Hispanic-Net

Aida Alvarez presenting awards at Apr 11th Dinner

The Honorable Aida Alvarez will be Hispanic-Net's awards presenter at our upcoming Banquet on April 11th.

The Honorable Aida Alvarez
Former head, U.S. Small Business Adminstration

The Honorable Aida Alvarez has been an award-winning journalist, a successful investment banker, and a high ranking public official.

Appointed by President Clinton to head the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Administrator Alvarez was the first Hispanic woman to serve in a President's Cabinet. Ms. Alvarez was also the founding Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the agency with financial oversight responsibility for the secondary mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Ms. Alvarez currently serves on the boards of Walmart and Union Bank of California. She chairs the Latino Community Foundation and is a trustee for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Ms. Alvarez was formerly on the board of PacifiCare Health Systems and on the Harvard Board of Overseers.

Frank Carbajal to give keynote at Hispanic-Net Banquet April 11th

Hispanic-Net is honored to have Frank Carbajal give the keynote speech at its upcoming Banquet on April 11th.

Frank Carbajal
, Author,
Building the Latino Future: Success Stories for the Next Generation

Frank Carbajal is Founder and President of EsTiempo and coauthor of Building the Latino Future: Success Stories for the Next Generation.  An inspiring collection of success stories from the country's most prominent Latinos, Building the Latino Future offers insight and advice for Latinos in any industry who want to succeed spectacularly.   



As a part of the Ken Blanchard network of keynote speakers and a member of the Silicon Valley Coaching Federation, Frank Carbajal provides small business owners, CEOs, executives, managers and directors, with the framework and tools necessary to achieve their personal best.



Frank holds an MA, with an emphasis in Human Resources Management. Currently, Frank is a member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), and sits on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley Chapter of NSHMBA.

Linda Ronstadt, James Gutierrez Hispanic-Net Honorees for 2009

Hispanic-Net is pleased to announce Linda Ronstadt as Social Entrepreneur and James Gutierrez, Founder, Progress Financial, Entrepreneur of the Year.  We will be celebrating their success on Saturday April 11th, from 6 to 9 pm at the Stanford Faculty Club, Stanford University.  More details and tickets can be purchased at Hispanic-net Banquet RSVP

This year's Hispanic-Net banquet is sponsored by:

Silver Sponsor

Patrons Circle Sponsors

     

Linda Ronstadt
Hispanic-Net 2009 Social Entrepreneur of the Year

Ms. Ronstadt has expanded beyond her world famous entertainment career to raising awareness of issues relevant to the Latino community.  These include immigration and childrens' rights, empowerment through entrepreneurship, health issues and cultural awareness.  A native of Tuscon, AZ, her family is deeply rooted in Mexican culture with family heritage on both sides of the border..  Awareness of her Latina background was first widely promoted with her 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre.  It stands as the biggest selling non-English language album in American record history with nearly 10 million records sold worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Gutierrez
Hispanic-Net 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year

James Gutierrez, CEO, Co-Founder, is a serial entrepreneur who believes in changing the world through entrepreneurship and early stage investing. After graduating from college, James started Magic Beanstalk, a 3rd party recruiting company that organized campus recruiting events at 40 universities in the US and Brazil, and later built a web application for online recruiting. As CEO of Magic Beanstalk, James raised $5MM in venture capital, recruited the senior management team, and grew the business from 2 co-founders to 50+ employees with offices in NY and CA.

In addition to Progress Financial, James is a General Partner of Great Oaks Ventures, a $4M early stage angel fund that has invested in 12 ccompanies, including Jumpcut (acquired by Yahoo!), Trulia (funded by Accel Partners), Zimbio, OKCupid, and Farmacia Remedios. James received his MBA from Stanford where he was co-President of the Entrepreneur Club and a BA in Economics from Yale.

Overlooked Rising Clean Tech Stars?

By definition, all contestants are either early-stage startups and/or mostly self-funded.In fact, many of them are outright moonlighting ventures. However, if history is any guide (past winners have now raised more than $115M), some of these companies should advance to secure venture backing, and generate revenue and profits. 

Naturally, the winners are already receiving wide exposure elsewhere.  However, the competition was very steep.  Whether or not other contestants were underrated is debatable, but can we all agree that many deserve more attention. So, I shall focus this post on runner-ups and finalists that lay low in the media radar screen, but that may have a good shot at earth and/or market game-changing, potentially disruptive or explosive growth.

These are the good old days

It's been awhile since I've posted to this blog, but it is a great time for us to share experiences. The doom and gloom backdrop of the overall financial markets could have the effect of driving entrepreneurship to the back of the bus. However, this is really an opportunistic time. If you think about it, companies large and small are facing the same playing field. So, no one gets too far ahead. If you've got a new idea, you'll have more time to get it right. If you want to think about a new idea, you'll get mindshare from everywhere as people have time to give you specific feedback on the viability of your idea.

Here's my advice, in these distressed times customers will buy if your product or service 1) makes money or 2) saves money. It's pretty simple. Choose a big market opportunity, make sure you've got differentiation, and hone your go to market strategy.

For me, I've been entirely engaged in launching a new company in the energy efficiency sector.  The company is called HID Labs and the product is targeted at commercial, industrial, and warehouse lighting. It turns out, the cost of lighting in warehouses is over two-thirds of their fixed expense. So, I'm after the 'saving people money' paradigm. The company is young, has big plans, and faces all the challenges start-ups have. But, we've got a shot if we execute.

Over the next few months, I'm going to write about launching this company and hopefully impart some nuggets of information that you can use.

All the best and start thinking of new businesses.   

Oct 17 Hispanic-Net Venture Forum Sponsored by BestBuy

Hispanic-Net Venture Forum Sponsored by BestBuy
Produced by Mitch Posada

Come attend our half day conference featuring a line up of Hispanic startups focused on ecommerce, entertainment, mobile, healthcare, microfinance, software, and technology. There will be a world-class array of attending professionals from the VC and investment industry on hand. The class of opportunities being presented draws from highly trained professionals among the Hispanic community and brings fresh perspectives on how to monetize success. Date: October 17, 2008 11:30 am - 5 pm Venue:  Quadrus Conference Center 2400 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA RSVP:  Buy your ticket now

Silver Sponsor:   Partner:

SCHEDULE: 11:30am - 12:00pm – Registration 12:00pm - 1:00pm – Lunch, Guest Speaker, Short Industry Presentations 12:00pm - 12:15pm – Opening Remarks Jeff Weness, Best Buy Inc. Martha Montoya, Chair of California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Access to Business Capital group & U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Board Member Hispanic-Net, TBD 12:15pm - 12:45pm – Keynote Speaker Keynote Speaker: Miriam Rivera, former vice president and deputy general counsel of Google 12:45pm – 1:00pm – Hispanic Market Insights Carlos Garcia, Garcia Research Mitch Posada, Grupo Entrada 1:00pm - 1:15pm - Break 1:15pm - 2:45pm – Web 2.0, Ecommerce, & Entertainment Opportunities (Hispanic Market) Moderator: Mitch Posada, Grupo Entrada (90 second Intro pitches followed by Panel Discussion) Company A a microfinance company serving the un-banked Hispanic community with fixed interest productive loans. Company B an e-commerce market development company designed for Latinos who want to shop online for products and services in Spanish, Portuguese, and English language but also have culturally relevant offline interactions through a nationwide branded event entitled "Taste of the Americas”. Company C a platform of personal communications, financial and entertainment mobile services to Hispanic immigrants in the US and their countries of origin. Company D Company is online destination where consumers compare prices in Latin America. It is the only shopping price comparison site listing products from all stores and marketplaces. Company E a web 2.0 Hispanic Local search engine for Business listings in Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Company F a premier league that will forever change the sport of Professional Boxing. Company will cause a paradigm shift in how sponsorships in boxing are executed. It is designed to maximize all of the benefits of sports entertainment marketing for its underwriters while building on an existing audience and creating a new fan base. 2:45pm – Closing Remarks – Best Buy 3:00pm – Entrepreneur Interviews Hispanic Media Publications 3:00pm Technology Company Presentations (Individual Pitch & Short Q&A Only) Company G Connects fundraisers and idea makers to their Supporters. Company has developed an easy-to-use web marketing platform to help political campaigns and non-profits harness the power of web marketing. Company H offers Airlines an effective way to shift from the current cost center approach of delivering on-board entertainment to one that generates significant revenue for all parties involved by providing personalized entertainment to connect people, and to deliver behavioral based targeted advertising with precision. Company I a global e-commerce solutions provider that offers U.S. online retailers an end-to-end solution for international expansion. Company offers an innovative, turnkey solution that enables U.S. on-line retailers to quickly and cost-effectively expand into international markets. Company J A garment cleaning retailer that develops, markets, and services innovative garment care and cleaning solutions for the residential, hotel, restaurant, real estate and fashion sectors. Company K Company is an investment opportunity to participate in the Colon Cancer screening market, which is about to expand two-fold from a $28 Billion to a $48 Billion a year in revenue industry by late 2012. 4:00pm – 5:00pm Networking Reception

Future of Renewables Symposium @ Google

I am reporting on the CTO symposium dubbed “Future of Renewables" at Google, which I attended this week. In it, a panel of PG&E, Google , VC clean tech, policy experts and entrepreneurs explained where both the action and the roadblocks are in the renewable energy space.  It was a sold-out event, with many other Hispanic entrepreneurs and volunteers also present.

On this post, I report on the 3000 feet view presented by the panel.  There were also a number of CCTO entrants presenting at boots in the hallway.  I will mention some of them in my next post covering the contest finalists.

Hector Ruiz: The power to connect the world

The head of AMD, Hector Ruiz is devoted to his company's 50x15 initiative, which seeks to give 50 percent of the world's population access to the internet by 2015.

Mitch Posada Launches QueVerde.com

Here's a shout-out to Mitch Posada, managing director of Grupo Entrada, on his latest venture, www.queverde.com.  QueVerde.com's mission is to be the leading media outlet dedicated to sustainability and green living among Latinos and Latino owned business in the U.S.

Why QueVerde?
There is no global news or media connection point between the Sustainability Movement and the Latino World >> Mass media is shrinking and media outlets are proliferating and segmenting the Latino into less coverage >> Sustainability Movement data is overwhelming and scientific oriented >> The Green Movement tone is negative and alarming >> Multi-dimensional topics are needed to address the interests of Latinos in the evolution of the Sustainability Movement

Queverde has launched two blogs:  TodoVerde and SoyVerde.  Check them out.

Download this podcast interview with Mitch Posada on Daniel Gutierrez' radio show. About the podcast:  Join Daniel as he dives into the question of the new social capital and social networking. How does this new way of reaching your audience change the way we see our world and how we communicate with each other. Guest Mitch Posada, Managing Director of Grupo Entrada, and Founder of LatinLounge.tv and QueVerde.com.

Attention Clean Tech Hispanic Entrepreneurs

Turn 3 Pages into $100k. Deadline to Enter: June 14th

Ready to take your clean tech business idea to the next level?

All it takes is a three-page Executive Summary and $250 per team ($150
for all-student teams), and you have the chance to win a
"Startup-in-a-Box" Prize Package worth $100,000 in cash and services.
Upload your Executive Summary by June 14.

To Enter and for details, click here. 

For a personal perspective on CTO '07, see Steve Montoya's post in this blog.