It’s safe to say that Derrick Gaw is a success on his own — he handles a whole region as its quality business partner only after seven (7) months with only a handful of experience while finishing up his Masters at De La Salle University-Manila. He's also the Founder and CEO of a swiftly rising business, Colin's Manila. Colin's recently turned one and partnered with our brand for our February Event. Yes, his resume may be stacked, but with his latest interview for IndieCo, he's ready to remind us that despite his great success, he still has two feet firmly planted on the ground.

Back in January, just before we partnered with Colin's Manila, we had the chance to work with him for the first IndieCo Debate: Can Exes be Friends? His answer and stand? Yes. He's sure an open-minded lad with a love for all things, conventional or not, as long as they don't rain on someone else's parade. This adventurous and can-do attitude of his sure paved the way to getting Colin's off at a great start.

His main motivation for establishing Colin's is his longing to bring delight to every Filipinos' belly one hand-crafted meat product at a time. When he found out that there was a lack of artisan meat products in the market despite Filipinos loving eating processed meats, he slowly ideated ways to address this problem.

As a ham-loving person, he himself found it a challenge to look for shops offering ham by the gram. Most sources only sell by delicatessen and imported ham is not really palatable to his taste. Since he happened to know how to make ham, too (for the curious, he learned it at the University of Santo Tomas when he was an undergrad for an internship), he said to himself, "Why not share the delight to more people by offering my product through online food e-commerce such as Food Panda and GrabFood among others?"

And that's exactly what he did: he created Colin's with one outlet, which operates as a cloud kitchen. This means that it doesn't have a physical store and that it transacts directly to customers through leading food e-commerce platforms like Food Panda, GrabFood, JR Mall, and RiderKo. Its customers are within a certain radius depending on the platform, and the customers range from young professionals to residents within the area.

"Colin's just turned one (1) year this month! It has been a year, on March 3, 2021, since we formalized Colin's and registered it as an actual business in the country. And on March 11, we'll be celebrating the 1st anniversary of our partnership with Food Panda, and on March 24 with GrabFood!" Derrick shares. "For the past year, we have gained some loyal customers and I believe, more than anything, that's always going to be a milestone for Colin's - gaining loyal customers."

He is currently in the works of expanding Colin's product portfolio to include other meat products. More so, if the situation of the pandemic consistently improves, his ultimate goal is to open a stall/shop at a mall. In that way, more Filipinos can have access to Colin's handcrafted products.

Outside of work and academia, Derrick's hobbies include watching critically acclaimed movies or series (In the Mood for Love, Chernobyl, Handmaid's Tale ), working out (running, swimming, doing cross-fit, going to the gym, and many more), and spending time with families and friends. Pre-pandemic, he would also travel locally and internationally.

When asked what he was excited about for 2022, his answer came in two-fold. In his professional life, since he also works full-time at a Filipino multi-national food company, he looks forward to being more instrumental to his team and the company in attaining its goals. In his personal life, on the other hand, he looks forward to working on the improvement for Colin's; there's still a lot to do but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. He's also looking forward to really creating a formal business plan for it for the coming term in school.

"I'm also looking forward to achieving my fitness goals this year, start traveling more once again, and actually travel solo for the first time," he adds.