Rondón and Velázquez foster community, diversity, and economic development for Latinos in Pittsburgh

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. 

Brent Rondón (far right) at the opening of The Colombian Spot in Oakland

Brent Rondón serves as the Senior Management Consultant for the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) 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,” Brent 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.”

Brent Rondón (center) recently helped Cilantro y Ajo open their Lawrenceville location. Owner Marlyn Parra appears in the far right and Nathan Harper, Manager of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Services (OIRA) of the Office of the Mayor.

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, Rondón 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,” Brent 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 Rondón 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, Brent 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 become a forefront of political campaigns and anti-immigrant sentiments are on the rise. 

Brent Rondón facilitates SBDC’s Abre Tu Negocio (Open Your Business) workshop.

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.

Guillermo Velázquez speaks at the opening of Pupusas y Antojitos Helen restaurant.

Similarly, Guillermo Velázquez, who is the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation, 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. Though 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 Corporation’s (PHDC) Business Incubator initiative.

Despite juggling studying for his master’s program and working, Guillermo agreed to the job. “When I came on board, all they had was a mission statement,” he said of the PHDC’s Business Incubator. Velázquez worked with the team to slowly transform not just the incubator idea, but 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,” Guillermo commented on the process of creating the Business Incubator’s office space.

Velázquez speaks to guests during the opening of a new Salvadoran restaurant.

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 that 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 Guillermo, 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. 

Guillermo greets a new business owner from the PHDC Incubator.

“‘You are our leader, you are our voice,’” he recalled her telling him. “It wasn’t until then that 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,” Velázquez 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.