By Margarita Kompelmakher
Emilio Armenta wants to make you smile. The mechanical engineering major and veteran, who served in the United States Marine Corps in Iraq and continued as a contractor for the military in Afghanistan, runs a mobile photo booth business powered by the idea that producing smiles on the outside can affect change on the inside.
His company, , is a photo booth service on wheels with instant printing and WiFi connectivity. Unlike other photo booth experiences, a professional grade camera sits on top of a tricycle, or 鈥榯rike鈥�, that comes to the user anywhere they might be, indoors or outdoors. The camera and printer are self-sustainable and powered through solar panels. 鈥淚n a social media sharing world, we want to give people a token of their good times,鈥� says Armenta. 鈥淲e bring the interactive photo booth experience to people on the back of a trike with a basket full of props.鈥�
The idea for the enterprise was a response to the disconnect he felt between military and civilian life, says Armenta, who struggled with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after coming back from his military tours.
鈥淚 came back to this country in 2013 and saw that not everyone is happy, and there are a lot of people stressed out about any little thing that happened,鈥� says Armenta. 鈥淚 had some friends not make it back [from Iraq and Afghanistan] so the American people can enjoy the freedom to do anything and never worry about anything. And I saw that many still couldn鈥檛 find one reason to smile about.鈥�
鈥淲ell that was stressing me out and depression hit,鈥� adds Armenta, who is part of the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) at 69萝莉. The VRC provides a supportive learning environment for veterans with designated resources for counseling and financial aid.
Trike A Pose evolved as a means to an end. 鈥淭hey say life is a mirror and what you want to see on the outside is how you want to feel on the inside. I wanted to smile. I wanted others to smile,鈥� says Armenta. 鈥淪o I thought: if these people aren鈥檛 going to smile, I鈥檓 going to make them smile.鈥�
Learning Through Socially-Engaged Entrepreneurship
Armenta utilized his coursework as a business administration major at West Valley to lay the foundation for his business. 鈥淚n my Small Business Startup and Management course I presented the trike business and the class loved it. The class taught me a lot that semester and I started an LLC.鈥�
Trike A Pose developed alongside Armenta鈥檚 educational journey: he changed his major from business administration to psychology after deciding he wanted to work with veterans and post-traumatic stress issues, and later to communications to learn how to persuasively convey information to the public. Eventually he landed in a field that built on the technical skills he gained in the military鈥攎echanical engineering.
鈥淚 also joined the Entrepreneurship Club with Manny Cappello (WVC Business faculty member and Director of the WVC Entrepreneurship Center),鈥� adds Arementa. 鈥淭hat was very helpful because we were given important information and had some amazing speakers such as CEOs in the area that gave us their journey to where they are now.鈥�
Putting a photo booth on a tricycle was a fitting move for Armenta, an outdoor enthusiast who prefers hands-on work environments that allow him to solve technical problems and interact with people. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 grow up with money so we didn鈥檛 have video games. We were always outside,鈥� says Armenta. 鈥淚 did not want to be stuck inside somewhere in the corner organizing photo booths. I wanted something that could be mobile and small enough to fit through a regular door.鈥�
His first test run of the trike business in downtown Santa Cruz was so successful that Armenta decided to scale the operation. 鈥淚 ordered more equipment, five tricycles, five printers, five cameras. The Super Bowl was about to happen in Santa Clara and I was getting ready to take them to Levi鈥檚 Stadium to get feedback from people all around the country.鈥�
However, testing the business at the Super Bowl proved to be a problem. 鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 get anywhere near the stadium because all the roads were blocked and we had to park two miles away in a corporate parking area,鈥� says Armenta, who was accompanied by his brother and one of his friends. 鈥淪o we found parking across from the Intel Museum of Technological Innovation to unload the trikes and the rest of the equipment.鈥�
A few minutes later they were surrounded by police who suspected the mobile photo booth might be associated with potential terrorist activity. The situation was eventually cleared up, but by then the game had ended.
The irony of a veteran being accused of terrorist activity was not lost on Armenta, who got in touch with law enforcement after the incident to let them know that Trike A Pose could be an asset for community-oriented policing. 鈥淎s a veteran I have a different set of eyes for observing and assessing a situation,鈥� says Armenta. 鈥淚 still feel that I protect the American people. I can prevent problems from happening and keep people smiling."
A Sustainable Future
鈥淲est Valley really opened my eyes to a lot of things,鈥� says Armenta. 鈥淢aybe my Trike A Pose business would have been something later on, but it was expedited because it was an assignment in class.鈥�
Armenta is currently working on a few other products for Trike A Pose such as pop-up cards and different types of magnets. He also wants to move into the area of photo games鈥攃reating games on his different bikes that allow participants to earn prizes with photos of themselves.
Trike A Pose can be found at public events like festivals and private events such as birthdays or weddings. Armenta is periodically hired for events on West Valley鈥檚 campus, including at the Veterans Resource Center, which paved the way for his academic success.
The Veterans Resource Center (VRC) is a place for veterans to come together for camaraderie, study groups and peer-to-peer mentorship, in addition to providing school supplies and resources to assist student veterans with learning. The center recently won part of a $8.5 million grant to develop veteran services at community colleges across California.
鈥淲e will use the funds, in part, to expand the communal areas for our student veterans, promote peer-to-peer interaction and create a welcoming environment that will allow more vets to utilize the space on a daily basis,鈥� says Melissa Ceresa, Director of the VRC.
This semester Armenta started working for First Element Fuel, a hydrogen energy company, in a position he found through his mechanical engineering and veteran network at West Valley. He hopes to use this work experience to further develop his expertise in the field of alternative energy.