Speakers' Profile: PDSAA Ike Stranathan
Ike Stranathan, an American businessman and investor living in the Philippines since 2009, is Founder and President of StaffVirtual.
Profile
As a self-described “Expatpreneur”, Ike Stranathan is an American businessman and investor who has lived in the Philippines since 2009. Ike moved to the Philippines in 2009 to start STAFFVIRTUAL, a business process outsourcing (BPO) company specializing in building dedicated teams of customer support, back-office, and IT professionals. Since then, Ike has helped countless companies become more scalable, efficient and profitable by building remote growth teams. Ike is currently authoring a book to be published by Forbes Publishing called A CEO’s Guide to Outsourcing to the Philippines. Ike has also made a few successful investments in various tech startups over the years.
Ike graduated with Honors from the University of Kansas in 1998 with a bachelors degree in Environmental Policy. As part of the university's Study Abroad Program, he completed a semester at the Universitat d’Alacant, in San Vicente, Spain, where he learned to speak Spanish. Studying abroad was a life-changing experience that set him on a course of eventually moving to Asia, and becoming an expat.
Work Experience
CEO, STAFFVIRTUAL — 2009 - Present. Ike moved to the Philippines from California in 2009 to start STAFFVIRTUAL, an outsourcing company with offices in Los Angeles and Makati, Philippines. STAFFVIRTUAL provides customer support, back-office, and IT outsourcing solutions to innovative companies around the world. 2020 has been a breakout year for STAFFVIRTUAL, due in large part to Covid-19. The company is on pace to triple in size from March 2020 to March 2021. Ike’s goal is to grow to 1,000 employees by March of 2023. He runs the company with his Filipina business and life-partner, Fiona Lideza. Together they had their first child named Charles, in July of 2019.
Founder, Chat Support 24/7 LLC — 2019 - Present. ChatSupport 24/7 offers live chat monitoring solutions for lead generation and customer support. The company operates a network of 20 other feeder website brands targeting specific industries and verticals. With these 21 websites, the company aims to be the largest provider of live chat support agents in the world.
Co-Founder, Netting Nations — 2006 - 2009. In 2006, Ike co-founded Netting Nations, a registered 501c3 charitable organization that seeks to prevent malaria by distributing long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets in Africa, where malaria kills approximately 1M people every year. Ike conceptualized the idea and launched the company, and was instrumental in raising funds to purchase and distribute approximately 20,000 nets over three years, that were distributed for free in five African countries.
Validation Specialist, cGMP Validation — 1998-2006. After graduating from the University of Kansas, Ike went to work for cGMP Validation, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Compliance consulting company. As a Validation Specialists, Ike traveled to the client’s site to perform “Validation studies” on equipment and systems that are involved in the manufacturing of drugs, biotech products, and medical devices.
Investment Experience
Lead Investor — Navisyo. Navisyo aims to become “The Airbnb for yachts”, that allows committed boat owners to exclusively open up beds and shared spaces on their boats to eager travelers looking for a different way to travel.
Angel Investor — Choozle, Inc. Choozle is a Colorado-based digital advertising software platform that leverages detailed consumer data to power programmatic advertising campaigns across display, video, mobile, TV and other mediums, all from a single, intuitive interface.
Seed Investor — AirHelp Ltd. AirHelp Ltd. is a claims management company that enforces passenger rights against airlines in cases of flight disruptions. AirHelp is also known for publishing annual rankings of airports and airlines.
Angel Investor — zennya, Inc. zennya is an advanced digital mobile health platform in the Philippines that delivers end to end clinical-grade medical services in your home, hotel, condo, or office, at the touch of a button.
Education
University of Kansas — BA in Environmental Policy with Honors. Ike’s education provided him with an interdisciplinary understanding of the myriad environmental challenges facing the planet, and the need for holistic solutions.
Universitat d’Alacant - Spanish Language Emersion Program. Ike studies abroad his Junior Year in Alicante, Spain, participating in a total Spanish language immersion program, where he lived with a Spanish family.
