There is a reason why Potato Corner’s mascot, Spudster, has four strands of

hair on its head. That’s because Potato Corner, a billion-peso food franchising
business that started in 1992 as a food cart operation, and that expanded
globally to countries, including the United States, Australia, Kuwait, Singapore,
and more, had four founders – the originator, his best friend, the source of
inspiration (and supply), and the technical expert.

One of these four founders, Jose Magsaysay, Jr., or better known in the
industry as “Jomag,” was ultimately responsible for building and scaling Potato
Corner to the empire it is today, a global brand with a huge following, and a
massive footprint of more than 1,400 stores around the world. Jomag is
highly-celebrated in the Philippine startup ecosystem, often referred to as the
man behind Potato Corner. He is sought after as an adviser, consultant, and
thought leader in how to build a successful franchise. And perhaps, even
more, Jomag is heralded for leading the company to a successful exit – a
dream all startups yearn for.

In March 2022, restaurant operator Shakey’s Pizza ventures Inc., together

with its subsidiary Wow Brand Holdings, Inc., acquired Potato Corner – lock,
stock, and barrel. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, included all the
assets and intellectual property of Potato Corner, as well as shares in a
Singapore entity. In absorbing the company, Shakey’s is now running all
company owned and franchised stores, and continuing to build on the iconic
brand.

Returning to its origins, there is a story left untold that today’s entrepreneurs
may have missed. Jomag was the last man standing among the four
founders, and went as far as compromising his health to achieve great
success. Naturally, those seeking to write history will default to what’s been
chronicled in recent years. That said, there is much to be said if we know
where to start.

As a witness to the emergence of Potato Corner since the early nineties, I had
a front row seat. So, before Shakey’s adds its thumbprint and takes the
flavored French fries business to new heights, let’s go back in time to uncover
Potato Corner’s true origin – from the vantage point of its originator.

Flashback to 1992. While working for a multinational ad agency as a division

manager, one of my account executives, Jenny Bautista-Wieneke, brought
flavored French fries to our office in Pasay Road, Makati, for us to sample. It
was her husband Jorge’s business idea, she said. Jorge was a talent caster
for another ad agency back then. Jorge and Jenny married and had children
at a young age, and both were constantly looking for ways to make ends
meet. The flavored fries were, indeed, novel and delicious.

A year later, I moved to Jorge’s ad agency as a management supervisor. One

day, Jorge, my account supervisor Martin Villonco, and I were on our way to a
client to present talents for a TV commercial. Along the way, Jorge asked
Martin, who was behind the wheel, to drive by SM Megamall so he could do
something really quick. With Martin pulling to the curbside, Jorge quickly
alighted from the vehicle, popped the trunk open, and pulled out a case of
frozen French fries. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

“What was that all about?” I asked him upon returning to our illegally parked
vehicle. As we drove to the client’s office, Jorge told us all about his kiosk
business, Potato Corner.

Fast forward to today. As managing editor of The Independent Investor (TII), I

recently had a nice, long chat with Jorge Noel Wieneke (JW) – now a serial
entrepreneur, business development consultant, motivational speaker,
educator, angelpreneur, and MSME advocate. More than just to set the record
straight, my purpose was to challenge his memory and pick his mind for
anything we may have missed in what Jorge describes as a “wonderful love
story” in business.

*******

TII: Bring us back to that “aha” moment, Jorge. How did it all start?

Wieneke: It all started because I was tired of being an employee, tired of

my job, TV shoots left and right, when I met this guy who was a talent for
Close-Up toothpaste. He arrived in a cool Toyota Lite Ace van with a CD
player, walking around with a big bulky cell phone that I imagined only from
James Bond movies. I asked him what he did aside from modeling and he
said he had a business selling flavored popcorn.
I started asking him questions about his business. I became so curious,
asking him how he started and how much he was making. The questions were
getting more and more personal and intense.

Each break from the shoot, I went back to him to ask more questions. I
became even more curious and, most of all, inspired. I wanted to be like this
guy.

That shoot took place during Holy Week, so we all had to take a break until
the shoot would resume on Black Saturday. But while my family and I were
enroute to the beach in my Dad’s Combi, I couldn’t take my mind off the
business.

While in the van, I started thinking, what is that one thing that my kids love?
Every time we went to Jollibee, Cindy’s, and McDonalds, they would ask for
French fries. I observed that all kids would always order fries together with
their burgers. So, I figured, why don’t I get these fries and add flavouring, just
like what my friend did to his popcorn?

While we were still in the van, I recall trying to reach for a bag with toilet paper
in it, but couldn’t quite get to it. So, as soon as we got to the beach, I hurriedly
scribbled my idea on the toilet paper lest it disappear into thin air.

Come Easter Sunday, I went to see my best friend, the late Danny Bermejo, to
tell him of my idea. Dan was my most trusted and dearest friend as he was
the one who introduced me to my wife, Jenny. At that time, Danny and I were
in the same boat, with jobs that we didn’t like doing anymore. I pitched
the concept. Dan liked it and was so excited to start on our dream
venture.

TII: What steps did you take to bring this idea to life? Who were the key
personalities involved?

JW: Among all my friends at the time, there was this one older guy that we
looked up to, who has a background in the corporate world. We met with him
and he liked the idea so much that he suggested we invite big investors, take
out loans, start big, and launch with a big shebang. We got scared as we felt it
was too big of a responsibility. He must’ve felt that we didn’t buy his ideas so
he slipped away and didn’t get in touch with us anymore (although looking
back, he was right about launching this big time with all the works, but our
immature, inexperienced, and unexposed minds couldn’t grasp it then).

We thought he might end up doing it on his own. We had to move fast. The
fastest way we could move was to partner with the Close Up “talent-model” –
Ricky Montelibano. His business was George Popcorn (named after his
dog, not me). I asked if we could meet with him and he invited us to his
home in Paco.

Jorge Wieneke with co-founder, Close up talent Ricky Montelibano

It was also perfect because Dan was an Ilonggo, just like Ricky; and me, just
pretending to be one – having studied in La Salle Bacolod for grade school.
We pitched the idea to Ricky and he fell in love with it. So, we, the three
partners, started working on my idea of having flavored French fries as a
business.

Ricky started sourcing from Danny Garza, his supplier of flavoring. Mind you,
at that time, I really had no idea where these flavorings came from as they
weren’t really the “in” thing yet.

I then started talking to a work colleague, Grace Marci, a creative director at

Lintas Manila, the advertising agency I worked at, to brainstorm on what a
good name for the product would be. Jenny (my wife) and I wanted to capture
that “corner,” or niche for potatoes, and, lo and behold, Potato Corner was
born. Grace liked the name and she personally developed the logo and cart
design for us. She didn’t pass it on to any artist and, instead, did it herself.

Potato Corner’s original cart design (right) and fabrication.

Dan then started talking to his uncle, the owner of Allied Metals for the cart
fabrication. But, there was one important thing still missing – the fries. At that
time, one could not buy French fries from Quiapo or the frozen section of the
supermarket. In fact, only the big players could import these frozen fries by the
container load. We couldn’t use fresh potatoes either as these would quickly
turn soggy, having much water content and hence would absorb the oil more.
We did not have the funds to import container vans full of frozen French fries
so we were stumped.

Enter my father-in-law, Juan Bautista, who was the Import Director of the
Central Bank. He knew the big-name importers and, as such, patched us with
Mr. Bernard Tiu. Mr. Tiu allowed us to piggy back our miniscule orders with the
McDonalds and Jollibees of this world. We finally had the fries, the flavoring,
the branding, and design, but not any of us knew how to cook French fries
properly, what the right temperature was, length of time needed, etc.

That night, we were so frustrated as all our hopes were pinned on this
concept. All three of us had families to feed and we had dreams of proving to
our in-laws that we could support our families and give them so much more.
So, Ricky suggested for us to meet with his brother-in-law who worked at
Wendy’s, and perhaps hire him as a consultant. We would meet every Friday.
So, on one succeeding Friday, we met over BBQ and beer, and got to meet
Jose Magsaysay. Jomag gave us a lot of input on the operations side and
then Ricky took us aside and suggested that we take him in as a fourth
partner because, like us, Jomag was also struggling – same boat, same
dreams. So, Dan told me to decide and I said yes to equal shares for all. It
was a perfect start to a very good love story in business. Everybody was
working towards the success of this project.
 3rd – 5th from L: Co-founders Dan Bermejo, Joe Magsaysay and
Jorge Wieneke

TII: Things were finally coming together. How did you progress from here?

JW: Quatro Foods Resources was then born. Jomag offered his garage to be
our office and stockroom. But to make this into reality, we set deadlines to
bring in the money. I was 55 years old. If my memory serves me right, I think
the money that was to be raised was only P16k++. I got half of my share from
Cocobank, my salary loan from Lintas, and the other half from my Dad as a
loan. After that, we needed more funds, so Ricky lent the company money.

This business wouldn’t have seen light if we had no space to sell our French
fries from. Unfortunately, the first attempt to apply for space in the mall was
rejected. It was Ricky, who was exposed to and knew the leasing personnel in
the malls, who applied. SM Megamall leasing management suggested that we
be situated among the food carts and not the main mall as we had frying. We
didn’t want to be located in the food court because people didn’t go there to
buy snacks but meals.

So, I asked a favor once again from my father-in-law, this time to write to SM’s
Ms. Tessie Sy-Coson, and possibly appeal on our behalf for space in the mall
and voila – we got prime space for a fledgling startup at Building A, lower
ground floor, right beside the SM Department Store entrance.

TII: So, there were four co-founders at the start. As the business progressed
towards retail, what were the responsibilities of each? How did that division of
labor work out?

JW: Danny resigned from his job and committed 100% to the business as well
as Jomag. Ricky just wanted to be a silent partner. As for me, I resigned but
the then president of Lintas, Wally Reyes, did not allow me to leave and asked
me to stay for nine more months.

I was in charge of business development, marketing, and mall leasing. Jomag

handled operations, and Dan was responsible for keeping the staff in line as
he was very strict and authoritative. Dan also dabbled in operations as well as
in finance. Since I was still employed, I took care of deliveries during
weekends and crammed cases of frozen French fries into the trunk of my
2-door Dodge Colt and sometimes stacked them right beside my kids in the
car. I’d also do the rounds and collect the money from the retail outlets during
weekends.

TII: Now operational with the first prototype kiosk, how did the market react to
your product? What learnings did you take forward as you planned to open
more stores?

JW: October 15 was the birthday of my Dad and that was the time we were
going to set up our first cart in SM Megamall for the next day’s opening. Dan
and I had dinner first at my house before heading to the mall, with butterflies in
our stomachs. We were betting on how much we were going to sell the next
day. One said P3,000. Another P2,500. But, boy, were we surprised to get a
total of more than P15,000 that day!

My main takeaway in the beginning was that one’s idea and concept is totally
different from what the outcome is when in operations. There are many
learnings every day, but one has to be agile, vigilant, and observant to see
and hear these things. A concept is different from reality and the reality is
ever evolving. We’ve also learned to listen to customers, know their needs and
deal with them, each one differently.

The market responded very positively as the lines never ended, even on
weekdays. Mind you, social media was still non-existent and yet
word-of-mouth helped spread the Potato Corner name. We quickly expanded
by giving family and friends franchises of the business but, at the time, we had
no formal knowledge of franchising.

We also learned that when starting a business, one really has to be very
resourceful. There was no internet, no Google, no start-up, and
entrepreneurship lectures and seminars then. We were forced to literally
search for the different aspects of our business manually. Entrepreneurs now
are so fortunate to have everything at the tip of their fingers but they should
still keep resourcefulness as a trait. I think this is required of any startup.
We learned to be resilient. Failure is not an option. There were so many
challenges that we faced but we chose to learn from the mistakes and moved
forward. The first cart of Potato Corner was made of aluminum. It took so long
to manufacture, was slightly more expensive, and became a logistical
nightmare. We learned that there were things wrong with the cart while we
were already operational. The Imarflex home deep fryers available in the
market were not up to par as they couldn’t handle the heavy demands of our
cooking, so Dan had Allied Metal customize deep fryers for us. These deep
fryers were the ancestors of the fryers you see now. In fact, we were the first
ones to have these made in the country. So, with every hurdle, we bounced
back, not letting anything stop us.

TII: Who came up with the Potato Corner franchising model, and what were
the main principles or features behind it?

JW: It was basically an effort led by Dan, Jomag, and myself. There was a
joint venture model and an outright franchise being executed, but during that
time, no one really knew yet what franchising was unless you franchised from
the big players. We were basically just winging it.

We started first with the JV model and adjusted along the way. We controlled
the supplies, from fries, flavoring, oil, packaging, and uniforms, to the
manufacturing of the kiosk. We had our own contractor and equipment. The
franchise package included the cart, equipment, and small wares.

TII: At this point, you were expanding with more locations, more stores, more
franchisees. Can you walk us through those milestones?

JW: After SM Megamall, we were given space at Robinson’s Galleria. And

since SM Megamall created a stir, we got the attention of Ayala Malls where
we were given a kiosk right in the middle of Glorietta. These three outlets
helped make a name for Potato Corner, opening within months of each other,
and quickly establishing Potato Corner as a brand.

Soon after, friends of friends started getting franchises until we reached over
100 outlets in three years, the 100th store being in SM South Mall.
Franchising helped expand the business, as I recall, there were more
franchised outlets than company-owned. We soon had to open a company in
the south to take care of the Visayas and Mindanao areas. Southern Island
was born as a sister company, headed by Jojo Montinola, Dan’s good friend.
He was in charge of expanding the Potato Corner franchise into the southern
islands and eventually became a partner. Hence, Quatro Foods became Cinco
Holdings.

Print ad commemorating Potato Corner’s 100th store.

TII: Business was booming. In spite of the economic and political challenges
our country has faced over the years, Potato Corner proved to be resilient. But
what was really the turning point for you, Jorge? What made you opt out of
the business, and divest your shares?

JW: After my Mom died, it was my first encounter with anxiety and depression,
and I was really, really in a downward spiral. And then, after some time, Dan
passed away too, contributing further to my depression. My buddy, my partner,
my best friend, and ally was gone. It seemed that the charm and allure of our
baby, Potato Corner, went with him and I couldn’t bring myself to work on it
anymore.

I announced to my partners that my 25% share was up for sale as the board
had the first right of refusal. They said they were not ready to buy my shares
at my price so I offered it outside, the first one being Dan’s widow, Marivic
Ong-Bermejo. She tearfully declined as she already had Dan’s shares and
didn’t want more. She wasn’t ready. I offered it to Jomag at a friendly price and
he agreed to personally buy my shares over coffee at the original Starbucks in
the Power Plant Mall, and he promised to grow the business. I found out years
later that my shares were actually ploughed back into the company.

TII: With Potato Corner expanding internationally, what was it like watching
Jomag succeed from the sidelines? Were you still in touch? Any regrets?

JW: During the time of my divestment, for me it was a good decision. But, of
course, looking at it now, it seems like a bad decision. To be honest, of course,
there is some regret because I poured in all the effort and years of making the
concept grow from idea to reality. There was some sort of ownership to the
idea as it was my baby after all. But I think God had a bigger plan for me.
Like in any love story, there are challenges, drama, and climax. The
characters in this story played out their own roles but my role had to end just
like Dan’s role prematurely ended. Potato Corner wouldn’t be Potato Corner
now without the four hairs on the Potato Mascot’s head, which were the four
partners.

Jomag kept his promise to grow the business, the promise when we shook
hands at Starbucks Rockwell. He said, “Wag ka mag-alala, aalagaan ko ang
baby mo (Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your baby).” And he did. Jomag made
Potato Corner an international brand and I give all the credit to him. After the
Shakey’s buyout, all our roles have ended now for Potato Corner. All I ask for
is to be kept in the history of Potato Corner even for years to come.

TII: Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back now, Jorge, as a highly seasoned

entrepreneur, what would you have done differently?

JW: Let’s be honest, I really made a mistake, but that had already happened,
and I have moved on to better things. But when you ask me what I could have
done differently, the first thing that comes to mind is the exit plan. We were all
so excited to jump into this business, each taking on roles but we never got to
talk about what happens when someone wants out. I wish there was a
definite exit plan that we crafted so that it would have been easier.

This would be a good lesson to others too. I also wish I was more mature to
not let personalities and emotions interfere with the business. I should have
just taken a sabbatical, became a passive director, and maintained my seat on
the board until I was ready to come back. I also should have learned the talent
of letting go. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth.

Everyone was a leader and wanted to lead. I could have stayed in the
background for a bit and let others take the reins. These are all in the past
and, as a young entrepreneur, I have learned from these lessons. And as the
adage goes, no pain, no gain.

TII: Moving on from Potato Corner, talk to us about your advocacy in helping
MSMEs/entrepreneurs. How did you get involved with Go Negosyo?

JW: In any story, there is always a new chapter, a new hero will come in, a
new role will surface. I think this is what God wanted for me – my new role is
to share my learnings, my wisdom and experience, and the concept that an
ordinary person can excel and improve his life through entrepreneurship.

So, even if I was no longer with Potato Corner, people continued to

acknowledge me as one of the proponents. People invited me to talks,
students wrote about us in their theses and projects, school symposiums, and
also ex-officemates, family members, and friends saw me as their go-to guy to
ask about entrepreneurship and business.

And then, one “great” school, the blue one, invited me to a symposium to talk
about entrepreneurship. There were two guests at the time, myself and Ed
Tarog, who was my former boss in Lintas. Ed was the first one to speak and
then when my turn came, everybody took notes, applauded, and even gave
me a standing ovation. I was sweating like heck that even my underwear was
soaked, but it seems I did well.

Eventually, the head of the Ateneo Center for Continuing Education (CCE),
Glen San Luis, approached me to invite me to be part of the school as a
resource person. From resource person, I became a lecturer, then a Program
Director and regular faculty. Some programs I ran included Retail Diploma,
Restaurant Management, Franchise Management, and Retail Site Selection.

Go Negosyo wanted Ateneo CCE’s support, and Glen recommended me as

the representative. I was then interviewed by PCE Go Negosyo’s former
Executive Director and former DTI secretary Ramon Lopez to become a
pioneer mentor, dubbed “Angelpreneur.” I agreed and I was happy to be doing
talks, lectures, and seminars left and right. I was conducting these talks both
in a classroom setting in Ateneo, while doing plenary talks for Go Negosyo.
Having been exposed to Mon Lopez and Joey Concepcion, I was inspired by
their advocacy and wanted to do more.

So, I created my own personal advocacy called KalyeNegosyo in 2013.

KalyeNegosyo is a 6-month long entrepreneurship program that aims to help
micro, small, and medium enterprises legitimize, level-up, and improve their
businesses, free of charge. Because of my visibility in entrepreneurship
circles, I became a brand ambassador for PLDT and was called Mr.
KaAsenso, the business go-to guy for budding entrepreneurs.
I have been mentoring and lecturing for over 15 years now, and I don’t see
myself ending this role. I have my story to tell and for as long as people can
learn from my wins as well as my losses, I will continue to relate my story. For
me, the driving force to success is pain, and that is what I teach my mentees.

Paying it forward – mentoring MSME’s with Go Negosyo

PLDT’s Mr. KaAsenso – the business go-to guy for budding

entrepreneurs.

TII: Now you are a serial entrepreneur, founding Tokyo Tempura. How’d that
come about? And how is it doing now?

JW: Tokyo Tempura is a validation for me that I can create a brand again from
concept to reality. It is also good to be able to talk about my own business
from a personal standpoint of ownership rather than just my past.

In 2012, there came a eureka moment for me when I saw people lining up for
tempura in the buffets. My kids loved tempura so much that every weekend
we would find ourselves either lining up in buffets or at Japanese restaurants.
Tempura was quite expensive and to be eating it every week is no joke.

So, we felt it was time to introduce a more affordable tempura. We wanted to

democratize tempura. We tried selling it in bazaars and people were very
receptive to it. Until one day, an old supplier from Potato Corner called me and
wanted to meet for coffee. Apparently, he wanted to know what concepts I had
in the pipeline that he could fund. So, I pitched the idea of Tokyo Tempura,
murang (cheap, affordable) tempura, and he liked it.

I was back to square one of starting a company again, without staff, doing
things on my own. It was both humbling and exciting at the same time. Then
after two years, just when Tokyo Tempura became a success, he told me that
he just wanted to jumpstart my business because he knew ever since the
Potato Corner days that I was the creative-minded one and I would move
heaven and earth to make something a reality. He then just asked for his
investment back and gave me the company.

So, we created a new company composed of family members and loyal

employees who’ve stayed with me through the years. The big difference in this
company now is that it is my family that I am working with. It gave me an
opportunity to speak to my son at a different level, giving him an education
outside of the home.

To be working with my wife is a challenge and a blessing too. My son is tasked

with franchising while my wife takes care of marketing. We all have our roles
to play. And together, we reached over a hundred stores nationwide and were
given the Agora Award in 2017.

From 2012, we immediately used franchising as an expansion model for the

brand. We sacrificed the short-term income by giving away franchises with no
franchise fees just to jumpstart the business. Unorthodox or stupid – as some
more seasoned experts from the industry would say, but, this was what led us
to more than a hundred stores. I broke the norms.

During the pandemic, I was more focused on the plight of the micro, small,
and medium enterprises because that time I was the President of the
Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI) and the MSMEs have a very big
place in my heart, having mentored, helped, and hand held many of them
through the years. To be honest, I reacted a bit late to pivot my company, but
pivot we did and we were one of the first brands to sell our frozen products
online as a tempura home kit. This essentially was what helped us survive the
pandemic.

Even before the lockdown happened, we were already poised to launch our
cloud kitchen and so, during lockdown, we were already equipped to start
selling online. To protect the jobs of our staff, we reconfigured the structure to
accommodate online selling. The ops guys who had a knack for creative
became content managers, the roving supervisor became the online order
taker and booker, and so on and so forth. We saw that community selling was
booming so we gave away free franchises to help those people who lost their
jobs, whose stores started closing, and allowed resellers to sell our frozen kits.
Our goal, aside from helping people, was also to jumpstart our commissary, to
bring in cash flow.

All in the family – Tokyo Tempura’s originators democratizing

tempura

Tokyo Tempura celebrating the return of retail – more tempura

coming your way!

TII: We really can’t end without asking you this, Jorge – that “one” advice to
budding entrepreneurs?

JW: I’ll give you three.

Life is not built to be easy. One has to accept the reality that the journey will be
rough. The key to success is really to have a positive attitude. One must see
his plan/dream clearly.

Next, one should believe in oneself that you can do it and deliver, remove all
self-doubt.

Lastly, one should act on your dream/plan, otherwise it will just remain a
plan/dream.

‘Pag di mo gawa di mo kita…if you don’t do it you will not learn from it; if you
don’t do it you will not earn from it!

*******

Origin stories are always great because no matter how much has been written
on the same topic, there will always be something that may have gotten buried
or missed over the years. Potato Corner’s beginnings are really one for the
books. Four founders got together out of necessity, to solve their own
problems of survival and financial stability, went through the rough patches
together and played out their own destinies that may or may not have turned
out as planned.

During the interview, Jorge Wieneke shared a screenshot of a social media

post that Jomag wrote back in October, 2015. In a touching tribute to the
originator of Potato Corner, he wrote: “Jorge is always originating, always
thinking of something new and always helping someone in need. I will always
be thankful to him and will never be able to repay what he has done for me.”

There is no doubt that Shakey’s takeover can only bring Potato Corner to
even greater heights. More importantly, co-founders Jorge Wieneke and Joe
Magsaysay, Jr. are far from hanging up the towel, as both are now clearly
paying it forward with hopefully more adventures to come.

In memory of Dan Bermejo+ and Grace Marci+.