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.

Resources:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-ellaine-dizon-b24bb6100/

Website: https://colourette.ph/

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

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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 19-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.

00:02:06 – Kim's hustle: Building KimStore.com from scratch

00:06:41 – The Fil-Chi way: financial literacy from age 12

00:09:04 – Launching on Multiply: from hobby to side hustle

00:11:25 – Early fulfillment: LRT rides with cameras to meetups

00:14:15 – Wild Wild West: ghosting customers and cash-on-delivery struggles

00:16:36 – 2008 financial crisis: choosing full-time hustle over job hunting

00:19:29 – Building the first team: CSRs and in-house riders in Tondo

00:21:52 – Riding the group buying wave (Groupon era)

00:24:18 – Go Negosyo feature: "I want to be the Amazon of Electronics"

00:29:02 – When Multiply shut down (2013): pivoting to Facebook

00:35:17 – 2015 tragedy: Dad shot 8 times in inside job holdup

00:36:45 – Finding God: the turning point that changed everything

00:42:36 – Lazada and Shopee: competition or opportunity?

00:48:10 – COVID-19: The breakthrough year (2020)

00:52:35 – Building brand equity vs. just selling

00:54:02 – Delayed gratification: first car after 9 years

00:56:01 – Finding purpose beyond the hustle

"I wasn't really certain about what I'm doing, but I took a leap of faith that I think this is something worth pursuing. I think we could make this big. And that really helped me do this in a bigger aspect."

Website: https://www.kimstore.com

Facebook: KimStore (3M+ followers)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimstorePH/

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

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Listen to our brand new podcast: Founders Only HERE

Diamond Supporters: Sarisuki, PayMongo, SeekCap, Shoppable Business, Qapita, GoTyme Bank, Sprout Solutions, UNO Digital Bank.

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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.

Resources Mentioned:

Website: https://www.getsmileapi.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpabellon/

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: OneCFO

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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.

Ep Timeline:

00:03:07 – Pam's hustle: leveling up the Philippines as a global tech hub

00:10:13 – Origin story: from Alaminos, Laguna to leadership roles early on

00:16:18 – The skills that matter: treating people with respect, optimism, and sports discipline

00:21:27 – Why accountancy fundamentals are critical for every founder

00:30:41 – The pivot: from Big 4 accounting to Winston Damarillo's startup world

00:38:42 – Why Filipino founders must work in high-growth startups first before going all in

00:48:05 – The trigger to take the leap of starting her own company

00:56:38 – Finding the right co-founder: Dennis, the CTO who worked with Pam for 2 years first

01:02:54 – How Umpisa grew methodically: revenues, cashflow, execution, and the right people

01:10:14 – Growing and evolving as a leader and as an organization

01:22:31 – Mentors who shaped Pam’s entrepreneurial journey, in and out of Endeavor’s Scale Up

01:29:04 – How to achieve Umpisa’s ultimate goal

Resources:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pambelen/

Website: https://umpisa.co

Email: pam@umpisa.co

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

PLDT Enterprise: https://pldtenterprise.com

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Diamond Supporters: Sarisuki, PayMongo, SeekCap, Shoppable Business, Qapita, GoTyme Bank, Sprout Solutions, UNO Digital Bank

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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.

Resources:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphael-rey-bacolod

Website: https://www.workinaustria.com/en/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workinaustria

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABAWorkinAustria/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@austrianbusinessagency

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

Hustleshare is powered by Podmachine

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Resources:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinceyamat/

Website: https://917ventures.com/

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

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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.

Resources:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcibanez/

Facebook (Scale NCR): https://www.facebook.com/SCALENCR/

Website (Philippine Startup Week 2025): https://www.phstartupweek.com/

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

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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.

Links/Sponsors:

OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/

Hustleshare is powered by Podmachine

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.