Today we’d like to introduce you to Alejandra and Mabel Aguirre.
Hi Alejandra and Mabel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We both ended our careers on the same day in 2018 with no clear vision of what our next step was going to be. After returning from a trip home to Mexico to reset, one of our friends here showed us these beautiful earrings that she was trying to sell. Since neither of us technically had jobs anymore, we offered to help. And slowly, that kind of snowballed into helping our friend sell more and more, and she started to build something more concrete as far as a business. Our friend was fully on board because, while she had some language barriers and was older, she had the longing to grow, and so we bridged a lot of that gap in terms of technology and marketing. That turned into helping someone else and another person after that, which eventually evolved into the marketplace that Cadena Collective is today. Ever since then, it’s been a vessel for these beautiful pieces that are handmade in unexpected places.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We don’t have a blueprint. We are first-generation immigrants ourselves, and so a lot of what was ingrained in us was to work hard, and then you’ll see the fruits of that labor. But building a brand has been something that we haven’t seen in our family. We are building block by block and learning as we go, so that has been one of the biggest challenges. Our second biggest challenge is the capital. That’s where winning #WeAllGrow and Capital One Business’s Amigas In Business Dallas Pitch Competition supports our growth and essentially is our lifeline to catapult our business into doing more for ourselves and for the business.
Our long-term plan is to grow into a physical space, but the initial investment of our grant funding will go towards inventory and bringing new brands into the marketplace. Winning the grant money opened up such a big opportunity, so we asked ourselves, “How can we maximize this? How can we be strategic with that space once we get there?” That’s what we mean by saying the grant is a lifeline—it really is helping us secure a long-term investment.
We’ve been impressed with Cadena Collective, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cadena Collective is a love letter to our bicultural experiences. It’s been the North Star of every decision we make, from who we carry to how we curate these pieces, so everything that you see, there’s a reason for why it’s on our website.
A lot of people expect high-end pieces to come from certain parts of the world, but as we all know, Mexico and other Latin American countries have a wealth of richness in gastronomy, textiles, and so on. So, while it started in our backyard, so to speak, it’s starting to seep into Mexico and now a few other countries. A lot of times, people can’t necessarily travel, or they want these pieces but don’t necessarily have access or don’t know how to do it in an ethical manner. Our sole purpose is to be a bridge for those pieces.
We also really try to create a space where we can share all of this success with the brands we work with. They grow, and then we grow, and then they end up doing other marketplaces or other boutiques, and we feel that there’s a sense of pride that we get to play a small role in that. We’re really helping to develop a lot of these brands that are joining our collective.
We also want to stress that this isn’t something that we’re just doing on the side for fun. If it was, we probably wouldn’t be doing it because it’s not that fun all the time. It’s actually very difficult. It’s a real business. It’s thriving. We have a proof of concept because our main demographic is Latinas, and to build a space that celebrates originating communities and Latin American communities and to then see them support the space we filled is amazing. So, it is a thriving, growing brand and business. It’s not just a hobby.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
We often say when we have meetings just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Even if something is beautiful or a brand appeals to us, we take a lot of pride in digging a little deeper and learning a little bit more about the companies that we come across. What’s really important to us is pushing back a little bit on that narrative of that if it’s made in Mexico, it’s cheap, or the labor is cheap. We’re focused on breaking that glass ceiling, so to speak, and it’s really important to us that, as we do it, we do it in an ethical manner.
As we grow and we navigate this world, it’s important that we’re bringing everyone with us and everyone is achieving whatever goal they have. By doing right by the brands and the artists that we work with, we’re doing right by our customers. If the customer is choosing to invest in one of our pieces, we can go to sleep at night knowing that the artists got paid fairly, we’ll get to pay our bills, and ultimately, this person will get to wear this piece, and they’ll have it for a lifetime. So, it’s a bit of a long answer, but one of the most important things to us is ethics, which is not necessarily always easy.
Contact Info:
Website: https://www.cadenacollective.com/
