BIENVENIDO

Saludos! Happy Friday and welcome to Comprende, edition 069.

What happens when a Latino dad decides he doesn't have to choose between being present and being successful? He builds a business that helps others do the same.

Today, we’re diving into how Chris Bustos went from a corporate career to selling arepas, and ultimately found his purpose leading Unbound Ascent, a coaching firm that helps "parentpreneurs" grow their businesses without burning out or missing the moments that matter.

So, depending on where you are in the world, grab your cafecito or cervecita and dive in. If you enjoy today’s edition, please forward it to your gente or share it online. Let’s keep growing this comunidad together. ☕️🍺

comprende 069: Unbound & Unapologetically Present: Latino Founder Chris Bustos on Parenting, Business & Breaking Patterns

Chris Bustos was standing in his kitchen mixing masa for arepas when his kid walked in and did something that would have been unthinkable in his own childhood: his son told him he was doing something wrong. And Chris apologized.

"They straight up tell me how they feel," Chris reflects, his voice carrying both pride and amazement. "They tell me when I'm doing something wrong, I have to say sorry. I have to admit things that I'm doing wrong. None of these things are things my dad did."

It's a moment that encapsulates everything Chris has been working toward–both as a father and as the founder of Unbound Ascent, his coaching firm dedicated to helping parent entrepreneurs scale their businesses without sacrificing family time. The journey to this moment, however, began in the wreckage of everything he thought he knew about success.

Born and raised in Miami to Venezuelan parents, Chris spent the first part of his career climbing ladders that never seemed to lead where he wanted to go. After nearly a decade at Apple managing the Genius Bar, where he learned to sell with purpose and connect authentically with clients, he transitioned to the oil and gas industry as director of learning and development. The work was meaningful in its own way; his company built camps that housed workers as oil rigs moved across Texas, a unique intersection of hospitality and heavy industry that few people even know exist.

Then 2020 hit like a sledgehammer. Chris was furloughed, then laid off entirely–one month before his second child was born. Health insurance premiums skyrocketed from a few hundred dollars to nearly $3,000 a month. "Everything about me and my ability to provide for my family was really always tied to a job," he says. "I went, you know, it was a dark corner."

For a Hispanic man raised in a culture where seeking help is often seen as weakness, Chris made a radical choice: he went to therapy. "As a Hispanic man, you can imagine this is a no-no," he admits. "Why do you go to therapy? What's wrong with you?" But therapy became the foundation for everything that followed, a physical transformation, a mental reckoning, and ultimately, a new understanding of what it meant to provide for his family.

While staying home with his newborn son, Chris launched Abuelas Arepas, selling premixed bags of arepa flour. The business had its moments, including substantial orders from MrBeast, but after two years, doubt crept in. "I had always had an unrealistic expectation for myself," Chris reflects. "It's kind of like your first baby and you think your baby is just going to be the best." Comparing himself to his lawyer wife, feeling the weight of cultural expectations, Chris briefly returned to corporate life as a director of technology operations.

He lasted exactly one year. "Once you taste the freedom of being yourself and you go back into that life, it's just... it just doesn't make sense."

The return to entrepreneurship wasn't just about business, it was about breaking generational patterns. Chris had spent years helping his wife build her virtual law firm, started back in 2015 when virtual work was still considered radical. He'd always been the one giving others advice about growth and opportunity while struggling to take his own.

Now, he realized, his real calling wasn't just building businesses, it was helping other parents do the same without repeating the mistakes of previous generations.

"I look at my dad, and I'm pretty savage with him," Chris says. "I let my dad know all the time, like, hey, your goal in coming to this country was to give me a better opportunity. I'm taking that opportunity to be better. Doing what you would do would be an absolute disrespect to what your efforts are."

His move from the U.S. to Valencia wasn't just geographical, it was philosophical. Living in Spain, where conversations revolve around paddle tennis and favorite foods rather than professional achievements, has forced Chris to relearn what it means to simply exist without constantly producing. "I've had to relearn hobbies. I've had to relearn how to just not do anything in a day," he explains. "That's very, very difficult for a Hispanic American mindset."

Today, through Unbound Ascent, Chris works with parent entrepreneurs who are generating consistent revenue but feel like their businesses are running them instead of the other way around. His approach focuses on three core areas: time management, operational efficiency, and delegation, all underpinned by boundary setting, a concept that many Hispanic and Latino men, raised with a "do it yourself" mentality, find challenging.

The work isn't easy. Getting Hispanic men to admit they need help requires patience and strategy. Chris has learned to lead with business operations and tech stacks before gradually introducing the deeper work around presence and vulnerability. "The way into Hispanic hearts is through business," he's discovered. "They're not going to tell you upfront that they need help."

Chris is clear about his mission: "I want to kind of help break that toxic machismo and redefine what it means to be a father and a successful business owner." It's personal work disguised as professional coaching, an attempt to raise the standards for Hispanic fathers while building sustainable businesses.

"We have such low standards as Hispanic men being fathers," he says. "You can be a provider, you can be present, and it just takes you not comparing yourself to everyone else and setting your own definition for what success is."

The arepa business may be winding down, as the challenges of running a physical product company from another continent proved complex, but the lessons remain. Chris learned that slow is better, that business timelines don't match personal ones, and that success means nothing if it costs you presence with the people you love most.

From his home in Valencia, where his children feel free to correct their father and expect apologies when warranted, Chris is building something his own father never had: permission to be fully present. It's a radical act, wrapped in business coaching, and powered by the simple belief that Hispanic men and “parentpreneurs” deserve better than the binary choice between provider and parent.

"Your kids deserve more than just 'weekend you,'" Chris says. "And you deserve a business that grows without burning you out."

Did you enjoy today’s Comprende newsletter? Please share it with family, friends, and other Latino business owners by forwarding this email or using the link below.

https://www.comp-rende.com/newsletter

If you enjoyed this story, you’ll probably love our videos on Instagram, you can check them out on IG @comprendelatino or by clicking below.