Light Speed Moment: The Future is Us!
Photos: J Fairbanks and L'Attitude
Wow! Talk about bringing it in. L'ATTITUDE VENTURES conference in San Diego was an amazing showcase of LatinX talent in business, entertainment, and sports.
Loved hearing the operators, founders, and investors enthusiastically articulate how their journeys have culminated in their visions forward.
“I wake up every day on fire with purpose.”
Guillermo Diaz Jr, Founder and CEO of Conectado Inc and former CIO of Cisco, said that. Who doesn’t want to feel that way?
“We need an ecosystem of people to invest in companies.”
Will Salcido, Co-Founder and CEO of Bedrock Analytics, an AI driven provider of CPG data analytics, underscored why we all gathered for 4 days in San Diego.
I was fortunate to represent the impact a Latina investor and ecosystem builder can have on our extended community by being present in the moment and delivering the message:
Invest in women, invest for impact, invest in us. This is a large scale market opportunity.
Thank you, Laura Lucas, GP at L'ATTITUDE VENTURES, and Patty Juarez with a very well-represented Wells Fargo team for sponsoring another well-received screening of Show Her The Money! Our panel was moderated by the dynamic Giselle Valdez Jackson of Wells Fargo and featured my wonderful co-panelists Fanny Grande Co-Founder and CEO of Avenida Entertainment Group Inc., Vicky Pasche, Co-Founder and CEO of Dapper Boi, and Azin Radsan van Alebeek, Co-Founder and GP of Emmeline Ventures.
L to R: Fanny Grande, Joy Fairbanks, Azin Radsan van Alebeek, Vicky Pasche, and Giselle Valdez.
Investing in LatinX talent is an incredible (and still underfunded) business opportunity. Lesson #1 when I was trained as an institutional investor at the beginning of my career was to find overlooked and undervalued market opportunities.
The fact is that investing in women and LatinX is not DEI, it is a boost to P&L.
Let’s begin with innovation in artificial intelligence. AI is expected to add $15.7 trillion to the economy by 2030 across sectors for various uses. A surge in LatinX stem and computer science degrees has added an incredible technical pool of talent to realize solutions for positive impact on people and the planet.
Innovation Recipe: Fire in the belly to solve a problem which impacts many.
Domain Knowledge + Technical Expertise + Lived Experiences + Opportunity Access = Nice Launchpad.
The startup pitches showcasing LatinX founders represent highly investible opportunities.
Coming in as the crowd favorite was Mavida Health, led by Columbia University fellow alumna Co-Founder and CEO Sarah Oreck, MD MS, focused on maternal health. Mavida is addressing the mental health issues most closely associated with maternal morbidity with a health app facilitating clinical care with content, community, and access to solutions.
L to R: Contessa Brewer, Dr. Sarah Oreck, Laura Lucas, and Pete Amaro.
Other notable startups pitching included:
RevelAi Health. Christian Pean M.D., M.S., Co-Founder and CEO of RevelAi Health, demonstrated how his startup uses his domain knowledge and generative AI to provide a much needed pre and post operative care solution for orthopedic patients. Dr. Pean demonstrated the ease of guidance using NLP for non-English speakers. RevelAI Health’s solutions target a current weakness in the healthcare delivery system affecting both physician burnout and patient outcomes which are highly variable (and inequitable) across social and economic demographics.
Nala. Ximena Paul, Co-Founder and CEO of Nala, an AI talent management provider, showcased her firm’s offering to monitor and leverage an employee’s skills, opportunities, and growth objectives. Nala’s solution offers a systematic way to increase retention and better align promotion and compensation.
Holos. Alicia Vivanco, Co-Founder and CEO of Holos, presented her insurance-subsidized, tech solution to connect employees to diverse health and wellness programs to boost their health, happiness, and overall well-being.
Dynami Battery Corp. Incubated at Koffman Labs Incubator in Binghampton, NY, Dynami is producing lithium car batteries that are faster charging, longer range, more powerful, and composed of less critical minerals.
Loved the pitching advice from Aaron Samuels, Founder and Managing Partner of Collide Capital (who started his career as a traveling poet):
“The best ending to a story is both surprising and inevitable.”
Invest Inclusively. Invest for Impact. Build your Dream.
Luis Fonsi encouraging us to sing with him. Photo: J Fairbanks.
Tell your story.
Adelante! Let’s do this thing.
Sing it.
LBAN/Latino Business Action Network Latinx MBA Association Wells Fargo Show Her The Money