How MK Bertulfo Built a 500K+ Community for Filipino Virtual Assistants - E688
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
40 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 18 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Who is MK Bertulfo and what is the mission of Filipina Home‑Based Moms?
remember during my first month I would receive money from my clients every week by monthly so it's really good until I realized it's no longer healthy because I remember just sleeping four hours because I was so excited to earn money. Okay are you sure you wanted my health because you're already earning from this I didn't realize that because for me it's just a Facebook group. If you are a virtual assistant you're literally doing all the things in your power just to keep the business running. And then others are not treated well, not compensated well. I can see that there are a lot of other communities but a lot of bullying, a lot of shaming and all that. What's nice about the community is that if you're a mom, you will be needing an inspiration, like someone that is the same
Um With the challenges that you are facing, so I do not stop figuring out how I can provide value to the community.
Seeing all this change, what do you think is the future for FH Moms?
Now I feel that FH Moms will be a platform that can provide real job opportunities.
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on Success. I'm Jeremy Al, Venture Capitalist, Sierra Founder, Harvard MBA, Science Fiction Nerd, and Dad of Two Daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources and community at www.bravesdea.com Stay well and stay brave. Hey MK, really excited to have you on the show. You represent Filipino home-based moms, which is a community as well that is bringing opportunities to homemakers across the Philippines. So really excited to have you on the show on a really important topic.
Please introduce yourself.
Thank you so much for having me here. It's a great opportunity to share my story, the story of our community. So again, I'm MK Bertulfo. You can just call me MK. And FH Moms is the largest online community for work-at-home mothers in the Philippines or probably in the Southeast Asia. We have 540,000 members globally. And what we do is we help Filipino moms get an online job through our digital skills training, apprenticeship, scholarship, and we also connect them to international clients.
Fantastic. And I gotta ask like how did you even get started? Were you a mom? Were you working? How does it begin?
When I started FH Moms, all I wanted is to just find a support group. Cause when I started, so when I transitioned from corporate, I was a call center agent back then. So when I transitioned to working from home, I was so shocked because I didn't realize that I'll be stuck at home. Cause yeah. Okay. So this is the setup. It's just me, my husband, and then my two-year-old son back then. I decided to join other communities. But I don't feel like joining those because Many of the members are kind of toxic, even the admins. Yeah. So I wanted to find a safe space for myself. Because I can't find one. I created one. So that is how FH moms or Filipina home-based moms started as a Facebook group. And then it's free.
It's free to create one. And then I started sharing about how I landed my first job. So I had my first international client as an email support. So that was my previous job. Alban Nicole Syrah. It went well because this client is really great. And then he even hired my husband and a few of our friends. And then I started doing Facebook live sessions before community building is not even a term. Being an influencer or creator is not even a thing. So I just kept on creating content and then I would answer a lot of messages from them. Because it's new in the Philippines during this time twenty seventeen, so nine years ago. And then I was just casually sharing and then they requested if I can do like a physical meetup, which I did uh in in a fast food chain.
Just a Jolly Bee?
Yeah, because you know it's just for two hours and all that. But then they requested if we can do like a full training, which I did.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is MK Bertulfo and what is the mission of Filipina Home‑Based Moms?
0:00–5:05
2
What challenges did MK face while working in a Manila BPO call‑center?
5:05–9:45
3
How did MK transition from a call‑center agent to a full‑time virtual assistant?
9:45–15:19
4
How does MK balance motherhood, freelancing and the feeling of “mom guilt”?
15:19–20:37
5
What steps did MK take to grow FHMoms from a Facebook group into a tech startup?
20:37–25:22
6
How does FHMoms bridge the gap between international employers and Filipino virtual assistants?
25:22–30:15
7
Will AI replace virtual assistants and how is the community preparing for it?
30:15–36:08
8
What’s the roadmap for virtual assistants to become SaaS entrepreneurs?
36:08–40:53
Speakers
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