Today I wanted to share the story of a young couple that inspired Ganaz. We are building a high growth, profitable global business, but what motivates us to put in the long hours is people like Ana and Eduardo. By joining us as an investor, you will have a tangible impact on Ana, Eduardo and many more with similar dreams and challenges.
I met Ana and Eduardo in the little town of Pescadero in Southern Baja California, Mexico. Like many farmworkers in Baja California, they were born in Oaxaca, a beautiful state in Southern Mexico that’s also very poor. Their families moved to Northern Baja when they were young to work in the berry and tomato fields, and that’s where they met and fell in love.
Eduardo is the eldest of several kids, and his dad is no longer in the picture. Eduardo’s younger brothers, 12 and 14, work in the tomato fields in Northern Baja. Many kids of farmworkers in Mexico drop out after elementary school because the cost of school fees, transportation and uniforms for just one child can eat up 30% of a farmworkers wages.
According to Eduardo, the crew leaders at his brother's farm pushed meth on their crews both as a way to make extra money and to get them to work faster. One of his younger brothers ended up addicted to meth at the age of 12.
Eduardo needed a way to make more money than he was making in Northern Baja to help get treatment for his brother and take care of his younger siblings and new wife. So when a recruiter told him he could make 300 pesos a day picking chile peppers in Southern Baja, with housing included, he and Ana packed their bags. They had been married just a few weeks. They spent their meager savings to travel 700 miles to the farm the recruiter told them about, only to find out the harvest hadn’t started yet, there was no housing, and the wages would only be 100 pesos a day. Ana and Eduardo spent several nights sleeping on the ground outside since they had no place to live and no money. Some kind of honeymoon.
Meanwhile, there was a great organic farm just a quarter mile down the road that was desperate for good workers—and offered housing. Ana and Eduardo, being good millennials, owned a smartphone and a tablet, and showed me all the apps and hacks they use to communicate with family, get around data limitations, and entertain themselves. But of course, there was no information that helped them find good jobs.
Ana and Eduardo, and many others with similar stories, are the inspiration for Ganaz. A successful WeFunder ($75k) campaign will help us expand in the US, and an ultra-successful campaign ($100K) will allow us to begin testing in Mexico this winter. Thank you for being a part of the change we all want to see in the world.