The entrepreneurs who conquered Shark Tank Mexico with a typical Yucatan dessert

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What kind of souvenir do you like to collect from your travels? They can be from small objects to sweets. Every time Israel González traveled to Mérida, Yucatán for business, his son asked him to please bring the famous Yucatecan dessert called marquesitas to Mexico City. However, achieving this was an almost impossible task as the product can be “easily destroyed”.

But, the solution would come to his hands when at the airport in that city he found SmartKesitas , a basket with ball cheese and different toppings , ready and safe to carry.

“Arriving at the airport was when I saw Luis’s product, so I already brought it [the marquesitas] to my son, and he was fascinated and he was the one who proposed to ask Luis for a franchise,” explains the SmartKesitas partner.

What is a marquesita?

It is a typical dessert of Yucatan, which is a basket filled with ball cheese and that currently can be added different ingredients, such as chocolate toppings, caramel, condensed milk or milk, among others.

“A marquesita is a basket, delicious, sweet, vanilla and coconut flavor, which has a ball cheese filling, they started with ice cream cones, but when it was cold their creator decided to heat them and fill them with this cheese … points of sale, you can now put toppings , milk, Nutella, cajeta, Hershey’s, chocolate and that is a wonderful combination between sweet and salty ”, explains Luis Sosa, founder of SmartKesitas.

I solved a problem

SmarKesitas is a brand of marquesitas ready to go or ready to go that has the objective that each person who visits Mérida, Yucatán, can transport this typical dessert, without problems and without fear of breaking or fracture, to any part of the world.

“Before starting with this product I had the opportunity to have a resource management company and another one for mixed martial arts shows and in this way we identified the need of many people who came to the city of Mérida, Yucatán and there was no possibility to take a marquesita, it was impossible, so we took on the task of developing a formula, which allows you to take the dessert to any part of the world and make it crunchy, that is the area of opportunity, which is why this project ”, says Luis.

These entrepreneurs began operations in 2018 with income of 450 thousand pesos, in 2019 for 750 thousand and despite the pandemic in 2020 they achieved income of almost 600 thousand pesos with 30% of net profit.

^{Luis Sosa and Israel González / Image: Courtesy of Shark Tank México.}

What shark did they conquer?

Israel and Luis arrived at Shark Tank México , which is broadcast on Canal Sony , with a fairly traditional pitch in which they recited their numbers, prepared a marquesita and presented their offer to the rhythm of a typical Yucatan song.

Entrepreneurs were looking for 77,777 Mexican pesos for a 7% stake in the brand. Although in the end they managed to conquer Marcus Dantus who offered them 100,000 pesos for 15% of the business.

From Yucatan to the world

With this deal, the owners of SmartKesitas will seek to expand in strategic points of the Mexican Republic, with the aim of becoming the souvenir of tourists. In this context, Israel and Luis give us three tips for entrepreneurs:

• Have Faith – Regardless of whether you believe in something, as a higher being, have faith in yourself and the product.

“Have faith in yourself, and that everything you have in your mind you are going to materialize, it is a law, it is a decree, and it is important that you think, affirm and believe that what you have in mind you are going to achieve” .

Surrender totally to the project, trust the project, the idea and let it flow.

Having gratitude brings you closer to the right people and situations.