After just one year, D’Maize outgrew their home and they moved the business into La Cocina, a Mission District kitchen incubator that focuses on helping Latino-owned businesses grow. Over the past decade, La Cocina has helped dozens of businesses move from home-based or curbside into brick-and-mortar locations. La Cocina gives businesses up to five years to grow in its space. D’Maize only needed two.
In 2016, as Next City covered at the time, D’Maize took out a small business loan from the Mission Economic Development Agency, a nonprofit that has helped families in the Mission advance economically since its founding in 1973. Small business loans were a new addition to the agency’s work, and D’Maize was one of its first borrowers.