To Create Your Own Destiny: Alfredo Solar

Being shot in the back during a robbery at his chocolate factory was the lowest point in Alfredo Solar’s career, but not because of the wound. He was lucky; the bullet passed all the way through him without damaging any vital organs. But the months Solar spent recovering in bed were too much for his fledgling company, which depended on his daily presence. Bucareli Chocolates, founded in Mexico City in 2015 to provide employment opportunities for individuals with physical disabilities, closed its doors in 2019. 

Years earlier, seventeen-year-old Alfredo borrowed money from his mother to start a landscaping business that grew to include several employees. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico, where his interactions with English-speaking missionaries seeded his desire to speak fluent English. He borrowed money from his uncle to study English in Canada, where he saw city buses equipped with lifts and ramps to accommodate individuals in wheelchairs. Because of these buses, people with physical disabilities were able to integrate into society in ways not then seen in Mexico. He wondered how he might be able to help such individuals back home. “I’m not going to build wheelchairs or ramps—I’m going to provide jobs for them,” he thought.
He studied international business at BYU Hawaii where he was inspired by the vision and perspectives of his professors and fellow international students. He discovered his passion for entrepreneurship while listening to visiting guest speaker Elder Gary E. Stevenson’s thoughts on tenacity, contribution, and work-life balance. 

Determined to create employment for people with physical disabilities in Mexico, Solar settled on chocolate for its universal appeal. He took a class in types of chocolate, toured factories, and found cacao suppliers in Mexico. He purchased machines and started making chocolate in his kitchen. This did not turn out well, so he hired a professional chocolatier and a few employees, rented a factory, and enlisted a designer for marketing. He drove long hours from Mexico City to Texas to sell his chocolates. 
He worked to understand the needs of his employees, even offering to help those in wheelchairs get home from work on their first day to better understand what the journey entailed for them. They responded with their best efforts in the factory, and the company took off. “You give people dignity when you give them work. People are grateful and work harder for you when you create opportunities for them,” says Solar, recalling the many employees who offered to work for reduced pay while he recovered from his wounds. 

Although closing the chocolate factory was the most painful thing he’s ever done, Solar is grateful for new opportunities to innovate, create, and contribute. He’s had time to focus on another business he co-founded that designs sleek trash bins for the visually impaired. Encouraged by college friends to apply to graduate school at USU, he now has a scholarship in the Entrepreneurship program and is completing an MBA. 

Much of what Solar has accomplished may not have been possible without loans from his family. Now he and some Huntsman School classmates are building an app, Bundo, to facilitate lending between friends and family. Bundo allows parties to define the terms of their lending agreement, track payments, and provides borrowers the option to include a thank-you “tip” as appreciation to the lender.

“In the United States alone, an estimated $89 billion dollars is borrowed between friends and family annually, so there’s a market for this product,” Solar explains. Bundo focus group participants have indicated they are more likely to lend money to individuals based on need. “Compared to banks who lend based on ability to repay, we’ve created a way to help people who are struggling gain access to credit that they wouldn’t have any other way.” 

“When you have the time [to pursue an opportunity], you don’t have the money, and when you have the money, it’s too late for that opportunity. So we want to create a win-win situation for people, to innovate the way people lend and borrow money while providing dignity for the borrower and reassurance for the lender.” 

Every year on his birthday, Solar takes a walk with a notebook and a pen to brainstorm ways he can improve in the coming year. In the last 10 years, he mastered a second language, survived a gunshot to the back, and founded three businesses to create opportunities for people who face physical, financial, and educational challenges. “The thing I do really well is I can keep suffering when things get harder. I’m persistent,” he says. “I see it as my duty to help others when I can. That’s my goal in life—to improve others’ lives. Even if it’s just one or two people.”