This is our last episode for season 2. As usual, we are a cool school, which means we definitely do not have episodes during winter break. We will be back with more episodes early 2025. 

Olympian and former pro soccer player Melissa Ortiz joins us for our last episode of this season. She represented Colombia at the U20 World Cup in 2010 and at the 2012 London Olympics. She's worked as a sideline reporter and analyst for TNT, FOX Sports and Apple TV+.  In 2021, the retired soccer player and her brother launched Kickoff Coffee Co., a coffee brand that donates 10% of profits from its coffee bags to soccer foundations that are using soccer as a tool for social justice and development.

They represent the most expensive women’s soccer player in history, are responsible for the biggest contract in NWSL soccer history and have 41 clients who’ve played in the World Cup. TMJ, formerly known as The Marketing Jersey, wants you to know that they are the heart and soul of women’s soccer. But it wasn’t always that way. When Guillermo Zamarripa started TMJ in 2014, there were zero training facilities dedicated exclusively to women’s soccer, the average National Women’s Soccer League salary was between $6,000 and $23,000, and agents willing to represent female soccer players were hard to find. Guillermo joins Bísness School to explain why he decided to carve a career in a field that had little money, how he and his co-founder Oscar González bootstrapped the first seven years of the business and what he sees as the future of women’s soccer in the United States.

Follow TMJ at @mktjersey

Follow Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh

NOTE: This is a bonus episode in Spanish.

¿Cómo se reproduce el éxito que un artista está teniendo en México al otro lado de la frontera? Ese es el superpoder de MATS, una agencia que ayuda a artistas de Latinoamérica, como Gera MX y Kenia Os, a conquistar el mercado estadounidense. 

Sigue a @MATS

Sigue a @byfernandoh

When sisters Mafe and Coco Cabezas moved to the United States from Venezuela, they missed many foods, but one stood out more than others: arepas. Arepas are a staple in Venezuela. They're corn dough cakes that can be filled with anything from meats to vegetables. The sisters went from eating homemade arepas every single day in Venezuela to not having the time to make them, nor the calorie balance to allow a daily dose of arepas in the United States. In the middle of the pandemic, Mafe and Coco decided to launch Toast-It, a line of healthier, ready-to-eat versions of Latin American foods, like arepas made with cassava flour. Today, the products are available in more than 1,800 stores, including Publix and Walmart. Mafe joins Bísness School to explain why the sisters left prolific corporate jobs to launch an arepa company, how they got their products into Publix stores and how they balance parenthood with entrepreneurship.  

When Martin Cabrera’s high school teacher asked Martin what the difference between a stock and a bond was, Martin proudly raised his hand and explained that a bond something between a man and a woman. He would later learn the definition his high school economics teacher was looking for and use it to launch Cabrera Capital Markets, one of the biggest Hispanic-owned financial firms in the country. The Chicago native joins Bísness School today to explain how an unexpected fax convinced him to start a business, how losing a parent shaped his career path and how he went from growing up in what one education secretary called the worst school system in the United States to trading $2 billion a day in securities and being named the business of the year in Chicago by Negocios Now.
 

Learn more about Cabrera Capital here.

Follow host Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.

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RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE: Siete Foods: The company PepsiCo acquired for $1.2 billion

One of Mexico's most versatile sauces may not be salsa verde or roja, but rather, chamoy. It's a blend of dehydrated fruit with chili powder, salt, sugar and citrus. It's an ingredient that can go on everything from a mango to a margarita. But one of the ingredients in chamoy is exactly what made it impossible for Annie Leal's dad to eat it after he was diagnosed with diabetes. That's why Annie decided to make I Love Chamoy, a sugar-free version of the popular Mexican candy sauce that her dad could eat. What started as a passion project is now a full-fledged business that generated $4 million in sales in 2023. Annie joins Bísness School to  explain why her family had to flee Mexico, what she did after she lost weeks' worth of bottle production and why she said no to being on Shark Tank Mexico. 

Follow I Love Chamoy at @shopilovechamoy.

Follow host Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.

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RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE: Casalú: The perfect recipe for a Latino hard seltzer

BIG NEWS: We are nominated for a Signal Award! Bísness School is a finalist in the Business People and Entrepreneurs Shaping Culture category, and now we just need your help to win. You can vote for us here: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#/2024/shows/general/business-people-entrepreneurs-shaping-culture

On today's episode, we're bringing you the story of PepsiCo's latest $1.2 billion acquisition: Siete Foods. They’re been called the fastest-growing Hispanic food brand in the United States, but it wasn’t always that way. Siete Foods is a Mexican American gluten-free food brand that was started by a family in Laredo, Texas. They have products like Fresas con Crema Grain-Free Cookies, Chicken Fajita Seasoning and Lime Grain-Free Tortilla Chips, but it all started with an almond flour tortilla Veronica Garza sold at her family's CrossFit gym after she was diagnosed with several autoimmune disorders. Siblings Veronica Garza and Miguel Garza, or Mike, join Bísness School to explain how they got their product into Whole Foods, what they did to get actor and entrepreneur Eva Longoria as an investor and why they call themselves a Mexican American food brand, and not Mexican.

Note: This interview was recorded before the acquisition by PepsiCo was announced in October 2024.

Follow Siete Foods at @sietefoods.
Follow host Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.
 

You’ve seen the headlines. "All-star third baseman Jose Ramirez agrees to 5-year, $124M extension with Cleveland." Behind those deals is a lesser known negotiator trying to craft the best possible deal for a baseball player: the agent. Rafa Nieves is one of them, founding sports agency Republik Sports in 2020. His agency is responsible for that headline you read seconds ago and represents players like Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez and the Yankees’ Luis Gil. Rafa joins Bísness School to tell us how he went from pro baseball player to professional agent, what he learned from being a nightclub promoter in Miami, what he wrote in the cold email that got him first job and the unexpected role the MTV Video Music Awards played in his career.

Follow @republiksports

Follow @byfernandoh

When Julissa Prado was a child, she spent several summers with her grandmother in Mexico — where she learned how to mix natural ingredients, such as lemon, sugar and aloe vera to prepare homemade remedies. She realized she could use other similar ingredients for something she had long struggled with: her curly hair. Frustrated with the lack of products in the United States to reduce frizz and provide long lasting hold for textured hair, Julissa, with the help of her brother Tony, wanted to show Latinas in the United States that having the perfect curls didn’t mean buying products heavy on sulfate, silicones or parabens. The siblings decided to create an all-natural one. Today, Rizos Curls is the first Latina-owned curly hair care brand available at all Ulta Beauty stores nationwide and the brand singer Chapell Roan uses to make her curls shine on stage. Julissa Prado joins Bísness School to tell us why it took her four years to find the perfect formula for Rizos Curls, how a natural disaster gave her the impulse to start the company, and what happened after Rizos Curls launched a collaboration with Mexican actress and singer Thalía.

Bísness School is coming back for another season! Hear from the Latino entrepreneurs behind companies like Rizos Curls, Siete Foods and I Love Chamoy. New episodes start Sept. 10.