Posts in startups
Ep 378 - The Hustle Behind Kazam
Ep 378 - The Hustle Behind Kazam

This week on Hustle Share, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Cris Azaña, co-founder and CEO of Kazam, to trace her journey from growing up in a household shaped by kasambahays to building a tech platform that connects homeowners and domestic workers in a safer, smarter way. Cris shares hard-earned lessons on grit, family expectations, and founder conviction—revealing what it really takes to solve meaningful problems, push through doubt, and create opportunities for overlooked communities.

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Ep 377 - The Hustle Behind Infi Group
Ep 377 - The Hustle Behind Infi Group

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Julian Legazpi, founder and chief venture officer of Infi Group, to trace his journey from growing up Filipino-Canadian to becoming a global operator, angel investor, and venture builder across Southeast Asia. Julian shares hard-earned lessons on grit, diaspora identity, and what it really takes to build, fund, and scale companies in emerging markets—beyond the hype and into the real work.

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Ep 376 - The Hustle Behind Rush Technologies
Ep 376 - The Hustle Behind Rush Technologies

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong welcomes Stephanie Kubota, president and CEO of Rush Technologies—one of 917Ventures’ most successful portfolio companies. Steph shares her journey from being a Subway sandwich artist in Boston to becoming one of the youngest CEOs in the Globe ecosystem, navigating imposter syndrome, building social capital, and making the hardest call any founder faces: downsizing her team during tech winter.

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Ep 374 - The Hustle Behind Phildev Foundation
Ep 374 - The Hustle Behind Phildev Foundation

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with tech pioneer Dado Banatao, alongside Maria Banatao of the Phildev Foundation, to trace the journey that earned him the title “Bill Gates of the Philippines”—from a rural barrio to engineering school, Boeing, and Silicon Valley. They also dive into Dado’s semiconductor breakthroughs, early entrepreneurial setbacks, and the VC framework he now uses to support the next generation of Filipino founders.

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Ep 375 - The Hustle Behind Globe Telecom
Ep 375 - The Hustle Behind Globe Telecom

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Ernest Cu, President and CEO of Globe Telecom, to trace the journey from helping in a family business and studying in the U.S. to building a career in tech and returning home to make his mark. They dive into Ernest’s first entrepreneurial leap, his role in shaping the Philippines’ BPO boom, and the leadership mindset that helped transform Globe into a digital-era powerhouse.

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Ep 373 - The Hustle Behind Colourette
Ep 373 - The Hustle Behind Colourette

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Nina Ellaine Dizon, the founder of Colourette Cosmetics, as she shares her journey from selling items in school to accidentally entering the beauty space through soap—and scaling the brand exponentially through online growth. Nina also opens up about her decision to raise venture capital and how it reshaped Colourette’s trajectory from a side hustle into one of the country’s most recognizable beauty brands.

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Ep 372 - The Hustle Behind Kimstore
Ep 372 - The Hustle Behind Kimstore

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Kim Lato, founder and CEO of KimStore, the Philippines' longest-running and largest electronics e-tailer. Kim shares her incredible 15-year journey from selling cameras on Multiply as an 18-year-old college student to building an e-commerce empire that survived platform shutdowns, customs controversies, family tragedy, and a global pandemic—emerging stronger each time.

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Ep 371 - The Hustle Behind Smile API
Ep 371 - The Hustle Behind Smile API

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Smile API co-founder Jan Pabellon to uncover how he bounced back from a failed first startup, taught himself tech, built his own dev shop, and discovered the massive credit data gap holding millions of Filipinos back. Jan also reveals what pushed him to become a founder again and how Smile API is now taking on one of the biggest challenges in Philippine financial inclusion.

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Ep 370 - The Hustle Behind Umpisa
Ep 370 - The Hustle Behind Umpisa

This week on Hustleshare, Ron Baetiong sits down with Pam Belen, Founder and CEO of Umpisa, to unpack how a CPA-turned-tech-founder is on a mission to make the Philippines recognized globally as a tech hub. Pam shares her journey from accountancy to winning a startup weekend in San Francisco, the fundamentals that keep Umpisa profitable and sustainable, and why Filipino founders need to stop putting bamboo ceilings on themselves.

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Ep 369 - The Hustle behind ABA
Ep 369 - The Hustle behind ABA

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Raphael Rey Bacolod, director of the Austrian Business Agency (ABA), who’s leading Austria’s push to recruit top Filipino talent in IT, engineering, and healthcare. Rafael shares how Filipinos can land jobs in Austria with no placement fees, bring their families, and enjoy world-class quality of life—just like his grandmother did when she became one of the first Filipino nurses there in 1974.

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Ep 368 - The Real Hustle Behind 917Ventures: Leadership, Failure, Talent, and the Power of Velocity
Ep 368 - The Real Hustle Behind 917Ventures: Leadership, Failure, Talent, and the Power of Velocity

This week on Hustleshare, Ron Baetiong sits down with Vince Yamat, CEO and Managing Director of 917Ventures, to unpack how the country’s top venture builder is reshaping Philippine innovation through people-first leadership, relentless experimentation, and a powerful ecosystem advantage. Vince shares the wins, failures, and bold new direction behind Velocity—917V’s program giving startups unprecedented access to Globe’s scale, data, and distribution.

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Ep 367 - The Hustle Behind Scale NCR
Ep 367 - The Hustle Behind Scale NCR

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Cristina “Indo” Ibanez, president of Scale NCR and head of Miriam College’s Innovation Center. From growing up in a family of entrepreneurs to championing collaboration among university-based incubators, Indo shares how she’s turning classrooms into launchpads for the next wave of Filipino founders.

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Ep 366 - The Hustle Behind Animo Labs
Ep 366 - The Hustle Behind Animo Labs

This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Dave Del Rosario, Program Manager of DLSU Animo Labs and one of the unsung heroes behind Philippine Startup Week. From his early days as an intern at IdeaSpace to empowering innovators across Mindanao, Dave shares how his grassroots experience continues to shape the next generation of founders and drive inclusive growth within the Philippine startup ecosystem.

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Ep 365 - The Hustle Behind Indelible Ventures
Ep 365 - The Hustle Behind Indelible Ventures

Kevin Brockland, Founder of Indelible Ventures, reveals the hard-earned lessons from the 2008 financial crisis that now fuel his venture capital success backing B2B tech startups across Southeast Asia. From small-town Missouri to Malaysia's dynamic startup scene, he unpacks the reality of impact investing, what makes companies truly investor-ready, and the keys to building resilient, scalable tech businesses in emerging markets.

Kevin also takes us inside his transition from distressed asset management to impact investing, and how those experiences inspired him to launch Indelible Ventures. He discusses the funding gaps in Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, the rise of B2B tech, and how founders can build resilient, investor-ready companies in today’s changing market.

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Ep 364 - The Hustle Behind Prosperna
Ep 364 - The Hustle Behind Prosperna

In this episode, we sit down with Dennis Velasco, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Prosperna, an online marketing and e-commerce platform designed to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and real estate professionals in the Philippines.

Dennis shares his journey from growing up as an Asian-American in Texas to discovering entrepreneurship through his family’s businesses. He recalls his rise in Silicon Valley with companies like Salesforce, Cornerstone OnDemand, and Xero, and how launching a small business during the 2008 financial crisis shaped his entrepreneurial mindset. Ultimately, Dennis reveals what inspired him to return to the Philippines to found Prosperna, empowering SMEs to embrace e-commerce and digital growth.

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Ep 363 - The Hustle Behind Dr. Shiba
Ep 363 - The Hustle Behind Dr. Shiba

In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Phil Renner, co-founder and CEO of Dr. Shiba, to share how a German-born McKinsey consultant turned his love for pets into one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing pet care brands. Phil breaks down how his multicultural upbringing shaped his hustle, why he bet on the Philippines’ booming e-commerce scene, and how Dr. Shiba became a go-to brand for pet parents across the region. He also talks about scaling from startup to multi-market player, the tough calls behind culture and hiring, and what it takes to build a proudly Filipino-led global brand from the ground up.

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Ep 362 - The Hustle Behind NYXSYS Philippines, Inc.
Ep 362 - The Hustle Behind NYXSYS Philippines, Inc.

In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Mansueto "Joel" Callao, Chairman and CEO of NYXSYS, to travel through his journey from a PUP graduate breaking into multinational sales to leading one of the Philippines’ biggest players in digital out-of-home advertising. Joel shares how persistence helped him land major clients, why a ₱26M billboard deal with no location became his first big break, and how a spectacular installation failure pushed him to level up. He opens up about shifting from static billboards to Asia’s largest LED displays, pivoting during the pandemic to build AI-powered audience measurement, and the leadership lessons he’s learned from working with Gen Z talent. Joel also gets real about staying true to your company’s “why,” keeping innovation constant, and why embracing failure is essential to long-term success.

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Ep 361 - The Hustle Behind 1Export
Ep 361 - The Hustle Behind 1Export

In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Mel Nava, founder and CEO of 1Export, to talk about her journey from hustling as a bazaarista and working in export sales to building a tech startup that empowers Filipino SMEs to expand globally. Mel opens up about the struggles of bootstrapping a company, losing her co-founders, and battling depression, and why she chose resilience over giving up. She also shares how 1Export turned a “rejected idea” into a fast-growing export platform, the lessons she learned from her MBA at AIM, and how the company is making compliance, documentation, and global market access easier for small businesses.

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Ep 360 - The Hustle Behind Farmvocacy
Ep 360 - The Hustle Behind Farmvocacy

In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Vincent Mendoza, founder and CEO of Farmvocacy, to talk about his journey from selling security systems door-to-door and launching beverages at URC to building a climate fintech startup that empowers Filipino farmers. Vincent opens up about the failures that forced him to start over, why he chose purpose over a stable corporate career, and how Farmvocacy is breaking the cycle of farmer debt with commodity-backed financing and sustainable partnerships. He also shares the lessons he’s learned from surviving multiple “valleys of death,” and how grit, humility, and faith continue to guide him as he brings Filipino innovation to the global stage.

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Ep 359 - The Hustle Behind Singlife Philippines
Ep 359 - The Hustle Behind Singlife Philippines

In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Lester Cruz, CEO of Singlife Philippines, to talk about the journey that took him from his early sales grind and 15 years at Citi to pioneering digital banking at CIMB and Uno before leading one of the country’s most innovative digital insurers. Lester gets real about the rejections that built his grit, the leadership lessons he learned climbing the corporate ladder, and why he chose to take on the massive challenge of closing the Philippines’ insurance gap. He also shares how he’s redefining the insurance experience for Filipinos, and what running, resilience, and family have taught him about leadership and balance.

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