Fiction vs Reality: Becoming a Startup Founder
Stage 0. Build Nothing. Prove Everything is a dynamic one-day hackathon event hosted by Zero Vector Philippines and Zero Vector Ventures, dedicated to identifying the next generation of Filipino startup founders who can start with validation, not untested ideas.
The featured panel session, Fiction vs Reality: Becoming a Startup Founder, aims to ground aspiring startup founders and ask a harder question: What does it truly take?
This panel is designed to shatter romanticized, social media-driven perceptions of the startup founder life and help aspiring founders self-assess whether they have the commitment, resilience, and clarity required before they begin. The speakers will give the audience a grounded, honest picture of the responsibilities, sacrifices, and realities of building. Finally, this panel will leave the audience with one clear question to ask themselves: Am I ready, and is this truly for me?
The Moderator
Rovina Mae Agad is the CEO of Zero Vector Philippines, where she leads all strategy, partnership development, investment decisions, and operations for the Philippines market. Rovina is also the COO of Zero Vector Ventures, where she focuses on building scalable systems and streamlining founder and portfolio support. She also is an Associate and manages operations for early-stage venture firm Plain Sight Capital and was previously the Chief of Staff to the CEO and Director of Service Operations at Coded by:.
The Speakers
Sylvester Mobley is a co-founder of Zero Vector Ventures, where he focuses on leading strategy and innovation. With a background in tech and startups and experience founding the nationally recognized tech and startup education organization Coded by:, Sylvester brings deep expertise in solving early-stage product, design, and technical challenges through rapid validation and product development frameworks. A veteran of the U.S. military, he has served in the U.S. Marine Corps, the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
Francis Simisim is a founder, entrepreneur, operator, investor, and enabler/mentor in the Asian tech startup scene. Having started, exited, invested, and mentored numerous startups in the region. He’s currently the CEO & co-founder of E88 Ventures, Director at Blogapalooza Inc, and Venture Partner in MSW Ventures.
Paul Pajo is the current Director and TBI Manager of Benilde HIFI DOST TBI and has helped 14 Benilde Trailblazer Startups raise 62.3M pesos, or around $1.1M, in equity-free, non-dilutive funding over the last 37 months. Paul Pajo is also a co-founder of Embiggen Consulting, SmartDevNet, and a co-convenor of the #CivicTech movement BetterGov.ph.
The Company
Zero Vector Philippines is not a traditional training program, staffing firm, or outsourcing company.We are a venture studio–aligned capability engine.
Our mission is to identify high-potential individuals in the Philippines, develop them into world-class product leaders, UX designers, and startup operators, and embed them into real high-growth environments—while simultaneously building a long-term founder and company creation pipeline.
The Audience
College Students and Graduates
Professionals
Industry Leaders
Entrepreneurs
Startup Founders
Investors