Q4 is a Make-or-Break Moment for Filipino-Owned Businesses. This New Program Shows How to Win It: Culturally.
For most businesses, Q4 isn’t just busy, it’s critical. It’s when the bulk of annual revenue is made, when campaigns launch for Filipino American History Month, and when holiday spending peaks across Filipino households. But for many Filipino-owned brands, this season comes and goes without a real strategy to win within our own community.
A new program launching this September is hoping to change that.
The Build Filipino Accelerator is a 6-week intensive that blends Filipino Studies with proven brand-building tactics. Designed specifically for Filipino entrepreneurs and marketers, the program helps businesses prepare for their biggest sales season—not just with copywriting templates or Instagram tips, but with the cultural depth and academic rigor required to truly connect with Filipino audiences. At its core, the accelerator houses Mastering the Filipino American Market—the flagship course co-created for this program.
“This is when people are paying attention,” says Leo Albea, co-founder of One Down and one of the most widely viewed Filipino content creators in the world. “But if you don’t know how to speak to Filipino audiences—with accuracy and cultural insight—you’ll miss your biggest opportunity of the year.”
Each session is co-led by Dr. Robyn Rodriguez, one of the country’s foremost scholars of Filipino Studies and the founder of the School for Liberating Education. She adds, “We’re watching Filipino history be erased from textbooks and Filipino courses be stripped from university budgets. This program is a way to preserve that knowledge, but more importantly, to apply it in ways that build power, not just awareness.”
The curriculum includes a mix of history, market analysis, and business execution—covering everything from household decision-making and generational shifts to how colonialism still shapes what Filipinos buy, believe, and trust. The final module examines how colonial structures have influenced Filipino consumer behavior, and how we can dismantle them by building better campaigns, better narratives, and better systems.
Why It’s Urgent
Filipinos are not a niche. We are the second-largest Asian American group in California and one of the most socially connected diasporas in the world. We dominate in industries like health care, seafaring, hospitality, and are global leaders in social media use. Yet when it comes to advertising and research, we’re too often grouped into generic “Asian” buckets, flattening our identities and limiting market impact.
“Our culture is often used for content, but rarely studied for strategy,” says Albea. “This program exists to flip that, to create a generation of founders who know how to build supply and demand for Filipino culture on our own terms.”
The timing also matters. Filipino-owned businesses, especially small ones, don’t always have access to market research, strategy consultants, or capital. Many of us became entrepreneurs not out of privilege, but as a rejection of the traditional jobs our immigrant parents pushed us toward. We didn’t start with a playbook. This program is a blueprint.
And it’s only the beginning.
“This isn’t just a one-off,” says Rodriguez. “It’s the start of something bigger—a new kind of business education rooted in resistance, relevance, and Filipino values. We’re creating a space where knowledge becomes growth, and growth builds community.”
Program Details
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 track for early-stage entrepreneurs and solo founders who want an accessible entry point into the program.
Across all tracks, participants gain access to:
Weekly live Zoom workshops (1.5 hrs/week) focused on solving the cohort’s direct blockers
Academic insight from Dr. Robyn Rodriguez and business frameworks from Leo Albea
An intimate cohort experience with serious founders committed to growth
A private Slack community for Q&A, feedback, and peer-to-peer networking
Who It’s For
Filipino entrepreneurs, founders, and e-commerce owners
Marketers trying to grow within the Filipino American market
Creatives, agency teams, and nonprofit communicators
Anyone building something for, by, or with the Filipino community
Applications are now open at buildfilipino.com/start, with limited spots available.
