Millennial Lotería Creator Mike Alfaro on His Trendsetting Journey

We caught up with Mike Alfaro, the creative director and founder of the utterly relatable Millennial Lotería, about his entrepreneurial journey in the board game industry, coming from a background in PR and advertising. Enjoy our Q&A with Mike!

Share your take on entrepreneurship – any specific defining moments in your journey?

It’s really important to build a community online that supports the vision for your product. Millennial Lotería is finding a lot of success because it’s reflecting our culture today and makes people feel represented within the U.S.-Latino community. I had thousands of comments from followers before we even became a real product saying they wanted to buy it. So that was my wake-up call to realize there was a whole market for Latino games out there.

How did you fall into a career as a game maker?

I graduated with a major in PR & Advertising with a minor in Television Production from Chapman University in Orange County. I then went on to work as a creative in the ad agency world, creating award-winning campaigns for clients like Taco Bell, Petco, and Honda. After 12 years of working in the industry, I decided to step back and create something for myself that represented my community in a positive and fun way. I started posting Millennial Loteria cards on my social media and suddenly we began getting thousands of followers who wanted to see what card we posted next.

How have your different projects helped find inclusion for the Latine community?

Millennial Lotería is all about representation. It’s about showing a modern take on what it means to be a Latino living in the U.S. during this specific time in history. I hope it can break stereotypes about our community and also represent diversity and modernity to this new generation of leaders.

Tell us about the biggest struggles/obstacles in your career, and how you have overcome them.

My biggest struggle has been getting over imposter syndrome and realizing that I deserve to be heard and have a seat a the table because my views and experiences are different from the rest of the usual people who have decision-making powers.

What makes you most proud of the work you do? 

The fact that over half a million Latino families have invited our game into their living rooms and family parties fills me with joy and a great sense of responsibility. Making people laugh and make great memories with my product is priceless.

Do you have a mantra, piece of art, person, or ritual that has helped you in a proud way that you would like to share?

If your customer can’t see a difference, they can’t have a preference. So differentiation from other products is key.

About your future projects & anything else, you wanna add and promote!

We’re part of Target’s Hispanic Heritage Month collection, so find us in the end caps this season at Target stores nationwide. We also have a new Y2K Loteria dropping in November and a new NFT project launching at the end of the year.