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

Hi Brandon, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Amid the pandemic, Downtown San Jose was a ghost town. Small businesses started closing, and nobody was outside; only essential workers and people were struggling. However, we noticed Sonny, the owner of the parking lot in downtown San Jose, was struggling. Since corporations own 40% of the real estate in that area, we wanted to help him. We also saw many people starting small businesses to help make ends meet. I had years of experience as a vendor and realized this was a great opportunity to start a night market. I wanted to provide a platform for these communities that could be a win-win situation for all parties.

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?
Early morning late nights (hard work & dedication) Is the best way to describe it. I was born and raised in South San Jose, CA and I went to a public school called Oak Grove, where my passion for sports began, I got injured and translated my work ethic into business, which led me to entrepreneurship, flipping and selling iPhones, hats, my own clothing, and eventually hosting my own events. My family is from Nicaragua. I’m a first generation American; hustle and working very hard has always been a part of my culture. It took 3 hard earned years to get to this current point where we are with events, but my journey in business started in 2013 working at the flea market with my aunt at the Capitol Flea Market in San Jose.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Carl “Blanco” White, Devien, Elaine “E”, Leo “Godspeed”, Francisco Medina “Paco”, Brian Oden “B.Knockin”, Viktor, Ross Media Management, Josiah and our fiscal sponsor, Local Color and of course, the City of San Jose!

Website: www.Culturenightmarket.com

Instagram: @YoSoyBQ (Brandon “BQ” Quintanilla), @Culturenightmarket (Culture Night Market )

Facebook: @Culturenightmarket

Image Credits
Brian Knockin (Plus Light Media)

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