How I conceived, named, and launched Paletas during my hiring process — and took it from zero to over $1M in retail revenue.
"Not the vendor — the product. Not El Paletero — Paletas."
During my interview at Grupo Flor, I saw a list of brand concepts they wanted to develop. One was highlighted: "El Paletero," the ice cream man. Good instinct, wrong execution.
I went home that night and reframed the entire concept around "Paletas," the ice pop itself. Not the vendor. The product. That shift unlocked everything: the name, the visual identity, and the cultural positioning that followed.
The company had strong distribution infrastructure but no retail activation strategy. Product was moving but the brand wasn't being experienced. Dispensary buyers had nothing to hold onto — no story, no aesthetic, no reason to reorder over the twenty brands next to it on the shelf.
"I didn't know I was pitching for the job and building the brand at the same time. I just saw what it could be."
Francisco, on the origin of PaletasNamed the brand, built the visual system: streetwear-influenced, Latin cultural iconography, East LA lowrider aesthetics. Pink and hot as the palette signal.
Built the full activation toolkit for dispensary partners: sales deck, buyer one-sheet, packaging design, and a pop-up event program.
Ran pop-ups at dispensaries, sponsored local charities, attended community events. Built brand presence where the 21–35 consumer already was.
First retail door within 6 months. Built reorder cadence through consistent brand experience and in-store storytelling that buyers could repeat.
Revenue from sub-$100k to over $1M in retail sales
Emerald Cup wins — the industry's most recognized product award.
From brand concept to first retail dispensary door open
Building a brand from a job interview concept taught me things no brief or playbook covers. These are the three that stayed with me.
Shifting from "El Paletero" to "Paletas" wasn't a naming exercise. It reframed the entire brand from vendor to product, from person to experience. Every visual and cultural decision that followed came from that one word.
The moment a dispensary buyer quoted our brand story back to us unprompted, I knew the positioning had worked. They weren't just stocking SKUs. They were selling a cultural reference their customers would recognize.
Pop-ups, events, and charity sponsorships weren't marketing tactics. They were the proof points that made the brand story credible. The retail accounts followed because the community connection was already real.
I partner with early-stage teams to turn product concepts into positioning that earns shelf space — physical or digital.