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Hustleshare

Kim Lato - The Hustle Behind Kimstore

Season 11, Ep. 372
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This week on Hustleshare, host Ron Baetiong sits down with Kim Lato, founder and CEO of KimStore, the Philippines' longest-running and largest electronics e-tailer. Kim shares her incredible 19-year journey from selling cameras on Multiply as an 18-year-old college student to building an e-commerce empire that survived platform shutdowns, customs controversies, family tragedy, and a global pandemic—emerging stronger each time.


Episode Timeline:

00:02:06 – Kim's hustle: Building KimStore.com from scratch

00:06:41 – The Fil-Chi way: financial literacy from age 12

00:09:04 – Launching on Multiply: from hobby to side hustle

00:11:25 – Early fulfillment: LRT rides with cameras to meetups

00:14:15 – Wild Wild West: ghosting customers and cash-on-delivery struggles

00:16:36 – 2008 financial crisis: choosing full-time hustle over job hunting

00:19:29 – Building the first team: CSRs and in-house riders in Tondo

00:21:52 – Riding the group buying wave (Groupon era)

00:24:18 – Go Negosyo feature: "I want to be the Amazon of Electronics"

00:29:02 – When Multiply shut down (2013): pivoting to Facebook

00:35:17 – 2015 tragedy: Dad shot 8 times in inside job holdup

00:36:45 – Finding God: the turning point that changed everything

00:42:36 – Lazada and Shopee: competition or opportunity?

00:48:10 – COVID-19: The breakthrough year (2020)

00:52:35 – Building brand equity vs. just selling

00:54:02 – Delayed gratification: first car after 9 years

00:56:01 – Finding purpose beyond the hustle


"I wasn't really certain about what I'm doing, but I took a leap of faith that I think this is something worth pursuing. I think we could make this big. And that really helped me do this in a bigger aspect."


Resources:

Website: https://www.kimstore.com

Facebook: KimStore (3M+ followers)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimstorePH/



Links/Sponsors:


OneCFO: https://www.onecfoph.co/


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Diamond Supporters: Sarisuki, PayMongo, SeekCap, Shoppable Business, Qapita, GoTyme Bank, Sprout Solutions, UNO Digital Bank.

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