Jorge Guzman, a 2009 alumnus from the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), first pondered the idea of starting a brewery when he sat down for a craft beer with Taylor Virgil (IE 2009), one of his best friends from Georgia Tech. Shortly after they decided to carry out this vision, they were joined by Jack Spehn (IE 2010), another friend from their undergraduate days.

In 2017, the three opened Antigua Cerveza in Guzman’s beautiful hometown of Antigua, Guatemala. Their craft brewery was the first in the city, and sales have doubled every year since it was founded. Now, Antigua Cerveza’s beers can also be found in many restaurants and bars throughout Guatemala, and the company is planning to expand into other Central American countries.

Thanks to the influence of his family and culture, Guzman has always wanted to start his own business.

“Both of my parents are entrepreneurs — my mother owns a ceramic and tile business and my father owns a Spanish school — and in the Latin American culture there is a strong ambition to make your own business or to improve on something your family has already started,” said Guzman in the article. “Entrepreneurship has always been a goal for me.”

Guzman credits his success to the rigor of his college experience: “Studying at Georgia Tech was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it was also one of the most motivating. The competition and camaraderie of those I studied with made me believe I could achieve anything. As we navigated completely unchartered territory of opening a microbrewery, the resilience and decision-making skills I developed at Tech pushed us along to now have the most recognized craft brewery in Guatemala.”

You can read the entire article about Guzman’s entrepreneurial journey here.