The Expanding World of “TwoMany”

By Danielle Cosino Social Media Editor

In a world where you can have an abundance of negative things in your life, the concept of “TwoMany” serves as a reminder that you can never have too much positivity.

This abundance of positivity, like support and love, is what drives Skyline student and entrepreneur Albert Jacob Colendres (Jacob) to continue to grow and improve as an entrepreneur, and strive to expand his businesses.

Growing up, Jacob knew that he always wanted to be his own boss but never considered becoming an entrepreneur.

“I didn’t know that business and entrepreneurship was an opportunity for me until my sister started her own business,” Colendres stated.

It was the beginning of the pandemic and everyone was stuck at home. Like most people during quarantine, Jacob spent his days sleeping in or playing video games.

When his older sister started a small business selling keychains, Jacob realized that he wanted to do something positive and productive for himself. After witnessing the success of his sister’s business, that gave Colendres the final push to start one of his own.

“The way she ran her business really inspired me to follow in her footsteps,” Colendres said. “The way that she went about making her stuff, and the hard work I saw her put in, kind of rubbed off on me.”

In August 2020 during his senior year of high school, Colendres launched his first small business on Instagram: TwoManyPearls.

Pearl necklaces were on the rise throughout social media at the time, so Jacob decided to take advantage of this upcoming fashion trend. This pearl trend, plus his love for fashion, resulted in TwoManyPearls becoming a jewelry business dedicated to selling pearl accessories.

TwoManyPearls was run entirely by Jacob on Instagram. From the getgo, he wanted that business to be his own thing.

Colendres admitted that he threw himself into the deep end when starting TwoManyPearls. He didn’t have a logo created or a website when his business initially launched; however, he knew he had this vision for himself when stepping into the entrepreneurial industry.

“I have a picture in my head of where I want to be, so I always chase that success.”

He marketed and promoted TwoManyPearls by word of mouth through social media. He encouraged his close friends to repost TwoManyPearls’ content onto their own personal Instagram pages.

“I found out about TwoManyPearls during the pandemic off of my friends’ posts on social media,” said TwoManyPearls customer John Macahilas.

Eventually, Jacob established a giveaway system to promote his business, which turned out to be a very successful method in gaining engagement.

“It just snowballs. Once people see free things, they might as well join in for that opportunity,” Colendres stated.

Another customer, Kayla Devila, was a winner of these giveaways.

“I won an all-white pearl necklace, and upon arrival, the jewelry was not only as presented and described, but also the packaging was well-thought out,” Devila stated.

Building trust and creating a personalized connection with his customers was really important to Colendres.

Danielle Cosino/The Skyline View

A lot of thought and care went into the entire process of producing an order, from creating the necklace to delivering it. Each pearl accessory was handmade by Jacob himself, and each order was either hand-delivered or shipped with a personalized thank you note.

The dedication that Colendres put into his business didn’t go unnoticed by his customers.

Customer Daniel Urista stated, “I had made a request for some green pearls and even though he didn’t have them in stock he went above and beyond to get pearls that matched my description and even sent me images of trial pairs to make sure the final product was up to par with what I had in mind.”

Another fellow customer, Maya Gemora, stated, “He’s such a hard worker and has genuine intentions so I knew I had to support. He also consistently recognizes his customers by reposting them showing his appreciation for their support.”

Although Colendres ran TwoManyPearls independently, that doesn’t mean he was always doing things alone. There is a huge support system of family, friends and mentors behind his success so far.

Jacob is part of CIPHER (Center for Innovative Practices through Hip Hop Education & Research), a learning community offered at Skyline College which provides educational experiences for students who are interested in hiphop culture.

The courses offered under CIPHER are general education courses built in the context of hip-hop. Additionally, the learning community has partnered up with Skyline’s business division to incorporate business courses into CIPHER.

Nate Nevado, the founder of CIPHER, explained that “Part of it is really because many students that we serve in CIPHER hip-hop learning community, a vast majority of them are business and entrepreneurship students.”

Nevado has been an important and influential person in Jacob’s entrepreneurial journey. Nevado has expressed his joy of having Jacob be a part of CIPHER and watching him grow as an entrepreneur.

“In the future, he’s going to be one of our greatest success stories,” stated Nevado.

“This is someone who’s so creative and so innovative. He doesn’t allow himself to be boxed in by society. He understands the importance of breaking through those boxes, reinventing the box, or eliminating the box.”

Business Professor Soledad McCarthy is another influential person whom Jacob has turned to for guidance and support.

“When I was still doing TwoManyPearls, I asked for her help,” Colendres said. “She really broke down how much I’m worth, how much I should be putting out my products for because when I was doing it at first, I didn’t really take that into account.”

McCarthy describes Colendres as a “true entrepreneur.”

“He has that hustle mentality and is open to suggestions. He doesn’t take things too personally and adjusts things as needed.”

This support system is a main motivator for Jacob, providing him with that abundance of positivity in his life–the whole concept behind “TwoMany”.

Something Colendres had always wanted to do coming out of high school was to create a clothing brand. With the skills and experiences that he gained from taking business courses, being a student of CIPHER and from running TwoManyPearls, Colendres felt that it was time to branch out. Towards the end of 2022, he started a new business venture, TwoManyStudios.

“A lot of my professors really influence me [in] a lot of ways and I couldn’t be in the position that I’m in to drop my first collection without having those experiences, without being able to take those and implement it into my life.”

The first ever drop of TwoManyStudios is the “Guardian Angel” t-shirt, inspired by his faith. It’s a simple black tee with the clothing brand’s logo on the front and a pair of angel wings with a cross spread across the entire back.

“Every time I look at it, it symbolizes the guardian angel for me. Something’s gonna always be there to protect me, something’s gonna always be there to keep me going in the right path and keep me motivated, and keep me strong. Every time I look at it, I get that motivation to keep going. That’s what I want people to experience throughout the shirt.”

Colendres expressed that he will be running TwoManyStudios entirely different from the way he ran TwoManyPearls.

“I’m taking a step back. I’m actually having a process throughout the stuff that I do and the stuff that I post. That’s why I’m not really as active as I was on TwoManyPearls. I wanna make sure that the stuff I put out is quality, and it’s true to myself. If the process takes longer than TwoManyPearls, it’s fine with me.”

However, two things will stay the same: Jacob’s commitment to creating products that’s true to himself, and building and maintaining a personal connection with his supporters and customers.

Many of his customers from TwoManyPearls know about TwoManyStudios and are looking forward to what Colendres has in store.

“I’ve heard of his clothing brand! I would purchase a product from it, as I believe in his vision and think that the quality he produces is really well-made.” said customer Kayla Devila.

While TwoManyStudios is a new chapter in Jacob’s entrepreneurial journey and in the world of TwoMany, it doesn’t mean that it will be the last.

“As an entrepreneur, opportunities are endless,” Colendres stated.

“The job will never be finished for me. I’m just hungry to keep producing, keep moving forward with whatever I want to do, keep being creative, and also teach the younger generation that it’s possible.”

Since he was surrounded by counselors and professors who served as a beacon of guidance and inspiration, Colendres wants to become that same beacon to those who are looking into becoming entrepreneurs and stepping into the business industry.

One piece of advice Colendres would give to an aspiring entrepreneur is, “Don’t feel rushed. I know that you want to see results. You want to keep working hard, and I definitely say that keep working hard because hard work is what’s going to get you there. Everything takes time. It’s a process, so trust yourself, trust the grind.”

“If you want to expand, go ahead. If you want to pivot and move to a different direction, by all means do it because, like I said, trusting yourself is more important than limiting yourself and not doing what you love. If you do love what you’re doing, if you have that passion for it, then nothing’s going to stop you.”

Jacob wants to serve as a reminder that it is possible, and hopes that his story will inspire others to tell their stories and be who they want to be.