Siete Family Foods: Miguel and Veronica Garza

The 'How I Built This' episode featuring Siete Family Foods begins with the Garza family's journey from running a CrossFit gym in Laredo, Texas, to creating a leading Mexican-American food brand. The story unfolds with Veronica Garza's health challenges, which led her to adopt a grain-free diet to manage autoimmune conditions. The family's commitment to health and their love for Mexican cuisine inspired Veronica to experiment with grain-free recipes, eventually leading to the creation of a grain-free tortilla that became popular among their CrossFit community.

As demand grew, Veronica, with the encouragement of her brother Miguel, began selling her tortillas locally. The pivotal moment came when they secured a meeting with a buyer from Wheatsville Co-op in Austin, Texas. Despite initial skepticism, the buyer was impressed, and the tortillas quickly sold out, indicating a promising market opportunity. The family business, initially named 'Must Be Nutty,' began to expand as they started supplying Whole Foods stores in Texas.

The Garzas faced significant challenges, including production scaling issues and a devastating incident where a pallet of their tortillas molded just as they were about to launch in Whole Foods nationally. Nevertheless, they overcame these hurdles by finding a gluten-free kitchen and later a co-packer to produce their tortillas on a larger scale. The episode highlights the family's dedication, with members taking on various roles within the company to support its growth.

The Garzas rebranded to 'Siete Family Foods' and diversified their product line to include tortilla chips and other Mexican-American foods. A significant investment from Stripes Group in 2019 allowed them to scale up further, and the company's commitment to family values and community continued to be at the core of their operations.