From Pittsburgh Latino Magazine: Rondón, Velázquez foster community, diversity and economic development for Latinos in Pittsburgh

This story is shared by Pittsburgh Latino Magazine.

And here’s the Spanish version that you can find there.

An ordinary workday for Brent Rondón and Guillermo Velázquez is anything but typical.
Whether it’s facilitating the construction of an organization’s office space or hopping on a business call with engineers in Argentina, both men spend hours working with local and international entrepreneurs to help build businesses from the ground up.

If you ask the two why they do what they do, they would probably tell you that the hard work, long hours and dedication are just part of the job, but if you ask the people they have helped, they will tell you that Rondón and Velázquez are pillars of their communities — two individuals who have gone above and beyond to make sure that Latino businesses and entrepreneurs have not just the chance but also every tool they need to succeed.

Rondón serves as the senior management consultant for the Small Business Development Center at the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, part of the Innovation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. In this role, he helps small businesses, both in Pittsburgh and internationally, expand and reach their full potential.

For Rondón, achieving that potential comes through fostering cultural connections. “In the international market, the main driver of business is not really the company or the product,” he said. “The main driver is the relationship, the connection, so the more diverse we are as companies, the more chances we have to do business.”

Originally from Peru, Rondón first came to Pittsburgh in 1994 to pursue his master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. As a Latino then residing in Harrisburg, he felt he was missing a connection to his Latin American community and culture, but that changed when he attended Pitt’s Latin American and Caribbean Festival.

“I found a really rich environment at Pitt. The community was great, and I met many, many local Hispanics,” he said. “I found a group called LACU, the Latin American Cultural Union. First I became a member, and then later I became president. It was a great time for me to learn about the issues, problems and needs of the [Latino] community and how much need there was for [them] to connect with the local Pittsburgh community.”

This experience inspired him as he started his consulting career at Duquesne University. Combined with his time living in both Latin America and the United States, fostering cultural connections became a central focus of his business strategy.

Now, as a small business consultant at the SBDC, he uses his cultural competency to help the local Pittsburgh community connect with its Latino population — a job that has become increasingly important in an election year, when immigration has come to the forefront of political campaigns and anti-immigrant sentiments are on the rise. Every day, Rondón works to foster diversity and community both locally and internationally, factors that he views as assets to the overall economy.

“We are really missing an opportunity [as a country] to be a more competitive and more service-oriented economy. The Latino population, in addition to being hard workers, are also entrepreneurs, and I see that in my job,” he said.

Similarly, Guillermo Velázquez, who is the executive director of the Pittsburgh Hispanic
Development Corp., sees this in his job — and he also shares a similar story to many of the entrepreneurs his organization serves.

Velázquez first came to Pittsburgh from Mexico in 1996 on an internship program where
he learned how to build and run a business. Although he had not planned to stay in
Pittsburgh long term, that changed when he decided to pursue his master’s degree and
had the chance to join the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corp.’s Business Incubator initiative.

Despite juggling studying for his master’s program and working, he agreed to the job. “When I came on board, all they had was a mission statement,” he said of the PHDC’s Business Incubator. He worked with the team to slowly transform not just the incubator idea but also its physical space and business values into a tangible and productive community organization.

“We did presentations to be able to fundraise the necessary money to build what
everyone knows now. When I came on board, there were only windows, bricks and
pieces of board here. There was nothing except one light in the middle,” he
commented on the process of creating the Business Incubator’s office space.

Now, as of August of 2024 the Business Incubator has helped 370 entrepreneurs to
plan, open, or grow their businesses. According to Stanford Business, Latino
businesses are the fastest-growing segment of the United States’ small business
industry, which in turn contributes greatly to both regional and national economic
development.

As a physical space, the Business Incubator provides small businesses and entrepreneurs with all the resources they need to succeed, from shared lounge meeting areas to cubicles, conference rooms and even coworking spaces and training areas. Their portfolio ranges from mentoring to grand openings for business to website development for startups. They work with a variety of businesses and entrepreneurs, from construction to the beauty industry, and even entrepreneurs in the food service and restaurant industries.

Yet for Velázquez, each one of these businesses and entrepreneurs is more than just a statistic. To him, each business is someone’s success story and their “why.” Nonetheless, he still remains transparent about the struggles that accompany the responsibilities of his job.

Running a program like the Business Incubator can often lead to an imbalance of work
and personal life, and for him, this meant sacrificing much of his personal life for the entrepreneurs and businesses that he helped grow. However, it wasn’t until an entrepreneur approached him one day and voiced how much his support meant to the
community that he truly realized his impact.

“‘You are our leader; you are our voice,’” he recalled her telling him. “It wasn’t until then
hat I realized what I meant to people and to the community. For many of them, I am their voice. I am their hope for realizing their dreams,” he said.

As individuals, both Rondón and Velázquez have fostered community, diversity and
economic and entrepreneurial development in their communities — both in Pittsburgh and abroad, and they’re not done yet. Both men look forward to furthering the future of small business development in Pittsburgh and beyond, especially as both the Latino and
entrepreneurial populations continue to grow in the coming years.

Others in the series include:

Meet the man behind the ‘Yinzburgh!’ comics (from the Northside Chronicle)

Community leader’s cancer fight gave him strength (from Latrobe Bulletin)

Laura Magone’s Wedding Cookie Table community: A labor of love (from the Mon Valley Independent) 

New Castle native sows seeds of knowledge, positivity (from the New Castle News)

Faces of the Valley: Volunteering and firefighting is family affair for Lower Burrell woman (from TribLive.com)

She came back a different person to help people and live well (from Soul Pitt Quarterly)

A Joe of all trades helps his North Side neighbors (from “YaJagoff!“)

Pittsburgh environmental activist’s ‘sustainability salons’ foster community (from The Allegheny Front)

A Penn Hills candy factory is making life sweeter for folks on the autism spectrum (from Pittsburgh Magazine)

‘Give Back King’: Go-getter Jamal Woodson a leader on and off the court (from Pittsburgh Union Progress)