Long before Red Ribbon became a household name, its beginnings were shaped by a mother’s instincts and an unshakable belief in her daughter’s passion.
“I was very close to my mom,” Tessie Moran says. “She’s very entrepreneurial.” That closeness went beyond family—it was formative. “She’s really gutsy—yung tipong, she’s just so street-smart.” From an early age, Tessie was surrounded by action rather than caution, and encouragement rather than hesitation.
Her mother did not merely talk about business—she lived it. “She was very influential to us in the sense that she encouraged me a lot to do what I wanted,” Tessie recalls. For her, that meant baking. “Which was baking at that time.” The passion showed early. “Since I was in third grade, I was already baking.”
Support came not just in words, but in belief. “I had my first-hand mixer when I was in grade school,” she says. The interest didn’t fade with time. “And all the way through high school, I really loved baking.” Baking was not a phase—it was part of her identity.
When Tessie got married, the idea of starting a business felt natural. “Then, when I got married, I thought of going to put up my own business,” she says. The motivation mirrored her upbringing. “Just like my mom.”
Her mother’s example made entrepreneurship feel accessible. “My mom was selling mga native kakanin at that time,” Tessie explains. She wasn’t running a single store—she was hustling. “She had different stores, small kiosks, and madami—maybe around 10 to 12 outlets.” That exposure normalized risk and action.
Her mother didn’t just influence her mindset—she helped practically. “She kind of influenced me to do my own thing,” Tessie says. “And at that time, she saw that I loved baking, and she encouraged me.” Encouragement turned into participation. “She would help sell my products.”
Early products were simple and varied. “I also had these small desserts from Pampanga and Panaditas,” Tessie recalls. Learning came from unexpected places. “Which I learned from an old lady.” There was no formal training plan—just curiosity and repetition.
The turning point came unexpectedly. “Until one day, we found this place along Timog,” Tessie says. That space would later become Red Ribbon’s first store. Her mother saw opportunity immediately. “She said, ‘Let’s look at that place, maybe you can open up, even just a small kiosk inside that supermarket.’”
There was no feasibility study, no market research. What followed was instinct in action. “To make a long story short, the owner encouraged us,” Tessie recalls. And then came the decision that would define everything. “My mom, with her gutsy nature, decided to get a small space—just a 32-square-meter area.”
The size alone made Tessie hesitate. “I mean, it was a retail building,” she says. “And my mom got the smallest or maybe the second smallest space.” Doubt crept in. “I was just like, ‘Are you sure?’” Her mother didn’t hesitate. “‘Yeah, yeah.’”
What happened next sealed the deal. “She gave the deposit right then and there that night,” Tessie says. There was no preparation, no staging. “Without planning, without starting any preparations, nothing.”
At that moment, Tessie surrendered to trust. “So I decided, ‘I’m just gonna sell my cakes, whatever.’” Confidence replaced fear. “I was just so confident that she was there to help me and that we were going to make it.”
“That’s when it all started.”
Red Ribbon did not begin with certainty. It began with belief—belief from a mother who acted before doubt could interfere, and belief from a daughter willing to step forward because she wasn’t stepping alone.
Red Ribbon’s first step wasn’t a business plan—it was a deposit paid on instinct. Tessie Moran’s story shows that entrepreneurship often begins not with clarity, but with courage borrowed from those who believe in us. Before systems, strategies, or scale, Red Ribbon was built on a mother’s confidence and a daughter’s trust—and sometimes, that is enough to get started.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
