Who or what is your inspiration in business?

My inspiration comes from my wife Sofia and her Salvadoran family’s history in coffee farming. When we talked about starting a business, she envisioned opening a café to honor that heritage. I encouraged us to think bigger and outside the box, which led us to create SOJO Coffee as a ready-to-drink brand. Together we turned a traditional idea into a modern way to share Salvadoran coffee and culture with a wider audience.

How do you stay motivated?

I stay motivated by our roots and the bigger vision behind SOJO Coffee. While the company highlights my wife’s Salvadoran heritage in coffee, I’m Mexican, and together we see this as an opportunity to represent the richness of all Latin American coffee culture. Our goal is bigger than selling coffee—it’s about creating pride, opportunity, and visibility for Latin American communities through entrepreneurship.

What would you do with the $25,000?

The $25,000 would allow us to complete a larger co-packing pilot run of SOJO Coffee’s ready-to-drink cold brew using Salvadoran beans. This production step is critical to moving from small batches to retail-ready scale. It would fund manufacturing, packaging, and initial distribution so we can launch beyond our immediate community and begin placing SOJO Coffee on grocery store shelves.