STANFORD SUMMIT FOR LATINX FOUNDERS & FUNDERS

Photos: J Fairbanks

We know the numbers.  Women and founders of color are dramatically underfunded in their entrepreneurship efforts.  While it is a lost opportunity to remedy that only 2% of overall venture funding is going toward women, the numbers are even worse for LatinX founders.  Funding for underrepresented founders is not a pipeline problem.  It is an opportunity problem which countless talented people face in launching enterprises which require a strong network and extensive external funds to build, grow, and eventually exit.

This Spring I attended a summit spotlighting LatinX founders and funders at Stanford Business School.  Opening the summit were words from the director of the Latino Business Action Network (Arturo Cazares, CEO LBAN) and the leaders of its origination partner, Stanford’s Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (George Foster, SLEI Advisor, and Barbara Gomez-Aguinaga, Associate Director, SLEI).  Takeaways from Stanford’s annual State of Latino Entrepreneurship (SOLE) report: LatinX-owned businesses continue to outpace the growth of non-LatinX businesses, have substantial greater external funding challenges, and take longer to secure large corporate and government contracts than non-LatinX, non-minority owned businesses.  Yet our community is not only persevering, it is excelling.

The Latino Business Action Network and Stanford’s Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative is the brainchild of the formidable Dr. Jerry Porras, professor emeritus at Stanford Business School.  It is enabled by many dedicated people including LBAN Chairman Victor Arias, a former Stanford Trustee, and Arturo Cazares, LBAN’s CEO.  Stanford University President Dr. Richard Saller has directly backed this initiative to serve as a platform to match talent to opportunity for the LatinX community.

There were several excellent panels on the entrepreneurial journeys of successful LatinX tech founders in a variety of disciplines. Jennifer Garcia (LBAN COO who has managed 12 successful cohorts of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative Scaling program) led a panel discussion with Latina founders Noramay Cadena (Managing Partner at Supply Change Capital), Carla Cervantes (Border Apparel), and Sophia Stone (Founder & CEO Indie Tech).  Stanford GSB Dean Jon Levin led a fireside chat with José Feliciano, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Clearlake Capital Group.

Other panel discussions included an insightful discussion- moderated by Daryn Dodson of Illumen Capital - with two venture capitalists (Valeria Martinez of VamosVentures and Alejandro Guerrero of Act One Ventures) and their institutional LPs (Neena Ballard of Bank of America and Liz Roberts of MassMutual) about the funding journey for investors and how each strives to support an inclusive and purposeful innovation ecosystem where structural barriers are still holding back talent and innovation opportunities.

LBAN’s Director of Capital Providers and Engagement Elian Savodivker moderated a VC panel further discussing the untapped opportunity of LatinX founded startups with panelists John China Co-Head of Innovation Economy & Commercial Banking at JP Morgan, Miriam Rivera Co-Founder and Managing Director of Ulu Ventures, and Maricel Saenz, Founder of Compound Foods.

It is very fitting that Dr. Porras, co-author of the research based perennial bestseller, Built to Last, has created a network for LatinX founders and funders built to last.

In an era where identity means different things to different people, this network to me represents the opportunity to enable talent as an investor and advisor while celebrating and sharing a rich cultural heritage which we derive from our families, friends, and communities.

#innovation #startups #venturecapital #entrepreneurship #investing Stanford University Stanford University Graduate School of Business