department
of
Mechanical
Engineering
of
UP
Diliman
— Licensed
Mechanical
Engineer
— Software
Test
Engineer
— Freelance
web
developer
— Custom
T-­‐shirt
seller
(almost)

4. Achievements
— Go
Negosyo
Inspiring
Young
Filipino
Entrepreneur
Award
–
September
2010
— Business
Excellence
Award
from
BPI
Family
Savings
Bank
–
September
2010
— Featured
in
Go
Negosyo’s
7th
Book
–
50
Inspiring
Stories
of
Young
Entrepreneurs
–
October
2011
— PLDT
MVP
Bossing
Award
for
2012
–
November
2011

6. College
— Started
reading
programming
books
(Turbo
Pascal)
when
I
was
in
4th
year
high
school
but
I
did
not
take
Computer
Science
in
College
— Took
up
Mechanical
Engineering
(ME)
because
my
uncle
who
was
a
successful
engineer
working
abroad
promised
me
a
good
and
high-­‐paying
job
if
I
graduated
as
a
Mechanical
Engineer
— In
college,
I
took
up
Mechanical
Engineering
but
studied
programming
during
my
spare
time
in
the
library
— Since
ME
was
really
not
my
interest,
I
ended
up
joining
a
student
organization
to
which
I
focused
much
of
my
time
during
my
last
semester
— But
ME,
or
engineering
in
general,
taught
me
to
become
a
problem
solver

7. Lessons
Learned
from
College
— Money
as
a
motivation
is
fine
but
passion
on
what
you
are
doing
can
result
to
even
greater
things
— Things
I
learned
from
a
student
organization
in
college
are
worth
more
than
the
sum
of
everything
I
learned
inside
the
classroom

8. My
Dream
Job
— As
a
kid,
I
always
dream
of
creating
or
inventing
something
that
many
people
will
use.
— Became
one
of
only
few
biomechanical
engineers
here
in
Philippines
— Research
and
development
which
involves
designing
and
creating
prosthesis
and
instruments
used
during
orthopedic
surgeries
— It
was
my
dream
job
and
it
was
a
privilege
to
be
part
of
a
rare-­‐breed
of
engineers
in
the
country
— But
my
passion
was
in
programming
which
my
boss
caught
me
doing
at
work
— I
resigned
from
my
dream
job
and
accepted
that
programming
was
what
I
was
meant
to
do

9. Lessons
Learned
from
My
Dream
Job
— It
won’t
be
your
dream
job
if
your
passion
is
not
aligned
with
it
— Accepting
that
you
are
in
the
wrong
field
is
a
tough
pill
to
swallow
because
you
are
going
to
admit
that
you
made
the
wrong
decision
all
these
years

10. Changing
Career
/
Industry
— In
2003,
I
decided
to
shift
from
Engineering
to
the
IT
industry
— It
was
tough
because
of
2
things:
— I
have
to
start
at
an
entry
position
again
— I
cannot
even
get
an
interview
for
a
programming
job
because
I
was
a
Mechanical
Engineer
— I
know
how
to
program
and
relatively
good
at
it
but
I
have
nothing
to
prove
it
other
than
my
skills

11. Lessons
Learned
in
Changing
Career
/
Industry
— In
any
career
or
industry,
you
always
have
to
start
at
the
bottom
and
move
your
way
up
— It
is
always
easy
to
say
that
you
are
good
at
something
but
it
is
difficult
to
prove
it
especially
if
you
do
not
have
the
background
and
experience
to
show
— The
difficulty
of
changing
industry
should
not
be
a
big
hurdle
that
you
cannot
surpass

12. SoBware
Test
Engineer
— In
2003,
I
became
a
software
test
engineer
at
Azeus
Philippines,
a
CMMi
Level
5
company
— Testing
involves
a
different
type
of
mind
set
from
development.
Developers
think
how
to
create
and
accomplish
a
task
while
testers
think
how
it
can
fail.
— As
a
test
engineer
who
has
knowledge
in
programming,
I
have
the
uncanny
ability
to
predict
where
and
how
a
software
can
fail.
— After
1
year,
I
was
already
conducting
the
one-­‐month
training
for
new
hires
about
software
testing
— After
1
1/2
years,
I
was
already
a
lead
tester
of
a
major
project
— I
also
became
involved
in
setting
up
development
processes
within
the
company

13. Lessons
Learned
as
a
SoBware
Test
Engineer
— Software
testing
improved
my
development
skills
as
I
become
more
aware
on
how
my
application
can
fail.
Software
testing
made
me
a
better
developer
producing
high
quality
application
— I
learned
a
lot
about
development
processes
and
how
a
process
should
adjust
to
the
needs
of
your
team
and
not
the
other
way
around

14. Open
Source
Developer
— In
2003,
I
started
playing
with
phpBB,
a
popular
open
source
forum
application.
— Created
modifications
and
templates
and
submitted
it
to
be
used
for
free
by
the
community
— Created
a
portal
modification
called
IM
Portal
for
phpBB
which
is
a
content
management
system
(CMS)
using
the
forum
engine
— Created
IntegraMod
which
is
phpBB
with
all
the
best
modifications
already
installed
with
IM
Portal
as
the
main
feature
— Downloaded
and
used
thousands
of
times
until
I
gave
up
development
to
the
community
in
2006
— Competed
with
top
phpBB
mod
developers
for
the
best
portal
modification
available

15. Lessons
Learned
as
an
Open
Source
Developer
— One
way
to
showcase
your
skills
or
work
is
to
do
something
for
free.
In
case
of
development,
open
source
development
is
a
good
option
— Joining
an
open
source
community
of
developers
is
a
way
to
hone
and
improve
your
skills
— Competition
is
healthy.
It
kept
me
outdoing
myself
a
lot
of
times
even
for
something
that
was
free
— There
is
a
lot
of
high
quality
open
source
applications
out
there
that
you
can
literally
run
an
internet
operations
using
open
source
software

16. Freelance
Web
Developer
— In
late
2003,
I
started
receiving
simple
development
projects
for
phpBB
due
to
my
simple
mods
— When
I
released
IM
Portal
and
IntegraMod,
I
started
to
receive
bigger
projects
— I
was
a
software
test
engineer
during
the
day
and
a
developer
during
the
night
— Referrals
from
previous
projects
came
and
projects
became
full-­‐blown
websites
that
I
started
earning
up
to
more
than
three
times
of
the
salary
of
my
day
job

17. Lessons
Learned
as
a
Freelance
Web
Developer
— Previous
work
is
very
important
for
freelance
gigs
to
create
your
portfolio
— One
of
the
best
way
to
enhance
your
portfolio
is
by
releasing
or
joining
an
open
source
project
— Referral
from
previous
projects
is
a
way
to
increase
your
client
base
— Freelancing
requires
marketing,
time
management,
discipline
and
negotiation
skills

18. Resigning
from
my
day
job
— In
2005,
I
came
across
this
book
titled
“Rich
Dad,
Poor
Dad”
by
Robert
Kiyosaki
which
changed
my
thinking
ever
since
— I
did
not
take
the
stories
and
samples
in
the
book
literally
but
it
opened
my
mind
to
new
possibilities
— I
resigned
from
my
job
a
few
weeks
after
reading
the
book
— I
was
completely
convinced
that
I
could
do
it
on
my
own
— My
side
projects
were
already
affecting
the
quality
of
my
work
in
my
day
job

19. Lessons
Learned
from
resigning
from
my
day
job
— The
fact
that
I
had
my
freelancing
gigs
on
the
sidelines
that
were
earning
more
than
my
day
job
made
it
easier
for
me
to
resign
from
my
day
job
— Sometimes
the
best
decision
that
you
can
have
is
the
most
unpopular
one
— When
your
side
projects
started
to
affect
your
performance
at
your
day
job,
be
a
professional
and
choose
one
and
drop
the
other

20. Planning
to
Sell
T-­‐Shirts
— Until
in
2006,
an
opportunity
presented
itself
in
the
form
of
selling
custom-­‐made
T-­‐shirts
— Target
market:
the
exponentially
growing
Friendster
member
base
in
the
Philippines
— After
months
of
planning
and
putting
the
pieces
together,
I
made
a
pitch
to
the
country
manager
of
Friendster
to
become
the
official
custom
shirt
partner
— The
pitch
did
not
go
well
and
I
was
suddenly
faced
by
a
harsh
reality:
— I
was
a
newbie
entrepreneur
— Custom
T-­‐shirts
were
nowhere
near
my
core
skills
or
passion
— I
did
not
have
the
capital
to
support
the
requirements
of
the
business
for
my
target
market

21. Lessons
Learned
from
my
T-­‐shirt
Gig
— Passion
and
skills
are
very
important
for
1st
time
entrepreneurs
— Your
startup
capital
must
be
able
to
support
your
pre-­‐
profit
market
— You
must
do
your
homework
before
pitching
your
business
— A
good
idea
is
nothing
without
a
capable
team
supporting
it

22. Sulit.com.ph
— Success
stories
of
Kevin
Rose
starting
Digg
and
Mark
Zuckerberg
starting
Facebook
gave
inspiration
to
Arianne
and
I
to
create
our
own
website.
— Since
resigning
from
Azeus,
I
began
porting
my
IM
Portal
project
to
a
stand-­‐alone
CMS
and
web
framework
without
the
requirement
of
phpBB
— In
May
2006,
Arianne
came
up
with
the
idea
of
a
classifieds
website
as
an
experiment
— I
started
working
on
the
website
while
doing
freelance
work
and
launched
Sulit.com.ph
on
September
11,
2006

23. IniMal
Years
of
Sulit
— As
an
experiment,
Sulit
had
no
marketing
budget
and
no
marketing
plan
in
place
— By
the
end
of
November
2006,
traffic
started
to
increase
across
all
categories
and
the
experiment
became
a
full-­‐blown
online
classifieds
startup
— By
August
2007,
Sulit
was
more
than
“ramen
profitable”
so
Arianne
resigned
from
her
work
and
help
maintain
the
website
— In
January
2008,
we
incorporated
the
company
— In
2008,
Sulit
became
the
top
local
website
in
Alexa

24. Lessons
Learned
when
starMng
up
Sulit.com.ph
— It
is
possible
to
create
an
internet
startup
without
requiring
too
much
capital
— Formula
to
a
successful
website:
release
fast,
release
often,
get
feedback
and
iterate
— When
requiring
human
input,
crowdsource
to
scale
— Search
Engine
Optimization
was
(and
still
is)
the
best
source
of
free
organic
traffic
to
the
website
— Bootstrapping
an
internet
startup
to
profitability
is
possible
— Technical
expertise
is
very
important
in
an
internet
startup
— Get
a
co-­‐founder
for
newbie
entrepreneurs

25. Sulit.com.ph
Investors
— In
2008,
Sulit
started
to
appeal
to
other
companies
and
VCs
and
we
received
a
number
of
investment
offers,
partnerships
and
buyout
offers,
yet
we
were
not
actively
looking
for
any
investments
— Late
2008
and
early
2009,
competitors
backed
by
big
companies
started
to
show
serious
interest
in
the
local
ecommerce
market
— In
2009,
Sulit
received
a
Series
A
funding
from
MIH

27. Lessons
Learned
in
accepMng
investments
— Know
what
you
really
need
from
investors:
funds,
knowledge,
network,
advisors,
human
resources,
etc.
— Know
the
goal
of
the
investors
in
investing
to
your
company
and
see
to
it
that
it
is
aligned
to
your
personal
goal
— Valuation
of
a
startup
is
an
estimation
of
the
future
performance
of
the
business

28. What
characterizes
an
entrepreneur?
— Risk
taker
–
willingness
to
take
huge
risks
in
order
to
get
huge
returns
— Leader
–
the
ability
to
make
others
follow
your
vision
— Creates
value
–
the
ability
to
create
actual
value
from
your
idea
— Problem
solver
–
the
ability
to
provide
solutions
to
the
problems
of
many
potential
customers
— Tolerance
to
failure
–
entrepreneurs
are
bound
to
fail
in
order
to
succeed

29. Advice
to
young
people
wanMng
to
become
technopreneurs
— Start
now
while
you
are
young
— It
requires
technical
expertise
to
become
a
technopreneur
so
either
you
are
a
technical
person
or
you
find
a
technical
co-­‐founder
— For
those
who
cannot
risk
their
9-­‐5
salary,
start
small
with
a
sideline
project
— Start
with
something
that
you
are
passionate
about;
something
you
love
doing
— Do
not
be
afraid
sharing
your
idea;
the
team
executing
the
idea
makes
the
difference

30. How
can
I
prepare
to
become
a
technopreneur?
— The
internet
is
a
fast-­‐paced
industry;
you
must
be
ready
to
continuously
learn
something
new
— Be
ready
to
learn
how
to
filter
information
and
read
— Expect
sleepless
nights
— Be
prepared
for
failures
— Learn
to
say
no
— Be
ready
to
come
out
of
your
comfort
zone
— Be
ready
to
wear
many
hats

31. What
to
watch
out
for
in
running
a
start
up?
— The
tendency
to
make
quick
money
— Partnerships,
as
much
as
you
can,
avoid
it;
unless
it
is
really
necessary
to
achieve
your
vision
— Tendency
to
raise
more
money
than
what
is
really
needed
— Tendency
to
spend
so
much
in
marketing
before
the
product
is
ready
— Tendency
to
copy
an
established
competitor

32. Suggested
Resources
— OnStartups.com
— ReadWriteWeb.com
— TechCrunch.com
— PaulGraham.com/articles.html
— AVC.com
— GigaOM.com
— TechMeme.com
— HackerNews.com