Posts in startups
Soonicorns Sessions 4 - Nichel Gaba of PDAX

PDAX’s Nichel Gaba joins us again in this episode to share their milestones in PDAX that led them to raise Series C. He will share the changes his team had to make to help them scale faster. ER will also share the new challenges he was faced with by having a rapidly growing startup and how he is currently finding a solution to solve these new challenges.

Read More
Ep 179 - The Hustle Behind uHoo

Justin Onghanseng of uHoo joins us in this episode to share how they are helping improve air quality of homes and offices around the world. Dustin will share his early hustles that led him to study in Singapore as a scholar and get into consulting that taught him key skills and experiences that will come in handy in his startup life. He will also share how he founded uHoo and the multiple near death experiences they overcame as a startup and how they were able to overcome those challenges. Dustin will also share how they were able to break through during the pandemic and get uHoo to new heights.

Read More
Soonicorns Sessions 3 - ER Rollan of Growsari

How did Growsari continue to grow after raising Series B last year? ER Rollan joins us again in this episode to share their milestones in Growsari that led them to raise Series C. He will share the changes his team had to make to help them scale faster. ER will also share the new challenges he was faced with by having a rapidly growing startup and how he is currently finding a solution to solve these new challenges.

Read More
Ep 178 - The Hustle Behind MedHyve

Myla Villanueva, one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs in the Philippines with 4 exits under her belt joins us in this episode to share her illustrious career. Myla will share her humble beginnings and how she started creating her first tech companies in the early 90s and how she overcame odds despite the Philippines not being ready infrastructure-wise. She will also share how she was able to disrupt tech giants and get 4 successful tech exits which a vast majority of Filipinos still get to use today. Myla also shares how she is funneling that same passion now with the PPCRV to make sure that the 2022 elections are clean and fair using technology.

Read More
Soonicorns Sessions 2 - Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, and Crystal Widjaja of Kumu

How did Kumu raise their Series C round? Roland Ros, Rexy Dorado, and Crystal Widjaja joins us in this episode to share the dynamics of Kumu’s meteoric rise. They will share the metrics they had to hit and the adjustments they had to make in their product to enable Kumu to grow fast. They will also share how they got Crystal onboard to further accelerate their growth along with the lessons they learned on fundraising and executing a huge team.

Read More
Ep 177 - The Hustle Behind PPCRV

Myla Villanueva, one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs in the Philippines with 4 exits under her belt joins us in this episode to share her illustrious career. Myla will share her humble beginnings and how she started creating her first tech companies in the early 90s and how she overcame odds despite the Philippines not being ready infrastructure-wise. She will also share how she was able to disrupt tech giants and get 4 successful tech exits which a vast majority of Filipinos still get to use today. Myla also shares how she is funneling that same passion now with the PPCRV to make sure that the 2022 elections are clean and fair using technology.

Read More
Soonicorns Sessions 1 - Steve Sy of Great Deals

For our very first Soonicorn Sessions episode, Steve Sy of Great Deals E-Commerce Corp tells us how they became a Soonicorn after raising Series B last year. Steve shares their key milestones and the metrics that they had to hit in the middle of the pandemic. He will also share the hardest things he needed to overcome and the most difficult decisions that he had to do before they raised Series B. Steve also shares great tips on raising, scaling teams and how he pays it forward by investing in other Filipino startups in this episode.

Read More
Ep 176 - The Hustle Behind Iterative

On our 3rd anniversary episode, Hsu Ken Ooi of Iterative joins us to share how they are building the YC of Southeast Asia. Hsu Ken will share his origin story being raised America and going back home to Malaysia every summer along with how he hustled while he was in school. He also shares how he struggled creating multiple startups with Brian Ma until they finally cracked the code with Decide that got acquired by eBay. Hsu Ken also shares why they decided to create an accelerator inspired by YC that is focused on Southeast Asia along with the types of founders and startups they like to support.

Read More
Ep 175 - The Hustle Behind Aiah

Gian dela Rama of Aiah joins us in this episode to share how Aiah was able to scale and be the leading company in conversational commerce in the Philippines. Gian will share his early hustles that included stints in FMCG and hardware companies that he co-founded before he decided to create a software development company - Innovantage. He will also share how he became part of the #StartupPH community and how the community have grown exponentially over the years. Gian will also share how they evolved in Innovantage into multiple products and iterations before creating Aiah, and eventually scaled his company to a 100+ man team over the years.

Read More
Ep 174 - The Hustle Behind Peddlr

Coming off a $4.3 Million seed funding, Nel Laygo of Peddlr joins us in this episode to share their journey of teaching financial literacy to Filipino MSMEs. Nel will share his grassroots story of growing up in Catbalogan, Samar and how he hustled to have a great career in finance and tech that led him to be assigned overseas. He will also share how he bootstrapped his first startup HiBes while working and how it scaled along with what he learned when it failed. Nel will also share how he started Peddlr using the lessons he learned from his previous startup and how they were able to gain tremendous traction that eventually led them to raise $4.3 Million in seed funding.

Read More
Ep 173 - The Hustle Behind Mind You

Yuri Marshall, CEO of Mind You, joins us in this episode to share how they were able to revolutionize the mental health services sector of the Philippines. Yuri will share his early hustles growing up in Papua New Guinea and how he did side hustles while studying in Australia that established his business acumen. He will also share his first few businesses that had varying degrees of success which also caused him to have mental health struggles along the way. Yuri also shares how he came up with Mind You to solve the underserved mental health sector in the Philippines and how they were able to gain traction and scale fast.

Read More
Ep 172 - The Hustle Behind BreederDAO

After successfully raising $10m from a16z, Renz Chong of Breeder DAO joins us in this episode to share how they want to boost the supply of Play-To-Earn games in the Metaverse. Renz will share his early hustles working for their family business and working as a consultant before joining Angkas. He will also share how he got into crypto and how he built Breeder DAO to support the lack of quality NFTs in the supply side of Play-To-Earn games. Renz will also share how they got tremendous traction in a short period of time and how they raised funding from the likes of a16z and more to fuel what they want to support in the Metaverse.

Read More
Ep 171 - The Hustle Behind Up Next

Javi Lorenzana of Up Next joins us in this episode to share how they want to up-skill Southeast Asian professionals for the digital age. Javi will share how early he got into the startup ecosystem by being a dev and interning early in startups amassing 7 years of experience at a young age of 21. He will also share how he decided to create Up Next to help prepare professionals with new skills that they need to be productive in the digital age. He will also share how they got into Iterative and how they got early traction from bootstrapping and how they got formidable instructors to teach in their startups as they scaled.

Read More
Ep 170 - The Hustle Behind WeClean

After recently raising $900,000 to become the biggest laundromat service in Manila, Ignacio Phelan of WeClean joins us in this episode to share the story of how WeClean scaled fast. Ignacio will share how he started his hustle by being an events producer for nightclubs that forged his skills that came in handy with WeClean. He will also share why he decided to go to the Philippines and create a laundromat business that was able to scale very fast by creating innovations on things typical laundromat operators overlook. Ignacio will also share how they were able to get $900,000 in funding by hitting the metrics they needed and what their immediate plans are in scaling WeClean.

Read More
Ep 169 - The Hustle Behind KodeGo

The Head of Ideation and Incubation of 917 Ventures, Francis Simisim, joins us in this episode to talk about KodeGo. Francis will also share his startup journey starting with co-founding When In Manila and Blogapalooza and founding Salt & Light Ventures that he led through an acquisition. He will also share how he joined 917 Ventures and his involvement in helping founders create their startups under the 917V umbrella. Francis will also share how KodeGo helps aspiring developers accelerate their learning under their program and how they help them land jobs after the program.

Read More
Ep 168 - The Hustle Behind AcadArena

Fresh off raising $3.5 Million for their seed round; Ariane Lim, Justin Banusing, and Kevin Hoang of AcadArena to share their incredible journey to power the next generation of gamers in the Philippines. Ariane, Justin and Kevin will share their origin stories on how they supported collegiate gamers from the Philippines and the US and how they decided to team up and join forces to scale up their mission. They will also share how they got into Iterative VC and how they hustled to get traction despite having a slow start and a few setbacks. They will also share how they were able to secure funding and their plans to scale in the next coming months.

Read More
Ep 167 - The Hustle Behind RCBC Digital

For our season finale, we will be having the Chief Innovation Officer of RCBC Digital, Lito Villanueva aka Mr. Fintech. Lito will share his career spanning 20 years with stints in banking, telco, payments and many more across multiple countries. He will also share how he brought that experience to RCBC and began the rapid digital transformation of the bank that eventually led them to become AsiaMoney's Best Digital Bank in the Philippines. Lito will also share great advice on leadership and how to bring forth innovation to a company.

Read More
Ep 166 - The Hustle Behind Epson Sales PH

Cristopher Sanchez, Head of Sales of Epson Philippines joins us in this episode to share the journey that Epson Philippines had to take to become the market leader of printing in the Philippines. Cris will also share his illustrious career and how he got to eventually Epson for years to become their head of sales. He will also share in depth the development that Epson did throughout the years especially during the pandemic. Cris will also share great advice for leaders that can help manage and scale their teams.

Read More
Ep 165 - The Hustle Behind Nexplay Esports

Gabriel Benito of Nexplay Esports joins us in this episode to share how Esports and gaming have evolved in the Philippines. Gabriel will share how he developed his love for gaming that translated when he started his career in advertising. He will also share how he took the leap into entrepreneurship to start Nexplay and how he was able to convince top Esports players to work with him. Gabriel will also share how he was able to scale Nexplay over the pandemic and what’s next for the Esports and gaming in the metaverse.

Read More
Ep 160 - The Hustle Behind When In Manila

Vince Golangco, CEO of When In Manila, joins us in this episode to share how When In Manila stays on top of their game for 12 years. Vince will share his humble beginnings like dropping out of high school, joining the Navy and going back to the Philippines to start anew. He will also share how he founded When In Manila and how he grew the team and weathered challenges during their 12 years of existence. Vince will also share tips on how he invests in other income streams and how he reignites his passion for his company.

Read More