How they went from almost closing to 8 figure business. Founder story

Hello everybody. Welcome to my founder story series here on YouTube. As you might know, I'm still here in Miami. And on the past episode which I recorded yesterday, my friend Michael invited me to meet his co founder Andy. And right now he told me, Kate, why don't we do. My sister in law, she has a restaurant with her mom and I would love to do that. So we're here. We are waiting for them to arrive. They don't know we're coming. So we're gonna catch them while they arrive. We're gonna be recording. Michael is texting them. We're waiting for them at what time they're gonna be here. So as soon as they arrive, we're gonna run and I'm gonna interview them. They don't know me, I don't know them. And then hopefully they say yes to the founder story. They have a restaurant and maybe we'll try something good. They just sent a message to Michael and they said they're parking in. They're gonna be like, what the heck is going on?

Hi.

Are you the business owners?

Yes.

So Michael, you're. Hi. Michael told me to come here and do an interview with you. I do social media and I help entrepreneurs and business owners. Gener social media and I would love to do a free video for you.

Awesome.

Yeah. Okay. Amazing. So can you just tell me a little bit more about your business?

We opened in 2014, so it's been 11 years. We moved here about four years ago to this location. We were in a smaller spot that had never worked at a restaurant before, but started out small and see how it went. And it went well.

I'm proud of you. So like show me around. So tell me a little bit more about the restaurant.

Well, the, the restaurant was a Cuban restaurant before.

Okay.

And they, they were on the out and the space was empty. And I think it's on a great location.

What is the name of the restaurant?

Amari Mix.

And what is the vision behind it? What kind of food do you guys sell?

We.

Well, initially we were doing a little bit more of a. We had some Mexican food, but we do. We were doing a little bit more like American. So that kind of. That's how we like it was a play on words. American Mix is kind of nobody knows.

Show me a little bit more about like the restaurant.

Everything you do you want to come over here? So she's the coffee expert. We do like espresso martinis with colada.

I don't know much about coffee because I don't drink them that often.

It's basically espresso, but, you know, with Cuban coffee instead.

Oh, wow.

That's delicious.

So good. This is good coffee.

It's sweet, but it's strong.

There is, like, coffee that you put with ice cream. Do you guys do that?

Yeah, we do Afogato. So we can. We also make a very popular ice cream here, Horchata ice cream, which is traditionally a Mexican rice drink, of course.

Okay, amazing. So we are being. I'm being chef Kate, and I think we go through.

Oof.

Like, I'm gonna say, like, six batches of this a week. Wow. And now the best part. I've had it a million times, pero. Let's try it again.

Okay, you ready?

Y.

Cheers.

It's pretty good.

It tastes like churro too.

Yeah, we have churros too.

Wow. This is delicious. Okay, I'm taking the whole machine home.

Customers will start a riot.

Just order another one for me to keep at my house. This is delicious. As you can see, the ice cream is really good. I'm almost done, but let's keep continuing with the tour. So tell me a little bit more about your clientele. What is, like, the thing that makes you the most happy when they come here?

Definitely when they like the food and they comment that they've been other places and they, you know, they still like. They prefer coming here. So that really, you know, makes me happy.

I love that.

Lifts you up and makes you keep going.

And just to finish up before we do the founders video, I want for each single one of you to say something. There is a lot of business owners. There is a lot of entrepreneurs or people that are not starting yet or have started. Just give them a word of inspiration. What would you tell them on what you have learned as an entrepreneur?

Do what you love, and I think everything else will come. I always enjoyed cooking. It's something that I always dreamed that I was going to do. And unfortunately, I was unable to go to school, but I made it happen. I started. Start out small with what you can handle and learn as you go. And you find a way if it's

something you love doing and stay organized. That way you know where you're lacking and where you can improve. Improve where you're not doing so great. It's a work in progress. And don't let things get you down because there will be difficult times, but nothing you can't get over.

Amazing. So now let's finish this ice cream. Okay, guys, so they are going to be cooking breakfast brunch for me. So let's Come in the back and see what they're gonna be doing. This is raw and real. Guys, we don't know what we're doing. So what do we have here?

We have onion. We have our fresh made salsa and fresh made guac that we make in house.

Delic.

We got the garlic.

Thank you. Muchas gracias.

We top it off with a little bit of sour cream.

Yummy.

Crema un poquito de cilantro. Little sprinkle. Ready to go. Oh, my goodness.

Thank you. Okay, I cannot wait to try it. So, ladies, I just want to say thank you for cooking for me. I. I appreciate that and I always appreciate food. So I just want to pray for you, Father, in the name of Jesus. I just want to pray for this beautiful business, Lord. I pray that you bless it in the name of Jesus every single day. They don't have anything missing. That you always provide, that you always give them what they need, and that their hearts are always filled with your love. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you, ladies. I bless you and thank you for your. I'm going to enjoy.

Messy, delicious. Mexican food is messy, but it's worth it.

Okay, where are my mics? Okay, ladies, so everything you're gonna be safe from now on is gonna be recorded. Say hi, ladies.

Hello.

Hi. Okay, ladies, are you ready? Okay, so today Kate is gonna be your best friend and you're gonna talk to me like if you were telling me all your life story. Okay, so we are going to start and you're going to say, I am X, Y and Z. I am X, Y and Z. We are the owners of. And this is our founder story.

I'm Vanessa Perez and we are the

owners of Amari Mix.

And this is our founder story.

Don't move this way. Move this way. Exactly. Because you're leaving the camera. Show a little bit of happiness and cube and reciprocity. I don't know. Okay, ready? So, ladies, what did you think about the experience today? Awesome.

It was a great experience. Thank you for coming and thank you

for coming and visiting us. It was a lot of fun having you here. Thank you for your smile.

I do smile. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you for helping us grow our business.

Of course. So can you tell us just a little bit more about the location so people, when they see this video, they can come visit and support you?

The full address would be 13349 Southwest 42nd Street, Miami, Florida. Of course.

Amazing. Yeah. It was such a pleasure. Thank you, Michael, for inviting me and getting to know your beautiful family. It's such a pleasure, and I will be back. So whenever I'm here in Miami, I'm definitely going to come to the restaurant. If you guys would like to be part of this series, you can apply to kviol.com or you can just DM me with the word entrepreneur to my Instagram or business. And just stay tuned for their founder story.

I am Mariela Reyes.

I'm Vanessa Perez, and we are the owners of Amati Mix, and this is our founder story.

I started this business because I love Mexican food and there wasn't a lot of options.

We opened amari Mace about 11 years ago. We've come a long way.

We opened with about $40,000 of my savings. It was just her in the front and me in the back in the kitchen. After we finished, we had to go and clean the restaurant by ourselves. So that was. That was hard.

You know, we.

We argue, but I think that comes with running a business and being a mother in town.

We're not always on the same page on some things, but it ends up working.

It takes a lot, especially being a single mom of two kids, to do what she did. And whether it was scary or not, she accomplished it.

We did run through my savings, and I got a little. Then Covid came along. We were back to square one. But people found us through Uber Eats,

and that helped us transition to this location.

Here, we treat you like family, we make food with love, and we can't wait for you to be part of our family.