From the Outside Looking In — to All In
My Journey with the PVF Roundtable and what it’s meant to meby Tristen Ortega, Worldwide Pipe & Supply
When I first stepped into the PVF Roundtable world back in 2018, I didn’t fully know what I was walking into. I was born into the industry — but not in the way most people think. There wasn’t a long, established family legacy in pipe, valves, and fittings. My family — the generation before me — was still working hard to be recognized.
I was just 20 years old when I attended my first PVF Roundtable event, fresh into a new role in Quality Assurance at Maass Flange Corporation. It was a Pro-Knows event at Sunbelt Supply. I still remember the feeling of walking into that massive warehouse and realizing I was part of something bigger than myself. There was a real sense of pride in that moment.
Before Maass Flange, I was working at DL Flange as a CNC machinist — so you can imagine my shock when I landed the job at Maass. In 2018, it felt like I had been thrown straight into the fire. I honestly had no business getting that position, at least not on paper.
My role in Quality Assurance involved reviewing raw material MTRs and final MTRs before shipments went out, along with overseeing all the testing required for each order. The problem? I had no idea what an MTR even was. Tensile tests, specs, material grades — it was all completely foreign to me. I was learning everything from scratch, on the fly, and under pressure.
And on top of that, I was hiding a big secret.
First, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Second, the only reason I got the job was because my uncle, Mike Hernandez, had put in a good word for me. The real secret? We didn’t tell anyone we were related for the first year — even though we were working side by side in the same office every day.
Which brings me to my first Pro-Knows PVF Roundtable event. After a while, my uncle realized just how deep of a situation he had thrown me into — and he knew I needed help. So, he brought me to that event, hoping I could soak up as much information as possible from the best that our industry has to offer.
It was there I met people who would go on to become close friends and mentors — relationships I still rely on today. I honestly think that day sparked a new goal in my head: I wanted to be in sales. PVF events are full of salespeople, and I quickly realized how naturally those conversations came to me, even as a young guy just starting out and nothing much to add to sales conversations. I didn’t know it then, but that goal would take years to reach.
From that day forward, I showed up to every PVF Roundtable quarterly meeting and young professionals’ event I could. I was hooked; each event had its own theme and purpose. I wanted to be part of this community — even if it wasn’t going to make me better at QA. I knew networking was the key to getting where I wanted to go.
For a while, I was almost always the youngest person in the room. That came with mixed feelings. On one hand, it made me realize how few young people truly see the opportunity this industry offers — and part of me wanted to help change that. On the other hand, I felt like I was ahead of the game. I’m a competitive person, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had made a smart move by getting involved early. While a lot of my peers were elsewhere, I was in rooms with VPs, CEOs, and sales managers — learning, connecting, and laying the foundation for my future.