8 Key Takeaways on Latinx Community Access to Capital
How does the Latinx community in the U.S. build generational wealth and further contribute to the U.S. economy? Access to capital is a big part of the equation. Experts in personal finance, entrepreneurship and venture capital shared their findings in a Adelante Nasdaq! conference hosted by Mariana Atencio, an award-winning journalist, entrepreneur and viral speaker.
The conversation on access to capital covered how to best funnel capital to Latinx communities, increasing personal finance knowledge and entrepreneurship in our communities. A day-long conference hosted during Hispanic Heritage Month was moderated by Bertha Coombs, a CNBC reporter, Lyanne Alfaro, co-lead of Adelante Nasdaq!, and Brandon Gomez, a CNBC producer, and was joined by:
- Sol Trujillo, chairman of Trujillo Group Investments and co-founder of L'ATTITUDE and Latino Donor Collaborative
- Rita Soledad Fernandez Paulino, founder of Wealth Para Todos
- Beatriz Acevedo, CEO and co-founder of SUMA Wealth
- Jully-Alma Taveras, founder of Investing Latina
- Pedro David Espinoza, founder of Pan Peru USA
- Ramona Ortega, founder and CEO of My Money My Future
- Laura Moreno Lucas, founder of Pandocap
Here are some of the most significant takeaways:
1. Equity capital is the key and you need capital to grow your business
Capital is everything at the beginning…take it now and do the deal that makes sense, and you will be able to grow much bigger and faster.Sol Trujillo, chairman of Latino Donor Collaborative
2. If you want to see results, the first step is to find the right people
The first thing is to find the places that actually care and will invest in real growth opportunities. Let some investors come in and help you, let them help guide you, let them connect you, let them help you think through how you're going to grow moving forward and perhaps supply even more capital, that is the essence of what now needs to happen.Sol Trujillo, chairman of Latino Donor Collaborative
3. The sooner you start thinking about making a budget, investing and saving money, the better it is for the community at-large
It's critical to start in our community really young, give financial education into the water our kids are drinking because we need these conversations early on.Beatriz Acevedo, CEO and co-founder of SUMA Wealth
One policy change that would make a huge difference is if we implemented K-12 financial education, so students get access to personal finance education.Rita Soledad Fernandez Paulino, founder of Wealth Para Todos
4. There are still opportunities to invest and begin saving for retirement
I have a mother and a father have been entrepreneurs that have worked their wholes lives and they don’t have retirement accounts, and they are not alone. These are people, this is our community. This is what’s happening right now. For me It’s really important to focus on that as well.Jully-Alma Taveras, founder of Investing Latina
5. Getting seed round capital is so vital to making sure you can scale your company quickly
If you're looking for pre-seed, it's always good to think about how to start up bootstrapping, getting small business loans, several grants for Latino community and look for Latinos that are building funds and that are coming to the table not only at the seed stage but also at the later stage.Laura Moreno Lucas, founder of Pandocap
Seed round capital is so important to be able to scale. If you can't get the seed round, that's significant enough to scale. You're going to sort of be kind of struggling through there because tech is really about scaling quickly.Ramona Ortega, founder and CEO of My Money My Future
6. Hispanic accelerators are becoming more plentiful, and there are many programs to help the next generation of entrepreneurs
The landscape has changed so much, and now there are many more Latino, Latina Hispanic based accelerators, grants, an organization like high-tech, the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley—they have a lot of programs to help the next generation of Latino Latina entrepreneurs.Pedro David Espinoza, founder of Pan Peru USA
7. Before you go out and start looking for investors, you should first evaluate your needs and resources
Understanding what you need, and then what you're going to do with the money is really important.Laura Moreno Lucas, founder of Pandocap
8. Technology is key to the new gold rush
Technology is creating wealth for the next century; this is the new gold rush---if you're not part of that, you're getting left behind.Ramona Ortega, founder and CEO of My Money My Future
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.