Iván Herrera arrived in the United States on July 9, 1996, with seven family members, a dog, and without the last two dollars he had in his pocket when leaving the island. Thirty years later, he is the CEO of Univista Insurance, one of the largest Hispanic insurance agencies in the country.
The businessman confirmed that his company was valued at 712 million dollars. He recounted the story of how he built his company in the fourth episode of , the podcast about Cuban entrepreneurs from CiberCuba hosted by Katia Sánchez.
A debt that gave him credit
The family left Cuba thanks to the Catholic Conference, and each member arrived with a debt to the organization. Paying it off had an unexpected effect: as the payments were reported, Herrera discovered he had good credit on the day he went to buy his first car.
Since arriving in the United States, Herrera focused all his efforts on working and even ventured into professions he was not familiar with, such as in the construction sector.
Welding without knowing how to weld
As a newcomer, he was offered a position at a welding company in the Northwest. He had never welded before, but he said he would learn in no time. He refused to wear the protective overalls and spent the day welding in his Cuban striped pullover.
When he arrived home, his wife asked if he had come from the beach. "When I took off my sweater, my skin came off along with the white stripe," he remembers. He lost that job when they discovered he didn't know how to weld.
What followed was a long list of jobs:
- Mechanic's assistant in the afternoons and on weekends.
- Delivery person in Downtown Miami.
- Two jobs at the same time: in one, I printed account statements in the early morning, and in the other, I was a computer operator.
- Employed at Coral Gables Hospital, an attempt to venture into medicine after graduating with a degree in Biology in Cuba.
- Shift from 8 PM to 4 AM in Miami-Dade County, where I went into the prisons to take reports.
All of this while studying English at night, first at the English Center and then at Miami Dade College.
The dealership, your "second university"
The turning point came at a car dealership, where he was the number one salesperson for four years. There, he discovered insurance: every car sold needed to be insured. His formula for selling, he says, boils down to three things: a good product, honesty, and following up with the customer.
Later, he obtained his real estate license and ended up running a company with more than 100 people, but insurance remained "an unrealized dream." He studied, got the license, and his first client was himself and his family.
Two credit cards to pay the payroll
The name Univista was purchased for $40,000 from three brothers who were going to study Medicine. He liked it because it sounded the same in English and Spanish.
It was his wife who launched the project, in an office located in a less-than-reputable neighborhood where you had to ring a bell to enter. At first, the agency was operating at a loss, so he continued working elsewhere until he joined almost a year later.
He reinvested everything into technology and personnel, and there came a day when they had to take out two credit cards to pay the payroll. "All real businesses start like this," he claims.
More than 350 offices
Today, Univista Insurance has over 350 offices, a presence in numerous states, and sells health insurance nationwide. The group has diversified into residential construction, Univida medical centers, and Univista TV, the studio where the interview was recorded.
Herrera attributes much of the growth to his team: "You can teach someone a profession, but you can't teach a bad person to be a good person."
His advice for those starting from scratch is to study, prepare, and above all, be consistent: for him, discipline outweighs talent. "I believe that when one acts this way, money comes naturally."
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$how me the mon€y is the podcast for Cuban entrepreneurs from CiberCuba, hosted by Katia Sánchez and presented by Dolphy School, the program's sponsor. .
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