Meet Isaac Huerta

We recently connected with Isaac Huerta and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Isaac , great to have you with us today and excited to have you share your wisdom with our readers. Over the years, after speaking with countless do-ers, makers, builders, entrepreneurs, artists and more we’ve noticed that the ability to take risks is central to almost all stories of triumph and so we’re really interested in hearing about your journey with risk and how you developed your risk-taking ability.

In 2023, we decided to quit our jobs and chose Smashed-Up as a full time career. This was not an easy decision. We started this company when we were just 19 years old. We just turned 21 about 3 weeks ago. Being young in the small business community has been difficult at times. Some people may not take us seriously because of our age. We took this risk and accepted uncertainty. We always have to remind ourselves to trust the process and keep moving forward, even when the circumstances are sometimes not in our favor. Small business owners can all relate to this feeling. It’s not easy in todays modern world, but every risk we have taken has taught us lesson, or has led us closer to success.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

My name is Isaac Huerta and I am the owner of Smashed-Up Burgers. My partner Christopher Villasenor and I are the faces that you would see when coming to one our events. We both grew up in the greater Los Angeles area. We attended high school in Whittier California, and that is where we met. We are also first generation college students. Although we attended different colleges, our friendship remained the same due to our strong bond. In the summer of 2023, Smashed-Up Burgers was created in the backyard of a residential home. Every Friday at 8:00pm, we would serve Smash Burgers to anyone who was able to attend. This also occurred in Whittier. Ten weeks later, we went viral thanks to our friend @latinafoodiela.
About a year and a half later, we have traveled throughout different parts of California with Smashed-Up Burgers and have made this our full-time career. As young business owners, our goal is to serve as many people as we can, until we reach the point in which we can open our own Smash Burger restaurant/bar. The most exciting part about what we do is taking the risks. In January of 2025, we traveled to Santa Barbara and served our burgers on Isla Vista Beach. This was a huge risk considering we are about two hours away and we also understand that our followers are mostly based in Los Angeles. That risk created so many new opportunities for us. It is a very special experience for us when we meet new people who truly enjoy our product. Our social networking has been a huge factor in our success and we plan on traveling to more cities, launching more burgers, and eventually deciding on a location in which we want to bring a permanent restaurant to.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Our journey still consists of these important qualities. The three qualities that we practice on a daily basis are resilience, adaptability, and professionalism. These areas of knowledge help us today and have also helped us when we were first starting in 2023. We always trust the process. We are a small business who is blessed enough to receive a good amount of exposure. However, there are still times in which we feel unseen and unheard. Resilience is what helps our company keep thriving throughout the seasons of change. Circumstances will always change and there are many times in which they change against our favor. We acknowledge it, and move on. We learn the lesson from the situation and act upon it in ways that promote positive adaptation. It sounds very repetitive, but you can not give up in this industry. This goes for anyone who is currently in the small business industry with pop-up restaurants. There are times in which things move very slow, but if you keep at it, the rewards can be endless. There are months in which we barely schedule dates at all, and then by the next month, we are fully booked. You must adapt to situations and stay on the right track. Professionalism helps us stay smart on this journey. There are many other things that occur in our life. This is normal because we just turned 21 this year. Having professional mindsets keeps our eyes on the prize.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

Our parents are the reason why Smahsed-Up Burgers took off. We started off serving in a backyard. This was in our parents backyard. Every Friday night, they would have to deal with many people coming to their house at different times of the night. On our last backyard pop-up before the city shut us down, we used a friends backyard to host. Our family friends hosted this event and we had approximately 500 guests come to the house for our smash burgers. The journey would not have kickstarted if it was not for our parents being so understanding. They listened to us when we explained our ideas and rather than telling us that we are crazy and that it would never work, they endorsed it in every way possible. The Huerta and Villasenor family will always been our number one supporters and we feel so blessed to be raised by such loving people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://smashed-up.com
• Instagram: Smashedupburgs
• Other: Smashedupburgs@gmail.com

  Smashedupburgs on TikTok