Building something meaningful rarely happens in a straight line—it takes experimentation, discipline, relationships, and the willingness to keep going when progress feels slow. In this episode, Natasha Dawn Bautista of 917Ventures shares her journey from Grab and QBO to building and evolving Velocity, a program designed to connect startups with commercial opportunities across Globe and the broader Ayala ecosystem.

From the evolution of 917Ventures and Velocity to AI-native teams, startup selection, corporate venture building, and the role of community in growing an ecosystem, Natasha breaks down what it takes to build solutions that can work at enterprise scale. She also shares why startups need to look beyond fundraising, how enterprise partnerships can create sustainable commercial pathways, and why discipline matters most when motivation and momentum disappear.

EPISODE TIMELINE

00:00:00 – Why discipline matters when motivation disappears

00:03:00 – Natasha’s journey from QBO to 917Ventures

00:09:00 – Building 917Ventures and its evolution

00:12:00 – From venture building to focusing on bigger bets

00:15:00 – Becoming AI-native and building agentic teams

00:18:00 – What Natasha learned from Grab, QBO, and 917Ventures

00:24:00 – Persistence, impact, and the reward of building

00:27:00 – How Velocity evolved into what it is today

00:33:00 – What startups need to qualify for Velocity

00:36:00 – How startups can stand out when applying

00:39:00 – Why startups get rejected and the role of timing

00:42:00 – Speed, relationships, and startup instinct in corporate environments

00:45:00 – The Netopia and Predicta AI success story

00:51:00 – How Velocity handholds startups through enterprise partnerships

00:57:00 – Building a startup community through awareness and identity

01:03:00 – Why corporate venture building is an alternative to fundraising

01:06:00 – The Hustleshare time machine: advice to her younger self

01:12:00 – Natasha’s journey and building for the startup ecosystem

01:14:00 – How startups can apply to Velocity

QUOTE FROM NATASHA

"Sometimes there really is no motivation. Like there are times that there's just no motivation or there's no impact happening for a long time. And that's when discipline kicks in. So discipline is actually, I feel like it's more important because when things are just not moving or maybe even worse than not moving is getting worse, then the discipline of the work kicks in and you just got to do the work."

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

PayMongo: https://www.paymongo.com/

This episode is brought to you by Villgro Philippines: , Paymongo, GoTyme Bank & SeekCap

Why Startup Pilots With Corporates Die And How to Make Them Work w/ Natasha Bautista of 917Ventures

EPISODE TIMELINE