Ep 358 - Nel Laygo - The Hustle Behind Peddlr
EPISODE INTRODUCTION
In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Nel Laygo, Founder and CEO of Peddlr, to unpack the wild journey that took him from hustling as a kid in Catbalogan, Samar to building one of the Philippines’ fastest-growing fintech startups for micro and small businesses. Nel gets real about how early side hustles shaped his entrepreneurial grit, why breaking through barriers in Region 8 gave him a chip on his shoulder, and what it took to scale Peddlr from idea to 250,000 downloads in just six months. He also shares how he tackled user trust issues, built a grassroots community that became their biggest growth driver, and what he learned moving from bootstrapping to finally raising investor capital.
Episode Timeline:
[00:03:02] – Nel’s Hustle: Building Peddlr to empower micro and small businesses
[00:06:06] – Early Hustles: Tutoring, side ventures, and lessons from Samar
[00:15:43] – College Days: Heading to Cebu and taking up accountancy
[00:18:34] – Corporate Years: From Citibank to P&G
[00:25:16] – First Startup Attempt: Launching HiBes
[00:28:05] – The Sacrifice: Long hours, little sleep, and the grind of building from scratch
[00:30:58] – Moving on to Unilever
[00:36:23] – Lessons Abroad: Mexico, teamwork dynamics, and cultural insights
[00:40:48] – Attempting to scale HiBes from another country – without funding
[00:54:29] – Finding Users: Facebook groups, beta testing, and scrappy marketing
[00:58:57] – Explosive Growth: 250,000 downloads in six months
[01:04:20] – Overcoming Trust Issues: Offline features, BIR fears, and word-of-mouth growth
[01:09:23] – Raising Capital: Transition from bootstrapping to fundraising
[01:18:33] – What’s Next: Growing talent in Region 8 and new product features
QUOTES
“What is unique with Peddlr is not the application or the technology, but the community we built from the onset. We have this Peddlr app user community on Facebook that keeps on growing, very engaged, and active in sharing tips. At the end of the day, it created a support system for micro and small businesses. So the community itself was very strategic for us in terms of the growth and stickiness of the product.”– Nel Laygo
CONNECT WITH NEL:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nel-laygo-a2486686
Website: https://www.peddlr.io
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