17-Year-Old Brewing Up Business With Cuban Coffee Cart

Leandro Ortega has always had a business mindset.

Three years ago, the Cuban-born teenager started a mobile car wash company with his dad.

“I work on weekends, from six in the morning to five or six in the evening,” Ortega said.

This past summer, the 17-year-old tapped into his entrepreneurial spirit to win the Idea Center’s pitch competition. The budding business mogul was one of two winners—Christian Barruos-Brens was the other—who each received $7,000 in prize money to help ignite their ideas.

Ortega started Leo’s Coffee, a mobile cart business that caters to students and staff at his high school, Easterseals Academy. He is a part of their culinary arts program for students with disabilities.

“I was super happy,” Ortega said as he recalled the emotions he felt after finding out he had won. “I was so excited that I couldn’t even speak.” 

Leo’s Coffee offers a variety of caffeinated beverages, ranging from the classic Cuban colada to espressos and iced lattes. Prices range from $1.50 to $3. The cart has the slogan—“Aroma de La Casa”—etched on the front. Its open Friday mornings from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. at Easterseals Academy. 

“I’m very proud of everything my son does,” said Ortega’s mom, Anilet Perez. “He’s a good son, a good companion and a good person.”

Two groups, one at Wolfson Campus and another at Homestead, made up of 25 participants each were recruited for the competition that focused on food carts. 

Participants received assistance creating business models, branding, marketing strategies and the concepts for their carts.

Ortega found out about the competition through his mentors at Easterseals.

“They extended the invitation to us, so we met with our education team to choose two students based on their performance,” said Ana Maya, who is a transition services program coordinator at Easterseals.  “Leandro was one of those chosen to participate.”

The young barista learned about the school in 2022 after his father was badly burned in an accident. During his father’s recovery, the family met a teacher in his therapy sessions that connected them with Easterseals. 

“I was thinking a lot about where I would put Leandro in school, because he wasn’t in school,” said Perez, who immigrated from Cuba with Ortega in 2021.  “God put a teacher in my path who helped me get him into Easterseals.”

Among the school services is a culinary arts program. Ortega is a part of a subsidiary of the program, known as Coffee on Wheels. Students in the cohort receive hands-on barista training and learn entrepreneurship skills.

But Ortega has always had an affinity for coffee, a passion rooted in his Cuban heritage.

“When I lived in Cuba, my whole family drank coffee,” Ortega said. “That’s what I’ve always seen since I was little.”

Ortega’s family is originally from Mayabeque, a province in Cuba. They moved to Miami, seeking medical care for Leandro, who has a brain tumor that affects his cognitive skills.

“I’m so grateful to this great country because my son truly wasn’t learning anything in Cuba because of his illness, and they didn’t help me teach him,” Perez said. “Thank God, after coming to this wonderful country, my son has achieved so many things.”

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