Rocky Dela Vega is the VP for Marketplace Logistics at Lazada Philippines. Before Lazada, she was Head of Product at First Circle, a fintech that empowers Philippine SMEs through simple business loans. She also used to be the Country Lead for Trust and Safety at Uber Philippines.

🎙  How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I work with different teams to ensure that whenever customers place a Lazada order, sellers are able to pack and handover orders to our Logistics partners as quickly as possible. This way, you get your order as fast as possible!

🤨  What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

Before working in logistics for e-commerce, the closest "logistics experience" I had was working at Uber with cars transporting people.

In fact, for most of the roles I've held, I didn't really have much prior "traditional work experience" to be able to work in fintech and transportation, and that helped me feel more comfortable taking on roles and working in industries that I don't know much about.

🏅  What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far, and why?

Deciding to work at Uber as my first job, even if people didn't even know what an "Uber" was. At the time, startups weren't a thing. Everyone else was going for management trainee programs at more well-known and traditional companies like Unilever and Shell for their first jobs.

At Uber, I met some of the best people I've worked with, including my husband and some of my closest friends! Many of these people have become executives at well-known companies or started their own.

Even with virtually no experience, it was such a great opportunity to really learn how to build a business from scratch and scale it to something that people use across the country everyday. It helped me be comfortable with uncertainty and I continue to use and iterate on the template of how we did things at Uber to do great things at the future roles I would hold in my career.

Working at Uber really helped me gain access to the great people and companies I've worked at even after the business ended in SEA.

🤓  What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?

How businesses and individuals can/will contribute more to lessening environmental impact.

I order more items online than I did before (because of COVID). However, most of these are wrapped in plastic and other materials I throw away, so I take out the garbage more often than before.

I'm always looking for ways to reduce my impact as an individual and contribute to or even promote sustainability initiatives various organizations drive to help lessen environmental impact.

🎓  What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

Always be curious and embrace discomfort and uncertainty! No one will never always have all the answers (even after working for X years and even when you’re the “boss" leading a team).  By doing so, you'll be more comfortable asking even "stupid" questions, be more collaborative, and embrace a lot of opportunities that will help you continue to grow.

I also prefer to surround myself with people that I think are better than me in some way so that I'm sure that I'm with people that I trust and can work together with to come up with the best ideas, while learning from each other along the way!

🗣  What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Dogs! I've always loved dogs but only recently invested the time and effort to do research and learn how to properly care for and train a dog on my own. My husband and I got a corgi named Nacho last year. It's been a lot of work to take care of him and train him but he really has brought so much joy into our lives! I've even made a doggy survival manual from the things I've learned off of Youtube, our dog trainer, random advice from friends and things we've learned while taking care of Nacho.

🎬  What's your favorite movie/TV show?

Friends! Even if I’ve watched it so many times at different points in my life from start to finish, it’s still so relatable and puts me through the same emotions every single time!

🍨  What's your go-to ice cream flavor?

Cheese, preferably the version sold on the street and called "sorbetes" here in the Philippines.