KalyeNegosyo started as a mentorship program for the street vendors in Makati in 2013. It aimed to level-up the lives of street entrepreneurs, legitimize their businesses and make these more sustainable through education and guidance. From educating members of the Barangay Sembo community during its first year to reaching as far as Pangasinan, Pampanga, Laguna and Cagayan de Oro, KalyeNegosyo was able to coach entrepreneurs from all walks of life. Now on its 10th year, KalyeNegosyo has further expanded its coverage due in part to its partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry and Dadbudph.
It all emerged from a dream, wanting to give back to the community and sharing the little that God had blessed him with. Long-time food entrepreneur, GoNegosyo Angelpreneur, Agora Awardee, MSME Academy Faculty, professor and business consultant, Jorge Wieneke’s eyes were opened to the need to create a country of entrepreneurs. With poverty being the country’s major problem, Wieneke felt that the solution would be to create an entrepvolution where even people from the grassroots level become entrepreneurs in their own right.
Being a GoNegosyo Angelpreneur has inspired Wieneke to pursue this dream, together with the help of his core Angelpreneur friends who all volunteer for and support KalyeNegosyo. One of the pioneer entrepreneurship programs in the country, KalyeNegosyo has helped its participants learn from inspirational and experiential anecdotes from actual entrepreneurs through realizations that even successful people were once ordinary, and have also failed, and eventually thrived. “The idea is to inspire them to realize their dreams, legitimize their businesses and level up their lives.“, said Wieneke.
KalyeNegosyo is backed up by long-time entrepreneurs and MSME advocates, its Board of Trustees being as follows: Former DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez, Dean Fransisco Lapid, Jorge Wieneke, Jennifer Wieneke, Armand Bengco, Carlo Calimon, Victor Madlangbayan, Chef Lowell Cauilan, and Irene Oloris. With such a powerhouse, KalyeNegosyo continues to pursue its advocacy of helping as many entrepreneurs as they can, with the belief in the adage ““If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”