Ep 361 - Mel Nava - The Hustle Behind 1Export

EPISODE INTRODUCTION

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.

Episode Timeline: 

[00:04:40] – Mel’s Hustle: From export sales to 1Export
[00:06:51] – Early Hustles: Selling toys and leading through volunteering
[00:14:01] – Bazaarista Life: Side business while working full-time
[00:23:41] – MBA at AIM: Competitions, networks, and new perspective
[00:33:05] – Birth of 1Export: Turning a rejected idea into a startup
[00:36:57] – Breaking Barriers: Bureaucracy, compliance, and relationships
[00:45:01] – Bootstrapping: Lean growth, IdeaSpace, and first customers
[00:53:13] – Resilience: Losing co-founders and battling depression
[01:03:42] – Word of Mouth: Scaling from 6 to 260 SMEs
[01:06:26] – Exporting Made Simple: Turning SME products export-ready
[01:18:58] – Advice to Entrepreneurs: Grit, honesty, and purpose

QUOTES
“You think about this after five, you think about this before you go to sleep, the first thing you think about when you wake up — it’s a whole different grind. If you don’t have a good support system, it’s going to be very, very difficult to execute."– Mel Nava

CONNECT WITH MEL:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melnava 
Website: https://1export.com/

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