Pastelillos Lamboy, the Manatí institution that has been making pastelillos for more than 60 years, won the top prize at Grupo Guayacán's Scale Up Bootcamp, the growth program Guayacán runs in partnership with Popular. The award was $50,000 in seed capital, given to one winner out of a cohort of 16 established companies.
Pastelillos Lamboy is a third-generation family business, run today by José Lamboy, with a menu of more than 20 kinds of pastelillo and an operation in Manatí that employs more than a dozen people. The Scale Up Bootcamp is built for exactly this kind of company, one that is established and ready to scale rather than just getting started. Popular made a short film about the family and the business, and it is worth the minute and a half.
What makes this more than a trophy is what the prize is funding. The plan behind it is a distribution center meant to double production and get the product into more stores across the island. It is a plan to reach twice as many tables, built on a recipe that has not needed changing in sixty years. When we asked José for advice he would give other founders, his first answer was simple: do not be afraid of rejection.
We are proud to work with Pastelillos Lamboy. There is something special about a business that has fed Puerto Rico for three generations deciding it is not done growing. Helping a legacy like that step into its next chapter is the kind of work we care about most, and we are glad to be part of it.
