Philippines-based startup PocketMarket aims to bring a personal element to online shopping. With the onset of online shopping, customers rarely interact with another human to make their purchases. This startup wants to change just that by creating a platform that allows individuals to chat with retailers and brand representatives.
“PocketMarket centers the purchasing process in human interaction, via chat, which is how it is really done in bazaars, markets, and offline shops”, says founder Paulo del Puerto. The company targets small brands that believe in creating strong bonds through communication with their customers. PocketMarket supports personal contact between the two transacting parties that these brands aim to bring.
PocketMarket was a finalist in last year’s Startup Open competition. Del Puerto became interested in the competition after researching finalists from the 2013 cycle. As part of the GEW top 50 from Startup Open 2014, Del Puerto and PocketMarket are among an elite group of budding startups from around the world that include BreezoMeter from Israel, Dropifi from Ghana, and Rumie from Canada.
Since participating in the competition, Del Puerto says his eyes have been opened to the startup ecosystem and how it works. In addition to their entrepreneurial efforts, Del Puerto says that PocketMarket has been driven “to become more active in helping build the startup ecosystem to pave the way of success for our business, and other startups in our country.”
In line with his startup’s mission, Del Puerto has always showed a personal interest in helping others. As a child, he wanted to become a doctor with the goal of having a strong impact on people’s lives. Much to his surprise, observing other entrepreneurs especially those who were able to create their own lifestyle businesses online, inspired him. Del Puerto and the PocketMarket team continue to be inspired by seeing how others find value in their product. As a whole, the team enjoys affecting people’s lives in a valuable and positive way. Del Puerto’s personal mission statement expresses exactly this as he believes that, “The best products solve problems that people haven’t even realized are problems yet.”