Meet the “Ma” behind Numa: Katherine Ang-Tan

Sometime last year, I won a blog contest and received a gift check from Numa as my prize. Even before then, I had already heard about Numa, mostly through social media and blogs, and I’d always wanted to visit their store and get some of their products.

Although I still haven’t been able to do so, I was privileged to be able to meet the people who started Numa - Katherine Ang-Tan and Gerald Sioco - at the recently held Philippine Homeschool Conference. I was also able to interview Katherine about how Numa began and about her life as a mom/business owner.

The Beginnings of Numa
In 2010, while pregnant with her son, Bradley Spahm, Kathy started looking for organic and eco-friendly baby products for sale locally. To her disappointment, she saw that most of the products were only available online, and only a few were organic and eco-friendly. This is why she thought of opening Numa (pronounced “new-ma”).
 
“I contacted my best friend from grade school, Gerald Sioco, and asked if he would like to do this with me,” Kathy shares. “I am rather adept at operations but my introvert personality cannot cope with the marketing side of the business. That's where Gerald comes in — he's a marketing-savvy person who doesn't fret at social events.”