Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriana Montoya
Hi Adriana, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started making treats in November of 2022 but didn’t actually do my first pop up until January of 2023. While growing my business I would drive with my two year old in the back seat for Amazon flex and instacart to cover my bills. After two months of consistently posting on TikTok I got my first viral video in March of 2022 that reached over 4million views and bringing me 1200 orders in a span of two days. Everyone was loving the concept and their dogs were loving the treats and cakes. In august of 2022 I received my first interview that opened more doors for me and even got my on the radio with Ryan Seacrest, someone I grew up watching and listening too. In October of 2022 I was featured on the local news in celebration of Hispanic heritage month. And in January of 2024 I was on another radio show with Piolin, a Hispanic radio host that highlighted my business to his listeners. All of this lead to me signing a lease for a storefront in February of 2024 after outgrowing my home kitchen and now become the first Pawnaderia to open a brick and mortar in the US
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road. Even up until now, it’s always up and down as with any business. But I always find ways to manage. When I first started, getting a business off the ground is hard especially being a full time single parent. I was driving a lot trying to make ends meet and was feeling horrible that my daughter was spending all that time in her car seat. One night I gave in, I began applying for 9-5 jobs so I can get my daughter into a daycare. I uploaded a video to tiktok as I was doing on a consistent bases, put my phone down and began applying. The next morning i woke up to my phone blowing up and I said to myself “who keeps calling me this early “ just for me to find out my video from last night was trending on tiktok and all the buzzing was orders coming in.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a Mexican inspired dog bakery. Specializing in pan Dulce for dogs. We make everything from pan dulce to churros, flan, mazapan, churro cheese cake, rosca, pan de muerto, payaso Palletas, cortadillo, gansitos! We also offer dog safe cakes for any occasion
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I recently took a huge risk this year signing a lease to open up my first brick and mortar, after doing my numbers thinking it would take a certain amount of time and money to get it open I ended up getting a reality check when the numbers in my head tripled. What I was calculating would take 2-3 months to get the store operating turned into 9 months of getting permits, plans, and construction done. This entire year I’ve been paying rent into a building I’m not occupying but I know once I get it open it will become one of the biggest hot spots in the dog community
Pricing:
- Dog Cakes start at $25
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lapawnaderia.store/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la_pawnaderia?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Image Credits
Janette V.
Chorizo con Bollio
