E-commerce mentorship program LaunchStrong is marking its first year, during which it has mentored more than 150 first-time Filipino founders and supported the development of over 100 homegrown brands at various stages. The milestone reflects a growing movement of aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs transforming raw concepts into viable, accessible, and market-ready consumer products.

Founded in 2025 by entrepreneur Jungie Gumiran, LaunchStrong is a five-week live mentorship program built to guide aspiring Filipino founders through the early stages of building an e-commerce business. Its curriculum covers product ideation and validation, supplier sourcing, positioning, pricing, branding, launch strategy, customer acquisition, and early-stage growth. Programs of this kind have emerged as online selling in the Philippines has become widely accessible through dominant marketplace and social-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop, which have lowered the barrier to entry for first-time sellers while intensifying competition among them.

According to the program's own data, roughly 80% of first-time founders who joined without an existing product or e-commerce background have successfully progressed toward launching their first online business.

LaunchStrong has supported brands across a range of categories, including wellness and supplements, food and beverage, personal care, pet care, and fashion. Brands developed through the program include wellness brands Eat Move Love and Pharmatrust, food brand Magic Bowl, Bathcare Tonios, Filipino clothing brand TELA Pinoy, and pet care brand NanaPro Litter.

"E-commerce in the Philippines is becoming much easier to enter, but harder to win," said Mr. Gumiran. "Opening a marketplace store or having a good product is no longer enough. Aspiring founders can generate sales and still lose money if they don't fully understand business economics, platform fees, logistics, inventory, and cash flow. Success, more than just the launch, is making better decisions before putting hard-earned capital at risk so the business can survive and scale." The emphasis on unit economics and cash flow reflects a common challenge for small online sellers in the Philippines, where micro, small, and medium enterprises make up the vast majority of businesses and often operate on thin margins amid rising logistics and platform costs.

As it enters its second year, LaunchStrong intends to keep supporting aspiring and first-time Filipino founders at every stage of brand-building, from ideation and validation to supplier sourcing, positioning, pricing, branding, launch, customer acquisition, and early-stage growth.

"Our vision is to give first-time founders the practical perspective to realize that they can build a brand from scratch, regardless of where they are starting from," Mr. Gumiran added. "In our second year, we want to equip more Filipinos with the skills, discipline, and execution capability to build sustainable consumer brands that can compete nationally and eventually scale beyond the Philippines."

The next five-week live mentorship cohort is scheduled to launch in December 2026, bringing entrepreneurs together to discuss the practical challenges of building and scaling e-commerce businesses.

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Source: BusinessWorld