{"id":319438,"date":"2023-02-06T06:51:32","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T14:51:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=319438"},"modified":"2023-02-03T10:54:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T18:54:15","slug":"business-founded-in-north-park-featured-on-abcs-shark-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/business-founded-in-north-park-featured-on-abcs-shark-tank\/","title":{"rendered":"Business founded in North Park featured on ABC\u2019s \u2018Shark Tank\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sandra Velasquez pitched her Mexican botanical bath and body brand to the famous investors on ABC\u2019s Shark Tank in an episode that aired on Friday, Jan. 20.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old started creating soaps when she found herself unemployed and visiting with her parents in the North Park home she grew up in. While it was scary to be caring for her daughter after her career as a professional musician ended, Velasquez took it as an opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a moment… to really step into my power and to create something bigger than bigger than previous companies that I had worked for. Here was an opportunity for me to actually do it for myself and do it for the community,\u201d Velasquez explained in a phone interview the day after her Shark Tank episode aired.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nopalera body soaps are shaped like the iconic paddles of the nopal cactus. (Photos courtesy Nopalera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like many Mexican families, a nopal cactus stood in her family\u2019s driveway. She said a light bulb came on and she decided to create a high-end beauty brand based around the iconic cactus. The very first soap formulations she tried used pieces from her childhood\u2019s prickly pear cactus that inspired her.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Mexican person grew up with [nopales]. It’s just such a staple of Mexican culture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With no income, she founded Nopalera on her American Express card, starting first by enrolling in formulation school. She took on part-time jobs to pay the rent but still focused on building the company from scratch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of the big decisions that I made in the beginning, about really dreaming big and building the brand that I wanted versus building a brand that I could quote-unquote afford at that time\u2014 because I couldn’t afford to do anything,\u201d Velasquez said.<\/p>\n

The Latina bath brand incorporates the vegetation and scents she grew up with \u2013 sage, tangerine, jasmine, hibiscus, tepezcohuite. Velasquez focuses on using clean ingredients \u2013 no palm oil, synthetic scents or dyes in the vegan offerings.<\/p>\n

The cactus soaps are molded in the shape of the nopal\u2019s iconic paddle. The company\u2019s botanical bars are sold in reusable, recyclable tins rather than in large plastic lotion bottles. The moisturizing exfoliants are sold in glass jars.<\/p>\n

The high-end brand has grown nationally. It is sold in Nordstrom, Credo Beauty, and over 350 independent retailers nationwide. Still, the brand that proudly celebrates Mexican culture receives strong support locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of wholesale accounts, but our number one boutique in the entire country is Art Alexia in North Park, which was even shocking to us because it’s not New York City. It’s not Chicago, it’s not Los Angeles, all these big cities,\u201d Velasquez said, urging people interested in the brand to shop at the independent local boutique.<\/p>\n

It was an eight-month process to apply and be on Shark Tank. Everything needed to be vetted and checked ahead of time. Then, she described being in the tank as \u201cintense.\u201d Unlike when it airs on tv, the stage is dead quiet with no music. The sharks argue with each other so the entrepreneur has to know how to command the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it also just flies by so fast. There’s no clocks anywhere. So I have no idea what time I went into the tank and what time I came out. I have no idea how long I was in there. It really felt like it flew by,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sandra Velasquez inside her parents’ North Park home, making her first formulations of the soap from the family’s cactus in the driveway.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Velasquez turned down the $300,000 deal offered to her, knowing she could find better investors elsewhere. She was right \u2013 since filming the episode in July 2022, she raised $2.7 million on her own.<\/p>\n

Still, Shark Tank gave her an opportunity to reach a much broader audience. The website, nopalera.co, received an unprecedented influx of orders in the night and morning after the episode aired. Velasquez was coordinating with her team and the warehouse the products are made in to fulfill the spike in orders before the Saturday morning phone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope the takeaway is that we always have the decision the power to change our lives,\u201d Velasquez said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sandra Velasquez pitched her Mexican botanical bath and body brand to the famous investors on ABC\u2019s Shark Tank in an episode that aired on Friday, Jan. 20. The 44-year-old started creating soaps when she found herself unemployed and visiting with her parents in the North Park home she grew up in. While it was scary […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":936,"featured_media":319439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"The 44-year-old started creating soaps when she found herself unemployed and visiting with her parents in the North Park home she grew up in.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11550,11555],"tags":[15053,15130,15128,15129,12457],"class_list":["post-319438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news","tag-entrepreneur","tag-investors","tag-latina","tag-shark-tank","tag-small-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/936"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}