Incubator program grows the following crop of companies in San Jose’s thriving meals scene

As his 12-year-old autistic son Andy swooshes round a crowded courtyard, Tony Lam chokes up and his eyes swell with pleasure as he glowingly talks concerning the enterprise enterprise he based in his baby’s title.

Lam, 50, was already a profitable veteran of the tech and restaurant area — he was Wingstop’s retailer no. 293 earlier than working 5 of the restaurant chain’s now 2,500-plus places world wide.

However Andy’s Cafe holds a particular which means for Lam past its title. He believes it might probably change into a mannequin for different companies to make use of each neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals concurrently. Aided by Prosperity Lab’s Mesa Redonda Incubation & Commissary Kitchen, Lam goals to make use of 12-15 individuals on the new Andy’s Cafe, which he hopes will open later this month on the Middle for Employment Coaching (CET) in San Jose.

“When I was going through this journey of learning about autism, one of the statistics that really stood out to me the most was that 85% of them, when they reach adulthood, are unemployed,” Lam mentioned. “During COVID, all these restaurants said, ‘I need workers,’ yet there are 85% saying, ‘Hire me,’ and so why is there a disconnect? I went to see how I could try and solve this and it was really frustrating, because there’s a stigma with restaurant owners and other businesses not really wanting to hire from this community.”

Andy’s Cafe was one in all 25 aspiring meals startups to graduate from the newest cohort of the incubator program created in collaboration with Prosperity Lab and CET and partially funded by Santa Clara County, the town of San Jose and the Sobrato Basis.

Staff of Andy’s Cafe put together drinks on Aug. 8, 2025, at an occasion held on the Middle for Employment Coaching, celebrating graduates of Prosperity Lab’s Group-Centered Incubation & Commissary Kitchen. (Devan Patel/Bay Space Information Group) 

A couple of quarter of the companies that took half in the latest cohort had been additionally avenue distributors, whom the town had focused as a part of a stricter crackdown on unlicensed merchandising in public right-of-ways.

Prosperity Lab CEO Mimi Hernandez mentioned this system gives mentorship and teaches enterprise expertise, digital and monetary literacy, advertising and helps aspiring entrepreneurs navigate well being compliance, insurance coverage and allowing processes, even when they’ve completely different targets.

“They have to be committed to doing the work and we’re going to give them all the tools and all the guidance,” Hernandez mentioned. “We understand the concern, because we as well want to make sure that there’s trust in the way our street food vendors are presenting food and selling it, and to be fair, a feasible business is going to do their due diligence, their compliance, and it’s the first step. We want to get them into that ladder where they incubate with us, and then we have other private partners that will allow them to come in below market-rate once they have completed a one-year program.”

Whereas the town is residence to a number of giant tech corporations, minority-owned and small companies stay the spine of the native financial system. Blage Zelalich, deputy director of the town’s workplace of Financial Growth and Cultural Affairs, mentioned that greater than 60% of companies are ethnic or minority-owned, whereas 95% make use of 10 or fewer workers.

These kinds of companies are a major a part of the food and drinks sector, which accounts for 15% of the whole variety of San Jose corporations. Eating places are additionally the very best subsector contributing to the town’s income stream.

Regardless of the challenges created by the pandemic, meals and ingesting institutions had not solely rebounded by the top of 2022 and have now elevated gross sales tax revenues by 21% since 2019 pre-COVID information.

Whereas the town declined to supply particular gross sales tax figures, citing state and metropolis privateness rules, knowledge from the California Division of Tax and Payment Administration confirmed that in 2024, meals and ingesting locations in San Jose generated $2.72 billion in taxable transactions.

However for most of the startup companies, Mesa Redonda has helped them notice that their compelling tales lengthen past simply creating tantalizing meals.

Katelynn Dawson, proprietor of The Michelada Woman, arms out samples of her drinks on Aug. 8, 2025, at an occasion held on the Middle for Employment Coaching, celebrating graduates of Prosperity Lab’s Group-Centered Incubation & Commissary Kitchen. (Devan Patel/Bay Space Information Group) 

Katelynn Dawson, the 35-year-old proprietor of The Michelada Woman, credit Aline Crowder, who headed this system, for pushing her to develop her ready Clamato combine, which she is promoting on to shoppers and at bars, eating places, and festivals.

If she may shoot for the celebrities, sooner or later she want to have a Coca-Cola-like truck, adorned with The Michelada Woman insignia.

After arriving in Silicon Valley eight years in the past from the town of Salta within the northern a part of Argentina as a software program engineer, Sebastian Juarez, 47, mentioned the Mesa Redonda program helped him notice he may transition careers into one thing he was simply as enthusiastic about.

Whereas his spouse was coping with an autoimmune illness, Juarez began making genuine Argentinean empanadas with beef tallow after researching the hazards of processed meals and the unhealthy byproducts. Seeing the parallels between Northern Argentina and the Central Valley or wine nation, Juarez’s final aim is for Empanadas La Linda to change into a staple at native farmers’ markets.

“I started cooking here in the same way, or trying to be more loyal to the way we cook it there,” Juarez mentioned. “I started making them for family and friends and then I started being asked for orders, people asking me ‘Can you make me some for some party, gathering, or whatever?’ All of a sudden, I started a small business on the side and it kept growing.”

Emily Baysa, left, and Sebastian Juarez reduce a ceremonial ribbon at an occasion held on Aug. 8, 2025, on the Middle for Employment Coaching, celebrating graduates of Prosperity Lab’s Group-Centered Incubation & Commissary Kitchen. (Devan Patel/Bay Space Information Group) 

Hernandez mentioned the Mesa Redonda program is aiming to carry ribbon-cutting ceremonies twice per 12 months, with the following class beginning in September that may have a larger give attention to millennials.

And as San Jose grows, this system’s management is aware of the town could have an urge for food for the following crop of meals startups ready within the wings.

“I think this is a beautiful opportunity to acknowledge that the sky is the limit, that there is no ceiling and that if we have 50 more in the program, 50 more will graduate,” CET President and CEO Ruben Solorio mentioned. “There is a place for them in our community, because of the need in downtown San Jose and throughout this county.”