Meet Marisol Lazo-Flores
At her core, Marisol Lazo-Flores is a people person. The daughter of Mexican and El Salvadorian immigrants and the oldest of three children, Marisol learned early how to assert herself and advocate for others. Her enthusiasm for connecting with people and cultivating relationships led her to a career in the hospitality industry.
As Marisol watched the pandemic disrupt the restaurant industry and displace thousands of workers, she realized that the traditional restaurant business model needed help. In 2020, she became the managing director of the Main Street Phoenix Project (MSPP), a cooperative that acquires restaurants that are struggling as a result of the current economic landscape with the goal of fostering a worker-centered, equitable economy.
Detach yourself from the idea of perfectionism.
Your mantra moving forward should be,
‘Imperfect action.’ Just get something done every day.
Time will freeze if we want everything
to be perfect. Just get it out there,
get support, start moving. You'll feel
a lot better about yourself.
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MISSION
To acquire hospitality industry businesses with strong community roots and incorporate them into an enterprise-scale platform that provides income security, quality jobs and ownership for women, BIPOC and undocumented workers.
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VISION
To provide small businesses with resources and infrastructure that, in turn, empower and support hospitality workers by recognizing their inherent value and expertise.
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SEEKING
Hospitality business owners and workers who want to revolutionize the industry.
Marisol’s Story
Driven by a desire to create lasting impact, Marisol Lazo-Flores received her MBA from the Hult International Business School, where she honed skills in organizational behavior and employee engagement. As a director and partner at Rethink Restaurants, Marisol helped restaurant industry clients overhaul their business model and implement open-book management practices, always emphasizing the value of employees and the need to include them in conversations.
Marisol leverages her over ten years of experience in the hospitality industry and expertise in open-book management to shift perceptions of what restaurant business models look like. As the managing director of MSPP, she is a tireless advocate for empowering workers by providing upward economic mobility via expanded benefits and career development.
We’re breaking away from the traditional path of
inequitable, unrepresentative, and inaccessible
business and corporate securities legal services
by going even further and creating a dynamic,
multidimensional, culturally representative law firm
dedicated to providing creative, representative legal
and business strategies to BIPOC-owned
businesses, nonprofits, cooperatives,
and investment companies.
Q & A
We recently sat down with Marisol LazoFlores to find out more about her passions, her calling and generally dive in deeper to get to know her.
1
ICC has grown to over 250 practitioners and allies, all deploying a range of debt, equity, and real estate instruments to support BIPOC entrepreneurs and catalyze community wealth.
How did you discover ICC and what drew you to become a partner?
I was introduced to the ICC network while building MSPP, the organization has been invaluable to me and I’m grateful for their support. When you're working on something that's innovative or new, it can be very lonely. ICC has allowed me to tap into a network full of support, and that's invaluable. It's really important to have that for any person entering a new space, particularly an entrepreneur. My priority is to work on my vision for MSPP’s work, and ICC is supporting me by trying to change legislation or secure capital or expand the network. We need all these pieces, and everyone in ICC understands that we're usually focused on our own work, but when we come together, we can do even more.
2
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your work over the last few years?
Our challenges are the same faced by the entire restaurant industry, and things have never been easy in the industry. The pandemic shed light on a lot of its flaws, including the inequality between front-of-house and back-of-house, the job roles, and the fact that many people had to have two restaurant jobs because they couldn't be full-time at one location. This list could go on for a while. So, now people are saying: “Okay, these workers are valuable and central to the industry. We need to increase pay or have an automatic service charge.” While a lot of restaurants have at least done that, it still doesn't address the core issues.
A large percent of the restaurant industry’s workers are people of color and specifically, women of color. So, when we were making decisions about MSPP’s mission and values, we started there. We put BIPOC workers front and center to give them a voice. That’s what the organization is for—to protect them. Although we are a for-profit organization, our workers come first.
Macroeconomic issues are affecting us too.We're dealing with inflation, our economy is unstable, and people are still coming out of the pandemic, all of which are causing chaos and uncertainty. These coupled with everything I listed above have resulted in a labor shortage in the restaurant industry—and unfortunately, our locations haven’t been immune.
3
How do we shift the narrative about the role of capital in BIPOC communities and reframe the perceptions of the risk involved?
There needs to be more conversations about meeting BIPOC leaders where they're at. Often, those at the top—who make decisions and have the power and resources to invest—still have a very traditional mindset. They want to know what the returns are, even at the very early stages. There are more and more people who look like me, or have very different ideas and models, who are entering into rooms with these decision makers. It's very important for investors to be open-minded and to meet us where we're at.
Take MSPP for example, because a lot of things about us are risky: we’re a novel model, we're in the restaurant industry, and our vision is long-term. There are many amazing organizations that have come up with new ways to disrupt business models and increase wealth for certain communities, which is great, but for us, it’s a long-term vision that’s going to take time. The first two locations we acquired weren’t performing well when we took over. My job and priority is to turn the business around and keep the employees engaged so that it's sustainable. It's all about sustainability, and that takes time.
We also need more ways for BIPOC community leaders or entrepreneurs to access capital. I'm specifically interested in the idea of supporting the same BIPOC entrepreneur for their second venture. After their first attempt at creating something, this person has learned so many lessons. How do we get investors to see the value in a person who courageously asks for capital a second time? A high percentage of BIPOC entrepreneurs or leaders will not try again— and we need to focus on how we can continue to encourage them to keep moving forward.
4
What are the top three pieces of advice you would give to BIPOC entrepreneurs, who are dedicated to both purpose and profit, as they are starting or scaling their business?
Make time to meet with your investors. We think that because investors are giving us money, they’re only concerned with getting returns.. I set up 15-minute meet-and-greet calls with my investors and the conversations are always inspirational and encouraging. They often say, “I love the work you're doing, keep it up. We know it's difficult.” I didn't know how much I needed that.
And remember: You will receive advice and guidance from others who are more experienced than you, but you don't always have to take the advice. Trust your gut and your voice. You're in the position you’re in for a reason.
5
What is the call to action for investors who seek to promote social justice through investment solutions?
If you find a start-up or organization that you like or invest in, share it with your network. Make introductions and support the leaders every step of the way. Repeat investments show others that you’re committed to the vision and you're supportive—it’s valuable for other investors to see that buy-in!
6
What is the call to action for investors who seek to promote social justice through investment solutions?
Be intentional about supporting a particular group or particular issue. If you’re trying to change the world without critical thought, you’ll fail. But if you can find others who share your mission and you pool your capital together, you can make meaningful changes.
Marisol Lazo-Flores is looking for
people who meet the following
criteria to work together
JUST: We create products and processes that uphold “nothing about us without us.”
RESPONSIVE: We listen to and build with multiple, diverse perspectives.
RADICAL: We commit systemic change by injecting restorative justice into Finance.
COOPERATIVE: We co-own and co-build this work through participatory processes.
HOLISTIC: We value the uncounted resources of lived experience and whole people.
EMERGENT: We listen and learn, adapt and modify, and value “done” over “perfect.
ABOUT US
Team members across two locations and back office: 22
Number of transactions: 76,505
Payroll and benefits total for location workers since acquisitions: $512,878
Lawyers and law students trained: 5+
Total program partners: 10
Sales since location acquisitions: $1,134,063