Pleased.com founder and CEO Jonathan Sterling says his customer service software company pays mid-level developers at its Manila office about ₱225,000 a month and senior developers ₱250,000, ABS-CBN News reports from his interview on ANC’s Startup with Ron Cruz. The company’s own job ads back the range: its Lever listings for backend and frontend developers show ₱190,000 to ₱315,000 a month.
ABS-CBN News also reports that Pleased.com has hired about 35 people at its office in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Taguig, and that another 10 to 15 candidates have accepted offers and are serving their notice periods. Sterling said the company had reached its 2026 target of 50 hires ahead of schedule. Added up, 35 plus 10 to 15 is 45 to 50, so the target holds only when accepted offers count.
Who Pleased.com is
Pleased.com sells live chat, email ticketing and voice support software to businesses, the Inquirer reports. Its pricing page lists four plans from US$15 to US$150 per seat a month. Sterling told the Inquirer the platform handles six million to seven million customer contacts a year for enterprise clients including Unlokk, a Lithuanian credit institution, and Tenn.io, an African digital bank, and that AI resolves about 75 percent of them from start to finish. Those figures are his.
Sterling founded the company about four years ago in Europe, and it ran remotely until the BGC office opened on 8 September, the Inquirer reports. Manila Bulletin, in a profile under its MBrand byline, describes him as a British serial tech entrepreneur with a software engineering background. Pleased.com’s job ads say everyone from the most junior developer to the CEO is a programmer, and that the CEO interviews technical hires in person.
The registry site Companies House PH, a third-party aggregator rather than the SEC itself, lists Pleased Technologies OPC, a one-person corporation, under SEC number 2026030240632-16 with a 2026 establishment date. The job ads are posted under the name Pleased Inc. Pleased.com’s LinkedIn page says representatives of the Board of Investments and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority attended the office opening.
Pleased.com hasn’t announced any outside funding. ABS-CBN News calls Sterling a “self-described billionaire”, and the figure rests on his own statement.
Do the pay figures hold up?
They match Pleased.com’s own job ads. The Lever listings for frontend developer and backend developer (the latter as mirrored on Simplify) show ₱190,000 to ₱315,000 a month, and the technical director listing shows ₱410,000 to ₱453,600. The backend role asks for at least three years of experience, and the technical director role asks for 10 or more.
| Source | Role | Pay a month |
|---|---|---|
| ABS-CBN News (Sterling) | Mid-level developer, average | ₱225,000 |
| ABS-CBN News (Sterling) | Senior developer, average | ₱250,000 |
| Pleased.com Lever listings | Backend and frontend developer | ₱190,000 to ₱315,000 |
| Pleased.com Lever listing | Technical director | ₱410,000 to ₱453,600 |
| Permhunt 2026 guide | Senior engineer | ₱110,000 to ₱180,000 |
| Permhunt 2026 guide | Lead or principal | ₱180,000 to ₱250,000 |
| A7 Recruitment 2026 guide | Senior software developer | ₱100,000 to ₱158,000 |
| PayMetric Labs, Aug 2026 | Mid-level, Metro Manila median | ₱85,750 |
| Jobstreet, Oct 2026 | Backend developer, Philippines average | ₱70,000 to ₱80,000 |
Sterling’s ₱225,000 mid-level average is about 2.6 times PayMetric Labs’ ₱85,750 Metro Manila mid-level median. His ₱250,000 senior average sits above the ₱180,000 top of Permhunt’s senior band and level with the top of its lead and principal band. Jobstreet’s figure comes from salaries employers disclose in ads, and the guides come from recruiters and pay-data firms, so they measure different things. Every one of them sits below Pleased.com’s range.
Pay in the ads has also moved. Dubai OFW reported on 21 September a Pleased.com backend developer listing at ₱95,000 to ₱140,000 and a technical director listing at ₱150,000 to more than ₱300,000. The listings now read ₱190,000 to ₱315,000 and ₱410,000 to ₱453,600, and they don’t say when the ranges changed.
How 35 hires became 50
| Date | What Pleased.com said | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 10 Sep 2026 | Administrative staff and about 10 engineers hired; target of 50 engineers by the end of 2026; 100 to 110 hires over 12 months | BusinessMirror, Inquirer |
| 12 Nov 2026 | About 35 hired; 10 to 15 more accepted offers; 2026 target of 50 hires reached | ABS-CBN News |
The two targets aren’t the same measure. September’s was 50 engineers. November’s 50 counts hires across roles: Sterling told ABS-CBN News most Philippine staff are software engineers, product managers, project managers and UX and UI designers, with 5 to 10 percent in support and administration. The 10 to 15 candidates serving notice haven’t started, so the office has about 35 people today.
One part of the headcount claim checks out. Pleased.com’s job ads put its European development team at around 30 people, so a Manila team of 35 is already larger, in line with Sterling’s statement that the Philippine office will be the company’s largest. The same ads describe a Philippine office of more than 1,000 square metres where all staff work on site.
Reviews and the hiring process
Jobstore carries two employee reviews of Pleased Technologies, dated 27 August and 16 September, both rated four out of five. Sterling’s stated measure of success is being “rated as the best company to work for in the entire country”. The job ads say candidates sit an automated technical test with a 70 percent pass mark, a 15-minute phone screen and an on-site interview with the CEO.
Where the figures come from
Pleased.com opened the BGC office on 8 September with Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano, and the Inquirer, BusinessMirror, Manila Standard, Manila Bulletin and Unbox all ran stories within five days. ABS-CBN News published its story on 12 November, after Sterling’s interview on ANC’s Startup. Each headcount, signup and revenue figure in that coverage is attributed to Sterling, and none comes with payroll data, contracts or filings. The pay figures are the exception, because the job ads are public documents. Pleased.com also posted on LinkedIn that it shares its pay bands, which fits a company trying to hire 100 engineers.
Sterling also said Pleased.com gets about 100 new paying signups a week, two weeks into a US marketing campaign, and targets US$10 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2027. At the US$45 Grow list price, US$10 million a year is about 18,500 paid seats; at the US$15 Core price it’s about 55,600.
Sterling’s remaining target is 100 to 110 Philippine hires by September 2027, which leaves 50 to 60 more once the 50 is counted. Pleased.com hasn’t published payroll data, contracts or filings for its Philippine team.
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