My Journey

My Story as an Entrepreneur: How I Became One.

Well, what about me?

Who am I & Why do I Write?

I’ve always had an interest in business, which dates back to my childhood. I was raised in a family with entrepreneurs. My parents worked managerial jobs at a hotel & car wash, respectively. But my siblings leaned towards their own businesses.

It began in the 3rd grade on a warm sunny day in Guatemala, during my summer break. My brother owned & operated a water business. I met him for the first time in my conscious life this day, he took me around the plant & showed me his employees. This was my introduction to this world. I found it so interesting; my little mind was exploding with questions. I couldn’t imagine being your own boss. I never really thought of managing employees or not being a part of a company, but being the company.

Now the day goes by, we part ways, but the image of us on his motorcycle circling the plant will forever be ingrained in my mind. It was then that I decided to pursue a career in business.

I grew up, went through high school taking every business class I could, I knew I would come to have my own one day. But when was Day One?

I went to college, and my freshman year was filled with memories, but I couldn’t progress as quickly as I had hoped. I battled a drug addiction, and I couldn’t focus. I dropped out.

Now, it wasn’t all because of my own shortcomings that I had dropped out; I chose to join the workforce to help my parents with their new house (this disqualified me from in-state tuition, a large factor in my education). I worked at a hotel, I was a maintenance technician, admittedly I got this job from my mom’s friend. I went from not knowing how to screw in a light bulb to working on HVAC systems. I was then promoted to the front desk, my first real customer-facing role. I learned here how to speak with clients & maintain friendly relations.

I had a brief stint with affiliate marketing & youtube automation during the summer. I was scammed out of $2,500.

I never resonated too much with hospitality, but I have fond memories of this all. It spanned from May to December, but in November, I took the leap that would change everything.

A breezy morning goes by, and I get a call from my friend, Dylan.

“Hey, do you wanna work on a business together?”
”Sure.”

He comes over to my house, and I have just bought a whiteboard to organize my ideas. We bring it outside.

We start drafting something, and a mess of ideas flies by; we brainstorm. I even have ChatGPT voice on standby as our assistant, but nothing really sticks.

I look back on our Passions, our shared passion for health.

Health… Wellbeing….. Supplements.

But what supplement? What’s marketable to a wide audience? What’s a universal experience that we can fit in?

Drinking, Hangovers…. A Hangover Cure.

Pickup, to pick you up after a great night out!

Ok, the idea is there, now what? Now we just need to market, build a website, account for everything, make videos, make a Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube &… get 50k for research and development

We didn’t end up getting the 50k.

But the spark was there; now action must follow! We decided to found a company together and build an empire.

Buffalo WebProducts was born on November 22nd, 2024. Founded by Leo Duarte & Dylan Mangla.

Now we needed an offer, something realistic, something that actually works? What can we actually sell, considering what we have? I created the Buffalo WebProducts brand to make our vision broad & grand, aiming to become a Digital Solutions Conglomerate that works with other businesses while managing our own portfolio of brands.

So, time passes & we need to sell something, branded e-commerce sounds like our calling. So, we watch a 19-hour-long video (one sitting, btw,) and we start our journey into branded ecommerce

We needed to scavenge for a product, so we found this unusual-looking soap dispenser & we decided it would be our new product. Now, I don’t know what this fucking thing is. I’ve never seen it before.

(the soap grinder)

That is why we selected it; it looked unique and had some real value to it. Listen here, it can help you avoid the triclosan in your dish soap! Now, we have made our first Brand.

Soam.

It evolved into the Soam Soap Shop. We were off to the races to build this thing and make it fucking work.

I picked up another buddy of mine to join us, his name is Oscar, his dad actually ran an advertising business, to me, it was a no-brainer to expand our team.

Soam wasn’t without its flaws; our website was amateur, a sloppily defined & messy Shopify template, but we learned & we iterated. We learned Replo & then Framer.

It’s now January, a new year with new vigor & a burning desire from all of us to make it. Soam was our baby, so we fought hard to make it fucking work.

Oscar & I learned the entire Meta Ads suite, Instagram social media management, & how to run and create ads. I transitioned into a leadership role, commanding my two employees as if they were my sword & shield.

Dylan learned the backend, how to make the thing actually work, and so it did.

It's now February, can you believe we have already spent a month working on this, and we haven’t made our first sale? Well, we hadn’t run paid traffic & with the Spotify dashboard open, looking like my plan for global domination, I learned how to run Google Ads & so we did.

Running our first campaign & strategically sorting ourselves into world domination, traffic started pouring in. But from where? Indian traffic, and not a single sale.

I didn’t change the location settings; we were running an English site with American prices to a global audience. Our advertising budget runs down the drain.

Wtf?

Let’s readjust something. We aren’t making any sales; perhaps a website redesign is in order?

Dylan & I book many meetings; Dylan takes the majority of them. We are locked in on our goals & dreams.

Oscar’s slinging IG posts with his newfound Canva knowledge like a G, I knew he could do it aswell as I could, if not even better.

But still no traction. Our patience starts to wane; I’m not really sure how to continue. My intuition starts to become hazy & Oscar goes back to his hometown (four hours away) to spend time with his family.

We need to make this work; maybe Soam isn’t quite up to par yet. Let’s make the offer better, how about we bundle it with our own custom branded soap! Now that’s undeniable.

A couple of weeks go by, and our pace slows as we start to lose interest. We aren’t making any sales, and it feels like we are wasting our time. Does this tunnel ever bring light?

Dylan pays for a remodeling of the site to optimize conversions, and I pay for a custom soap company to send us our own branded soap

This was what the soap bar looked like

Now, with our offer redefined, it's time to give it another fucking go. I ideated the next 5 years for Soam, and I’m fucking ready for blood.

We do a test order, it takes a Looong fucking time.

We are starting to lose our momentum. What's going on? Days pass, and I have had many other ideas during this period, but there is little focus on them as we have chosen Soam to scale our brand.

The clock is ticking. It’s mid-February, with no redesign and no soap bar.

The redesign comes in, looks like shit. $ 2,500 for a site that's worse than what we made.

The soap bar comes in.

It doesn’t fit.

Like, the soap bar & grinder bundle. The bar doesn’t fit into the grinder.

Uhhh, what now?

So that was Soam. At a standstill and with our pockets drained, it's time to move on. We don’t have the money for another soap distributor, and we searched for a soap grinder on Google.

It's available on AliExpress for $ 5. Like the first thing, I don’t know how we let it get to this point, but we didn’t Google soap grinder until then.

I’m angry, Dylan’s angry, Oscar’s tired.

We started infighting, we were treating this like War. This wasn’t a game to us, but a ticket to our financial freedom. We were in the Trenches.

Dylan had a conversation with our local Gym owner, who convinced him to buy from us.

My imagination flickered back to the business model I learned from the books I obsessively read: a business-to-business agency, where we learned how to build websites - let's sell websites! and digital marketing too!

We created the Buffalo WebProducts website, which previously did not exist. I didn’t know how to write a compelling offer, so I just listed skills

skills at hand

I didn’t really understand how businesses sold to each other, so this is what I decided upon. It didn’t get any sales.

But, we had our first client, something to look forward to

We were gonna make this guy the best fucking website anyone has ever seen. So, we get to work, the website looks pretty good, we make decent progress

We make our LinkedIn, I get Oscar to start learning sales, and we have smooth sailing.

We struggled in Sales; admittedly, it's hard to convince a stranger to buy from you. You need to build trust (which is why I’m here to teach you this).

It’s now March, we have something going for real now, a real business with real clients

REAL REVENUE!!!!!

The first check gave me a high; I played Kanye in my shower, singing “I’m just here to get paid,” feeling like the kingpin I was always destined to be. A day passes, and I fucking lose everything.

Like all of it.

All of it.

My first thousand went to the void.

Why?

So when you use a credit card, you need to pay your credit card bill. It auto-paid, and just like that, my earnings vanished.

It's now mid-March, a pivotal time.

I go to a college to visit my friend alongside Dylan.

.

We fight.

.

.

Dylan Leaves.

Oscar Leaves.

.

.

-

Emptiness, shock. A void in my heart. The empire we were going to build was taken away, just like that.

I feel stunned. Heartache was, I imagined, our futures together.

The greatest bond that we once shared is now gone.

My brother drives from Maryland to visit me as this happens.

He was very proud seeing the man I had become since the last time we saw each other. I will always remember having to explain to him how it all came crashing down & seeing his expression.

I’m lost, honestly.

I felt a sense of direction & purpose as I led my sword & shield into battle. But what once was had come to an end, the true test of my adaptability, wit, and ability to become what I had always dreamed of becoming.

I call our one client, and he isn’t happy. But at least, he’s with me.

I fall into this saddened state, the days go by & I feel a nothingness consume me. I lost my team, my men, my soldiers. How do I go to war?

Shit, I said to myself.

Back to the drawing board.

Well, I could always get a job, you know?

Or maybe go back to school?

It’s a hollowing feeling retracing your steps. The sickening thud of everything falling right in front of you.

I just started to continue my education, so I guess this could never hurt me.

My brother recommends I get certified in what I know, so I did.

I paid for Coursera with my last 50$, and I got some cool certifications.

Then I get an entrepreneurship certificate from Wharton, the void continues in my soul. Cool name, but I couldn’t find it in my soul to care.

I started driving Uber Eats, at least I can have some income now.

I get an email.

“You owe me $2800.”

- Dylan

What the Fuck? My dad gets a voicemail. What the Fuck?

I get yet another fucking email. What the Fuck?

There’s no feeling like getting into a legal battle with your best friend.

At least, it makes for a story. I find my legal counsel, and I have to pay with my dad’s money, which hurts me more than I could ever imagine. I was meant to free him from his labor with this business. Not drain him of even more.

April Showers felt different this year, as if it were expressing my own cloudy and rainy self. Do I look like a fool now to the people I had promised I’d be making it?

Was I just delusional, and spent all my money? My inner mind was in disarray.

I found it in my heart to just forgive Dylan. I did spend his money on our business, I just wish it didn’t have to go this way

It was a fateful night; we were exchanging legalities via emails, and I had long since blocked his number. I had no real desire to ever speak to this person again; the burning hatred dwelling inside of me stopped me from even achieving my academic goals. However, I agreed to his email, stating that we should discuss further, as we should.

We hop on a call.

Apologies are shared.

Ok, now, we are at least somewhat close to one another again. However, I have a business to run, and he chose not to return after we became amicable.

Alright now, it's my turn.

I revamped the branding for Buffalo Web Products. I need to focus; it needs to be understandable.

I recreate the skills menu and make Actual Offers, I find Clients through my network & LinkedIn

Ok, I’m starting to like this feeling. What's next?

I start sharing & cataloging my progress. Alright now! Serendipity found me mentors!

I keep going like the relentless machine I am, and I pick up software engineering & start learning it alongside my business

I re-enroll in college, and continue my degree

I’ve found my stride. I’ve found peace in my solace. I’ve found “IT.”

The ever-burning desire I once felt became my birthright to run a successful business.

Now here we are. I start writing & organizing myself.

I adapt my offer, finding a niche I can excel in, I get coached on my sales & I start booking the calendar dry,

“I will NOT fail,” rippling inside of my head.

I book meetings, I speak with more clients, and I build credibility

I FANATICALLY engross myself in my work & business.

We’re getting closer to the very publishing of this article you are reading.

It is now May.

I travel to Princeton and visit my old friend.

I speak with an aspiring founder, it was then I realized that I could teach even Ivy League Students with the experience I have now.

It was that meeting that gave me my sense of purpose once again,

My journey is meant to educate.

My journey is meant to help you reach yours.

My journey is my destiny.

Now then, learn from my mistakes. Go All-In. You are the only thing that could ever stop you from reaching your potential. I know that if you’re reading this, that perhaps your potential is even grander than mine. The stories await you. There is no more time to sit on the sidelines when a former bumfuck like me is finding success in business.

That is the summation of my journey, kept brief for your pleasure

There are some parts I will go into further depth about in the future, but for now, that is My Story.

My journey in entrepreneurship has admittedly only begun; I have much more to do & learn. But I now have something I can teach: I can teach you, my dearest reader, what I’ve learned and how you can apply it to your own goals.

There is a sense of fulfillment when you're living your life’s purpose.

-Leo