The Maestro Entrepreneur Center was founded in May 2016.

With the Frank Johnson Elementary School available, founder and President of the Maestro Entrepreneur Center, Julissa Carielo, had a vision to give back to the community. The school was erected in 1932 and with its solid exterior, Carielo reimagined the school as a bustling center where business gets done. The name Maestro Entrepreneur Center pays homage   to the elementary   school, which was relocated, by providing  our successful entrepreneurs as “Maestros” or teachers to support our small business owners and teach them how to accelerate their
business growth.

With the classic red and brown brick, the buildings on the Maestro Entrepreneur Center campus not only preserve the schools look and feel, but the inside of the buildings maintain its character and history.  The courtyard of the Maestro Center displays multiple plaques of the year it was erected as well as the board members of this once lively school filled with children. Every building on the campus has been revitalized and utilized to accommodate the needs of the small business community and constituents of the
Maestro Center.

The cafeteria, where plenty of children once had their lunch, is now converted into a reception hall for events and conferences. The kitchen has been updated with appliances and has been converted to a shared commercial kitchen space for entrepreneurs. This kitchen space allows for small business owners to utilize this space to create and perfect their craft.

As previously stated, every inch of the old Frank Johnson Elementary campus has been put to good use. The once old and dilapidated library is now an integral piece of Maestro as it has been converted into a series of affordable office spaces for small business owners to successfully run their business.

These office spaces allow small business owners in a historically underutilized business zone to have access to resources available to them in English and Spanish. Our office and classroom space comes equipped with wifi, shared receptionists, mail handling, on-site notary, private parking
and more.

Although the Maestro Entrepreneur Center was founded five year ago, the center has exploded into an energetic, colorful and creative environment where business owners can connect, accelerate and incubate their business.  Today, this incubator non-profit has created 329 jobs, held over 273 programs and events with over 13,000 attendees. The average growth of businesses who incubate with Maestro increase from 20-80%. With our resources readily available to our community, our goal is to continue fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship within our community to accelerate local business growth.