Serial Disruptors, Cagayan de Oro (2026)

24/08/2026

𝐇𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞-𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢-𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐝. 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐒𝐚𝐫𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐔𝐒$𝟏𝟏𝟎 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲.

Before Reymund “ER” Rollan became the co-founder and CEO of GrowSari, he had already built a successful corporate career abroad. After graduating from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a degree in Business Administration, he moved to Singapore in 2006 and spent around 10 years working with companies including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Boston Consulting Group. Those years gave him experience in consumer goods and retail, but they also exposed him to a part of the Philippine economy that large companies depended on yet often struggled to serve efficiently: the sari-sari store.

Sari-sari stores may be small individually, but collectively they form an important part of how everyday products reach Filipino communities. While working with large consumer companies, ER began seeing the same problem repeatedly. Large businesses wanted better information about these stores, but gathering that data required expensive surveys that could quickly become outdated. That led him and his future co-founders to wonder whether technology could create a better system.

Their first approach was called MPOS, or Mobile POS. The team experimented with giving sari-sari stores point-of-sale technology that could record transactions and send information back to them. On paper, the idea made sense. In practice, it failed. Many store owners were accustomed to simple systems such as notebooks for tracking sales and boxes for keeping cash, so the technology did not fit naturally into the way their businesses actually operated.

That failure forced the team to change the question they were asking. Instead of focusing on the information big companies wanted from sari-sari stores, they began asking what the store owners themselves actually needed. When ER spoke directly with them, one problem kept coming up: buying inventory was difficult. Store owners sometimes had to close their shops, pay for transportation, travel to wholesalers, carry their products home, and repeat the trip several times a week because their limited capital prevented them from buying large quantities at once. Every trip could mean additional expenses and hours when the store was not earning.

That insight changed the direction of the company. In 2016, ER and co-founders Shiv Choudhury, Siddhartha “Sid” Kongara, and Andrzej “Oggy” Ogonowski built what became GrowSari. The shift from the technical-sounding MPOS to the name GrowSari was deliberate. ER said it represented a decision to align the business around the needs of small merchants. Instead of simply collecting their data, GrowSari would help them order products and eventually give them access to tools that could help their businesses grow.

The early company still had to survive before it could scale. ER said the founders used their consulting and industry experience to take on small side projects to help bootstrap the business. Their supply chain was still weak, and there were periods when GrowSari bought goods from expensive suppliers and sold them at a loss while the founders absorbed the difference. They were trying to prove that the model could work before serious outside funding arrived.

Then they reached a milestone that looked tiny compared with the company GrowSari would later become: 50 loyal stores ordering regularly.

ER recalled that once those first 50 stores were consistently using the service, formal investors began paying attention. GrowSari later attracted investors including JG Digital Equity Ventures, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Wavemaker, Pavilion Capital, Tencent, IFC, KKR, and others as the company expanded.

But GrowSari still had another problem to solve: trust. ER explained in a 2026 interview that when stores were slow to adopt the platform, the team initially thought the problem might be the app or its pricing. Eventually, they realized many owners simply did not know GrowSari well enough to trust it. Instead of removing people from the process and relying completely on technology, the company increased field visits, training, and personal engagement. After store owners completed a few successful transactions, many became confident enough to use the platform independently.

That approach helped GrowSari evolve beyond a basic ordering service. Its platform expanded into on-demand inventory, working-capital credit, telco load, bills payment, e-commerce services, Wi-Fi, and other digital services that store owners could offer to their communities. GrowSari’s official company information says the platform now operates across 400 municipalities and more than 20 key cities in the Philippines.

Its growth eventually attracted global attention. In 2022, GrowSari raised US$77.5 million in a Series C round, bringing its total funding at the time to around US$110 million. IFC described it then as the largest amount raised in the B2B and MSME space in the Philippines and the region. IFC also reported that GrowSari had grown from about 1,000 stores in three cities in 2018 to more than 100,000 stores in over 220 municipalities by early 2022. Its later annual report put the figure at more than 150,000 stores by May 2022.

The people behind those stores were also significant. IFC reported that more than 75 percent of the stores in GrowSari’s network were female-owned, meaning the platform was not only digitizing neighborhood retail but also reaching thousands of women running small businesses in their communities.

ER and GrowSari also received recognition for that impact. In 2022, Tatler Asia named ER one of its Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow and selected him as the Philippine recipient of that year’s Gen.T x Credit Suisse Social Impact Award. Tatler highlighted GrowSari for helping neighborhood stores order goods more efficiently and compete with larger retailers.

What makes GrowSari’s story interesting is that it did not begin with a perfect idea. In fact, the first technology they tried failed because they were solving the problem from the wrong direction. The turning point came when ER and his team stopped assuming what sari-sari stores needed and started listening to the people operating them every day.

A failed POS experiment became an ordering platform. That ordering platform grew into logistics, credit, digital payments, and other services. And the first 50 loyal stores eventually became part of a network reaching hundreds of municipalities across the Philippines.

Failure does not always mean the opportunity is wrong. It may simply mean you are solving the wrong problem. The breakthrough often comes when you stop building around your assumptions, listen closely to the people you want to serve, and are willing to rebuild around what they actually need.

23/08/2026

Our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Karl Dominic Fajardo, will be attending the first ever Caraga Startup Fest as one of the guest speakers!

See you soon, disruptors of the Caraga Region! 🚀

21/08/2026

𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬. 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐥𝐚’𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐨-𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐤𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐫, 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥.

Before Angeline Tham became known for Angkas, her career was already moving through very different industries. Originally from Singapore, she studied at New York University’s Stern School of Business and spent about five years working in banking. She eventually left the traditional corporate path and entered entrepreneurship, helping build Sold.sg, an early online auction business in Singapore, before exiting the company in 2013.

After Sold.sg, Angeline moved deeper into the startup and investment world. She joined a SoftBank-affiliated investment fund focused on Southeast Asia, giving her experience looking at technology companies from the investor side. Then in 2015, she moved to the Philippines and joined Grab, where she oversaw the local launches of GrabBike and GrabExpress.

Living in Manila also exposed her to a problem millions of Filipinos already knew too well: traffic. Angeline has spoken about experiencing a day when traveling around the city reportedly took as long as six hours. Instead of seeing congestion only as an inconvenience, she began looking at the role motorcycles could play in helping people move through crowded roads more efficiently.

That thinking eventually became part of the foundation for Angkas, which Angeline co-founded with George Royeca in 2016. Motorcycle taxis were not a new idea in the Philippines. Informal habal-habal services had existed for years. What Angkas tried to build was a more organized system around them through an app, rider screening, training, safety standards, and technology that could make rides more trackable and reliable.

But building the technology turned out to be only one part of the challenge. In 2017, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board suspended Angkas’ passenger operations, citing regulatory and safety concerns. Instead of disappearing, the company adapted by launching Angkas Padala for parcel delivery while continuing to push for motorcycle taxis to be formally studied and regulated.
Angeline later described Angkas as one of her biggest professional failures, not because people did not want the service, but because the company faced resistance from several directions. Some people doubted whether motorcycle taxis could ever become reliable public transportation. Riders needed to be trained to operate professionally, passengers needed to trust the service, and regulators needed evidence that safety could be improved through proper standards and training.

The struggle continued through shutdowns, court battles, changing policies, and public demonstrations. At one point, thousands of riders joined a Unity Ride to show support for the service and the livelihoods connected to it. Angkas eventually became part of government pilot programs studying whether motorcycle taxis could operate as a formal part of the Philippine transportation system.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic created another setback. Passenger motorcycle taxi operations stopped, forcing Angkas to adapt again. The company focused on services such as Padala and Pabili, worked with the Philippine Red Cross to transport test kits and samples, and provided transportation assistance to healthcare workers. Each disruption forced Angkas to find another way to keep its biker network working while continuing to serve communities.

In 2021, George Royeca took over as CEO, while Angeline remained active in the company. Angkas continued strengthening its focus on biker training and road safety, and its training program later helped serve as a foundation for TESDA’s Basic Motorcycle Program. What began as an app trying to help commuters escape traffic had grown into a broader effort to professionalize motorcycle transportation.

Angeline’s work also expanded beyond mobility. As a woman building businesses in technology and transportation, she became an advocate for women in entrepreneurship and technology. She spoke at the 2023 Global Summit of Women in Dubai about gender diversity and women’s participation in the technology industry. She was also recognized with Go Negosyo’s Inspiring Filipina award and was selected by UN Trade and Development’s eTrade for Women program as an advocate for South-East Asia and the Pacific for 2024–2025 and again for 2025–2026.

The scale of Angkas today is far different from the company that once had to fight simply to remain on the road. UN Trade and Development’s eTrade for Women profile reports that Angkas has grown to more than 50,000 biker-partners and more than 8 million app downloads.

Angeline Tham’s journey is not a traditional rags-to-riches story. She already had experience in banking, startups, investment, and technology before Angkas. What makes her journey compelling is her willingness to repeatedly leave paths that were already working and take on problems with far more uncertainty.

She moved from banking to entrepreneurship, from building an e-commerce business to investing, from Singapore to the Philippines, and eventually into one of the country’s most difficult industries to change. When Angkas faced shutdowns and resistance, the challenge became bigger than simply keeping one company alive. It became about proving that an existing form of transportation could be made safer, more professional, and more organized.

The lesson is that experience only becomes valuable when you are willing to use it where the outcome is uncertain. A good idea can get people interested, but resilience, adaptation, and the ability to keep proving its value are what give that idea a chance to survive long enough to create real change.

20/08/2026

𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤. 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐬.

In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg was still a student at Harvard University. There was no global social media company, no Instagram, no WhatsApp, and no billions of users. There was only thefacebook.com, a website Zuckerberg built from his dorm room to help Harvard students find and connect with one another. Students could create profiles, upload photos, list their classes and interests, and connect with people they knew around campus. Zuckerberg later said the first version took him only about a week to build.

The response came quickly. Within the first few days, more than 650 Harvard students had registered, and about two weeks after launch, the number had already grown to more than 4,300 users. Every new person made the website more useful because their friends now had another reason to join. That simple effect, where a network becomes more valuable as more people use it, would eventually become one of Facebook’s biggest advantages.

At the time, however, Zuckerberg was not running a giant technology company. He was still a college student trying to keep a rapidly growing website online. Servers cost money, the platform needed infrastructure, and Facebook began displaying advertisements partly to help cover those expenses. Even with those limitations, growth continued. The site expanded beyond Harvard to other universities, and by June 2004, only a few months after launch, it had already reached nearly 160,000 members across the United States.

The dorm-room project was becoming too large to remain just a college experiment. In July 2004, TheFacebook, Inc. was incorporated, and the platform kept expanding while introducing new reasons for people to return. Profiles became richer, photos became a major part of the experience, groups helped communities organize, and eventually News Feed turned Facebook into a constantly updating stream of what friends and communities were doing.

But users alone could not turn Facebook into a sustainable company. Advertising became its economic engine. Businesses could reach specific audiences using demographic information and interests people had shared on the platform, while Facebook could continue offering its service without charging ordinary users. As the number of users grew, the value of its advertising business grew with it.

By the end of 2011, Facebook reported 845 million monthly active users, more than 425 million monthly users of its mobile products, and more than 100 billion friend connections. Only seven years earlier, the platform had been running from a Harvard dorm room. Then, in 2012, Facebook went public, and later that year it crossed a milestone that would have sounded almost impossible at the beginning. On September 14, Facebook reached one billion monthly active users.

Facebook continued growing beyond its original social network. In 2012, the company agreed to acquire Instagram for approximately $1 billion, and in 2014 it announced the acquisition of WhatsApp, expanding its reach even further into mobile communication. The small college website was becoming an ecosystem of platforms used for social networking, messaging, photos, video, communities, and advertising.

But growing that large also created problems the dorm-room version of Facebook never had to face. The company faced increasing scrutiny over privacy, personal data, advertising, misinformation, and the influence of social platforms. In 2019, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission imposed a $5 billion penalty on Facebook and required major changes to its privacy practices. The same scale that created enormous business opportunities also created greater responsibility.

In 2021, Facebook’s parent company changed its name to Meta, bringing Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other technologies under a broader corporate identity. By Meta’s Q2 2026 results, an average of 3.60 billion people used at least one of its Family of Apps each day during June 2026. That number includes several Meta platforms rather than Facebook alone, but it shows how far the ecosystem had grown from those first few hundred Harvard students.

Facebook’s story began with very little compared with what it eventually became. It started with one student, one dorm room, one university, and one simple problem: helping people connect with the people around them. The company did not begin with billions of users, billion-dollar acquisitions, or a global advertising machine. It began by making something useful for a small community, watching people adopt it, and expanding when the demand proved the idea could go much further.

The lesson is that a huge business does not always have to start with a huge vision. Build something genuinely useful for a small group first. When people keep returning, bringing others with them, and finding more value as the community grows, that can be the signal that the idea is ready to become something much bigger.

19/08/2026

𝐇𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐞. 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐛 𝐆𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝.

Before Marvin Agustin became known as an actor and restaurateur, he was already learning the food business from the ground up. At around 16 years old, he worked in different restaurant roles, from being a Shakey’s mascot to serving customers, bartending, cleaning, and helping inside the kitchen at Tia Maria’s. At that time, he was simply looking for ways to earn while learning how restaurants worked.

Then show business opened another door. Marvin became one of the familiar faces of Philippine television, but his interest in food and business never disappeared. When he later became an endorser for Mister Donut, he asked for something different. Instead of receiving only a talent fee, he wanted a franchise so he could learn how to run a business himself. That became one of his first major steps into entrepreneurship.

Owning a business, however, came with a different set of lessons. Some ventures worked, while others did not. Marvin continued learning through experience and eventually enrolled in a culinary program at the International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management in 2005. He wanted to understand more than the business side of restaurants. He also wanted to learn what happened inside the kitchen and how food concepts were created.

That same year, Marvin and his business partners opened SumoSam, a Japanese-American restaurant concept. What started as one restaurant became part of a much larger journey in the food industry. Over the years, Marvin became involved in different restaurant ventures, experiencing both expansion and failure along the way. By August 2026, PEP reported that he had already been involved in more than 40 restaurant ventures in the Philippines.

But one of the biggest chapters of his food journey began during one of the hardest periods for the restaurant industry.

When the pandemic lockdown started in 2020, Marvin returned to cooking at home. He began selling food online, including baked goods, and later experimented with his own version of cochinillo, or roasted suckling pig. Friends encouraged him to sell it, and after he shared the dish online, orders started coming in.

That home-based project slowly grew into COCHI.

As more customers returned and asked for a place where they could dine, Marvin eventually developed the idea into a full restaurant. But growth also meant learning how to manage production, suppliers, inventory, costs, and consistency. Decades after his first restaurant job, he was now using years of experience as an entrepreneur, cook, and restaurateur to build a business of his own.

Then came a major milestone.

In 2025, COCHI was included in the inaugural Michelin Guide Manila and Environs & Cebu 2026 and received a Bib Gourmand, Michelin’s recognition for restaurants that offer good-quality food at good value. COCHI became one of only 25 establishments included in the Philippines’ first Bib Gourmand selection.

For Marvin, the recognition came years after he first entered the restaurant industry as an employee. The teenager who once carried orders, cleaned, worked behind the counter, and wore a mascot costume eventually became the person building and leading restaurants of his own.

And even after decades in business, Marvin still does not act as if he has already figured everything out. When asked in 2026 if he already considered himself successful as an entrepreneur, his answer was simple: “Hindi pa.” He shared that he still has much to learn and is now focused on developing leaders who can help his businesses grow beyond him.

Marvin Agustin’s journey shows how early work experiences can become the foundation for something much bigger. The lessons he learned from serving customers, working inside kitchens, building businesses, facing failures, and starting again eventually shaped the way he approached restaurants of his own.

Sometimes, the job you take just to earn today may be preparing you for the business you will build tomorrow.

18/08/2026

𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐤𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐱𝐢 𝐚𝐩𝐩. 𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐫, 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

Angkas began in December 2016, when George Royeca and Angeline Tham founded what the company describes as the Philippines’ first app-based motorcycle ride-hailing platform. The idea addressed a problem millions of commuters already understood: getting around congested Philippine cities could take hours, while motorcycles could move through traffic much faster than cars.

Motorcycle-for-hire services were not new. Habal-habal riders had already been transporting passengers in different parts of the country. What Angkas tried to introduce was a more organized system around that idea, using an app to connect passengers with bikers while adding standardized booking, fares, rider screening, training, and safety procedures.

But there was a major problem. The existing transport rules were not built for what Angkas was trying to do. At the time, Department of Transportation rules specifically stated that motorcycles were not allowed as public transport conveyances under the transportation-network framework. Angkas launched anyway, but without the accreditation normally required for transportation network companies and public transport operators.

In November 2017, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board suspended Angkas’ passenger operations, citing safety concerns and the fact that motorcycles were not recognized for this type of public transportation. Instead of disappearing completely, Angkas shifted part of its business. A month later, it launched Angkas Padala, allowing its biker network to deliver parcels instead of passengers.

The next few years became a test of whether the idea could survive while the rules around it were still being debated. In 2018, a Mandaluyong court issued an injunction preventing transportation authorities from interfering with Angkas’ operations. The national government challenged that decision, and the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order in December 2018. In its 2019 decision, the Supreme Court made clear that businesses transporting passengers for compensation affect public interest and can be regulated by the government.

For Angkas, this meant that simply having an app people wanted was not enough. If motorcycle taxis were going to become part of the formal transportation system, questions about safety, regulation, accountability, training, and public-service requirements also had to be answered.

Then came an important turning In 2019, the Department of Transportation allowed Angkas to resume operations temporarily as part of a government study. A six-month motorcycle taxi pilot program was approved so regulators could collect actual data and study whether motorcycle taxis could safely operate as public transportation. Congress later confirmed that the government pilot study officially began in 2019.

Angkas was no longer simply arguing that motorcycle taxis should be allowed. Now it had an opportunity to demonstrate how the system could work. The pilot itself was not without challenges. When regulators later proposed a cap of 30,000 motorcycle-taxi riders divided among operators, Angkas said its approximately 27,000 bikers would have to be reduced to around 10,000. The situation helped spark the movement, as riders and supporters raised concerns about the livelihoods that could be affected.

Then another unexpected challenge arrived. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, motorcycle taxi passenger operations were halted. Angkas again had to adjust. The company focused more heavily on services such as Angkas Padala and Angkas Pabili. It also worked with the Philippine Red Cross to help transport COVID-19 test kits and samples and provided free transportation assistance to healthcare workers.

The company continued rebuilding as restrictions eased. In 2021, George Royeca took over as CEO, while Angeline Tham remained involved with the company. Angkas increasingly focused on professionalizing its biker network through training, motorcycle safety, equipment standards, and knowledge of traffic regulations. The company also says its training program helped form the foundation for TESDA’s Basic Motorcycle Program.

What started as an app trying to help commuters escape traffic had gradually become part of a much larger conversation about how motorcycle transportation should operate in the Philippines.

And Angkas kept expanding. Today, the company says its services operate across NCR, parts of the Greater Manila Area, Metro Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro. Its official website currently reports around 8 million downloads or installs and a 99.997% safety record, although these figures are company-reported.

The most interesting part of the Angkas story is that the innovation was never simply putting motorcycles on an app. Motorcycle taxis already existed. The bigger challenge was taking something largely informal and trying to build a system around it that could be booked, tracked, trained, standardized, and eventually studied by regulators as a legitimate form of public transportation.

Angkas had to build its technology while navigating shutdowns, court cases, regulation, pilot programs, rider livelihoods, public safety concerns, and even a pandemic.

The lesson is that building something new is not always enough. When your idea challenges an existing system, you also have to earn trust, prove that it works responsibly, and keep adapting until the system begins to make room for it.

18/08/2026

Last August 14, 2026, Serial Disruptors conducted a Pitch Competition Training for the students of St. Michael’s College of Iligan, Inc. 🚀

The session focused on strengthening students’ pitching, presentation, and communication skills as they prepared to showcase their ideas in an upcoming competition.

Through practical guidance and preparation, students were equipped to communicate their ideas with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose. Serial Disruptors remains committed to empowering young innovators and creating opportunities for students to turn their ideas into meaningful possibilities.

🔗Read more: https://serialdisruptors.net/serial-disruptors-conducts-pitch-competition-training-for-st-michael-s-college-of-iligan-students

17/08/2026

𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐭𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐬𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥. 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬.

Before Nina Ellaine Dizon became the founder and CEO of one of the Philippines’ most recognizable homegrown beauty brands, she was a student trying to figure out how she could continue supporting herself.

Nina has recalled the moment her mother told her their family could no longer afford her tuition for the following semester. Her response was simple: she would find something she could sell and make money from. That financial pressure would eventually become one of the turning points that led her into entrepreneurship.

She did not begin with investors, a large company, or connections in the beauty industry. Nina started wherever she could. She created logos, sold scrap soaps, resold different products, and experimented with small businesses because she needed money for school. The Beauty Edit reports that she eventually dropped out of college while trying to support herself and her family financially.

Even getting money to grow a business was difficult. Nina recalled that because she was so young, banks would not lend to her. When she needed additional capital, she relied on what her family could lend her, and she said ₱2,500 was about the most she could borrow from them at the time.

But those small attempts taught her how to sell, understand customers, and keep moving when resources were limited. Eventually, Nina found her way into the beauty industry.

As she learned more about cosmetics, she noticed something missing in the Philippine market. Many beauty products and campaigns were heavily influenced by Western and Korean brands, while Filipino consumers had different skin tones, budgets, lifestyles, and even a different climate to consider. She believed there was room for a beauty brand designed specifically with Filipinos in mind.

So in 2015, Nina founded Colourette Cosmetics. The goal was bigger than simply putting another makeup brand on store shelves. Colourette wanted to create products made by Filipinos for Filipinos, while showing different Filipino faces, complexions, and identities in its campaigns. The company says representation has been part of its mission since it began.

That also meant building products around the realities of Filipino consumers. Colourette developed affordable cosmetics for different Filipino skin tones and a lifestyle that includes heat, humidity, sweating, and commuting. Rather than trying to look like an international beauty brand, the company increasingly made being Filipino part of its identity.

But building the brand was not a straight climb. Nina has spoken openly about experiencing severe burnout years into the journey. There was a period when she said she had lost the motivation to continue and questioned whether she still had the energy to keep building the company she had spent years creating.

Eventually, she reminded herself that the business in front of her was once only a dream she was struggling to reach. Instead of walking away, she continued. And gradually, the small business that grew from side hustles began developing a community of its own.

Nina recalled opening a small Colourette store at SM North EDSA and seeing roughly 500 to 600 people line up. For her, it became one of the moments when she realized that people were no longer simply buying products. They had formed a genuine connection with the brand.

Colourette’s growth eventually attracted investors too. In 2022, Colourette’s parent company secured seed funding led by Philippine venture capital firm Foxmont Capital Partners. Then in 2024, Colourette secured another US$2 million in funding, with investment from DSG Consumer Partners and Foxmont.

Think about how different that moment was from where Nina began. Years earlier, she was selling whatever she could because her family could not afford another semester of tuition. She was so young that banks would not lend to her, and the amount she could borrow from family was limited.

Now, investors were putting millions of dollars behind the beauty company she had built. And the company continued growing. In a 2026 update, investor DSG Consumer Partners said Colourette had celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2025 and reported that its revenue had grown more than 2.5 times year over year following DSG’s initial investment in May 2024.

Nina eventually returned to something she had once been forced to leave behind too. After years of openly describing herself as a college dropout, she went back to school and, in 2023, graduated from Lyceum of the Philippines University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Marketing Management.

Her story did not begin with a perfect business plan. It began with a practical problem: she needed to earn.

So she created logos. She sold scrap soaps. She tried different businesses. She learned from each one. And when she eventually saw an opportunity to build something specifically for Filipino consumers, she kept developing it until Colourette became much bigger than the side hustles that came before it.

The lesson is not that you need to have everything figured out before you begin. Resourcefulness can get you moving, but what turns a small opportunity into something bigger is learning from what works, understanding who you serve, and continuing to build when the path becomes difficult.

Serial Disruptors

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