Moneda Moves (141): We Went To One of the Biggest US Latino Business Conferences...
…and we’re here to share what we learned! Yes, we’ve even our digest of the conversation with the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama.
Mi gente, we’re still on a high from the last few days on stage at L'ATTITUDE and the powerful things that happen when you bring cross-industry leaders together with one goal: To help our diverse Latino cohort thrive in our country.
As promised, we want to let you in on the takeaways from within the conference and that’s what today’s Moneda Moves will be all about. Please stay close to our social channels on Instagram and in our newsletter here as we will also share our incoming article on the event for Hispanic Executive. In the meantime, please find top level bullets from the conference:
The Latino GDP is now the FIFTH largest GDP in the world with an economic output of $2.8 trillion. Per the Latino Donor Collaborative: “If Latinos living in the United States were an independent country, The U.S. Latino GDP would be the fifth largest GDP in the world, larger even than the GDP of the United Kingdom, India, or France.” This is an increase from the last report where the Latino GDP was named the eight largest in the world. You can find the 2022 report for your viewing here.
What drives these Latino GDP numbers further up? According to the LDC: Education, income, population and labor force growth, attaining homeownership.
Latino economic performance during the pandemic was strong, especially when compared against other cohorts. Case in point: While Latino GDP contracted .8%, there was a contraction of 4.4% for Non-Latino GDP. And while this speaks to the cohort’s resilience, there is still a concerning lack of investment in the community.
Latinos are at the forefront of technology. Not only do they live in areas where tech jobs are in highest demand, 19% technology businesses are Latino-owned. You can read the full report from LDC here.
President Obama spoke at L’ATTITUDE on Sunday, September 25. We also listened to a conversation with President Obama. No phones were allowed in session. #5-10 were the top level takeaways.
If Latinos often advise companies (which they do), they have the power to CREATE successful companies as well.
As the Latino population grows in the US, it will become more critical than ever to get our cohort registered and at the polls ready to vote.
A reminder that the Federal Housing Authority was built on practices excluding Black and brown communities, and redlining. Reversing the effects of these practices are still something we grapple with today and making homeownership accessible.
Media communications has evolved and with more ways to communicate news, today it is much more common that opinion be conflated with factual news.
In an era of mass information, Latinos and Black communities are actively being targeted with misinformation. This is something to be wary of. (Our input on these kind of media issues: We need a solution to media literacy and vetting sources for the layman reader. This, however, is worth an entire newsletter.)
Women leaders need to be put at the forefront of companies.
Following our panel with Rachel ten Brink, General Partner at Red Bike Capital. In a panel with TikTok Creator Leo Gonzalez and Whalar Talent’s Victoria Bachan, we talked about the future of the creator economy, a $100 billion with more than 50 million creators in the space and the importance that influencers play in the now and future of brand growth.
Speaking with entrepreneur turned venture capitalist and General Partner at Red Bike Capital Rachel ten Brink, we discussed how diverse fund managers are crucial to increasing VC investing in Latinos and how she navigated her transition from 15 years in corporate, to entrepreneurship and then managing a fund. She kindly summarized more in depth takeaways from the panel here.
Following our panel with the Founders of Web3 Familia. And in conversation with the founders of Web3 Familia we discussed the importance of educating the Latino cohort early on Web3 using grassroots efforts, navigating risk and how big companies like Starbucks and Ticketmaster are leveraging the function of NFTs to benefit their community. ( Magdalena Madrigal, Orlando Gomez, Christian Narvaez, Francisco Izaguirre )
Last and certainly not least, we want to give a huge shout-out to ALPFA’s Most Powerful Latinas announced over the weekend. We were pleased to see Laura Moreno, Partner at LAT VC on the list alongside so many other power shifters. Congratulations to everyone! You can see the full list here.
Thank you for joining us! Until next week, catch us here on Moneda Moves.
Thank you for the recap! I can feel the energy through this newsletter!