Moneda Moves (149): 🎓 Lessons From Stanford's Biggest Latino Entrepreneurship Event
We’ve just come back more energized that ever from Stanford University’s biggest event for Latino entrepreneurs, mi gente: That’s the 2023 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Summit and Gala put on by Latino Business Action Network, a nonprofit based on the campus empowering Latino entrepreneurship with research, ecosystem building and funding connection.
This was our first time at the summit, but I can tell you firsthand, it was long overdue. For the last few years we’d covered and referenced findings from LBAN’s report which speaks directly to the contributions of Latino business owners to the American economy, their areas of demonstrated growth, barriers and opportunities to scale even further. This is the kind of research that is integral to better understanding the ecosystem and support our community needs to get to the next level in building their companies.
At the event, we dove into findings from this year’s research report specifically about Latino business owners. We also heard from some of the biggest ecosystem players in the Latino entrepreneurship space including: entrepreneurs, institutions building solutions, venture capitalists and academia doing the research.
Notably, we saw the vision described by Arturo Cazares, CEO of Latino Business Action Network at Stanford, materialize. We saw an IRL event that brought players in the ecosystem together to discuss barriers Latino entrepreneurs still face with some of the people who have the power to begin talking about solutions.
“Latinos are beginning to have critical mass now in all professions (for the first time) but we need to build connections among each other at the professional levels to generate the much-needed social capital,” Cazares said. “That is why we put such a big focus on ecosystem building. “
If you haven’t yet, you’ll want to read the yearly report on Latino entrepreneurs for 2023 to get a pulse on where the collective stands. Among the executive findings were (with further trends for the year coming in a reported article later this week):
💰 5 million Latino-owned businesses across the country are generating more than $800 billion in annual revenue. These businesses continue to outpace the growth rates of White-owned businesses–and U.S. businesses in general.
💰 Latino-owned businesses are 50% more likely to request financing than White-owned businesses and have stronger business metrics than White-owned businesses, but have lower approval rates for bigger loans.
💰 Latino-owned businesses have expanded their customer base using diverse and forward-thinking methodologies.
On the ground, we also had the opportunity to listen to a few entrepreneurs speak to the main findings within the report in a State of Latino Entrepreneurs panel led by Jennifer Garcia, COO at LBAN. A few takeaways from that discussion:
📍 Often, business owners self-financed their business to start, as was the case for David Andalcio, CEO, Wynndalco Enterprises. Saskia Sorrosa, founder of healthy snacks brand Fresh Bellies, took out money from her 401(k) to start selling her product at the farmer’s market, she recalls. Following her self-funded start, she has leaned into working with majority underrepresented investors and Black and Hispanic-led venture capital firms.
📍 Entrepreneurs on the panel have not found matchmaking to be the most effective way to secure bigger contracts. For Saskia Sorrosa, Founder of Fresh Bellies, she found relationships with national brokers to be most crucial to get into major retailers like Target.
📍 Corporations are missing out when they don’t work with Latinos. Griselda Gonzalez, Contract Manager, CG Moving Company alongside other entrepreneurs on the panel expressed the need for corporations to see the immense business opportunity that lies in a community of Latino business owners.
📍It’s important that Latinos do business with each other. This was a takeaway emphasized by Andalcio of Wynndalco Enterprises that again emphasizes the importance of having Latino ecosystem players in one space to convene, talk about barriers to scaling and solutions moving forward.
Keep following us across our @monedamoves social channels where we will share the top five trends for Latino-owned businesses in 2023, publishing later this week in Hispanic Exeuctive.
Con poder,
Lyanne
Headlines to put your radar. We usually reserve this section for national headlines but we have a few BIG headlines coming from Moneda Moves this week! Take a look.
🎧 A NEW season of Moneda Moves is coming…and this season is all about the multi-hyphenates. We are speaking with journalists turned Web3 founders, leaders at big mutual fund companies and also Paris Hilton’s newest Discord community, to venture capitalists who also happen to have built a career in modeling. We’re keeping it dynamic this season, mi gente! No te lo quieres perder. You can replay our latest episodes here.
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