The future of KasKasan Buddies is not really about making the community bigger for the sake of being bigger. It is about making sure it continues to serve the people who built it.

The two digital community leaders and founders, Joel Cabugos and Jax Reyes now find themselves looking at a community with more than two million members and relationships with government and industry institutions. But despite the size, neither founder describes KasKasan Buddies as something that belongs to them.

“Ever since the beginning, KasKasan Buddies was never about us,” Joel said. “It was never about the founders. It was never about me or Jax. We built this for the KKBuddies.”

Jax sees it the same way. For him, there was never a point when the community became something that was personally theirs. The intention, from the start, was always “WE.”

That principle also affects how they approach partnerships. Whenever Joel sits down with a bank, institution, or potential partner, one question remains central: what can that partner bring to the KKBuddies?

It is a simple question, but it has become one of the ways the founders measure whether an opportunity is worth pursuing.

Building A Stronger Voice Through Stories

If Joel could go back and start KasKasan Buddies again today, he would not completely change how the community is managed. Instead, he would put more energy into building media partnerships and strengthening KKB as a media platform.

For him, there are stories that Filipino audiences need to hear.

There are financial success stories that can give people something to learn from. There are also stories about scams and abusive lending practices that can warn people before they become victims.

“Stories are powerful, meaningful, and capable of creating an even bigger impact,” Joel said.

It is an approach that puts storytelling alongside financial information. Rather than simply telling people what to do, the community can also show them what happens when financial decisions go right, when they go wrong, and when people encounter practices they need to watch out for.

For Joel, strengthening that role is part of what comes next for KasKasan Buddies.

Staying Ahead Of The Next Scam

For Jax, the future also means staying alert.

Scams do not remain the same for long. New tactics emerge, and the challenge is to recognize them before they spread further.

He sees the partnership with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center as valuable because CICC is able to identify emerging forms of scams and help amplify warnings to the community.

But the responsibility does not end with institutional partners.

Jax believes KKBuddies themselves have become an important source of information. With members in different parts of the country, a new scam being tested in one area can quickly become a warning shared with others.

That makes the community’s size useful in a very practical way.

The more people who are paying attention, sharing experiences, and reporting new tactics, the greater the chance that others can recognize a scam before falling for it. For Jax, that means the information campaign cannot really stop. The community has to keep watching, learning, and reminding people about new forms of fraud.

Less Dependence On Social Media

While the community continues to grow, Joel also wants KasKasan Buddies to become less dependent on social media platforms. The next step is to strengthen the community’s own app and website. The goal is not simply to have another place where KKBuddies can access content. Joel wants these platforms to give the community greater authority and more freedom over how information is delivered.

He does not want to rush that transition, however, for now, the founders continue to listen to the concerns of the community and relay those concerns to institutional partners. Joel considers that already a meaningful contribution. Looking further ahead, he hopes financial literacy can eventually become part of the country’s educational curriculum.

“Sana mabigyan na ito ng pansin” (hopefully this will get attention) he said.

It is a goal that would put financial education somewhere much earlier in people’s lives, rather than leaving many Filipinos to learn about money only when they are already dealing with debt, credit, or other financial decisions.

What Comes Next For The KKB App

The app is also expected to keep changing.Jax does not see it as a finished product. For him, it should continue adapting to what Filipinos need in managing their finances. One possible direction is making it easier for people to find the right credit card for their needs. But he also sees a bigger opportunity in artificial intelligence.

Jax wants to explore how AI can provide more useful recommendations based on an individual’s spending habits, money management, and even asset management. The idea is not simply to add technology for its own sake. Like everything else KKB builds, it should address an actual need. The question remains the same: how can the app make financial decisions easier for Filipinos?

A Community That Is Already Bigger Than Its Founders

There is one question that Joel and Jax seem to answer in almost exactly the same way: what happens when KasKasan Buddies eventually no longer need them? For Joel, the founders have always been stewards.

“We built this for our community members,” he said. “We’re simply stewards of the community.”

He hopes the principles behind KKB will continue even as its founders eventually step further away from the center. More importantly, he hopes for a future where a movement like KasKasan Buddies is no longer necessary at all. That would mean Filipinos have reached a point where they are financially literate, responsible, and aware.For Jax, that future has already begun in one important sense.

“I think it has already outgrew the two of us,” he said.

The reason is simple. KKB is no longer defined by Joel and Jax. It is defined by the people who participate in it today and the future KKBuddies who will eventually join.

The Work Continues

KasKasan Buddies has reached a point where its next chapter is less about proving that the community matters and more about deciding what it can become. Joel sees opportunities in stronger media work, its own digital platforms, and eventually a wider role for financial literacy in the country. Jax sees a community that must remain alert to changing scams while building tools that can respond to the evolving financial needs of Filipinos. But underneath those different priorities is the same belief they have held from the beginning: the community comes first. If KKB eventually grows into an institution that can stand without its founders, that would not mean Joel and Jax failed to remain at the center. It would mean they succeeded in building something that was never meant to be about them in the first place.

What comes next for KasKasan Buddies may be bigger than another platform, partnership, or product. Joel and Jax have already made it clear that they do not see themselves as the owners of the community, but as stewards of something built with and for its members. That distinction may be what allows KKB to keep growing without losing its purpose. In a digital space where communities can quickly become personality-driven, KasKasan Buddies continues to point back to the people it was created to serve.

Its next chapter will likely be shaped by how well it can turn that trust into something more lasting, accessible, and independent. For now, the direction is clear: build beyond social media, keep Filipinos informed about their money, stay ahead of emerging scams, and create a community that can eventually make itself less necessary. Perhaps that is the most meaningful measure of what KasKasan Buddies can become: not how much bigger it gets, but how much better equipped its members become to handle their financial lives without it.