How Cowboy Cubans Hit $7K-$8K a Week in Two Months and Took a $15K Deal

Most 19 year olds are wasting their time on social media. This 19 year old is blowing up on it.

First day I opened, I posted a reel the night before that just completely went viral, like 400,000 views.

What happened to revenue when you opened for lunch? Oh, I completely sold out. His business is crushing it in terms of sales just two months in.

I do about 7 to 8,000 average a week.

Impressive to go from launch to like $23,000 a month of sales in three months. It's wild. He's got a big idea, but he needs some money.

I wanna set it up for cafe con leche, big Cuban thing.

Do you have any idea what it would cost for you to make that work in here?

About 15.

15. Yeah. The question is, do I believe in the growth story? If so, I'll cut a check on the spot.

It's just a gamble. Don't know if I wanna...

I don't

know if I'm biting off more than

I can chew. It's your decision, but you have to decide. Yes or no.

Hey. What's up, man? I'm Nathan. Connor. Connor, good to meet you.

Good meet you.

We found you because it looks like you're crushing it on social media.

I like the social media presence to express myself. And, I mean, I love to cook. I love to eat. My mom owns Garbo's lobster here in town. Been alive for twelve years. I was born in the restaurant industry because of her, I and really wanted to follow my mom's footsteps in it. She started as a food truck, and then she opened up a brick and mortar. And then now she has two restaurants and three food trucks here in Austin currently. I was born in Key West, Florida. That's where Cuban sandwiches originated. It's my childhood sandwich. Growing up after the beach, having a long day, get a cafe con leche and a little Cubano sandwich. Like, that's just... That's me.

You know it's authentic when the accent comes out. I'm like, okay. This is real stuff.

I'm known for the cowboy Cuban. That's my signature sandwich. Forty eight hours slow roasted mojo pork Gets pressed in between authentic Cuban bread that I get shipped in every single day from Tampa, Florida.

Okay.

So it's authentic Cuban bread. It's the best you can find. They're Las Agunda Bakery. So Tampa, Florida, best bread I could find. Ship it just for me here in Texas.

When did you open this location we're standing at right now?

Almost two months ago. It'll be two months this Sunday.

How did you get, I guess, the I guess, the money to buy the truck?

So my mom, this was originally her trailer, but it just... Long story short, she had it, didn't fell through, and then just kinda was sitting. And then I wrote my mom a business plan. What I wanna do, why I wanna do it, saved up a whole bunch of money, and now I'm just slowly paying her back over time for the trailer. She just takes a percentage out of each sandwich that I sell, and that's just how I pay her back. I took about 20,000 out of my own just from, like, working over the years. I had a full time job during high school. I was a private chef in Key West, Florida.

Okay.

My background is Michelin. I've worked in Michelin star restaurants in Europe. So I like to Wait. Wait. Hold That's a whole new...

I see you as, a surfer bro Key West guy, you know, checking out fun bakery... Bakeries. Now you're like a European, like, espresso drinking, Michelin star working. So I

took a trip one way from here to Copenhagen, Denmark, worked in a Michelin star up there, and learned as much as I could while I was young and had

How old were you?

I was 17, and I had my eighteenth birthday in Copenhagen. Wow.

Yeah. Now when you put in $20 in your own money, were you, like, already wealthy? You know, $20 is nothing to you or is this like everything? Everything's on the line?

Everything's on the line. All the pennies that I make get reimbursed into the business. You know what? No business owner makes money their first year. Mhmm. Today, I work as much as I can. I work about like seventy five, eighty hour weeks.

Are most of your orders coming online? Are they walking up and ordering right here?

No. Honestly, with being so busy with social media, I had to actually cancel my online ordering. I I'm not on Uber Eats. I'm not on DoorDash right this second because I just can't handle the volume. And food to go is never the same as food eaten here.

Yep.

And I want people, for my first couple months of being open, to experience what a really good Cuban sandwich is.

Yep.

My landlord is super, super nice. He's... Wants me to succeed. He sees that I just wanna work. And I just begged I begged to be in this spot so much. And he's like, alright. We gotta let this So

why does he care about you so much? I mean, some there... I... We've done a lot of food, you know, truck deals. Some of them are paying $23 a month just on rent.

Yeah. Honestly, I I don't know. I mean, he... I'm young. I'm ambitious, and, not a lot of people these days have drive. I begged, Moo, the owner of Real Mart. If you haven't been to Real Mart, it's it's so cool. It's a great convenience store. They have concerts in there sometimes. But I asked... I went inside. I was like, hey. Like, do you want a new food truck? And he's like, yeah. You have one? And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, alright. Let's start tomorrow.

And His theory is it's empty space anyway. I might as well make some money on it, and you're gonna pull in traffic that potentially also buys stuff from his market.

I don't sell drinks. He doesn't sell food. People after a concert want food.

Mom donates the truck, but not really donation. You're paying

that Paying back back.

Percent of your sales. What percent?

It's just whatever the sandwich. It's like... I forget the specific amount, but it's almost like a dollar ish, $2 per sandwich.

Okay. And how much do you owe her back? Is it like a 5 k... Until you pay back 5 k, until you pay back 10 k? What was the truck value?

Oh, the entire trailer? It's about like 40? Damn. That's more than I would've thought.

Yeah. Wait. What makes this so expensive?

It's just expensive. There's food trucks nowadays that sell for like 100. What is this machine back here? My grandfather and I have an ice cream business called Connor's Creamery. I eventually will be doing soft serve ice cream.

That's But you had ice cream business though, so this isn't your first startup.

It was all his money. It wasn't, like, it wasn't me. I was 12 years old.

Okay.

So I just helped him run it.

You guys should leave a comment in the YouTube, you know, the YouTube comments below. Let me know what your first business was. Extra credit if it's not, like, you know, something boring like lawn care or lemonade. Ice cream's cool. Ice cream. Alright.

So someone ordered a half Cuban. Have two different sizes. I have a full and a half. I have my signature forty eight hours slow roasted mojo pork. Takes about three days to marinate and then about half a day to cook. Mhmm. So it's all great stuff. Gets weighed out every single time, so I know my food cost.

Most 19 year olds are not hustling measuring, you know, point two nine grams of, you know, pulled pork meat, you know, doing a business at 19. How did... I mean, what what happened to you?

I... If I wasn't weighing my meat, I won't know how much I'm actually selling. Yeah. I could be selling a dollar and 0.5 worth of meat for one and then a dollar and 0.25 for another, so I'm losing 25¢. So in the long run, it adds up. Yeah. You know,

So what is the total cost of what you're making right now? Like, what does it retail for?

This is the three zero five classic from Miami. Mhmm. This one is my cheaper one. This one's gonna be $8. It costs me about $2.50. 20% is what you want in food costing where it takes... It costs you about 20% to make. This is costing me about 27 to 30 depending on what style you'd like. Okay. So is it perfect? No. But I'm on a food truck is the other thing. I'm not in a restaurant.

Yeah.

So I don't have to worry about plumbing or anything like that.

So your OpEx is lower is what you're saying?

Correct.

How did you find the business? TikTok. It was purely TikTok. Yeah.

Specifically, I am a fan of Cubanos, Cubanitos, and I was craving one.

So you would've just opened up TikTok and you search Cubanitos, Austin, Texas.

Yeah. TikTok has just made everything so much easier.

Is it this your first time ordering? No. This might be, like, my fourth time. Your fourth time?

Yeah. I think this is probably the slowest I've seen it, but I... There's always a good five five ish people ahead of me. I hadn't had... I think I've tried two other places in Austin. This is definitely my go to.

Walk me through that first day. When you launched, what were you expecting to happen? Were you expecting, like, no sales, a million dollars of sales?

It was the craziest first day. So, basically, first day I opened, I posted a reel the night before that just completely went viral, like 400,000 views. And I was like, I'm a one man army at the time. So I was like, oh, I'm gonna be busy. And then Monday comes around. So I prep my pork. I prep 15 pounds of pork, which gets me about like 25, 30 Cuban sandwiches. I didn't sell a single one.

Okay.

That's just how it is in the beginning.

What's going through your head? Though what's going

through my head is, okay, I have a social media reel that went super viral. I need to figure out why it went viral, how I can capitalize on it, and get the ball rolling. Tuesday comes around. I get a couple guests. I talk to them. How'd you hear about me? Oh, I heard about you from TikTok and Instagram and whatnot. Mhmm. Okay. I need to figure out how. I need to figure out why. Yep. So I

do some research on social media and learn about the algorithm of Instagram. Best time to post, what to post, hashtags to use, songs to use. Tuesday comes around, I post another reel, and it went pretty viral. And then I was like, okay. Well, I realized that I just need to be super hospitable, have me in front of the camera, talk to the people, and show a lot of me. But like on TikTok, it's a lot of...

I don't even know if I shouldn't even say this.

No. You have to say it. This is like... Your audience is what's gonna be watching this. It's a bunch of like 16, 17, 18 year olds that wanna start their own business.

So, like, you just gotta say my audience. My entire audience on TikTok is are just a whole bunch of gay guys.

Okay. Well, do you cater to that group on purpose?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I wear this.

Okay. Does that drive real revenue?

It drives social media views. People wanna see, like, hot young chef working in a food truck, making it happen, serving really good food, having really good hospitality. And I just wanna hit the whole shebang. I get people commenting from Germany. I had someone come the other day that was from New Jersey.

Mhmm. Mhmm. I don't know why, but it...

It's just crazy.

So when did the first sale come in? Was it that Tuesday or later?

Tuesday. Tuesday was a Tuesday was a busy day. Tuesday, sold 20 Cuban sandwiches. Monday, sold nothing. Wednesday comes around, another viral reel. So I'm like, okay. Like, I just gotta keep going. Keep going. For the first five weeks I was open, I posted a reel every single day. Do you remember our total sales first week? So first day I did zero. Second day I did a $167. Third day I did 298. Fourth day I did 225 and then I had a big day of $4.16 on Friday.

Was that your best day?

That was a crazy day.

19 year old does a thousand dollars of sales first week in business on the back of Instagram reels. Have you grown since then? Are you flat? What's it looking like?

Second week comes along completely dead. Completely dead. I'm like, what happened? Like, why? Weather was horrible. I mean, Austin is so unpredictable. The weather, it was freezing. That week, I did, I think, less than, like, 400. All in. Yeah. All in. So it was terrible. So third week comes along and I'm like, I gotta make up for last week. So I start opening lunch. So third week was the first week that I started opening lunch. And

that's when... Am I allowed to swear? Of course. That's when shit hit the fan. That's when shit hit the fan. I'll tell you that. How so? Just to realize that 15 pounds of pork was only gonna last me one day. That's when I was like, okay, shit. What's my par? How much do I need to actually start prepping? And What does par stand for? Par is just like in the restaurant terms, like how much I need

to prep per week to make sure I don't run out of product. Okay. And that's when I was like, okay. I need a lot more product. I'm getting way too busy to... For me to handle, but I can't close. Like, shit hits the fan in the restaurant industry. You just... You gotta make it happen. There is no... I can't. There's no sorry.

What happened to revenue when you opened for lunch? Oh, I completely sold out. So what has been your best sales day so far? How much in total sales?

My busiest day, I was hands down on a Friday two weeks ago, a little over $4,000 in one day?

Yeah. How many sandwiches is that?

About a 150.

Jeez. But what makes Friday busy though? Mean, did you have a bunch of drunk people here that have the munchies late at night? That doesn't happen every day.

Rio Mart. So they have a concert. That's what's so cool about being connected. I'm understanding. You keep

saying there's a concert in this place. It looks like a a a dead end convenience store.

Oh, yeah. No. It's There's like a stage in here? They they take over the middle, and, they do concerts on the inside every Friday and Saturday.

Do you have an exclusive? Are you the only food truck allowed on this lot? Did you order the owner? Yeah. Yeah. So you work on an exclusive. But but have you locked that down as an exclusive? Yes. Because if he hears you're crushing it, he's gonna be like, man, I should put some more food trucks on the lot.

No. It's not gonna happen. You're good.

Yep. Very he's very confident. Yeah. Do you actually negotiated that or it's not yet on paper? No. It's on paper signed. How many full time folks are working for you today?

In total, I have five employees. I usually have about two per shift. One usually includes me. If something mysteriously happens that I unfortunately am not able to work, I have someone else work for me. So it averages about two to three employees other than me a day.

You're wrapping up your second month, I think, full in business. How much will you do in this month? Total revenue.

Last week, I did 7,000. The week before that, I did 7,000. So I do about 7 to 8,000 average a week.

Okay. It's pretty good. So you may... Do you think you can break $30,000 next month in total revenue? That'd about 8,000 a week.

Yeah. Because I'm gonna be open on weekends. That's what... I mean, seem so cavalier about it.

That's impressive to go from launch to, like, $2,030,000 dollars a month of sales in three months. It's wild. It's just been insane.

7 k per week times four weeks in a month

is about $28,000 per month of sales. If we take out, like, your costs and stuff, this thing should be printing money, right, from a profit perspective?

So each sandwich takes about $4 to make for a full. I charge between 14 and 50 depending on your style. So in average, I'm putting in my pocket back into the business about, what is that? $10.10 to $11.

That's your gross profit, but then you reinvest that, like paying your mom back, the rent, your employees. Do you pay yourself?

I mean, honestly, no. Just because, like, it pays back into the business. And, like, do I take out money for me for, like, living? Like, yeah. It's... I need to live. Yeah. It's enough to where I can keep my head afloat, pay for my employees, pay for my rent. My rent now is, $8.50 a month. Do you have $8.50 locked in or

can I keep increasing it?

No. $8.50 is locked in.

For how many years? For Or months.

For a year. Year to year contract. So...

A year twelve months locked at $8.50, which is nice. What do you think the max is that you could do in this truck? Like, you keep using the word maximum efficiency. What is maximum efficiency here?

Between thirty two and thirty five a month.

The reason I do this show is, one, to feature great stories, but it's two, I like to invest in small businesses with a really interesting vision where the founder's ideas plus my capital could help them grow faster. So can you think of any sort of ask? You know, Nathan, we're looking for x amount of capital so I can go do y in terms of growth.

So I would definitely want a food truck, which the difference is a food truck drives itself. A trailer is stationary. I've gotten asked so many times to do events for a food truck. To start off, it would be about 40,000 to $50,000. So that would be a down payment for the truck, or that could be a full cost expense if you find a really good deal. Everything included as in, like, refrigerators, flat top generator, if you have it, propane tanks, if you have it, everything, gloves, trash bags, your startup cost is gonna be about 45,000 to $50,000.

Is there any cheaper way for you to do this? Do you have to buy your own truck? Could you rent one?

Oh, no. You could rent one.

Okay. So why buy 50,000 versus rent one first?

You don't really wanna lease a car because at the end of the day, it's never gonna be a 100% yours. If you can

a 100% buy something, do it. So how would you fund that investment today if I wasn't here? Or would you just wait until you had enough profits?

I would have to wait. I would have to... Percent have to wait, and it would be a long time. How long? I mean, depending on this track, couple years.

I think maybe it's too fast to put $50 in on a whole another truck. Like, this one's just ramping. Social media is cranking. Let me ask a different question. Is there any extra piece of equipment that you could add to this that would make you more efficient here that I could help fund?

I wanna set it up for, cafe con leche, big Cuban thing, so a barista. So instead of doing ice cream, I would do coffee because that's more Cuban style. But you talk with such passion about the ingredients of the Cuban. Now it

just feels like you're sort of adding on what everyone else does, which is like, I gotta throw some throw some coffee on, like, throw some

A cafe con leche is very Cuban. That's like, you know, Miami, Key West, Tampa, all these main three spots. You always have a cafe con leche and a Cubano. They go together. They they... Trust me. They go together.

Okay. I wouldn't know. So you're telling me it's... You're not just a...

An entrepreneur. Pulling something out of my ass where it's like, I wanna do coffee on one. I'm like a little barista.

Most founders, like, have 9,000,000 ideas. They're no focus. These things go together.

Oh, it's night... Like, literally yin and yang.

Okay. How much money would you need to retrofit this to be able to support selling cafe con leches?

I'd have to remove the ice cream machine, figure out a specific space to fill it, have a barista.

Do you have any idea what it would cost for you to make that work in here?

About 15.

15? Yeah. Okay. That seems to be a lighter debt load against a $30,000 a month business. 15 k is more manageable. Yeah. How could you pay me

back if I wrote that check today? 100% in coffee sales. Every sale that I get from coffee, you take a percentage out, and that's how we can pay off that debt instantly.

Okay. How much coffee sales do you think you could do?

If I were to open up for coffee, what I would do is have a barista specifically come just for coffee in the morning, and I would have her cook, and I would have do breakfast. Okay. But then I'm dipping my toes into breakfast.

Lunch and dinner. Yeah. Yeah.

I haven't even thought about that. What that would look like is a simple Cuban sandwich, one style, bacon, egg, and cheese, and then coffee. Super simple to How is that a

Cuban breakfast? Bacon, egg, and cheese. I get that at, like, Starbucks. What makes it unique about, like Cuban bread.

Pressed Cuban bread. A good Cuban Cubano breakfast that is, like, usually cheese, Swiss cheese, egg, and then you can add bacon, but it has to have mayo.

Okay. So you have all the equipment to do that now, or do you need more equipment for that?

No. I can make a... I can whip one up right now.

Okay. Great. Well, that's nice. Okay. I like this deal. Let me make you an offer. I'll offer $15,000. You pay you pay that back 1.2 x over the first... If you pay it back in the first twelve to sixteen months. If it takes you longer to pay it back based off coffee sales, so let's say you pay back after sixteen months, the multiplier increases to 1.4 x. So you owe me back $18,000 if you pay it back between twelve and sixteen months. Right? So take $18 divided by sixteen months.

So do you think with coffee sales you could service debt payments to me of $1,001.25 per month?

Average coffee nowadays, average coffee is about like $44.50. I feel like people pay for coffee. Cafe con leche is about $4.50. And then you have to look at an employee. So I pay my employees 15 an hour. So from eight to let's just say like eleven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, fifteen, 45, that's 45.

And how many days would you offer that?

That? Week. Six days a week.

So times times six days a week, the $45 of labor.

270 a week? Times four times four weeks for a month.

So labor is about a a grand for you to launch this. Yeah. So think back to paying me back 1,125 per month based off all the margin you just calculated. Is that doable?

$2,200 a month with coffee, including labor and paying you back over time. If you give me $15,000 right now, would tomorrow be the first day that I need to start paying you back? Or is it the first sale that I do?

Well, generally speaking, I I need to earn something on my money the second it leaves my pocket. Right. So what you're really asking is how long would it take to get this set up so Yeah. You can start making

Four weeks. Four weeks? Yeah.

Okay. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm I'm fine with my offer being $15,000. The first thirty days, you don't owe anything to get you time to get it set up and invested. If you pay me back that $15,000 before sixteen months, after the one month holiday, you only owe 1.2 x the 15,000. If it goes past that, the multiplier increases. Would that structure work? I wanna basically penalize you for taking longer Right. To pay me So we

would set up some structure after that where it gets more and more bad for you, the longer it takes for you to pay me back. Right. We can work out those ratchets. I don't think it'll take you that long to pay me back though based off the math you just walked through.

Yeah. I know. I think I can a 100% make it work. The only thing is it's just a gamble. I don't know if I wanna...

I don't know if

I'm biting off more than I can chew in the sense of do... Is... Fuck. But everyone loves a good cafe con leche.

It's your decision, but you have to decide. Yes or no. $15,000 paid back 1.2 x over sixteen months or 1.4 x over twenty four months.

Damn. And I just started two months ago, and Cuban sandwiches are my thing, but you can't beat a cafe con leche. The only reason the only reason why I'm hesitant right this second is because this building behind me, the one that's being rebuilt, is called Texas French Bread, and they do coffee and and Texas toast and that stuff. So they would be my first competition, but they don't do cafe con leches. That's Cuban. That's me.

It's your decision. Fuck.

That ice cream machine's probably never gonna run, and coffee's a good expense to have because it's cheap and you can sell a lot of it.

But I

feel like we can have some fun doing it.

And do we have a deal?

Dude, I feel like we have a deal.

Alright, Connor. Let's get to work, man. Good stuff. Yeah. It's a big risk, but you're hustling. You got nothing to lose.

I got... Okay. Yeah. Let's do it.

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