Ep. 193 Cutting a New Path: Entrepreneurship & Community with Andrea & Angel Perez Montero
About this episode
Ramon and Jorge discuss entrepreneurship and community impact with Andrea and Angel Perez-Montero, founders of SmartCuts Academy.
This week on Mission CTRL, Ramon and Jorge sit down with Andrea and Angel Perez-Montero, the husband-and-wife founders of SmartCuts Academy, to discuss how passion, purpose, and partnership can transform a traditional trade into a powerful vehicle for inclusion. Angel brings more than 25 years of barbering experience, while Andrea is a special education teacher. Together, they combined their expertise to create SmartCuts Academy, a barber training program designed to give individuals with special needs and disabilities a real pathway to career skills, independence, and employment. Their idea recently earned them top honors at the M&T Small Business Accelerator, validating the impact of their mission-driven approach. The conversation dives into their personal journeys - from Angel’s early days cutting hair in the Dominican Republic to building a thriving barbershop community in Connecticut, and Andrea’s personal journey, military career and work supporting students who often graduate high school without clear career opportunities. Recognizing that traditional barber school curriculums aren’t designed for different learning needs, Andrea began developing a modified program that…
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