New Program Teaches Entrepreneurs How to Market to Filipinos…Without the Colonial Playbook
Filipino Americans are often lumped into generic “Asian” categories in business and advertising, flattening their stories, erasing their history, and ignoring the deeper forces that shape what they buy, trust, and build.
A new 6-week accelerator program, the Build Filipino Accelerator, launching this September, is challenging that erasure head-on.
Co-led by Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, an internationally recognized leading scholar of Filipino Studies and founder of the School for Liberating Education, and Leo Albea, the founder of One Down and one of the most viral Filipino marketers online, this course is the first of its kind to fuse cultural history with business growth strategy. Together, they blend rigorous academic insight with proven digital campaigns that have reached over 3 billion organic views.
“Most Filipinos aren’t raised in an entrepreneurial environment; I definitely wasn’t,” says Albea. “This program takes the trial and error of brute forcing One Down and contextualizes it with decades of leading Filipino Studies academia to challenge the way we’ve been taught to build a business.”
Each week, entrepreneurs will explore a different lens of the Filipino experience and how it deeply impacts the buying decisions of the overall Filipino American market. It all builds up to a final module that pulls back the curtain on how U.S. colonialism still shapes the way we do business.
What does it mean to abandon the colonial playbook?
It means recognizing that Filipino entrepreneurs were never meant to win in systems that weren’t built for them.
“To understand Filipino American history is to understand Philippine-American history—and the unequal power relations that define it,” says Dr. Rodriguez. “Colonialism created structures and institutions—a playbook–that is stacked against us and constrains our growth.”
In the program’s final module, students will learn how Manifest Destiny, the U.S. restructuring of the Philippine economy, and ongoing colonial mentality continue to shape Filipino consumer trust and entrepreneurial behavior. It’s why American brands dominate even in Filipino spaces and why Filipino-made products are often undervalued, even by our own communities.
“We can’t escape these systems,” Rodriguez adds. “But we can create guardrails that serve our community and don’t reproduce the colonial playbook.”
How the Program Works
The Build Filipino Accelerator is designed for businesses at every stage:
Enterprise (Done-for-You): Private engagement for corporate teams, large nonprofits, or funded startups.
Builder (Done-With-You): Cohort-based accelerator for founders and small teams already selling to Filipino American customers.
Solopreneur (Do-It-Yourself): On-demand course option for early-stage entrepreneurs and solo founders who want an accessible entry point into the program.
Each track blends Filipino Studies with proven business execution so participants can walk away with campaigns and strategies ready to launch within weeks—not years.
Why It’s Urgent
Q4 is the most important sales season of the year, coinciding with Filipino American History Month, Black Friday, and the holidays. But this program goes deeper than revenue.
As DEI and Ethnic Studies programs are being slashed across the country, this accelerator offers something more radical: a Filipino-led alternative to business-as-usual.
Who It’s For
Filipino entrepreneurs and brand founders
Marketers trying to grow within the Filipino American market
Creative leads, agency folks, and e-commerce owners
Anyone building something for, by, or with the Filipino community
Applications open August 24, with limited spots available.
Learn more and apply at buildfilipino.com/start — and be part of the first accelerator built to win the Filipino American market.
