We had the good fortune of connecting with Larissa Del Toro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Larissa, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
My family is what makes me extremely happy above all circumstances. However, every time I start planning a picnic event I feel like I’m floating in my own world of ideas, color combinations , picking the right inventory and of course décor shopping if I don’t have certain item that makes the perfect match with the setup I have created in my head.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Design Engineer at Amazon Industrial Engineer immigrant from Mexico. Started working as a Process Engineer in a beauty manufacturing company. Soon to realize I wanted to continue my studies. Graduated with a M.S. In Supply Chain Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, I have been working with Amazon for 5 years. Working at Amazon have taught me some incredible valuable skills. Customer Obsession being one of them. This super power definitely helps me in keep growing my picnic business.

Grato Party Rental
Since I was in college in Mexico, I loved to organize parties where I charged an entrance fee to all my college classmates. I organized about 3-4 events per year. I had fun, my friends had fun and I got some profit out of it.

As an engineer, my mind is always thinking on a new solution, new process to make things work better, etc. That’s is how Grato Party Rental started. My husband and I were on a weekend vacation at Myrtle Beach and we saw it! We saw a picnic setup by the beach. It was a proposal setup. It was AMAZING! I started investigating picnic companies in Metro Atlanta and I saw a couple. Nothing within my area in East Cobb and then I remembered how much money I made in college with my parties and that was it. It was the break from the corporate world. It was my therapy . My opportunity to create something from the ground up. I just needed to find the time.

For a few months the idea was just on my mind. I wasn’t able to find the workload balance between my full time job and the idea of starting a business. I shared the idea with a couple of friends and one day around March 2022 one of them called saying my daughter (Mia) wants to have a sleepover and a picnic setup for her birthday in September . I had my first customer so I needed a product. With that being said, me and my husband started our woodshop in our garage to start building my inventory. During my first year (half of 2022) I probably had about 10 customers. I wasn’t disappointment at all since I started late in the season and did not have the reachability I needed. Moving forwards to my sales in 2023, I have over 80 customers serviced in this year. Looking forward to what 2024 will bring.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Friday evening: Picking her up from the Airport
Dinner/drinks at The Battery – MUST go to Antico and for some dancing at PBR and/or PeterPan

Saturday
Bruch at Elevation Chophouse
Afternoon at the Aquarium and Coca Cola

Sunday
Walk around piedmont park with a wonderful Picnic Setup done by Grato Party Rental

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband: Who has been to my side in this up and down career of entrepreneurship. Who understands my passion for having sometihng called my owned and helps me in balancing out my corporate engineering job with my small business. He is the bet employee I could ever hire.

As an in-migrant Latina engineer/entrepreneur I would like to say especial thanks to my mentors who believed in me from day one and were/are able to give me advice when I needed the most.

Robert Leder: Who believed in me and my engineering knowledge from a foreign country and helped me in landing my first engineer role in the U.S.

Jeff Ashachik: A great person and mentor for my young engineering/entrepreneurship career. His advice guides me towards the right answer at work and his work balance tips have help me give all my best at the corporate world and to also have energy for my side business

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grato_partyrental?igsh=MXZmYjgwMmdyb2J0cw

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