South Jersey’s Fila Manila lands a major Shark Tank deal! Jake Deleon, a visionary entrepreneur from Laurel Springs, has accomplished an extraordinary milestone for his innovative brand of Fila Manila Filipino food. For all his passion and commitment to his heritage, surely it has paid off with a big financial boost from one of the world’s leading business figures, Daniel Lubetzky. This partnership will now open new realms of growth and popularity for Fila Manila.
South Jersey’s Fila Manila lands
Coupling vast expertise in the food industry, Deleon’s journey is synonymous with the zealous handling of his culture and entrepreneurial spirit. He honed his skills and knowledge working under greats like Pringles and Starbucks before taking the limelight with Fila Manila. But he had always referred to his real vocation as being in the Filipino homeland, where food was the centre of life both in the family and community.
But possibly Deleon’s real break came when he appeared on the ABC show Shark Tank, offering Fila Manila as an investment opportunity for his now-burgeoning brand. His appearance on the show was not to make a pitch to sell investment but to showcase how solid his strong faith was in bringing Filipino cuisine to the U.S. and finally having a voice that could be realized as equal to its exposure on the American food scene. The result was a successful $250,000 investment from Daniel Lubetzky, who acquired a 20% stake in Fila Manila.
It was in the kitchen of his family’s home that Deleon started his journey in entrepreneurship, because this was the very place he learned the intricacies of Filipino cooking and the true value of hard work. These early experiences selling home-cooked Filipino dishes laid the groundwork for his future endeavours.
His educational and professional life journey has further armed him with a mixture of financial, research, development, and supply chain management skills, which he knew he would need as he built Fila Manila.
The brand is home to Deleon’s view—a way through which she shares the diversity and wealth of Filipino flavours with a larger public. Fila Manila has its line of cooking sauces, with authentic and original flavours of, for example, ube, adobo, peanut, and banana ketchup—everything to make it the most convenient way to move Filipino food from the heart of Manila to an American dinner table. Deleon’s previous start-up, Origin Almond Milk, showed his understanding of tracking and seizing market changes. But pandemic troubles pushed him to a strategic pivot in how he would turn his cultural heritage into a profit through Fila Manila.
His vision of Filipino food being underrepresented in the American market really shows the untapped potential he’s trying to address when he gets on Shark Tank. Ironically, the pandemic stimulus check was the first funding ever received by Fila Manila, of which Deleon used every single cent in making the brand’s first set of sauces.
Finally, his sharp entrepreneurial foresight and belief in his product have paid off. Today, Fila Manila is a million-dollar brand, carrying the collection at more than 2,500 store doors across the country, including major retailers like Target and Whole Foods. In essence, Jake Deleon’s story is one of perseverance, cultural pride, and innovative entrepreneurship. His capacity to turn ” fervour for Filipino food into a successful business venture is now firmly backed up by a huge investment from a business mogul like Daniel Lubetzky, and it’s really a compelling success story. Fila Manila: Pojsoned as the beacon of Filipino culinary tradition set further in success and influence in the American Food Industry.
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