Marcela Munera and Mary Varona launched Mama’s Cakes in December, and after appearing on Miami-Dade County’s Strive 305 podcast, an opportunity arose.
“We’re in conversations with a huge account, an elite VIP hotel,” Munera said. “We are so excited about opportunities that are coming our way.”
Strive 305 is a hub for anything a budding entrepreneur may need, from developing the seed of an idea with courses, to getting free accounting and legal services, access to loans and help with digital marketing.
The podcast is co-hosted by two entrepreneurs. Irvans Augustin is a co-founder of Urban Impact Lab, consultants to municipalities on economic development and transit solutions and since the pandemic, also support small businesses. https://www.urbanimpactlab.com/
Tico Casamayor runs AC Graphics, a family printing business in Hialeah, and is president of public relations for the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce.
The two volunteers have hosted 60 podcasts for Strive 305 and many feature small business owners.
“Some have been able to borrow money from the Dade County Federal Credit Union,” Casamayor said. “Others have gotten free legal advice, to have their lease reviewed by an attorney. There is also free accounting help with setting up your corporation. All the resources are on the website.”
And each week, the guests share their challenges and successes with the podcast audience.
For Mama’s Cakes owners Varona, a longtime finance professional, and Munera, director of Ana G. Mendez University in Miami Lakes, their podcast appearance helped grow interest in their new venture.
“Networking is very important in any business, who you know, more than what you know,” Varona said on the podcast.
HSN [Home Shopping Network] said it will launch Mama’s Cakes on its shows, perhaps as soon as this month.
Varona and Munera don’t have a storefront for sales and use a co-working office space at Venture X in Miami Lakes.
A facility in Opa-Locka bakes and ships their Kosher, dairy-free and nut-free coffee cakes from a 200-year-old recipe that they tweaked for modern tastes.
Cake flavors include apple, rum chocolate chip, banana chocolate chip, blueberry, coffee cappuccino, cinnamon and apple.
Miami Lakers can sample Mama’s Cakes at the Miami Lakes Food & Wine Festival in Optimist Park on Feb. 7, or purchase them at MamasCakesInc.Com.
The Bundt-shaped coffee and tea cakes can be left on a counter for up to 21 days or frozen for a year, because they don’t contain dairy, Munera said on the show.
If it’s any indication of how good they are, Augustin could not stop sampling them during the program.
The podcast airs Mondays at 11 a.m. on Strive305Hub.com, where prior shows can be seen, and at 4 p.m. Thursdays on Sirius XM Ch. 145, SLAM Radio.
Guests have included authors, Realtors, politicians, lifestyle and exercise experts, small manufacturers, dentists and others.
“I like helping people succeed in business,” Casamayor, from Miami Lakes, said. “I’ve made good friends doing this.”
Said Augustin, who lives in Coral Gables, “One of the things he and I love about this podcast is meeting business owners at whatever level they are at. And I think the piece we underestimated was the impact of community and connection.
“We’re able to pull from our networks to help support people, and it’s a unique opportunity,” Augustin said. “Tico and I both learn something in every episode.”
The podcast happens with support from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, whose team created the Strive305 Hub; the Beacon Council Foundation; Wells Fargo Bank, the Miami-Dade County Commission and Grant Miller and his South Miami studio and production personnel at Community Newspapers.
To learn more about it and Strive 305, go to Strive305Hub.com.