Jules Jurado is the co-founder of Toki, the Philippines' first Social Commerce platform designed to make buying and selling collectibles secure, enjoyable, and profitable. Toki has raised $1.8M from both institutional investors and strategic angels.

Previously, he headed Commercial Strategy at GCash, and was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company. Jules obtained his MBA from INSEAD.

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

We are building the most trusted platform for buying and selling collectibles, in a space filled with fakes and scammers.

I am primarily in charge of collecting and synthesizing Toki's data to drive our overall strategies, while concurrently managing all our Lego sellers and ensuring they have a fantastic end-to-end experience.

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

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I have been collecting Lego since I was 7, and started reselling during the pandemic. Today, I have roughly 750+ Lego sets in my collection, and 2500+ minifigures!

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

Entrepreneurship has always been my dream since my university days, and Toki is definitely the biggest highlight as my first serious entrepreneurial venture. I was lucky to find my co-founders at GCash, raise funding for the company, and get it from 0 to 1!

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

Specialized use cases for Generative AI - most people only know about the ChatGPTs and DALL-Es, but there's been an incredible progression in use cases recently, from AI-generated influencers and live streamers, to even sales process optimization. These are exciting to me in the context of eCommerce, as there is always a constant need to innovate and keep customers (whether buyers or sellers) engaged and excited.

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

Never underestimate the importance of hiring the right team, especially in the earliest stages. It's hard to find good talent, and it's even harder to find the right talent fit for your organization. But the impact of a wrong hire can be multiple times more expensive (whether in the form of tech debt, sales achievement) than the extra time it takes to find the right leader.

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

Lego and photography

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🎥  What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Breaking Bad

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

Vanilla or Selecta's Quezo Real