Entrepreneurs enter Mission EDC’s ‘Shark Tank’ competition for $25K top prize

MISSION — Petronilo “Petro” Vázquez took the stage at the Mission Economic Development Corporation’s Small Business Expo on Wednesday with a story.

About three years ago, Vázquez said, he started thinking about the little cafe his church runs.

The church, strapped for money, was spending too much money on coffee beans.

Vázquez, a math teacher at La Joya Independent School District with a passion for coffee, figured he could buy unroasted beans on the cheap in Mexico, roast them himself, and save the church some money while doing something he was passionate about.

Within a year, Vázquez realized his hobby had business potential: a brand that capitalizes on low-cost coffee beans from Mexico that are relatively unknown to American consumers. The business model would be built around partnerships with those coffee farmers and churches with in-house coffee shops.

That idea eventually became Bonampak Coffee Roasters.

Vázquez buys the beans in Mexico himself, roasts them a pound and a half at a time with a small electric roaster in his garage, and sells them through a website launched this year. 

“I have boxes and boxes everywhere in my house,” he said. “My house is like a warehouse already. My wife is like, ‘Oh, after Wednesday you’re gonna clean all this.’”

Bonampak, Vázquez thinks, could really grow with a cash infusion that would let him buy a larger roaster and scale his business significantly.

On Wednesday, Vázquez was at the expo looking to get that money.

He and other local small business owners pitched a panel of judges in the Ruby Red Ventures Pitch Competition, a Shark Tank-style showdown between local businesses competing for three levels of cash prizes — the largest of them $25,000.

The competition was a grand finale of sorts for the Mission EDC’s inaugural expo, which featured other speakers earlier in the day.

People milled about between booths set up by local businesses and other entities, chatting and networking while the competitors pitched their businesses to the judges.

Vázquez and the other business owners shared a lot: big dreams, usually a scrappy startup story, and often just a little pinch of nerves, rushing through their presentations at quick clip.

Other than that, the competing businesses were about as varied as could be. Among them, an AI business consulting firm, a few food and beverage ventures, and a trauma therapy business.

In the end, things didn’t go Vázquez’s way Wednesday.

The grand prize went to Elizabeth Davis and her pecan-based food business, Nuts and Cows.

Joshua Howard with HopHire and Cassandra Aguillon with Evermore Digital took home the competition’s other prizes.

Not taking home a cash prize wasn’t a big concern for Vázquez.

“This is winning for me already,” he said while a line queued up at Bonampak’s booth to try some coffee. “Being here is a win. I’m making a lot of connections. I feel like I’m a pro in business — which I’m not.”

Learning a bit about business and networking were priorities for others at the expo as well, among them Jonathan Torres, a Sharyland ISD career and technical education teacher whose students are essentially rolling out what’s essentially a school-based marketing agency that will do graphic design and ad work.

The goal, Torres said, is for his students to partner up with local businesses and do actual work.

Wednesday’s expo, he said, served as an opportunity to make those connections.

“So many business cards,” Torres said. “So that’s great, we’re gonna have to email everybody.”