SBA financing helps a Filipino woman-owned business grow

To commemorate Asian American & Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (AANPHI) Heritage Month, SBA highlights resources, funding, and training available to all AAPI-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Filipino Woman-Owned Business Invites Conversation About Heritage Through Food with Help from SBA Financing

In 2013, Chera Amlag and her husband Geo Quibuyen started a passion project: monthly Filipino pop-up dinners where they could share their Filipino culture through food. Drawing inspiration from her first memories of cooking a Filipino dessert Halaya with her mother, Amlag combined her love of Ube, a purple yam, and cheesecake to create Ube Cheesecake, which people started requesting long after its debut during their second pop-up.

In 2014, Amlag started wholesaling batches of hand-crafted Ube cheesecake to Uwajimaya and Hood Famous Bakeshop was born. As the demand for her popular Filipino desserts grew, so did her need for a commercial kitchen. On Amlag’s bootstrapped startup budget, she struggled to find affordable commercial space. As a first-generation business owner, she didn’t know how to access the support and capital her business needed to grow. With a little bit of luck, Amlag was able to find a 400 square foot space in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle that would be her first brick and mortar location if she could find the money to turn her ideas into reality.

Asian American & Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month Webinar

Join the SBA for an online panel discussion with Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander-owned small businesses as they share their small business stories and how they utilized SBA’s economic aid to pivot during the pandemic.

You will also learn about the SBA resources available to help entrepreneurs compete in the marketplace: launch or expand businesses; receive counseling; funding opportunities; and help to recover or rebuild from disasters.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Han Nguyen, Associate Administrator for the SBA Office of Communications and Public Liaison.

Panelists include:

Angie Yu, President, Two Rivers Fisheries, Inc., Wickliffe, KY
Rakesh Srivastava, President and Founder, Innovative Prosthetics & Orthotics, Hastings, NE
Raj Mehta, CEO, Raj Technologies Inc., Plainview, NY
Chera Amlag, Co-Owner, Hood Famous Bakeshop, Seattle, WA