Ep. 25: How Jesse Torres Leveraged His Network to Help Over 50,000 Small Businesses During a Crisis

When a public-health crisis hit, one connector turned a patchwork of government resources into a lifeline for tens of thousands of small businesses. Jesse Torres — former Regional Director of the Los Angeles SBDC, California Small Business Advocate, and founder of ArroyoWest — used decades of cross-sector relationships to help distribute PPE at scale and protect small business livelihoods.   Jesse walks through the step-by-step infrastructure he helped assemble: brokering partnerships between the State, L.A. County, and the L.A. SBDC; designing logistics and distribution networks; and launching a simple public-facing website (PPEunite.org) that supported 55 distribution centers. He shares concrete lessons on reading bureaucracy (knowing "how the paper works"), building trusted referral channels into underserved neighborhoods, and applying rapid estimates and tech-light solutions to move 40 million units of PPE to 50,000+ businesses. Key Takeaways: Treat your network as a strategic asset: map contacts, surface community champions, and make introductions that align resources with need. Build a minimal, resilient infrastructure that links people, processes, and tools so partnerships can scale beyond a single leader. Learn the bureaucracy: identify approval gates, timelines, and required documents so you can pierce red tape instead of being stalled by it. Design distribution for scale with low-friction tech, simple websites, and local distribution hubs let you convert partnerships into impact quickly. Institutionalize disaster preparedness: create continuity plans, local champions, and repeatable logistics so relief becomes sustainable, not one-off.   Join us with Jesse Torres as he shows leaders how strategic networking and scale-ready infrastructure can mobilize resources, pierce bureaucracy, and protect thousands of small businesses in a crisis.   🏆𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐏𝐌𝐏? 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐃𝐔𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭! 👉View this Episode's Full Show Notes at ScaleTalesPodcast.com. © Copyright 2025. Scale Tales is an Equilibria, Inc. podcast. We're dedicated to providing resources to support founders, leaders, and project managers of fast-growing organizations in scaling back-office operations without pain and chaos. Visit our website to learn more.