SAN ANTONIO \u2013 SA Startup + Tech Week is shining a spotlight on small business success stories this week, and few are as compelling as Sandra Velasquez\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Velasquez is the founder and CEO of Nopalera, a modern Mexican beauty and lifestyle brand built around the nopal cactus. She says the brand offers a full line of bath and body products, including shower gels, body scrubs, creams and fragrances, all rooted in Mexican botanical ingredients.<\/p>\n
She launched the company in November 2020 from her Brooklyn apartment, with no outside funding, no savings and no business background. She was working three jobs and raising her daughter at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were just no premium Latina beauty brands,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cIf you look at food and beverage \u2014 plenty of tequilas, plenty of salsas \u2014 but in beauty, there were just no Latina premium beauty brands. And so to me, it was a massive gap, an opportunity to speak to today\u2019s consumer, which is me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That first year, Nopalera brought in $600,000 in sales. The brand has since grown to $2 million, then $4 million, and is on track to close this year at around $7 million in revenue. It is now carried in Nordstrom, Kohl\u2019s, Credo Beauty and more than 400 boutiques nationwide, and is sold in four countries.<\/p>\n
Before launching Nopalera, Velasquez spent 15 years as the lead singer of the Latin alternative band Pistolera, which toured internationally and had its music featured on \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d and \u201cSons of Anarchy.\u201d She says the music industry prepared her for entrepreneurship in ways she didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat music taught me is resilience \u2014 because it\u2019s one rejection after the other,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cYou have to be able to deal with rejection. And I think most people give up because they can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January 2023, Velasquez appeared on Season 14 of ABC\u2019s \u201cShark Tank,\u201d where she received two offers \u2014 one from Kevin O\u2019Leary and one from Kind Bar founder Daniel Lubetzky. She turned both down, saying the equity stakes were too high.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy ancestors are whispering in my ear,\u201d she said on the show, \u201cand they\u2019re saying, \u2018mija, no te desprecias.\u2019 Don\u2019t undervalue yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the episode aired, she raised $4 million in a Series A round \u2014 a quarter of which came from San Antonio investors. She moved to the city just over a year ago and says the support she found here was unlike anything she experienced during her 26 years in New York City.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in the middle of a Series A raise when I moved here, and a quarter of that money came from San Antonio,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cSo that just goes to show you the amount of people that are excited to support small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Velasquez was a keynote speaker Tuesday at Texas Public Radio as part of SA Startup + Tech Week. She said the city\u2019s small business ecosystem is something entrepreneurs elsewhere simply don\u2019t have access to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat San Antonio has here in terms of supporting small businesses is very unique,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd everyone that has an idea or a desire to start a small business should take full advantage of all of the resources that exist.\u201d<\/p>\n