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While the pandemic affected all people one way or another, Sergio Ángeles Castro saw a business opportunity that grows at a constant rate and at the same time helps solve the new challenges of restaurant businesses.
Originally from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, the young man is studying the last semester of Industrial Engineering at CETYS University Campus Mexicali. Born in 1998, Sergio is a true digital native and belongs to the centennial generation, the one that has grown up with fast internet, and since 2020, represents 3 out of every 10 people in the world. It is the generation that does not feel any attachment to commercial brands, but understands the value proposition of authenticity better, more than makeup and appearances; the one that consults recommendations on social networks.
Taking advantage of its characteristics and context, and knowing that current innovation proposals are materialized in the virtual scenarios demonstrated by giants of digital businesses such as Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb, for whom buildings and high infrastructure costs are irrelevant, the student envisioned an opportunity for his entrepreneurship, creating Fast Food Solutions (FF Solutions).
“I was inspired by a family member who had an American-style cinnamon roll business and wanted to join the delivery platforms. He asked me for my support, so, looking into the existing platforms, I realized that to have a presence on them, they ask for a high quota or commissions on sales, and small businesses like my relatives or those of many Cachanillas can’t sustain those expenses; also, they are foreign companies whose money flow does not stop here, and their purpose is not to help businesses, but simply to add them. That is the difference of FF Solutions, I discovered that I can support them by this means,” shared the entrepreneur.
FF Solutions is made up of a series of digital tools that can be implemented from a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or any mobile device, connecting customers and food businesses without charges or sales commissions, which gives social meaning to this enterprise that opens up new avenues for commerce such as web pages and mobile applications, with which restaurateurs can have functionalities such as:
Receive online orders from Facebook, WhatsApp, and all digital media
Accept or reject orders in real-time
Customize the menu and delivery costs
A restaurant’s application for IOS and Android
A website for the restaurant
Based on the concept of the dark kitchen, which, although not new, has found more meaning in the health emergency, the value proposition in the form of Fast Food Solutions service is to serve one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic: small businesses of food, providing them with a means of contact with their customers through the internet, without the need to have a space open to the public that must be subject to changes in the epidemiological traffic light, and at the same time, attending to the needs of the consumer who does not want risking your health in a public space, but you do want to choose your favorite food in the safety and comfort of your home.
“The most attractive thing for them is that this new option has no ties, it is not charged based on sales but through a small fee; but if the business is very small, it has the benefit of a trial month, so the businesses are not harmed. Also, in the case of having difficulties to cover it, they have great flexibility,” he emphasized.
With his initiative to support local business owners to overcome the difficulties derived from the restrictions necessary to take care of everyone’s health, Sergio shows that even under adverse conditions it is possible to start new projects, and mainly, to help others.
“The biggest obstacle is the fear of failure, that it won’t work; it is uncertainty, but if they have an idea in mind they are not afraid, beyond a possible failure it does not happen, and if that happens new lessons are learned. Do it, in whatever field,” concluded the future engineer.
