From financially bleeding for their startup, walking for an hour to meet investors, to convincing each other to pivot, they went through it all. Now, at four years old, Lyon is a force to reckon with.

It’s rare to come across strangers and get messages via Facebook like, “Hey! You have an awesome podcast!” What’s even more unheard of is receiving the likes of that message from serial entrepreneurs and successful startup executives. But that’s exactly how I first came across Lyon’s Co-founder and CEO Jason Deniega.

After over three rescheduled calls to talk about how Lyon works, I finally met him last December and just this week, interviewed him and his Business Development Executive Dan Arambulo for our latest episode.

All throughout the interview, which happens to be their first public appearance as well, they both exhibited a chemistry that startup co-founders should strive for. But don’t be fooled. Dan played hard to get; Jason had to convince him multiple times to join him at Lyon but was initially rejected. But then again, a true entrepreneur’s strength is their grit. And Jason definitely played up this trait of his to get Dan to join his team. And Dan’s expertise sure did help Lyon take off. To date, Lyon has successfully secured funding, and scale to cater to national organizations, and reach breakeven.

They also claim that their four-year-old brainchild, Lyon Software Technologies, is going to have its big break this year. Finally.

Lyon started out as Jason’s idea while he was finishing up his degree in Information Systems at De La Salle University. Even before graduating, he has already had extensive experience in analyzing industry-specific business processes, identifying problems, and creating information systems in the form of mobile, web, and desktop applications, to alleviate pain points and create value for key stakeholders.

It was the very nature of his course that inspired him to create a platform that helped organizations and businesses stream events. To bring this to fruition, he sought more seasoned people in the business, which led him to Dan Arambulo.

After brainstorming about Lyon, they both went out to work on their first project together: an event. They set up their filming equipment at the event site and streamed its whole duration on YouTube. After seeing great potential in their work, they decided to build a platform that specializes in educational and professional information dissemination–the very essence of Lyon.

Of course, like any startup, the first few years were rocky. From financially bleeding for their idea, walking for an hour to meet investors, to convincing each other to pivot, they went through it all. Now, at four years old, Lyon is a force to reckon with, backed by big-time angel investors and VCs from all around the world.

After its successful affiliation with Brainsparks, one of the best–if not the best–startup incubators in the Philippines, Lyon has only seen bright days. Although their team is spread out with all its members working remotely, the dynamic duo are still grateful for what the last two years Lyon has gone through in the midst of the pandemic.

In fact, although the Omicron Variant has been trumping most people’s hope for the year of the tiger, both Dan and Jason are confident that 2022 is their year. When asked what they were excited about, both answered the same thing: the successful launching of Lyon’s new product feature. I don’t doubt it. With over 800+ hours of learning conducted by growing businesses on their platform today and the mentorship of renowned venture capitalists, with a bit more push and a lot of luck, Lyon will only be seeing better days.