Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Andres Cano. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Andres, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Success is a personal concept, and its definition varies from person to person. Generally, it involves achieving goals that are meaningful and fulfilling to an individual. As I look at success I look at it from my own growth mindset. How has my accomplishments, interactions, impacts, and trajectory made a difference throughout out my span on this earth. My parents have always been at the center of my life; they made the difficult decision to migrate with my sister and I from Colombia to America. This decision was hard, but they knew that in order to provide a life of opportunities and many successes they needed to uproot and arrive at the land of dreams and promises. I grew up in a small home with about 12 people, this was our story as we migrated and helped each other out. A home that was full of love, laughter, and dreams. We grew up poor, but our goal was always to achieve the American dream which equated to success. As I evolved and grew into my own, I became to realize that my definition of success evolved and changed. I’ve achieved so much in my lifetime such as working on Broadway, acting in various small movie roles, graduating college, having a successful career in technology, serving our country in the United States Airforce, owning my first home, and to now owning my own small business.
Throughout these successful moments which are intertwined, my perspective of success changed as I achieved each of the accolades and milestones. At this point in my life success is not all my accomplishments but how have these accomplishments made me a better person, how can I help other grow through my learnings and success, and how the failures I have faced could help others but as I grow myself. To me success is not only your accomplishments but how this help with your interactions with others throughout life, how you can help others achieve and impact their own success, and how you can continue to achieve your success mindset through your trajectory in life.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Andres Cano owner of a local and small sourdough and baked good business called Andres Candough DoughVine Bread. Our small and local business started in Oct 2024, and we are growing at a steady pace. We’re Veteran Owner, Latino Owned, and Gay owned business located in Laveen. We have over 14 flavors of sourdough bread, focusing on our Latino heritage by creating flavors that are true to my Colombian heritage, but also our Latino Culture (Colombian Sourdough bread with Colombian Chorizo, Colombia Chorizo Spices, and Colombian Cheese), we are baking Artisan Mexican Bolillos made with Masa Madra, & Sourdough Mexican Tortillas.
Our focus is on Community, Love, and Loaf: Building our community through each interaction and moment we have with our community, sharing the love we have for baking and our Colombian heritage, and breaking a loaf of bread together as we bring people from all walks together. Baking as cooking brings so many together.
Our business started from a gifted starter to now a business that has over 400 customers, working with various restaurants, and growing our footprint and brand in Arizona.
Instagram Account: Andres_Candough – Best place to see what we have done and what we are doing.
Collabs with Restaurants: We just collaborated with famous and amazing restaurant Chilte which was featured in your magazine 3 weeks ago. We did a tour of Spain and Portugal with my bread the center of this collab, paired with small bites, and drinks. We had over 100 patrons show up.
Owner background:
Born in Colombia, and raised in New Jersey, served in the United States Air Force. I have over 18 years of experience in Sales Strategy and Business Development in Technology. I left my corporate job at Amazon Web Services February of this year to continue to grow my small business and put my heart and soul into it. I grew up in New Jersey as an immigrant with a family that brought us here for a better life, and now we are living our dream. Grew up cooking and learned everything from my Colombian mom and then poured this love of cooking into my baking creating unique breads and testing our different flavors.
Accolades:
Article written by Phoenix New Times
This Phoenix home baker has become a sourdough superstar | Phoenix New Times
Article with Voyage Magazine Phoenix
You searched for Andres Candough – VoyagePhoenix – Phoenix
We just launched a partnership with StateFortyEight who is selling our shirts we are partnering on:
Unisex Crew Neck Andres CanDough DoughVine Bread | Black | State Forty Eight
Digital Food Creators Review
Senor Foodie
Jen Foodie
c.eats.food
The Roaming Ruby
Christina Barrueta – (AZ Culinary Hall of Fame Author)
Marci (Tex AZ Taste) Editor of A Taste of AZ
TasteofAZ – Jennifer
Appeared on YouTube Cooking Channel with Edible Ed’s – Chef at the Phoenix Children’s Museum
Appeared on Fox10 News Made in Arizona
Appeared on Channel 12 with Vanessa Ramirez Midday Arizona
Appeared on Channel 3/5 Morning News
Appeared on CW7 Arizona – Daily Mix
QMO Podcast
9-month small business with 5.5K followers
Ordering Platform: http://www.hotplate.com/andrescandough
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We have built our presence on social media through building a brand that speaks to others. A brand that is close to our community and intertwined with the community. Showcasing our products, videos, partnerships, reaching out to TV and magazines, and interacting with our followers on social media. People are attracted to true people and being raw and us has helped us grow.
The advice I have is make sure that you know who and what your brand is about, speak about it and showcase it, be personable and have people get to know you, interact with your client or audience on social media when they comment, and be authentic and raw.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I was in technology for over 18 yrs, with amazing and large corporations. I had a steady paycheck, traveled for work, and was able to do and get what I wanted. But was this my passion being it something that fulfilled me now. I started my small company Andres Candough and left a steady paycheck at large corporations to chase what made me happy. This was the hardest decision because it affected me but my partner. I made the lead, and yes, I am not at the place where I wanted to be at from a financial perspective, but I am making my own decisions. Uncomfortable situations make strong people. If you have a silver platter you are not growing. Step outside the box, know it’s going to be uncomfortable “whatever that definition is for you” but you will find the resilience in you to grow what you love.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Andres Cano is owner of all images