We were lucky to catch up with Gil Zafra recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gil, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Since we launched LaGIRALDA in 2022, our main mission has focused on turning Dallas Fort Worth into a new capital of Empanadas, especially for the upcoming 2026 FIFA Soccer World Cup, we will have in town. In less than a year and a half of formal operations, today, we see ourselves as a new incubator of culinary innovation that has learned to adapt and secure tactical business partnerships to expand market presence along nine new points of sales in 2024, including, FOODA (Fortune 500 corporate pop-ups), FLEASTYLE events, Peak Square Ventures, Richardson Farmers Market, Flower Mound Farmers Market, State and Main Merchant store, the Garland Urban Market, the Antique Table Café, besides many other festivals like the HomeFest at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTYD) and the Hispanic Celebration at the Dallas Arboretum. We want to continue growing the company and move from the incubator tag into a more sustainable and scalable company to meet our customers’ expectations and replicate our business model with new business partners in North Texas before the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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.
I. About myself:
I was born and raised in Mexico, Mexico City. My mom is an Educator specializing in elementary education, and unlike traditional education, she believes in active education. For that reason -in the middle 80’s – she enrolled me in an elementary school Herminio Almendros, HA) that embraced that system. Interestingly, HA was the school for most Argentinian families that left the country early in the 80’s because of the dictatorship. Therefore, I grew up around Argentinians throughout my childhood, and I had the opportunity to absorb their culture, which, in my case, all happened through their fantastic food and soccer.
On the other hand, my dad is a medical doctor (specializing in genetics) who prefers traditional education. When he saw me playing soccer, he nudged me and enrolled me in Water Polo (at the Mexican Autonomous University Team, UNAM), which, in his view, is a more sophisticated sport to play professionally. My point is that the mix of my multicultural “Argo-Mexican” and Water Polo backgrounds has defined me all my life to persue my dreams and goals, including my college (ITAM, Mexico), graduate education (MBA from UTD), Harvard Public Leadership Credential (2021) – and today – myself as an entrepreneur and business owner. In 2003, I married to my beautiful wife and business partner, and we decided to live in Dallas since she was already living there.
II. How have I got into my business (LaGIRALDA)?
Of course, it was COVID’s impact. My position was eliminated in the summer of 2021, and my wife and I realized that this was the best time for us to start up our own business. We had at least five different business ideas, but when analyzing our strengths, we realized that we love food, baking, creativity, and Food Innovation. When we were doing our market research, we found that empanadas have become the 8th most-ordered food item in the U.S. (GrubHub, 2021). Interesting is the fact that the name of the company (LaGIRALDA) was already defined for my wife when she was creating and baking custom cakes in 2012, but just as a hobby, and by then, we already had at least 30 solid followers on FaceBook, so it made sense to stick with the brand name to continue growing the brand awareness.
III. What type of products/services/creative works you provide: It took us six months to formally register LaGIRALDA, LLC., and fourteen more months to start selling our empanadas and chimichurri sauce. As you can imagine, we were running behind in money, so I had to drive Uber to get extra cash and pay bills, business licenses and certifications. So, I started leveraging Uber to test our empanadas along my rides, especially in the morning, when most riders still needed breakfast. We haven’t sold many empanadas yet but realized that people love them. Now, I am driving Uber to supplement my wife’s full-time job and launching a new business with bon-capital. The next problem to solve was how and where we would start selling our empanadas and chimichurri sauce. That was when we started applying to become vendors for different Farmers Markets in Dallas until the Four Seasons Markets accepted us in March 2023.
IV. What problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others.
Because of budget constraints and temperature food management, we decided to start selling our empanadas frozen to bake-at-home. So here we are, at the Richardson Farmers Market, in the early morning of April 15. My wife and daughter helped me set up the booth to give some empanadas samples. We started selling our frozen empanadas at the Richardson Farmers Market. We realized that we were solving many problems for our customers, starting from bringing new flavors to their tables, followed by baking true fresh empanadas on their terms and time – and most importantly – sharing their empanadas with their families and beloved ones, which is the moment when our actual customer experience (CX) happens.
V. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.:
Based on our business model and agile approach to business operations, we have been focusing our energy on creating a new food category in the marketplace, that we call: Gourmet Fast Food. For instance, selling our baked or frozen empanadas takes less than two minutes. Another milestone has been the high customer purchasing frequency, allowing us to build organic customer loyalty. Finally, we feel so proud of building tactical partnerships that have allowed us to bring our empanadas to Fortune 500 companies in North Texas (through Fooda) and participate in top-notch festivals with UTD and the Dallas Arboretum. Therefore, LaGIRALDA has been actively selling empanadas in more than six cities in North Texas, including Dallas, Flower Mound, Frisco, Garland, Irving, Plano, and Richardson.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
When launching a business, it is usually known that you must start selling your product or service among your network of family and friends. However, we did the opposite. We focused on what is called an “iterative process,” where first, we make sure to feel satisfied with our final product (empanadas and chimichurri sauce), and second, we run an “acid test” by exposing our empanadas and chimichurri sauce to the open public of the Richardson Farmers Market, so we could get straight feedback from people that we have never met before, and then, make adjustments and arrangements to improve our empanadas, Chimichurri and customer service.
In addition, we believe in both – personal service – and technology to help us reduce customer friction when they want to shop for our products or catering services, so they can place their order on our website, by text, or get billed through our invoice system.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When moving to the U.S. in 2003, I had to start from scratch. Then, I was open to switching gears and adapting to my new context, now my new country. I was fortunate because it took me three months to find a job where I learned to sell print advertising and event sponsorships. That job gave networking, selling, and public relations (PR) soft skills to connect with Fortune 500 companies and diverse industries. In addition, my wife and I had the opportunity to persuade our MBAs at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), which allowed me to supplement my career in advertising with a global business education to empower myself.
Before becoming a U.S. citizen, I passed an unstable time switch from different types of visas and unemployment status, which I substituted by volunteering in different Board organizations to support and empower Hispanic professionals. And that volunteering timing is something that it is still has given me the awareness to continue giving back to my community.
For instance, in 2021, I joined the Board of Rosa Es Rojo, a nonprofit organization that prevents breast cancer among Hispanic women. Also, since 2019, I have been the President of the Mexican Talent Network (Dallas Chapter), an initiative from the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs to enhance the economy of knowledge and Innovation among Mexican expats living abroad. Indeed, Mexico is the third largest country exporting high-skilled human capital in the world, just behind China and India.
Thus, from my perspective, pivoting in your career or life can become a competitive advantage for yourself since it could help you enhance your values and skills for adapting to new contexts and challenges to complete the “jobs-to-be-done” (JTBD). For us, the value of “giving back” is an asset that LaGIRALDA will continue fostering in its best practices.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lagiralda.us/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giraldatx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089280156484
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gil-zafra-mba
- Yelp: https://www.https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-giralda-richardson
Image Credits
By LaGIRALDA, LLC. All rights reserved.