Pasteles Jaque Mate
Company description
Pasteles Jaque Mate is a Brownsville virtual cake shop specializing in made-to-order Mini Cakes in a variety of Hispanic flavors, baked fresh daily with balanced, not-overly-sweet recipes. The business was part of the Quality of Life Ventures cohort of Startup Texas, the accelerator and pitch competition sponsored by the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation (BCIC) in partnership with UTRGV's Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center (ECC) and taught at the eBridge Center.
Owner Luis Gutierrez is a native of the Brownsville/Matamoros community and a graduate of the University of Texas at Brownsville (now UTRGV), with a marketing career spanning corporate, franchise, government, non-profit, and agency work. The recipes behind Pasteles Jaque Mate have been in the family since 1988, and Luis launched the business as a home-based, direct-to-consumer cake shop in December 2018, running it as a Cottage Food Producer alongside his day job in marketing. By his own account, the business has since sold more than 24,000 cakes for over $200,000 in sales, delivered entirely through a delivery-and-collaboration model with local businesses, and built a following of more than 10,000 across social media.
Pasteles Jaque Mate's relationship with BCIC goes back further than Startup Texas: the business also received support through Brownsville's [Re]Open for Business Forgivable Loan Program in 2021, during an earlier round of pandemic-era small business recovery funding.
Founder: Luis Gutierrez
Program: 2024 StartUp Texas Accelerator, Quality of Life Ventures cohort
Links and socials
Facebook: facebook.com/PastelesJaqueMate
Instagram: @pastelesjaquemate
Email: PastelesJaqueMate@gmail.com
Order/links page: poplme.co/jaquemate956