Cover Leandre Kiu, founder and owner of Nasalite (Photo: Angelo Villegas)
Leandre Kiu, founder and owner of Nasalite (Photo: Angelo Villegas)
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Leandre Kiu shares how Nasalite grew from solving his own breathing issues into the Philippines’ first FDA-registered nasal strip brand, reshaping how people think about sleep and wellness
Long before nasal wellness trended online, Leandre Kiu was quietly experimenting with solutions to his own breathing struggles. Growing up with allergic rhinitis and chronic congestion, he began taping his mouth at night as early as 2018, convinced that better airflow could transform sleep and quality of life. What he discovered was a wider cultural blind spot: in the Philippines, allergies and snoring were often dismissed as things one simply endures.
A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, Kiu built an early career in data science at UnitedHealth Group R&D before moving into tech in Singapore. Yet by 26, the pull to build something of his own proved stronger. Launched in February 2024 after months of product testing, Nasalite is now the first and only FDA-registered nasal strip brand in the Philippines, grounded in a simple belief: “better breathing leads to better living”.
Education became the first challenge. Many people had easily accepted congestion, snoring and restless sleep as part of everyday life. Through honest, informative content on TikTok, Nasalite slowly helped change that mindset, encouraging Filipinos to see that breathing better could improve how they live. Today, Kiu is expanding Nasalite into a broader ecosystem of nasal and sleep-support tools, with a simple mission: to make caring for one’s breathing as routine as brushing one’s teeth.
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Q&A
What inspired you to start your business? Was there a specific gap or opportunity in the market that others overlooked?
I started Nasalite because I had been trying to solve my own breathing problems long before it became a conversation online.
As early as 2018, I was already taping my mouth at night using medical tape to encourage nasal breathing. I grew up with allergic rhinitis, chronic congestion and a deviated septum. I knew poor airflow was affecting my sleep and overall quality of life. At the time, mouth taping wasn’t normalised, and nasal wellness certainly wasn’t mainstream in the Philippines.
What struck me was this: while tools already existed abroad (nasal strips, breathing aids, sleep optimisation products), the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and nasal health space locally felt underserved and almost culturally dismissed. Many Filipinos simply accept allergies, congestion and snoring as things you “just live with.” I saw a category that millions of people needed but nobody was building for.
The irony is that the solutions already exist. What was missing was the right combination of education, thoughtful product design, strong positioning and accessibility. There was no brand actively pushing the idea that breathing well is foundational to wellness.
I studied Management Engineering at Ateneo de Manila University, then spent about three and a half years as a data scientist at UnitedHealth Group R&D, applying machine learning and statistics to healthcare research. After that, I moved into business intelligence and product management for a tech company in Singapore. It was a good career. But by 26, the more time I spent in corporate, the more I felt the pull to build something of my own.
Nasalite gave me that opportunity. I started sourcing manufacturers in mid-2023, tested multiple product versions, and gathered honest feedback before officially launching in February 2024. Today, Nasalite is the first and only FDA-registered nasal strip brand in the Philippines.
The belief is simple: better breathing leads to better living.
In the early days, what were the biggest challenges you faced in building the company?
The biggest challenge was education.
We weren’t just launching a product. We were building a category and shaping demand from the ground up. Nasal wellness was not something people were actively searching for. Allergies, congestion and snoring were often treated as unavoidable parts of life. So the real question became: how do you get people to care about a problem they’ve been taught to ignore?
Content became our answer. We leaned heavily into short-form platforms like TikTok, not just as a marketing tool, but as an educational engine. Every comment became feedback. Every hesitation became insight. We simplified the science, listened closely and refined our messaging continuously.
At the same time, Nasalite was built with zero full-time employees, just a small group of highly capable freelancers and strong agency partners. That constraint forced us to operate with clarity. We became obsessed with identifying the single bottleneck of the business at any given time and focusing only on what truly moved the needle. In the beginning, that was education and awareness. Then it became operations and fulfilment as demand outpaced what we could physically handle. Today, it’s product expansion.
Building a category teaches you patience. It forces you to listen more than you speak. It requires humility, especially when you’re asking people to rethink something they’ve accepted their entire lives.
What sets your business apart from competitors?
We are not trying to be the cheapest option. We are trying to raise the standard of the entire category.
From material selection to adhesive strength, we make deliberate decisions. We use premium-grade materials and design for both effectiveness and comfort. More importantly, we listen closely to psychological barriers, not just functional ones.
For example, we were among the first in the region to launch a mouth tape with a breathing vent. Customers told us they were hesitant to tape their mouths shut completely. The vent addressed that fear without compromising effectiveness. That small design decision helped normalise adoption. Over time, we’ve seen similar product shapes emerge across the region, which tells us we were solving the right problem.
Our deeper differentiation is mission-driven. We are not just selling products. We are normalising nasal and ENT care the way oral care became routine. Since launching, over 10,000 TikTok videos have been created organically by users, influencers and everyday customers. That kind of community, built on genuine experience rather than paid placements, is something no marketing budget can buy.
We don’t chase trends. We build trust.
Above Kiu is redefining everyday wellness through Nasalite, turning a personal breathing struggle into a movement focused on better sleep, better health and better living
Kiu is redefining everyday wellness through Nasalite, turning a personal breathing struggle into a movement focused on better sleep, better health and better living
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Can you share a pivotal turning point that significantly changed your company’s direction or growth trajectory?
There were two turning points that reshaped our trajectory.
The first was a strategic shift in how we viewed feedback. Instead of treating marketing and product development as separate functions, we turned customer feedback into our operating system. Every misconception, hesitation and testimonial became actionable data. We refined adhesive strength, adjusted sizing, redesigned packaging and introduced features based directly on what customers were telling us. That culture of iteration made us faster and more precise. We stopped guessing what the market wanted and started listening and responding in near real time. That momentum eventually made Nasalite the top-selling product in the Medical Supplies category on TikTok Shop in 2025, driven almost entirely by organic content.
The second was a moment I couldn’t have engineered.
Shuvee Etrata, a housemate on Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Collab Edition, was seen wearing Nasalite mouth tape on national television. She wasn’t paid to use it. There was no product placement. She brought it into the house because she was a genuine user.
It wasn’t sponsored. It was chosen.
That single moment brought nasal wellness into mainstream Filipino consciousness in a way that years of advertising never could have. We later signed Shuvee as our official brand endorser, but the power of that origin is something we will always carry. When someone chooses your product in front of millions of people with no incentive to do so, it tells you that what you’ve built is real.
How do you navigate through the changing economic, political and social climate?
By staying focused on problems that don’t go away.
Breathing, sleep, congestion, recovery. These are not trend-based needs. They exist in economic booms and in downturns. People will always need to breathe. People will always need to sleep. But what has changed is that Filipino consumers are now actively investing in preventive health and sleep quality in ways they weren’t five years ago. Nasalite didn’t create that shift, but we positioned early enough to lead the conversation.
Platforms like TikTok have also leveled the playing field. A bootstrapped Filipino brand can now reach millions without competing on ad spend against multinationals. What matters is authenticity, and that’s something you can’t manufacture. Being e-commerce-first from day one gives us the agility to adapt quickly without overextending. I built Nasalite from personal savings, not outside funding, which instilled a discipline around resource allocation that has served us well.
We also adopted AI tools early to upskill our team and streamline how we work. My background in data science gave us a head start in integrating these tools before they became mainstream. That lets a small team operate with speed and precision that would normally require a much larger organisation.
In a market where unregulated wellness products come and go, being FDA-registered and community-driven is a deliberate choice. The best hedge against uncertainty is trust. Trends fade. Platforms evolve. Economies shift. But if people trust you, they stay.
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As you look toward 2026, what is your long-term vision for the business?
Our long-term vision is to build Nasalite into a comprehensive nasal wellness and ENT care ecosystem.
We are developing saline sprays, airflow-support tools, congestion solutions and sleep-support innovations designed to improve breathing quality holistically. Saline sprays are the next product in our pipeline, which marks our formal entry into the ENT space. We’re also deepening our partnerships with ENT specialists to reinforce medical credibility, because we want Nasalite to be both recommended by doctors and accessible to everyone.
But the larger mission goes beyond products.
The Philippine wellness industry is maturing rapidly, but most of the growth has been concentrated in fitness, skincare and supplements. Nasal and ENT care remains one of the most overlooked categories, despite affecting tens of millions of Filipinos daily. We see the same opportunity here that oral care brands saw decades ago: a routine that doesn’t exist yet, but should.
We want to shift how Filipinos think about wellness, from reactive to proactive. Nasal and ENT care should not be something you think about only when you are sick. It should be part of your nightly routine, just like brushing your teeth.
If we can normalise proactive breathing care across the country, we won’t just be building a brand. We'll be reshaping behaviour.
Are there any professional or personal milestones over the past 24 months that you’d like to highlight?
Professionally, the most meaningful milestone has been watching Nasalite grow from a one-man experiment into a nationally recognised brand. Being covered by several media publications reinforced that we were building something that genuinely resonated.
Leaving a stable career in tech to build something from scratch was not an easy decision. But two years in, I’m grateful I made it. There’s something different about building your own thing. The problems are harder, but they’re yours.
We’ve also recently formalised a strategic partnership that I’m excited about. We brought on partners with deep experience in sourcing, manufacturing and offline distribution, which lets us leverage established infrastructure and networks while keeping the core Nasalite team nimble and focused. As we expand our product ecosystem, having partners who share the long-term vision for nasal and ENT care in the Philippines has made all the difference.
Beyond Nasalite, I’ve begun working with values-aligned partners on Jelly Labs, a jelly-based supplement brand aiming to disrupt the traditional supplement industry by applying the same principles of trust, education and evidence-based design.
On a personal level, one milestone that meant a great deal to me was being able to take my family on a trip to South Korea last December. It was something I had envisioned for years. At 28, being able to give back to the people who supported me from the beginning felt like a quiet confirmation that the path I chose was the right one.
I also relaunched my personal newsletter, Right on Kiu, where I write about entrepreneurship, lifestyle design and the questions that stay with you after the work is done.
Continuing Tatler’s 25th anniversary celebration, we honour 25 entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, resilience and purpose are reshaping the Philippine business landscape. Many started from humble beginnings, yet their determination and innovation have earned them well-deserved acclaim. Driven to make life better for the Filipino people, they are setting new standards for success.
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Credits
Photography: Angelo Villegas
About
Jessica grew up writing letters for everyone, on every occasion. Little did she know that her hobby would eventually turn into a true passion. She believes that content should be relatable yet factual, engaging yet straightforward.
Work
A journalism graduate, Jessica never stops learning and honing her craft. She began her career as a Global Content Editor for a travel company, inspiring readers and travellers to explore the world. Currently, she writes on topics ranging from entertainment, health, sports and travel to in-depth stories about influential and impactful personalities.
For any leads, you may reach her through jessica.zapata@tatlerasia.com via email.
