Gabriel Maestas: We chose to create Steadyhand and establish ourselves in Denver because this is my home. We just wanted to establish something for the community that we could be proud of. Not just any barbershop, but a home to come to Diego is like my right hand man. I wouldn't be able to create this without the help of Diego. It was something that we had always talked about, like, oh, it'd be cool to have a shop together someday. So for it to come into fruition now, it was pretty rad.
Diego Carreon: We kind of just hit it off in barber school. He'd come over to family parties, so it just kind of became kind of like a brotherhood.
Gabriel Maestas: He has my back, he always has my back, and it's nice to have that dynamic in someone who's helping me run the business is really huge. Deciding when to take that leap, that was a very challenging thing. I didn't want to continue building a brand or legacy for somebody else, and I really wanted to build something for my wife and daughter and something that I can call my own. I knew that if I was going to work hard and put forth all my heart and soul into something that it was going to work out.
Diego Carreon: My dad owned a couple of businesses, a cleaning business and a tile business. Tile was during the day, and then the cleaning was at nighttime when the businesses were closed. So he had me working since 12, 13 years old, and I saw how hard he worked, so I think that's helped a lot with my work ethic. We did everything in here. We painted it, we tore out the floor and then decorated. Our hopes were for it to be clean, but kind of show who we were.
Gabriel Maestas: We just want anybody size, shape, race, hair, color, anything like that. We just want people to be able to come in here and feel comfortable, and we pride ourselves on being able to do it all, not just one type of haircut. We wanted to kind of be loud and proud about being a couple of Latino business owners, opening up a super classy and fresh perspective on barbering in the heart of a community like this.
