Built in Her Kitchen, Now in Nordstrom

Sandra Velasquez started Nopalera in her kitchen in 2020 with a credit card and no outside funding. Her modern Mexican beauty line, built around the nopal cactus, did $600,000 in sales its first year and is now in Nordstrom, Kohl's and more than 400 boutiques. When she took it to Shark Tank, she turned down two offers because the equity asks were too high. Her reason? "My ancestors are whispering in my ear and they're saying, mija, no te desprecias." She moved to San Antonio just over a year ago, and a quarter of her $4 million Series A came from right here. KSAT's Hunter King caught up with her downtown, where she's back as a keynote speaker for San Antonio Startup and Tech Week. Watch the full story on ksat.com