Airpals | Brooklyn, NY
An Early Start
Joshe Ordonez has known since she was a little girl that she wanted to start a business. She still remembers the thrill of decorating quartz rocks she got from her dad’s engineering lab and selling them for $0.10 each.
That early drive turned into starting a business while she was working two jobs and living paycheck to paycheck. Some may see having little personal wealth as a drawback to starting a business, but Joshe sees it as an advantage.
“Being underpaid my whole career had helped me to better manage money. I am really good at allocating budgets and making more with less.”
Knowing when to ask for help
Even though Joshe is confident in herself and her business model, she knows she can’t do it all alone. She has been working as a creative entrepreneur, and the technical side of the business needed some attention. Enter Audible Software Engineer Nandana Yadla, a Sky’s the Limit volunteer. She helped Joshe address the technical aspects of her platform and even gave her tips for talking to developers and other stakeholders. Now Joshe is empowered with the vocabulary to get what she needs.
Another Sky’s the Limit volunteer, Sergio Diaz, Consulting Manager at Accenture has been hands-on with Joshe. Together, they developed financial and user projections for Airpals. Sergio was so inspired by Joshe’s enthusiasm for her home country of Ecuador that he visited there to see it for himself. Of course, he used his trip to deliver packages for Airpals and provide feedback to Joshe. Mentor doesn’t begin to describe what Sergio has meant to Joshe.
Recognizing the Need to Pivot
Joshe was inspired by the way the Latino community creates an organic network of people to get goods back and forth between Central and South America and the United States. Her original business idea, called Encargos y Envios, was to disrupt both the travel and shipping industries by pairing people traveling internationally with people wanting to obtain products not available everywhere. That initial concept proved ahead of its time, and investors were hesitant to back a company that might get bogged down by regulations. Add the COVID-19 pandemic bringing the travel industry to a halt, and Joshe knew she had to adapt. Luckily, she’s good at that. First, she changed the company’s name to Airpals. “Air conveys that our messengers / travelers move fast and pals is about friendship and trust,” she explains. Next, she tweaked the business plan to focus on courier-style service in specific areas of the United States like New York City—all while keeping her users safe within the pandemic. Joshe is concentrating on keeping the business practical and also scalable so she can expand to other regions when the time is right.
Struggles
Even with a good education and career background, a solid business plan, and plenty of confidence, Joshe has encountered resistance from potential investors. She is hesitant to wonder if her gender or her accent is prohibiting investors from taking a chance on her business, but she can’t imagine what other factors could be contributing to this battle.
“I am smart, I have the capacity, the skills, the vision, I achieved great things in my career, I have paying customers not that many but there are people who love and pay for what I am offering.”
Joshe knows she isn’t the only one struggling in this area. Sky’s the Limit has introduced her to a community of entrepreneurs who experience the same setbacks she does and has helped her with the financial aspect. She is grateful to have this support. The grants and other assistance have started to level the playing field so Airpals has the same chance to succeed as any other new business.
Next steps
Now Joshe is ready to move on from raising capital. She has clear goals: break even and then hire women and people of color as team members to grow the business. She envisions a future for Airpals that includes innovation in the travel and shipping industries but also a positive impact on society as a whole. “The ultimate goal is to give back,” she says.
“In so many ways, being part of this community feels so good. When you are about to quit there is someone who checks on you and gives you the energy to keep going. Mentorship and networking has been great but what I like the most about the organization is that they genuinely care about me and want to see me succeed. If you are reading this, thank you guys!”
Airpals is a NYC-based courier service