Mobii founder Vince de Vera came back to the Philippines in 2022 and immediately realized that not only is it difficult to get around Metro Manila , it’s even more challenging to explore areas beyond it as a balikbayan. The trip was necessitated by the death of his father, whose request was for his final resting place to be in his motherland. Wanting to take his and his family’s minds off their grief, Vince planned to take his mom and his younger siblings on a road trip to rediscover the country that they had left when he was only seven years old.
Unfortunately, tragedy was compounded by further adversity when he soon realized that the vehicle he rented through Facebook was a fraud. The feeling that he was taken advantage of at a moment of vulnerability made Vince determined to find a way to help eliminate these types of scams. He recognized the mobility challenges in the country and how he was best placed to create solutions for it.
“I built my first computer at the age of nine,” Vince shares. Relying on YouTube and magazines to serve as his guide, Vince would take his dad’s toolbox to tinker with his computer. While he was always interested in technology, design, and engineering, Vince didn’t always have the resources to acquire the latest gadgets or to take classes and formally learn about them.
Living in San Francisco, Vince dropped out of college because he and his family could not afford even the lower cost of community college. While leaving school to help .
