Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Sepulveda.
Justin, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Well before Clutch City Connect was started, I used to go downtown by myself to feed the homeless just as a personal hobby of mine. I had been doing it for a few years on occasional holidays and in time it turned into a Sunday or two a month. As time went on, I began to become more involved by making weekly food runs and sometimes gathering old clothes or other useful resources. I never really told anyone about it or shared on social media, in a way it was just a hobby for me that I genuinely enjoyed for the simple fact that I was helping others. Around mid-January of 2019, we were under an Arctic Front weather advisory, I knew that not everyone would have the opportunity to sleep in a shelter overnight, so I decided to try and gather blankets. I posted a message onto my Instagram storyline for everyone to see, asking if anyone had extra blankets or sweaters. It was really my first time posting something like this and within a few hours, I had more than 20 people replying saying that they had extra blankets to spare. Most of them asked what it was for out of curiosity, so I explained my reasoning. Everyone that I spoke with loved the idea and wanted to help with whatever possible. That day I recovered more than 45 blankets, sweaters, thermal pants, and other materials to help keep warm. Along with all the generous donations, so many people were telling me how awesome it was for what I was doing and how they have always wanted to help in this way but just never really knew how to do so. In a sense, I felt as if I was a bridge to connect these people’s desire to help others, to actually making it possible. That post in a way is how Clutch City Connect originated. I sat down that evening and realized that I could really be onto something great.
From there I decided to do some very extensive research on exactly where these homeless people were sleeping, I would drive around the downtown area and create somewhat of a map to help me locate the most populated areas of where they would go. Being that there were several day centers that people were able to hang out at for a couple of hours during the day, I had to do the same type of research at night to get a general idea of where they went after these places closed down for the day. Once I finally formulated a general map out, I began to look into what types of foods would best suit their needs. I started off with egg and potato breakfast tacos due to the high amount of carbohydrates and protein. I figured if I could make 50 tacos paired with 50 water bottles, twice a week, that would allow me to feed 100 people a week. The more food runs that I began to do, the more passionate I became about what I was doing. It was so cool to develop friendships with these amazing people that literally came from all walks of life. I began to know many of these people by their first names and had some of the most interesting conversations with them. The only tricky part about this whole situation was that what I was doing isn’t technically legal. If you are caught feeding the homeless, you can actually be fined for doing so. With that being understood, I was completely willing to take the risk of a $200-$500 fine in order to ensure that someone didn’t go to bed on an empty stomach. To avoid any sort of legal trouble I figured it would be wise to be very lowkey to the public eye about this, so I bought a tactical under armour hiking backpack in which I would layer the inner lining with foil to keep the food hot. I would load up my backpack inside of my car where it would be parked several blocks away and from there, I would set out to my destination and get to work. I did this while often changing up my “menu” every week. After my original blanket post, I decided to start posting my ventures due to the enormous amount of support I was getting and people loved it. Things were going great, but I knew that there was so much more that could be done.
Around March I began to do even more research into the various nonprofit organizations around the Houston/greater Houston area, for the next couple of weeks I began to visit certain places that I felt best matched my intentions. I would go to these places almost as if I was “undercover” to be sure that these organizations were the right fit for me by talking to the people that lived there as well as the people that would go there for various living necessities. I still didn’t really have any means of funding, so I narrowed it down to 5 different organizations. At the time I was attending San Jacinto College to become a Firefighter and I had recently discovered that the school administration had an awesome scholarship for students going school full time. Basically, they picked a certain amount of students that met the specific qualifications and were given a “grocery allowance” card that was funded by the Houston Food Bank. It was a room inside of the school that was literally like a grocery store, it was awesome! The amount given was based off the number of hours you would attend per semester. Unfortunately, I was not picked but luckily a good friend of mine who was in fire school with me received the scholarship. His name is Joey Saldana, he knew what I was doing and generously decided to give me his card without any hesitation, it was a huge break for my company and allowed me to become involved with the shelters. That very next day I began to stock up on everything that I felt would best help out with these shelters. I purchased dry, canned goods, frozen produce, fruits, packs of waters, laundry detergents, cleaning products, hygiene products, and many other toiletries. Once I had a large enough stock to evenly portion between the five shelters, I realized that I needed to come off in a more professional manner upon meeting the staff that ran the day to day operations in an effort to build a lasting relationship.
I decided to make a business account for my Instagram and Facebook accounts, although I still needed a catchy name. A few years back, I had helped some friends promote a clothing line we created and with the given experience, I learned the process of running a t-shirt brand. I always had it in the back of my head that it would be cool to one day make my own brand of Houston themed shirts to wear rather than spending $40 on a subpar t-shirt. I had once told myself that if I ever did it, I would call it “Clutch City Connect.” It suddenly clicked! While this thought process ran through my head, I also knew that I would soon need another form of income to help fund my up and coming business because I had already used up the scholarship card and my bank account balance was getting smaller by the day. This was literally something that I spent upwards of 16 hours a day on, so it was definitely a full time job for me so working another job while also getting towards the end of fire school, was simply not in the cards at the moment. With that being said, I decided that I would come up with a few catchy shirt designs that helped signify Houston and attempt to sell them in order to help fund my business. While this process was in the works behind the scenes, I decided to make business cards to pass out to the shelter employees as well as custom made Clutch City Connect stickers to place on my boxes filled with donations to help my brand stand out. The week of March 5th I decided it was time to officially launch my business. I began to go to the nonprofit organizations that I had picked, and I also doubled the amount of food runs that I did to help feed the homeless. My social media pages were getting much more feedback than I had imagined and after about seven posts I figured it was the right time to announce the release of my first two shirt designs. I went out on a limb and ordered 100 shirts and to my absolute surprise, they were all sold out within 24 hours. I honestly could not believe that they were gone so fast and was truly blessed to have the upcoming growth of supporters behind me. That day I realized that Clutch City Connect was meant for greatness and that I truly had an opportunity to impact our amazing city for the better.
Since then I have created an amazing bond with several other different nonprofit organizations, fed more people than I could have imagined, held community events that I never thought were possible, and gained an outstanding amount of support from my fellow Houstonians. I have so much planned for the future as far as community events, new platforms of people that I would like to become involved with, and developed relationships with people such as myself that are simply just trying to help make a difference. Clutch City Connect has just scratched the surface and I cannot wait to see what else the future has in store for us.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been the smoothest of roads although I knew that starting a new business from the ground up is never easy, so I had already expected to run into a few bumps along the way. One of the most challenging aspects in the beginning was that I was doing it alone so balancing all of the different things such as constantly trying to form new connections with other organizations, driving all over town making my food/shelter runs, and trying to balance all 3 of my social media accounts in effort to get my name out there was a bit tricky. I actually loved the process and I loved the grind so in a sense, it was a fun challenge to conquer. Unfortunately, the shirts have not sold as fast as they once did in the beginning, so the shortage of funding created a bit of a standstill but since then I have begun to create other ways to help keep the business thriving. Without the amazing support of our community, this business would not be standing. This is a team effort and we are well on our way.
Clutch City Connect – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Clutch City Connect is a Houston based company that uses proceeds made from various apparel sold, to lend a helping hand and provide the basic necessities for the survival of the local homeless in our Houston/greater Houston area. Our goal is to aid those in reaching self sufficiency through connecting to every nonprofit organization and shelter in our area. I am most proud of the amazing support that we have received from our community because without them, we would simply not exist. It has really shown me how many amazing people are out there and has made me even more proud to call the city of Houston my home. What sets us apart is that we are not limiting ourselves to a specific category. Clutch City Connect is about connecting with any and everyone. We have so much planned for the future and aim to extend our services beyond just people that are just homeless. We are here for the city of Houston as a whole and tend to diversify our services in every way possible.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally define success as doing something that you are absolutely passionate about because if its truly a passion, then you will never work a day in your life. I may not ever own a big house or drive a fancy car but in my eyes, I have reached the highest peak of success because I am doing something that reflects my core values and character as a person.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://clutch-city-connect.squarespace.com
- Phone: 346-804-5757
- Email: clutchcity.connect@yahoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutch_city_connect
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clutchcityconnect
Image Credit:
Omar Gomez
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