Building Mabu meant proving that a problem everyone could see could also become a sustainable business. Shiraz Dole shares how Mabu grew from an idea into a food surplus marketplace built to create value for both businesses and consumers.

Beyond food waste, this episode is about choosing the right partners, surviving rejection, and knowing when to keep going before the market validates you. It’s a conversation about resilience, sustainable growth, and building a company with a much longer horizon.

EPISODE TIMELINE

00:00:00 – The problem of accessibility and going viral

00:03:00 – Welcome to the show and Mabu

00:06:00 – What Mabu does with surplus food

00:09:00 – Shiraz shares his hustle and mission

00:12:00 – Growing up in Hawaii and family influences

00:15:00 – Early hustles and importing bikes from Ukraine

00:18:00 – Lessons from failure and market research

00:21:00 – Learning to sell through humor and friendship

00:24:00 – College, internships, and startup weekend

00:27:00 – Raising money and leaving private equity

00:30:00 – Doing ballet and running Blue Startups

00:33:00 – Moving to San Francisco and joining OnDeck

00:36:00 – Developing thoracic outlet syndrome and medical debt

00:42:00 – Healing with acupuncture and Chinese medicine

00:45:00 – Joining Cal.com and working abroad

00:48:00 – Discovering the Philippines and choosing to stay

00:51:00 – Meeting Inigo and co-founding Mabu

00:57:00 – Bootstrapping and getting rejected by brands

01:03:00 – Viral video, food bank, and Max's partnership

01:09:00 – Building the team and staying lean

QUOTE/S FROM SHIRAZ DOLE

"Our goal is long live, long live the Philippines. We're gonna end food waste in the country by building the country's first food surplus marketplace…What we're actually building is surplus infrastructure, meaning we're the software for everything surplus in the country.So eventually we will have tracking dashboards for LGUs so they can understand how much surplus is happening, how much CO2 waste is being saved..And even their stories, you know what's incredible of all these brands we're working with is every brand you see on Mabu deeply cares about the community and has started small at some point."

Resources:

LinkedIn (Shiraz Dole): [ https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirazdole/ ]

LinkedIn (Mabu): [ https://www.linkedin.com/company/mabu-ph/]

Website: [https://mabu.ph/]

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

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Ep 396 - The Hustle Behind Mabu with Shiraz Dole