 This is Startup Storefront. Change is constant. It's inevitable, but it doesn't always have to be bad. Hentifiers aren't strangers to their neighborhood. They're from the community and they're trying to build up the community that's near and dear to their hearts. From Hentification we get Hentify, a development company founded by Barney Santos. The goal is to act as a catalyst to stimulate economic growth through entrepreneurial activities. Their first project is Boulevard Market, a carefully curated food hall and beautiful downtown Manabello. It's committed to serving up good food, good drinks, and good vibes. In this video we talk with Barney Santos about the difference between gentrification and Hentification, keeping money local, and being greater than the sum of the stereotypes as a community. I thank you to Catfootwear for sponsoring this episode. They're a premier shoe company that empowers builders and doers to reframe the world to create something more meaningful. This marks our final episode celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, so let's go out with a bang. So gentrification is when outsiders come in and push people out intentionally or unintentionally, but Hentification is when people from the community invest back into their community. They're opening up concepts and businesses and they do it in a responsible way that's in alignment with the fabric, the social-cultural fabric that's there and hopefully creating interventions to help offset some of the negatives. At least that's what I think. The company Hentify, we built, wanted to be the action verb of that. How do we initiate that more in the communities that consider our communities with local people driving it? For me, it's like, okay, well, knowing that every project we sync our teeth into, there is a lot of research that goes in that we have to do like meeting the community. Even before Manabello, we met with probably over 200 people just from the local community, local organizations, Chamber of Commerce, council members, like leaders in the community. We had town hall meetings, not even to say this is what we're doing, but like, hey, what do you want? Like, what is it that you need? So my opinion, like, asking the community and asking them what they're nervous about and afraid about, like, first and trying to figure out how do you create interventions to offset that stuff, right? So I think that's the key, being intentional as you possibly can. So you're tapping into like, their fear is of the unknown. And so the more information that you can provide them, the better off they'll be and the more supportive they'll be. Yeah, I mean, I think the easier it is for you to get an honest representation of what the needs of the community are, right? So you can address them directly and build something that will have a higher chance of being successful and also, you know, try to offset some of those negative externalities that you don't want. Look, I mean, gentrification is a real thing, right? Like, it's a real thing. But by the time a restaurant pops up in the corner, it's a byproduct of things that are already taking place, right? Like, the community is already changing. And so like, communities change on their own. Like, they evolve over time. They just do. The question is how do you create interventions and how do you be responsible about how you participate, right? In evolutions, can you do it responsibly? Can you do it effectively? Can you lobby for more affordable housing? Can you leverage your voice and like work with council members to create more policies to help offset some of those negative things? That's what my feelings are. It's like, how do you be responsible in the community?