U.S. sees big spike in black and Hispanic women entrepreneurs

On Wednesday, the National Women's Business Council released an analysis of preliminary Census data which showed there were nearly 10 million women-owned small businesses in the U.S. in 2012, an almost 22% increase from 2007. (The Census defines a woman-owned business as one where a woman owns 51% or more of the business equity of stock).

While men still own more businesses than women, women-owned businesses grew at a rate of four times that of male-owned businesses. In 2012, men owned nearly 15 million businesses.
Overall, women-owned businesses earned a total of $1.6 trillion between 2007 and 2012 and the vast majority (89.4%) were run by sole proprietors, meaning the only employee was the owner.

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Latin America: Low-Income Millennials Present Big Market Opportunities

Hardly a day passes without a new article on how businesses are analyzing the needs, wants and spending trends of millennials. In the US alone, millennials (or Generation Y), those born between 1980 and 2000, represent 30 percent of the population. By 2025 they will be 75 percent of the workforce.The impact that millennials are starting to have on the global economy, the environment, and politics is enormous.

But “millennial mania” is dominated by studies, research and marketing efforts that focus on affluent individuals. Meanwhile, in Latin America and the Caribbean a market of 77 million low-income millennials goes almost unnoticed.

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Sandra Diaz > www.diazandco.com

Sandra Diaz, Owner, Diaz & Co.

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
Perseverance, curiosity, adaptability and ability to motivate others.

What inspired you to start your business?
People kept contacting me to advise them on developing a roadmap to market their products and services to U.S. Hispanics.

How did you finance it?
So far, from organic growth.

Does being Hispanic/Latina have any influence on your business?
It allows me to bring a personal point of view to client challenges in addition to the professional knowledge, which builds credibility.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to drive ahead?
Prayer, engaging coaches and sharing with trusted peers to uncover new ways to tackle the issues.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
Time management, especially trying to decide between good and best opportunities.

If you could change one thing about your business. What would it be?
I would like to have a partner.

What was your childhood ambition?
In grade school, to be an Astronomer. In high school, to be a Fashion Designer. My parents were scientists and my mom also owned several fashion and textile businesses.

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire.
My mom, for her perseverance and leadership.
The late Tere Zubizarreta, for pioneering the Hispanic/ multicultural marketing industry as a woman in the 70s.
Carlos Santiago from Santiago Solutions Group, for his analytical approach to driving growth from cultural and generational segments.

For business meetings, which do you prefer: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Whatever works best with my commute schedule so that I do not have down time in between meetings.

What sacrifices in your personal life did you have to make in order to become successful in your business?
Moving from an apartment in Manhattan to a room in somebody else’s house in Brooklyn for four years to save on rent.

What is your favorite quote?
“I have had a lot of very expensive learning experiences, but I’ve never let them stop me from getting up in the morning and trying again.” Larry Levy, Co-Founder, Levy Restaurants; Chairman and CEO, The Levy Organization.

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
Not usually, but sometimes it feels lonely

Biggest mistake made?
Letting the tight timeline of a potential client dictate my way of communicating or doing business. And not giving people feedback before I decide to stop working with them.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
Yes because I like to find ways to challenge the status-quo and am always learning new things.

About Diaz & Co. 
Diaz & Co. is a boutique strategy consulting firm that equips brands and retailers to grow business and reduce inefficiencies by catering to U.S. Hispanics while meeting the needs of mainstream shoppers at the same time. Our strategic solutions and training enable companies to maximize the Hispanic appeal of their mainstream initiatives while identifying if and how they should pursue Hispanic-specific strategies to address any offering, messaging and/or media gaps.

Spain-US Start-up Competition

For more information, click here

Guilbert Englebienne, Globant Founder

Guibert Englebienne tiene 48 años y nació en Mar del Plata.
Es ingeniero en sistemas.
@guibert y se define como: Outdoor sport lover, rockstar wannabe. Globant igniter, Endeavor evangelist.
En 2002 fundó Globant junto a sus amigos Martín Umaran, Martín Migoya, Néstor Nocetti.
En 2014 Globant comenzó a cotizar en el NYSE (GLOB). Tiene un market cap de US$ 750 millones y un precio de acción que ronda los US$ 22

Meet The Latino Entrepreneur Who Aims To Transform A Trillion Dollar Market

A few years ago, Edrizio De La Cruz had a great idea:  a better way for émigrés to send money back home by reducing the friction caused by middlemen (the incumbent service providers).  The idea catapulted the Dominican Republic-born Wharton grad into the higher echelons of the startup world, landing him onstage at Demo Day for Y-Combinator’s class of 2013.  

He then secured $3 million in funding, which — as my good friend Tiq Chapa at the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative has said– is one of the few real VC scores for Latino entrepreneurs “east of the Mississippi.” Regalii, his company, is based in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan, one of the largest hubs in the world for Dominican émigrés.

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Nation’s Top Entrepreneurs Of Color To Convene In New Orleans July 1-3 For 2nd Annual Powermoves Nola Conference

NEW ORLEANS (June 23, 2015) — PowerMoves.NOLA is convening the country’s premier entrepreneurs of color for its second annual national conference in New Orleans on July 1-3, 2015 to coincide with ESSENCE Festival® presented by Coca-Cola®. The three-day event is designed to connect nationally-sourced entrepreneurs with a preeminent network of advisors, experts, and investors. The conference advances PowerMoves.NOLA’s mission to increase the number of America’s venture-backed, minority-founded companies in high-tech and high-growth sectors. It is made possible through the generous support of Chevron as Founding Sponsor and Morgan Stanley as Presenting Sponsor.

“Entrepreneurs of color do not typically have access to deep pools of capital, and this event is about identifying the very best of this historically overlooked talent pool and connecting them to experienced investors. The entrepreneurs get unparalleled access, and the investors are exposed to attractive prospective investment opportunities at reasonable valuations,” said Earl Robinson, the president of PowerMoves.NOLA.

More than 50 highly-regarded investors and advisors and some 40 entrepreneurs will be in attendance. In addition to hand-selecting the nation’s most promising entrepreneurs of color, several invitation-only events ensure top-quality deal flow.

The conference will also include the culmination of the PowerUp Boot Camp for early-stage entrepreneurs of color. The intense program helps them develop viable brands, produce effective business models, and prepare for the Demo Day presentation to potential investors held at the conference on July 3.

For descriptions of all participating entrepreneurs, visit http://www.powermovesnola.org/2015-conference/.


SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Entergy Angel Pitch
This pitch will feature five early-stage entrepreneurs competing for a $25,000 cash prize.
July 2, 9AM - 10:30AM, Club XLIV in Champions Square (LaSalle St)

Morgan Stanley Series A Pitch
This pitch will feature five later-stage entrepreneurs competing for a $25,000 cash prize.
July 2, 11AM - 12:30PM, Club XLIV in Champions Square (LaSalle St)

PowerMoves Alumni Panel
This panel will feature former PowerMoves.NOLA Pitch and Demo Day participants as they discuss their experiences scaling their startups and raising capital as entrepreneurs of colors.
July 2, 2PM - 3:30PM, Club XLIV in Champions Square (LaSalle St)

Morgan Stanley FinTech Showcase
This showcase will feature five entrepreneurs representing the financial technology field present their business models to a select group of investors and industry business leaders.
July 3, 8:30AM - 10AM, Freeport-MacMoRan Building, 1615 Poydras Str, 23rd Floor

PowerUp Demo Day presented by IBERIABANK
Twenty early-stage tech entrepreneurs of color will culminate their 6-week boot camp at the PowerUp Demo Day where they will pitch for the chance to win a $15,000 cash prize.
July 3, 10AM - 11:30AM, Pan American Life Building, 601 Poydras St. -20th Floor - IBERIABANK Atrium

Big Break Power Pitch
Four consumer-focused startups founded by entrepreneurs of color will compete at the 2015 ESSENCE Festival® presented by Coca-Cola® for the chance to get their “Big Break.” The winner will receive a $25,000 cash prize and exposure to investors and business leaders. The Big Break Power Pitch will be moderated by Carla Harris, Vice Chairman, Global Wealth Management, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisory at Morgan Stanley.
July 3, 1:30PM – 2:15PM, Center stage in the Ernst M. Morial Convention Center

More about the conference at http://www.powermovesnola.org/2015-conference/

ABOUT POWERMOVES.NOLA
PowerMoves.NOLA is a national initiative to deploy innovative ideas, fresh approaches, and an overall commitment to equity and diversity as a growth strategy to address the generational obstacles that prevent minority entrepreneurship. Leveraging the thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, resources, and culture of New Orleans, PowerMoves.NOLA’s mission is to increase the number of venture-backed minority-founded companies locally and nationally.

PowerMoves.NOLA is made possible through the generous support of its sponsors including Chevron as Founding Sponsor and Morgan Stanley as the Presenting Sponsor. Other major sponsors include Entergy, IBERIABANK, Liberty Bank, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and ESSENCE Festival® presented by Coca-Cola®.

In addition to the national conference, programs include City Ventures, PowerUp Boot Camps, and a fellowship.

City Ventures
City Ventures introduce regional and national startup talent to partner cities, highlight existing local entrepreneurial resources and ecosystems, and aid in the strategic positioning of those cities as regional hubs for high-growth and high-tech entrepreneurs of color. City Ventures kicked off with the activation of PowerMoves@Detroit sponsored by Morgan Stanley in April.  Co-hosted by Invest Detroit, PowerMoves@Detroit was a three-day event in which local and nationally recruited entrepreneurs of color participated in venture capital pitch competitions, vying for $120,000 in direct prizes and a chance to raise their visibility to other investors.

A short video on PowerMoves@Detroit can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/candlelightfilms/review/127048836/2ec6140b5b

PowerUp Boot Camp
PowerUp is an intense boot camp training for early-stage entrepreneurs of color to develop viable and fundable business models with advice from successful entrepreneur and investor mentors. The boot camp begins with a 6-week virtual program where companies attend interactive sessions covering specific entrepreneurship-related topics and pitch coaching. Participants are then brought together for 2-days of mentor-led workshops, peer learning and networking.

The Fellowship
The Fellowship, sponsored by Chevron, helps high-growth minority-led startups succeed by individually connecting them to executive, capital and technical assistance through a national network of advisors, mentors, experts and investors.  Selected Fellow received $25,000 in investment capital and free office space during their fellowship year the PowerMoves headquarters. Eligible startups commit to have a C-Level executive and be at 25% or more of their FTE employees living in the New Orleans for at least a year.

More at powermovesnola.org.

La Placita offers testing ground for Hispanic entrepreneurs

The maker movement is on the rise in Cleveland, and a new effort aims to capture that entrepreneurial spirit in the Hispanic community clustered in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

Last month, La Placita at West 25th and Clark premiered its first-ever open-air market, showcasing 30 eclectic local makers and food purveyors. Hundreds came out to experience the blend of rich culture and unique businesses.

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43 lessons growing from $0 to $1+ million in revenue, twice

I realized the other day that we’ve grown from $0 to $1 million with two separate products (HelloSign and HelloFax). This happened a long time ago, but I was recently reflecting on the lessons.

I found a lot of growth truisms to be false. We’ve learned a lot. Some lessons were painfully won, which is why I may sound strongly opinionated about them. They also may be slanted towards B2B products, but I wouldn’t discount them if you’re not in that space.

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Intel launches investment fund for minority, women-led firms

SANTA CLARA, California (AP) — Intel is launching a $125 million investment fund for technology startups led by women and minorities, a move the chipmaker says is aimed at changing the face of Silicon Valley.

The new fund, which is unusual for its focus on minority-led companies, is part of a broader effort that Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has launched amid widespread criticism of a U.S. tech industry dominated by white male executives and investors.

Krzanich announced plans earlier this year to spend $300 million on diversity efforts and pledged to make Intel's workforce and executive ranks more closely resemble the U.S. workforce by 2020. Intel has previously said its workforce is about 24 percent female and 12 percent black and Hispanic. The U.S. workforce is about 47 percent women and 26 percent black and Hispanic.

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