Bísness School

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.

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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.

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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.

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What do music mogul Emilio Estefan, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and Oscar Muñoz, the first Latino CEO of United Airlines, have in common? They’ve all done business with Gary Acosta, a man who Hispanic Business Magazine has named as one of 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States. Gary Acosta has been on a 20-plus year mission to increase Hispanic homeownership. In 2001, he co-founded the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals or NAHREP. Today, NAHREP is one of the largest Hispanic business organizations in the country with more than 40,000 members and 100 local chapters. Since co-founding NAHREP, the businessman has launched the Hispanic Wealth Project, which aims to boost the economic status of Latinos, and L’ATTITUDE, his most ambitious project to date, which aims to be SXSW for Latinos. In our last season one episode of Bísness School, Gary tells us what he learned from playing D3 college basketball under Gregg Poppovich, the many ways the financial crisis of 2008 crushed his organization overnight and then supercharged it, and why he and his co-founder call Latinos the “new mainstream economy.”

We'll be back with new episodes this fall. Go back to our feed and listen to previous episodes in the meantime, and above all, enjoy your summer break from Bísness School!

Follow NAHREP at https://www.instagram.com/nahrep/.

Follow L'ATTITUDE at https://www.instagram.com/lattitudeevent

Follow Fernando Hurtado at https://www.instagram.com/byfernandoh

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When companies like Honda want to launch a new pickup truck, and they want that vehicle to do well with Hispanic consumers, they don’t just go with their gut feeling to figure out what that consumer wants. Instead, they hire a market research firm to tell them what that consumer wants. Yet 20 years ago, market research firms couldn’t really tell you. They could tell you what general American consumers wanted, but not Hispanic Americans wanted. Mario Carrasco built the largest online Hispanic research panel companies could use to tune into this segment’s needs. But he didn’t stop there. Convinced that the future of the United States wasn’t Hispanic, but rather, multicultural, Mario and his co-founder Roy created ThinkNow, a multicultural market research firm with clients like Honda and Google and more than 50 employees across four countries. Mario joins Bísness School to explain how he went from a high school English teacher to a pedigreed marketing professional, how he started his company with a 500-dollar prepaid debit card and what ThinkNow has taught him about American consumers and the future of the country.

This episode was produced by Fernando Hurtado and edited by James Jeffrey.

Follow ThinkNow at http://www.instagram.com/thinknowglobal.

Follow Fernando Hurtado at http://instagram.com/byfernandoh.

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When you go to an urgent care or emergency room, chances are you’ll have to wait an hour or so to be seen. Then you get screened by a general practitioner who has to know a little bit of everything, only to find out you have a broken hand. The doctor gives you an ice pack, anti-inflammatory meds and refers you to an orthopedist for specialized care who you have to wait a few days to see. Oh, and you’re out $200 for your visit. After spending more than 13 years as an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Alejandro Badía was tired of seeing this: Patients who came to see him frustrated financially and mentally. That’s why in 2012, the hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder specialist decided to start OrthoNOW, a full-service walk-in urgent care, in Florida. Dr. Alejandro Badia joins Bísness School to tell us how cystic acne led him to becoming an orthopedic surgeon, why his first business was a colossal failure, why he decided to make a mobile app a central part of his new model for orthopedic urgent cares and he tells us why he thinks doctors make bad business people. Plus, he answers questions from small business around the country.

This episode was produced by Fernando Hurtado and edited by James Jeffrey.

Follow OrthoNOW at https://www.instagram.com/orthonow.

Follow Fernando Hurtado at http://instagram.com/byfernandoh.

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When Miguel Leal was in college, he had the chance to live with his grandma, and it was precisely at her kitchen where he learned how to make Mexican recipes. But as he grew older, he realized that a lot of people who loved Mexican food, especially in the U.S, didn't have an abuela that could teach them how to make these recipes. Miguel wanted to change that. He wanted to show Americans that Mexican food at home was more than hardshell tacos and greasy dishes, so he and his co-founders Daniel Lubetzky and Rodrigo Zuloaga, started SOMOS Foods, a brand of ready-to-eat non-GMO and gluten-free Mexican products. Today, the company makes the number one salsa brand at Whole Foods, according to SOMOS Foods, and it’s available in more than 9,000 retail locations across the country. Miguel Leal joins Bísness School to tell us why he decided to sell a company that was generating $100 million in sales, how being a marketing executive for the salsa brand Cholula shaped SOMOS Foods, and how years working at KIND Healthy Snacks, the company behind the popular snack bars, prepared him to launch a new business directed to third generation Hispanics in the U.S.

This episode was produced and edited by Miguel Estrada.

Follow SOMOS Foods at @eatsomos.

Follow Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.

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When Pedro A. Guerrero entered corporate America, there was one national magazine covering Latinos in business, Hispanic Business. Yet at the time, 1 in 10 people in the U.S. was Hispanic, and the number was growing rapidly. Pedro Guerrero, once a frustrated art school graduate, wanted to make sure there was more than just one magazine for the community. He wanted to create a magazine that would highlight the stories of Latinos in powerful positions across some of the United States’ biggest companies. Today, Hispanic Executive is far more than a magazine. It boasts interviews with some of the country’s biggest changemakers, from Jessica Alba to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Barack Obama Julián Castro. And Hispanic Executive is just one of the lines of business under Guerrero's larger namesake company.

This episode was produced by Fernando Hurtado and Miguel Estrada. It was edited by James Jeffrey.

Follow Hispanic Executive at @hispanicexecmag.

Follow Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.

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What do you do after you lose your job, you’re $110,000 in debt, are raising a daughter, and you need to make ends meet fast? For San Diego-native Sandra Velasquez, the answer was starting Nopalera, a luxury brand of bath and body products using the nopal cactus. Nopalera is sold at over 400 retailers, including Nordstrom and Free People. Sandra Velasquez joins Bísness School to tell us why she launched a soap company when she herself is not obsessed with soaps, how she managed to build her business off of credit cards and how rejecting offers on Shark Tank affected her business. Plus, she answers questions from small businesses around the country.

This episode was produced by Fernando Hurtado and Miguel Estrada and edited by James Jeffrey.

Follow Nopalera at @nopalera.co.

Follow Sandra Velasquez at @officialslv.

Follow Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.

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Growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, Ricardo Cervantes and Alfredo Livas were used to the smell of pan dulce, or sweet bread, enveloping block after block. When Ricardo and Alfredo moved to the California for graduate school, they realized Mexican panaderías weren't as uniquitous as they were in Mexico. That wasn't necessarily surprising, but what was surprising was the difference in taste. Armed with a business degree from Stanford, Ricardo and Alfredo set out to create a chain of Mexican bakeries that celebrated Mexican sweet flavors—and created new ones—with La Monarca Bakery and Cafe. Today, the Los Angeles-based company has 12 locations and sells its coffee and cookies in Costco stores all over the Southwest. Ricardo joins Bísness School to explain why people told him it was a bad idea to make a bakery for Latinos and why he wants La Monarca to be a business that does well and good for the community.

This episode was produced and edited by Fernando Hurtado.

Follow La Monarca Bakery and Café @lamonarcabakery.

Follow Fernando Hurtado at @byfernandoh.

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