Sandra Velasquez launched her beauty brand out of a Brooklyn apartment with a zero-budget launch, juggling three jobs and life as a single mother. Today that brand, Nopalera, is on track to pull in around $7 million in revenue this year, and Velasquez is telling her story to a crowd in San Antonio.
Velasquez, founder and CEO of Nopalera, delivered a keynote at Texas Public Radio as part of SA Startup + Tech Week, according to KSAT. The event, which highlights businesses that have made it big in San Antonio, gave Velasquez a platform to recount how Nopalera grew from $600,000 in first-year sales to $2 million, then $4 million, and now toward $7 million this year, per the same report.
A Modern Mexican Beauty Brand Rooted in the Nopal Cactus
Nopalera is built around the nopal cactus. Its nopal-based skincare includes cactus-based shower gels and creams. Velasquez has said there were no premium Latina beauty brands on the market when she started the company, and that Nopalera addressed that gap, the station's report notes. Nopal, also known as prickly pear, is part of Mexican food and skincare traditions, and Nopalera centers its products on the cactus, according to the Shark Tank Blog.
Before founding Nopalera in 2020, Velasquez studied organic formulation at Formula Botanica to develop her own product recipes and built an 800-person email waitlist using targeted social media ads, according to Female Founder World.
From Shark Tank Rejection to a $4 Million Series A
Velasquez appeared on season 14 of ABC's Shark Tank in January 2023, where she received two offers — one from Kevin O'Leary and one from Daniel Lubetzky. She turned down both, saying the equity stakes were too high, per KSAT's report. Those Sharks had offered deals requiring higher equity stakes than Velasquez was willing to concede, according to Looper, which reports that she subsequently launched “Stand In Your Worth” merchandise and product bundles that leveraged the national TV publicity.
Velasquez went on to raise $4 million in a Series A round, with San Antonio investors providing one quarter of that funding, KSAT reports. That March 2026 round was led by Morgan Stanley's Next Level Fund, with participation from L'ATTITUDE Ventures, Sixty8 Capital, Siddhi Capital and San Antonio-based Alamo Angels, according to Bloomberg Línea. That followed an earlier $2.7 million seed round in October 2022 led by L'ATTITUDE Ventures, shortly after Nopalera won the firm's Latino Startup of the Year award, per PR Newswire.
National Shelf Space
Nopalera is carried in Nordstrom and Credo Beauty and has more than 400 boutiques nationwide.
From Touring Musician to Beauty Founder
Before Nopalera, Velasquez had a music career. She juggled three jobs and life as a single mother while building the company.
Part of a Bigger Local Moment
Velasquez's keynote came during SA Startup + Tech Week.
