How to make a snack more than just a snack? Karla Alva and Carolina Arroyo met in college and a conversation in the school cafeteria encouraged them to start a business that seeks to promote youth work in Mexico.
Maix Pak’ik It is a puffed corn snack of different flavors, but it is not only that, as Kara and Carolina mentioned at the beginning, they want to encourage young Mexicans to have their first job or source of income.
“We have several lines of income, we sell directly to customers through our website and social networks, we also sell to points of sale, businesses that want to integrate some other product into their offer and our value proposal It focuses on the model of leading ambassadors, who are kids to whom we offer the product so that they can sell it in their cities and can obtain an income from it,” explained Karla Alva in an interview.
Maíx Pak’ik: spread seeds on a field
Being university students, both entrepreneurs detected how to apply what they were learning within their educational institution “in real life” and in addition to selling the product to other children, they also offer training to their collaborators with the aim of helping them grow.
“We want to give them those tools that sometimes they don’t teach you or that sometimes they give you in theory, but in practice they are something different, so we give you a product so you can start selling, but we also offer you what you need in tools so that you can really apply them and that they benefit you both in the sale of the product and in your personal and professional skills in the world of work or in the projects you want to undertake”, says Karla.
In this way, Karla and Caro seek to honor the name of their enterprise and spread seeds in a field so that they germinate and bear their own fruits.
“To be very honest, we had to add [la palabra pak’ik] at the time of registering the trademark, but we wanted something that was significant… We were searching and searching until we found it and we really liked its meaning, which is to sow in Mayan” says Carolina.
From a college talk to a tank full of sharks
Maix Pak’ik It was born from a conversation between two students, one from the Business Administration of Communication and Entertainment and the other from the Bachelor of Finance and Banking, in addition to an initial investment of 11,200 pesos and a great desire to start a project that they liked.
This undertaking has reached sales of around 450 thousand Mexican pesos and was also the cause of a dispute between sharks.
Karla and Carolina arrived at Shark Tank Mexico that airs every Friday at 10:30 PM on Canal Sony, asking for 400 thousand pesos for a 35% stake with the option to repurchase 15% depending on the results within a maximum period of 18 months.
So much Marcus Dantus What Marisa Lazo They were interested in investing in this project, which generated a heated discussion because it was the final decision of the entrepreneurs, who finally opted for Marisa.
Nothing to lose
Although their focus is young people, Carolina, 21, and Karla, 23, they do not deny that they have received requests from any age to be ambassadors and start selling this snack. Even so, they have a piece of advice for those who, like them, are finishing university or are still in high school:
“There is absolutely nothing to loseI think right now we are at a perfect age to make mistakes, water it down and learn from it and start over, I think the only barrier that can stop us is fear, but I always say that we should not feed the fear that stops us, if not that fear that drives us… Do it with fear, that will help you venture to take little experience and remember: NOT EVERYTHING IS DONE FROM ONE DAY TO THE ANOTHER”, concludes Caro.
Mary Arcia Communicologist and Master in Narrative and Audiovisual Production graduated from the Universidad Panamericana. “I like to tell stories” is a phrase I say very often. Person with strong convictions of a better world, reader.
