Mike Alfaro had just left his fast-paced job in advertising to catch a break when his grandmother’s old Lotería game set sparked an idea that would change his life.
Moving to the United States in pursuit of the American dream is never easy.
Mike Alfaro, an immigrant from Guatemala, came to the U.S. to build an advertising and public relations career. Even though he had a successful working life, he always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur.
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Alfaro's successful career in advertising started with him working in copywriting and eventually climbing his way up to creative director. He produced Super Bowl commercials for Honda and was the brain behind some of Taco Bell’s campaigns.
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After feeling that he needed to recharge and reorganize his goals, he quit his full-time job and traveled to his hometown to visit his family. The trip would end up being the beginning of an entrepreneurial career.
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After seeing a Lotería game set in his family home, Alfaro had an idea: It'd be fun to recreate the game, originally created in the 1700s, and make it more modern, or, as Alfaro calls it, "Millennial."
Lotería is played very similarly to the original Bingo but with picture cards, which include things like "La Rosa," "El Músico," "La Dama," "El Catrin," "Las Jaras," and many more.
In Alfaro's version, Lotería is called Millennial Lotería and features parodies of the classic imagery. La Dama becomes La Feminist, El Catrín turns into El Hipster, and Las Jaras is replaced with La Hashtag.
It has become a best-seller in stores and online while gaining a big following on social media.
"I realized I could make something that was modern, related to my generation, and spoke to us in a way that was still keeping the traditional feel of Lotería," Alfaro said. "But also modernizing in a way that was more of the times that reflected our culture."
Alfaro says that when he started looking for partners to publish his product, he always found help and support within the Latino community.
"Ninety-nine percent of the opportunities I've ever gotten are from someone Latino on the other end of the phone calling me, whether it's a producer or, you know, a creative director or anyone just in the business," Alfaro said. "Latinos are the ones that are pulling me up, the ones that are like recognizing what this product is."
For his first mass publication, he partnered with Blue Star Press, a book publisher, and printed 10,000 copies, expecting to sell them for Christmas, but they sold faster than expected.
"They started selling those on Amazon at first; okay, they sold out before we even got to like Christmas, "Alfaro said. "By Christmas, everybody was like, where can I buy this game?"
One of the most significant moments of Alfaro's career came after Target asked him to create a family version of Millennial Lotería to be sold exclusively at the store.
"They sold out at every Target when it launched, like the week that it launched, every single Target sold out of them," Alfaro said.
Alfaro was determined to reach his goals because, as an immigrant, he felt that he needed to push harder than anyone else to show his parents that all the sacrifices they made to give him an education were worth it.
"When you're an immigrant in this country, you have to be the best to succeed," Alfaro said. "I think that's why I just pushed so hard. You've got to get your money's worth."
Alfaro was interviewed for Bísness School, a series that tells the inspiring stories of Latino founders. Subscribe to Bísness School wherever you get your podcasts to get future episodes automatically. Remember, Business school is expensive. Bísness School is free.
