(low percussive music) - So in the U.S. overall there's something near a billion dollars of wage theft going on for the Latino community specifically.

So we looked at that early on, we thought, "What can we do to mitigate some of that "in our local market?"

And I was thinking about what this industry lacked, and what I was hearing from builders is that there's a huge labor shortage and the community that's really filling the shortage are Latinos.

So I went into this idea, and I thought, "There should be some kind of tool "for this community to connect with builders," and the first concept was an app.

Queblo is a marketplace for Spanish-speaking craftsmen to connect with builders and contractors.

So we build business for guys that know what they're doing, they know their craft and their trade, and they might not know how to start their company or price their work.

So that's when we come in.

We help them set everything up formally and connect with the projects.

- I was kind of surprised to hear Igor bring a startup venture to me because I knew him as an architecture student from Minnesota who had gone to Spain to work in an architecture firm.

And all of a sudden he comes with this idea for an app.

App is the magic word in the startup world, so I thought well this might be interesting and might be an opportunity for me to learn a little bit about it.

So Queblo creates a marketplace for Hispanic workers and all the people on the buy side like the builders, commercial and residential, and homeowners.

And it does it several ways, through an app where people can advertise their work, submit bids, people can look at the work of the artisans, their portfolios, actually pay online.

And for those people who don't use apps, like for example the much larger commercial builders, we have a separate subsidiary called Queblo Construct, and that's where Queblo will deal with the builders and our workers become subcontractors to them.

So can we handle all this volume that's coming on?

Are we in a good position to actually take on these projects?

Well, it's one of the struggles that dates back to the founding of the venture.

It was always a very small team, so the team was two, and now it's one.

And so that challenge has been persistent.

So that goes against the grain in all the startup literature that you have to have your team in place.

And so we've been improvising that team from the beginning.

That's been a challenge, but I think Igor has also grown as a founder in that process.

- Right now it's getting to be a little bit too much.

So I personally can't go to all the projects.

Margarito's been helping on a few of them, but we definitely need a new project manager.

- Now remind me, Margarito's one of our former guys, right, who stepped up?

- [Igor] Exactly.

- Well, that's good.

- I saw his ad at Facebook actually, and then when I met him I couldn't believe that there was a thing that would actually help us to find better quality of communication and ways to find jobs.

I tried that before, myself, and it was hard 'cause I have to do the jobs, and I have to go out and find them.

Now I can just focus on doing them and managing them, and actually Igor is just trying to find jobs, and it's easier for him 'cause they come to him now.

- So Igor, I think one of the challenges for us is Margarito we are managing to compensate from the flow of funds, but as you bring on more people we may not, so one of the things that you have to do is sort of find people who really are buying into the mission of Queblo, like Margarito.

Margarito saw the potential as a worker and now is willing to invest himself.

- So Eapen is someone I've known for a long time, and I've always known he had a very strong business background.

I needed someone to go to more formally, so I asked him to come on board and be our advisor.

- So because we're bootstrapping this project, we're not going to VCs or we're not taking private equity, I think we're going to have to, you're going to have to do some missionary selling to tell people that in the short run you may have to invest something in here, but you know that it's for a company that's going to grow, that's in a market with opportunity, giving market to their own brothers in the trade.

We just have to find those people in the network.

Do you think we can?

- I think it's possible.

Not everyone is set up to give us that much time, but I think the guys are there.

- Well, I believe in it because this is a big need that everyone talks about.

Every time I pick up the paper I see there's a shortage of construction workers, we need to increase minority participation.

And in my estimation what I see out there in the profit and nonprofit space is not working.

And this, every job I've seen, it is working, and they get paid, there's no wage theft, there's no nonprofit skimming off a gigantic chunk for overhead, so I really believe in the social mission because, you know, I'm an immigrant too.

- [Igor] So Eapen has been very helpful as a sounding board throughout the last two years.

He's directed us and kind of opened our minds on what Queblo actually is and how we're achieving our mission.

- I think anybody, whether you're in a startup or even you're a student contemplating university decision needs a good mentor.

You're there to encourage people, you're there to kinda support them, and you're there to sort of, I'd say almost lastly, bring some technical expertise.

Igor really has a bond with our workers.

And we can't hold them, they're not contractually obligated to us, but they wanna work with us because they see him as a supporter of what they're doing in their business.

So I've admired the way he's seen problems, they would sort of give me gas, but he's gone and just sort of rolled off his shoulders and he's dealt with them.