Big player expands in Latin market with help from startup exit

In an industry, event planning services, that has been turned upside down by Covid-19, Kim Gamez is happy to have an exit. After Mi Padrino shrank during the pandemic, the startup didn't have the exponential exit she and her investors had hoped for; nevertheless, there was one that was quite good. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The company's value was in its large Latino user base, social media followings, and trusted reputation.

In 2015, when Gamez and her husband were invited to be padrinos for their niece's quinceañera, they were thrilled. In Latin America, padrinos sponsor different aspects of a celebration, including dress, venue, music, and cake.

Quinceañeras celebrate a girl's 15th birthday and the transition from childhood to adulthood. "It's not done because of a family's financial situation, but because the community honors the person being celebrated," Gamez said.

A padrino can also take care of organizing gifts, which was the case for Gamez. "It's a beautiful part of [her husband's] Mexican culture, but I hated the process. Back then, there was nothing to organize the process.

Gamez saw a hole in the market that it could fill by organizing the process of sending gifts online. PayPal, Venmo, and Facebook could be used to give cash gifts, so she focused elsewhere.

There was an untapped opportunity to connect gift givers to gift makers. She used a dropship model that allowed wholesalers and artists to sell their wares without going through distributors. Sellers were responsible for fulfilling orders. I first wrote about Mi Padrino and its business model in 2019.

Later, Mi Padrino allowed vendors such as DJs, musicians, photographers, and venues, among others, to advertise their services.

Mi Padrino grew from 50,000 users in the first year to millions of users before the pandemic. He was also significantly followed on social media.

When the pandemic hit, events stopped. The company has pivoted.

One of the manufacturers of Mi Padrino has started making masks. Mi Padrino facilitated their purchase by schools and health systems at no cost. Later, he created a website to sell masks to earn money. The masks helped sustain them through the summer of 2020, and then everyone got into the mask game.

In the winter of 2021, Gamez laid off 17 of its 20 employees. However, she knew she had something valuable for any company that wanted to enter the Latin American market. "Mi Padrino was considered a mark of trust," she said. "We had millions of users and a huge following on social media."

Gamez was featured at Queenly, a formal wear market for women of all ages and sizes. Andreessen Horowitz is one of its investors. "It's [Mi Padrino] that suits them perfectly," Gamez said. "And it was a good time for us".

"It wasn't the release that everyone wanted, but it was a release," Gamez said. Mi Padrino's investors included Astia Angels, Chloe Capital, Invest in Detroit, Invest in Michigan, Portfolia and Texas HALO.

During the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, Gamez solidified her reputation as a thought leader and made it into a digital marketing manager position at David's Bridal. She started as a consultant and impressed them with her ideas on how to generate organic traffic.

Gamez also leverages her startup experience as an entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Michigan and Michigan State. His advice to startup founders raising money during the current venture capital crisis:

Focus: "Don't boil the ocean," she said. Mi Padrino did not use standard software. Instead, he built different systems for the three lines of business and had to maintain them all. It was a lot for a small team. Develop more slowly: Find out what customers want rather than relying on assumptions. Even though they are built using Excel spreadsheets, test the concepts. The proof is in the pudding: Before raising venture capital, show that the business can generate revenue.

What lessons have you learned navigating through the pandemic?