Jaime de los Angeles is the Co-founder and CEO of Advance, a fintech company with the mission of providing financial freedom to employees and businesses across South East Asia. 

👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

Advance provides instant credit and financial services to employees and businesses across the Philippines and Vietnam through a mobile app.

🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

My co-founder and I both have MBAs and worked for over 15 years in corporate, but some of the biggest learnings that we've actually applied to our business have come from TV shows and sports movies! 

🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

We started Advance as a team of 4 (with imposter syndrome) but somehow raised over $1M in lending capital from local banks just 6 months into our journey. 

As a lending company and startup, this accomplishment is very rare and special. It helped set the tone for our first equity fundraise, which attracted 4 foreign funds to participate in our seed round. They looked at our partnership with the banks as a strong signal of trust in our team and business model. This was the moment when we realized Advance was ready for lift-off. 

🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

With AI gaining popularity from the likes of chatGPT, I'm curious how to see how this unfolds over the next few years, especially with its impact on businesses, and jobs, and whether we actually created a monster without knowing.

💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

There's so much opportunity in financial services and fintech. Start with a strong mission and stay focused. There are lots of shiny distractions around.

🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

Apart from work, I'd say golf, since I rekindled my love-hate relationship with it post-pandemic.

🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Movies: Moneyball, Meet Joe Black, Social Network 

TV shows: Succession, Silicon Valley, Million Dollar Listing New York (my guilty pleasure)

🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Strawberry gelato — unless there is an apple pie ice cream flavor!

‍