Nixtamalized Tamale Cart

My name is Andy Graybeal.  I want to make great tasting, beautiful food.  I've liked Mexican cuisine since I was young.  My parents lived on Kelso Rd. near Talita's Tex-Mex in Clintonville.  I have vague, but fond memories of it;  whenever I was in the area I had to go back there.  I've wanted to run a restuarant since I was a teenager when I started as a dishwasher.  In the past, I've worked at the Mexican cuisine inspired restuarant, Casa Nueva, for 9 years.  I learned to make tamales in my early 20's and now it is my dream to make tamales for everyone!

I am raising money to have a tamale cart!  I have $2k saved for this and I've got another business possibly interested in partnering with me. I'm hoping this crowdfunder will help to bridge the huge monetary gap!!

I will be running the cart in Athens, Ohio and at popular events in the surrounding region.

Fresh masa from Shagbark Seed & Mill and chiles from local farmers, like Cowdery Farms will be the core ingredients of the business.  The mill will also supply beans and other grains.

Other ingredients: meat, cheeses, and vegetables, will all be purchased from local farms/dairies.  We are lucky to live in this region with access to the mill, farms and dairies.    I'm also lucky to have property that is home to a variety of mushrooms and I will be incorporating this into the dishes.

Not only will I be exploring conventional dishes, but also ancient dishes from the pre-colonization of the Americas, including tamales without fats like lard or coconut oil.

The equipment needed is outlined in this spreadsheet: Tamale Cart Equipment List (Google Sheets) .  The price is around $27k. It includes a cart, with a griddle, make-table and cold storage.   Part of the allure of this cart is that it is not an enclosed cart. I will be making tortillas and the other items with fresh masa per-order out in the open for you to see!
Also in the list is an industrial tamale maker, a industrial mixer for mixing the tamale batter, a chile roaster and a hot water sprayer for easily cleaning the cart at the end of the night.

I want to integrate open-source software programming  ideals into this business.   For example:

1. I want to share my recipes online. I will be doing this for your comments and collective ideas for improvements or all new recipes!  No secrets!  There will be a scaling factor too, to easily scale recipes down for home usage.  I want to stress that learning how to and making your own food at home is important!   Cooking at home will help you to share your experiences with me and collectively make all of our food tastier and diverse!

2. I will be openly reporting on all aspects of the business:  financial, operational, etc.   I will be doing this to show transparently how the business is doing and maybe gain insight / critique from others on how and where to improve.

I will be using a type of open-source software application called Enterprise Resource Planning.  It will help me manage the informational aspect of the business.  It will run the website, accounting, point-of-sale, loyalty, reporting and more in a fully integrated way.

I don't know how possible it is to raise $25k, but it can't hurt to try.  I'm going to shoot for within 2 months to raise the funds!  I will include everyone that donates into the loyalty program to offer discounts on items!!

Thank you for contributing to my dream.