Ep 183 - The Hustle Behind Armada Brands
Ep 183 - The Hustle Behind Armada Brands

After recently raising $1.3 million in pre-seed funding, Andreas Hufnagl of Armada Brands joins us to share how they are powering the new brands that will propel Philippine e-commerce to greater heights. Andreas will share his early hustles in consulting and how he mastered the skill of assessing businesses that can scale. He will also share how he co-founded Armada brands and how they were able to get the first few brands onboard. Andreas will also share how brands can scale up by partnering with Armada and how their recently raised pre-seed funding will be used to support brands with high potential.

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Ep 182 - The Hustle Behind SEO Hacker
Ep 182 - The Hustle Behind SEO Hacker

The premier SEO expert of the Philippines, Sean Si of SEO Hacker, joins us in this episode to share his amazing journey he's had running the top SEO company in the Philippines for over a decade. Sean will share his early hustles working for his father and how he stumbled upon SEO accidentally at a young age to create SEO Hacker. He will also share how SEO Hacker scaled over the years while being bootstrapped and how they overcame numerous challenges along the way. Sean will also share how leadership became his passion and he is now helping more leaders with his podcast.

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Ep 181 - The Hustle Behind Santé International
Ep 181 - The Hustle Behind Santé International

Joey Marcelo, CEO of Santé International, joins us in this episode to share how he built an empire using Barley products that are now world-renowned. Joey will share the beginning of his direct selling career and how he accidentally got into direct selling and how he became a better sales person over time and rigorous practice. He will also share how they were able to bounce back from multiple failures in direct selling until they able to discover Barley as the product that would make them successful. Joey also shares how Sante grew over the years and how they were able to overcome numerous challenges that came along their way.

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Ep 180 - The Hustle Behind PRC Inc
Ep 180 - The Hustle Behind PRC Inc

Michael Dugenia of PRC Inc joins us in this episode to share his illustrious career in PR and Marketing Comms. Michael will share his early hustle in how he had to carve out a niche for himself in the ad agency world despite the discrimination he received from clients and colleagues. He will also share how he was able to get respect throughout the industry and decided to create PRC Inc to help companies with their PR Strategy. Michael will also share how tech businesses can benefit from doing a good PR campaign and give solid advice to young professionals.

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Soonicorns Sessions 4 - Nichel Gaba of PDAX
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.

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Ep 179 - The Hustle Behind uHoo
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.

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Soonicorns Sessions 3 - ER Rollan of Growsari
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.

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Ep 178 - The Hustle Behind MedHyve
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.

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

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Ep 177 - The Hustle Behind PPCRV
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.

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Soonicorns Sessions 1 - Steve Sy of Great Deals
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.

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Ep 176 - The Hustle Behind Iterative
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.

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Ep 175 - The Hustle Behind Aiah
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.

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Ep 174 - The Hustle Behind Peddlr
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.

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Ep 173 - The Hustle Behind Mind You
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.

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Ep 172 - The Hustle Behind BreederDAO
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.

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Ep 171 - The Hustle Behind Up Next
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.

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Ep 170 - The Hustle Behind WeClean
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.

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Ep 169 - The Hustle Behind KodeGo
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.

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Ep 168 - The Hustle Behind AcadArena
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.

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