We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marco Carmona. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marco below.
Marco , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Cherry Co-operative chose me! I believe that riding bicycles is a right of passage for everyone, so naturally when my son was born I couldnt wait to get him on a bike. As my son learned to ride his own bicycle our front yard became the bike hang out for our neighborhood kids. We live on the East Side of downtown San Antonio in a mixed income neighborhood with the majority of us being regular working class families. We dont have alot of resources but we do have extra bikes and so naturally we gave what we could and realized that every child in our neighborhood could at the very least have their own bicycle! I believe our story is special because our co-op was founded by children and adults with nothing more to give than an extra bike and time. Having this happen in my front yard gave me an extreme amount of joy and peace because I was now apart of impacting and seeing there physical and mental health. One day as the kids were in the yard working on bikes my neighbor and friend Tom Moreno mentioned to me how nice it was that everyone gathered at my house. I replied that about how much happiness it brings me even though the kids wake me up on the weekends super early to ride bikes! To my suprise Mr. Moreno looked at me and mentioned that we needed a clubhouse and that he owned a dilapidated house around the corner on Cherry St. that he thought would be a perfect home for our bike co-op, and thats how Cherry Street Bicycle Co-operative was born!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Once our headquarters was completed we wanted to become more than just a neighborhood bicycle resource, we wanted to empower our youths even more by showing them how to grow a business, the importance of healthy eating and exercise and the ability to co-operate and network. We currently have a bakery/coffee shop, bicycle tours, whole foods and supplements, arts shows, bicycle building repairs and sells, farming, book club and the list is growing!
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Treat your customers like they are your best friends!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
No millionaires, no government help, just a few regular people that never stopped working for years Nd years to come to make a shared dream reality. Our headquarters took 7 years to complete.
Contact Info:
- Website: Cherrycoop.com
- Instagram: Cherry Street Bicycles co-op