Meet Sal & Jo Carranza | Los Underdogs

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sal & Jo Carranza and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sal & Jo, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
In the beginning, we were PTA parents simply wanting to support our kids’ school. Sal always liked to cook and barbecue, so we bought a small hotdog cart to cater at their elementary school to help raise funds. Our original name, Underdogs, came from the fact that we were new to the scene and concept of food vending and that we mainly only sold hotdogs. Soon, others started to notice us and we were receiving requests to do birthday parties and other events. The positive reception and joy we received from serving our community pushed us to pursue this as a side hustle. After catering more and more events and incorporating new items to our menu, we decided to change our name to Los Underdogs to hone in on our Chicano background and our logo to our children’s faces to honor them as our motivation.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Sal has always been an amazing cook and is always showing his love with the food he makes. So the passion for our craft was the easy part. However,
learning to sell, promote, and run a business wasn’t and isn’t always so easy. We’re still learning new
things every time we go out there, and there have been many times we wonder if we should take a
break to focus on our respective full-time jobs. We’ve definitely also had instances where we don’t
make back what we put in, but there’s a saying in Spanish that applies here, “el quien no arriesga no
gana”. One who does not risk, does not win. We’d rather try to make it in an effort to make a path for our kids. If we don’t push & try we may never know.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was in town i would take her to balboa park or little italy street food spots. We love supporting local businesses and I personally really like trying new foods. I feel like its important to support other families like ours because in a way we see it as its own special society. The hustle, the love, the work put in to be put out vulnerably for sale takes alot of heart.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
little credit and recognition in your story?
Our three beautiful and amazing kids are the reason why we do what we do. They give us the energy and drive to provide the best we can for them. On top of that, we feel that having them see us work hard for our business and community is a great way to raise them up to have upstanding values. For example, showing them that worthy things don’t come without hard work. We won’t always be here to protect and guide them, but we can provide them a solid foundation to grow from. They all say with such pride that when they grow older, they will take care of us by running the business. Since their faces are our logo, they genuinely feel that this business is a part of who we are as a family. Overall, we are truly blessed to have family to motivate each other to be better and go further.

Instagram: https://instagram.com/los.underdogs_sd?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=