Kayla Castañeda, Agua Bonita - Accelerating Through the Power of Partnership

Jul 14

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In this episode of Black on Shelf, I welcome my new friend, Kayla Casteñeda, CEO and Co-Founder of Agua Bonita, a women-owned beverage brand, producing authentic Mexican agua frescas. Kayla and her Co-Founder Erin PonTell are inspired by perfectly delicious, fresh produce that would otherwise go to waste, and fueled by a passion to create something culturally authentic, unique, better for the planet, and beautiful, hence Agua Bonita was born.

Kayla has an extensive background in the food and beverage industry. She started out waiting tables to make ends meet as a broke college student in New York City. There she was exposed to the high-level culinary scene. After graduating from college, she worked in marketing and sales for a number of major corporations including Major League Baseball, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and Coca Cola.

She attributes some of her success in business to her corporate experiences, stating that it gave her access to the consumer packaged goods world and an understanding of how it works which has served as an unparalleled foundation to build upon. She went on to work as a consultant for beverage startups; during one of her projects, she met Erin and they bonded instantly.

After losing their jobs during the pandemic, they decided to “make agua frescas out of lemons”. They joined forces to create the first 100% real fruit, ready-to-drink agua frescas; and gave themselves a year timeline to scale the business. In just eleven months, Agua Bonita has grown in leaps and bounds. It is currently on digital shelves and is quickly building momentum for the physical shelves.

“There was nothing to lose besides the opportunity not to pursue it” - Kayla

Agua Bonita has recorded a lot of accomplishments and received a number of awards; including Winner of New Beverage Showdown 2021 - Best New Beverage award presented by BevNET and Coca Cola and Winner of Black Girl Ventures x Nike Pitch Competition. Kayla stresses the importance of hardwork. All achievements came at a cost, sacrifices had to be made and they took all the support that they could get from family, and a number of programs.

Kayla speaks extensively about wanting to build generational wealth and a commitment to give back to the community. This means alot to her as she is the first generation of her family that did not have to work in the fields. With Agua Bonita, Kayla and Erin reinvest into education for the children of immigrants through their non-profit partners.

In This Episode You Will Learn: