Meet Carolina Acosta | Tragos Founder, CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carolina Acosta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carolina, how do you think about risk?
As an entrepreneur and as a professional, I feel like taking risks has been a recurring theme in my career. I constantly think about it and where my decisions in taking risks have led me so far. I think it’s important to talk about because it’s not talked about nor encouraged enough, especially for women. Different nurturing styles for boys and girls have led to females being much more risk-averse than males and it shows in almost every industry.

In my career, the first major risk I took was four years ago when I decided I wanted to join a travel program that offered remote work locations in South America. My higher-ups were not receptive to this idea at all. However, I was so burnt out and in my position as a lead designer, I leveraged my worth and demanded this change in order for me to continue working my best. I could feel in my gut just how necessary this decision was for my life.

I often look back at this choice to remind me that following your gut and heart really pays off, as cliche as that sounds. If I hadn’t gone on this trip, I wouldn’t have met the amazing people in my life right now, nor my business partner who launched me into the world of entrepreneurship, something I had never imagined prior to my trip. Now, in this new position, I feel like I have to take risks every single day to make so many moving pieces of my company work in sync and it’s daunting, terrifying at times. I’ve taken risks on people, software, product changes, and some have worked and many have backfired!

However, one thing I’ve learned out of this experience so far is that risks will always present themselves and the more you fail, the more you learn so when another risk comes around, you finally have that experience that lets you say yes, let’s do it, or even more terrifying, lets you turn down an opportunity and say NO. One thing I wish I had at the beginning of my entrepreneur journey was the understanding of how important it is to have experts around you. Many times I’ve taken risks, big and small, alone, or with the consultation of friends and family – none of which have more experience than me in this position. So of course I was going to make (many) mistakes! Now I try to rely on a bigger network of similarly-positioned people and continue to practice confidence in my decisions.

I think risks are so important in life, both professionally and personally, and I would never shy away from them. I advise that as long as you can weigh the pros and cons, get expert advise from mentors or peers, and trust your gut, those risks will pay off more than you can ever imagine in those moments.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Tragos came out of a personal journey that related directly to my culture. Growing up in the US, I never really identified as a Latina. It wasn’t until I experienced South America for the first time that I reconnected with this identity and also met my business associate (John Lim), who introduced me to the idea of a cultural drinking game. I was so excited because I love tabletop games and hadn’t realized until then that there weren’t a lot of products in my life that spoke to my dual identity like this one could. I felt I had to play this game! Working with John, we created the branding and paid ads to get the word out, and after 200 pre-orders, I made my first inventory purchase. In this way we were able to self-fund the business entirely. A few months later, we went viral on social media, going from 10 orders a day to 5K in one week! Almost instantly, my side gig turned into a full-time business that required quickly getting a team together. Almost three years later, we’ve made over $2M and raised over $24K for Latinx/BIPOC nonprofit organizations.

I’d say that starting up and getting the product out into the world was easy. It wasn’t until I realized that my make-shift strategy and team I created in a rush to keep up with the organic scaling of the business, were not going to cut it for long-term growth. In this year alone, I’ve learned what it takes to make a team run, how real business expenses and costly mistakes are, and how important it is to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. Each challenge has been faced head on through research/education, asking for advice, and doing my best to work smarter not harder.

I am still learning what it means to be a leader and entrepreneur. It’s been an amazing and educative journey since then. I hope to continue, now wiser than before, in scaling the business through more defined strategies, a stronger team, and more products that represent the culture.

I want the world to know that I’m Carolina Acosta and I am just getting started haha. I feel blessed to say that Tragos is already a loved brand by so many. I’d love to share my story and get our games in as many Latinx households as possible to create those memories of game nights and push our mission of uniting Latinos through our similarities, regardless of which LatAm country you’re from. More cultural games and products are coming soon, with our new family-friendly game, Get Loud, just a few weeks out from launch! We’d love the support from anyone by following us on Instagram, Facebook, or Tiktok @tragosgame. You can also find us at tragosgame.com, Amazon, Walmart.com, and find other retail locations on our website. We hope to come to a big-box store near you in 2022!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m from Queens, NY and I’ve grown up in the boroughs my whole life. There is so much to do in this city as anyone can imagine. If my best friend had a week to explore, I would start off with taking them to Manhattan and really getting the feel of the city. We’d start off at Central Park and visit a museum or two – my favorites are the Museum of Natural History and the Met. I would reference Night at the Museum and Gossip Girl throughout my tour. I also love riding bikes throughout the park, it’s the best and fastest way to see most of it in my opinion. After Central Park, we’d take a subway down to Battery Park and do happy hour in the Financial District. There are so many old bars full of amazing narratives of an older time like Fraunce’s Tavern and the firefighter’s bar, O’Hara’s. I absolutely love the riverside view near Battery Park so we’d have to take a walk to see both the NYC and Jersey skylines. We’d end the day at Break Bar near Hudson Yards, a place where you can literally break things for fun. My friend, Jeff is the owner! Other places in Manhattan I’d take my friend to visit are Rolf’s Bar on 23rd, it’s amazing during the holidays and generally decorated with Christmas ornaments year round; Washington Square Park and the NYU campus nearby while eating Artichoke pizza; Canal Street to shop goodies; and Hwa Yuan, a Michelin Star Szechuan restaurant in Chinatown (it is beyond belief)! Bouncing over to Queens, we would have to get Colombian breakfast, Dominican lunch, and authentic Mexican for dinner in Jackson Heights. We would also head over to (a different) Break Bar in Astoria to play some arcade games and billiards over beer. I would also take them to the Brooklyn Bridge and explore Dumbo on the other side. I have a list for Brooklyn too, and even Jersey but I’ll end it here!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’m constantly recognizing John Lim, the individual who set the path for me and where I am today. John Lim is a natural marketing pro, but also the founder of Ugly, a company that makes niche and cultural games, similar to Tragos. John and I met in South America, traveling together in the same program, where we bonded over being ethnically diverse, having similarities in how we grew up with immigrant parents. We built a professional relationship, working together on contract work for clients, with him doing the marketing, and myself doing design. I’ve always admired John for his confidence, intelligence, and dedication to his skills. One year younger than me, I felt John was much wiser and knew what he wanted. That boldness made me believe in him when he brought up the idea of a cultural drinking game. I remember him telling me that his mom hated the idea and to not waste his time in making a game like this but I was on board from the second I heard it. Together, we worked to build sister brands, Tragos for Hispanic Americans, and Azn Flush for Asian Americans. That bond we had over culture really resonated between us and eventually our similar audiences once we officially launched.

Not only did John create the concept for my company, he also helped me start up alongside his own company efforts. While I helped design both brands, he lifted us off the ground with our first Facebook ads, marketing language, and even shipping process. It was 100% a team effort in the beginning. As time has passed, we’ve both focused on our own entities, yet we still discuss strategy, ideas, and overall progress on both ends. With John in my life, the impossible feels possible, and thinking about it, I feel our imaginations combined will create many more amazing products and projects in the future.

Website: https://www.tragosgame.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tragosgame/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tragos-games-llc/?viewAsMember=true

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tragosgame/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tragosgame/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@tragosgame

Image Credits
Kevyn Moreno