Mel Nava - The Hustle Behind 1Export

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Hustleshare

Ronster Baetiong and Podcast Network Asia

421 episodes

3 days ago

Welcome to Hustleshare, a Filipino podcast that features the journeys of startup founders, business leaders and unique hustlers to show not our differences but to show that most of us are very much alike. Hustleshare was made to showcase the triumphs and challenges people go through in their unique hustle and learn how we can apply them to our own daily hustles.

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All content for Hustleshare is the property of Ronster Baetiong and Podcast Network Asia and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

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

Careers

Business,

Entrepreneurship

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Mel Nava - The Hustle Behind 1Export

Hustleshare

1 hour 25 minutes 50 seconds

1 month ago

Mel Nava - The Hustle Behind 1Export

In this episode of Hustleshare, we chat with Mel Nava, founder and CEO of 1Export, to talk about her journey from hustling as a bazaarista and working in export sales to building a tech startup that empowers Filipino SMEs to expand globally. Mel opens up about the struggles of bootstrapping a company, losing her co-founders, and battling depression, and why she chose resilience over giving up. She also shares how 1Export turned a “rejected idea” into a fast-growing export platform, the lessons she learned from her MBA at AIM, and how the company is making compliance, documentation, and global market access easier for small businesses.

Episode:

[00:04:40] – Mel’s Hustle: From export sales to 1Export

[00:06:51] – Early Hustles: Selling toys and leading through volunteering

[00:14:01] – Bazaarista Life: Side business while working full-time

[00:23:41] – MBA at AIM: Competitions, networks, and new perspective

[00:33:05] – Birth of 1Export: Turning a rejected idea into a startup

[00:36:57] – Breaking Barriers: Bureaucracy, compliance, and relationships

[00:45:01] – Bootstrapping: Lean growth, IdeaSpace, and first customers

[00:53:13] – Resilience: Losing co-founders and battling depression

[01:03:42] – Word of Mouth: Scaling from 6 to 260 SMEs

[01:06:26] – Exporting Made Simple: Turning SME products export-ready

[01:18:58] – Advice to Entrepreneurs: Grit, honesty, and purpose

“You think about this after five, you think about this before you go to sleep, the first thing you think about when you wake up — it’s a whole different grind. If you don’t have a good support system, it’s going to be very, very difficult to execute."

Resources:

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

Website: https://1export.com/

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.

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