I’m 39, dad of two wild little ones, and happily married to the woman who somehow still puts up with my late-night “one more idea” rants. Life’s full, loud, and awesome. Oh, and I’m fully bilingual English/Spanish (¡hola! jaja). A few years back I was deep in IT... engineer turned product owner... then spent five years running import/export for Amazon’s cross-border program. We were fulfilling and shipping thousands of packages a day across the US-Mexico border... handling pretty much everything from electronics to home goods to fashion, moving products both ways for Amazon sellers. I even created that program from scratch, building all the processes, logistics hooks, and tech integrations to make it run smooth. Then Mexican law changes hit hard, the whole operation shut down overnight, and the job vanished. After the Amazon program shut down, I spent months applying to over 50 jobs... only to hear crickets, or worse: “overqualified,” “not the right fit,” or the classic ghosting that makes you feel like you’re suddenly too old at 30-something. I got fed up with the whole thing and decided no more 9-5 for someone else... so I launched elsabormarket.com, my own niche Shopify store focused on real-deal authentic Mexican pantry products I know inside out. Two-plus years in, we’re now at over 10,000 items, sales climbing every month, and it’s finally getting close to replacing my old salary. These days it doesn’t feel like a 9-5 anymore... more like 00:00 to 11:59 PM, jaja. Being tech-savvy has been my superpower. I code enough Python to automate everything boring, manage massive product data, tweak themes, and build tools that keep the whole machine running smooth. Pair that with AI, and it’s pure magic... I bring the ideas and creativity, AI makes it happen 10x faster: clean code, smart recommendations, killer copy, all of it. I’ve already built the scalable foundation... search, data pipelines, automations... everything is in place to grow big. But honestly, after seeing so many failed scaling attempts (mine and others), I’ve learned that rushing into “more people, more inventory, more risk” before you’re 100% stable is a recipe for pain. Right now I’m still analyzing the options and putting the final pieces together... weighing things like loans, investors, or just bootstrapping and accumulating capital organically to keep control.