00:00:07:11 - 00:00:26:11
Gary
All right, great. I'm here with my friend and colleague and partner, Laura Moreno Lucas. And it's great to have you here.

00:00:26:19 - 00:00:28:17
Laura
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

00:00:28:17 - 00:00:51:08
Gary
This is going to be a I think this is one of the more important conversations that I've had in this podcast, because I personally think that small business growth, venture capital, entrepreneurship is one of the biggest tools that we have to close the Latino wealth gap in America. And that's what we're talking about here. I have kind of a funky name to this podcast, if you don't know already.

00:00:51:14 - 00:00:55:06
Gary
I call it Govies, Plutes and Gangsters

00:00:55:06 - 00:00:56:04
Laura
I see.

00:00:56:04 - 00:01:13:21
Gary
And Govies, meaning some people think that, it's going to take a lot of government intervention to move the ball forward. Then you got the plutes who think just the opposite. most of them think we need less government. What we need is more capital, right? Right. So those are the capitalists.

00:01:14:06 - 00:01:33:17
Gary
And then third are the gangsters. And these are people who don't necessarily fall into one bucket or the other. They just do what comes natural to get up every morning. They kick ass they build great businesses. They're just, mavericks. And I think we need all three, frankly, if we're going to really make a difference. The wealth gap is a big deal.

00:01:34:02 - 00:02:07:01
Gary
Latinos, I think, on average last I saw, have one sixth of the wealth of the non Hispanic white population. Sol likes to call them the Anglo population. And that gap is not just significant as it pertains to Latinos. I think it's important and it's a gap that's significant as it pertains to the country because as Latinos become a bigger part of our workforce, a bigger part of our consumerism, if they're not doing well financially, the government, the country's not going to do well financially.

00:02:07:22 - 00:02:08:09
Gary
Fair enough.

00:02:08:11 - 00:02:10:11
Laura
No, I agree. 100%.

00:02:10:12 - 00:02:13:13
Gary
So we're partners in Lattitude Ventures.

00:02:13:13 - 00:02:13:18
Laura
Yes!

00:02:13:18 - 00:02:18:03
Gary
And you have a really impressive background, I must admit.

00:02:18:03 - 00:02:18:18
Laura
Thank you

00:02:18:18 - 00:02:20:19
Gary
But,tell us about it.

00:02:20:19 - 00:02:37:06
Laura
I mean, well, I'm originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Tapatía I do speak Spanish. I read it and write it, and I don't I don't claim to know business Spanish or venture Spanish because that's hard

00:02:37:11 - 00:02:38:00
Gary
is there such a thing?

00:02:38:10 - 00:02:42:06
Laura
There. It is. Because that's a whole

00:02:42:10 - 00:02:43:10
Gary
Was actually huge, right?

00:02:43:10 - 00:02:43:19
Laura
Yeah.

00:02:43:19 - 00:02:44:14
Gary
For a venture.

00:02:44:15 - 00:03:05:05
Laura
It's, it's growing. And it's interesting because I do have some calls with LatAm founders and, it's understanding their language and saying and emprendedores and all of the things that you need to understand to speak to them. But then a lot of it just really translates because, venture, like you said, has typically gone to a certain group.

00:03:05:05 - 00:03:07:05
Laura
So we just keep using those same nomenclature.

00:03:07:07 - 00:03:34:01
Gary
And that's that's actually a great point because, I don't come from that field. I'm in the mortgage banking space. The housing space venture wasn't even on my radar screen. I did started the Latitude event with Sol. We both discussed how important it was to have some content to focus on getting more capital to the Latino community, to small businesses, so forth.

00:03:34:09 - 00:03:58:11
Gary
It led to starting a fund. And I've found the experience very, very interesting, inspiring. But I've also noticed that the venture capital world is very small and it's kind of cliquish and it feels like a bit of a boys club and it's very hard to break into. And so tell us how you got into that business.

00:03:58:11 - 00:04:30:05
Laura
I think that the what's very interesting about venture capital is that it has been traditionally a closed door ecosystem as well as like Wall Street, because that kind of feeds into, eventually Wall Street. And just taking a step back, I think one of the things culturally that at least from what I feel are our parents and everybody ingrained in us is like, you have to build a if you're building a business, it has to make money, right?

00:04:30:05 - 00:04:40:11
Laura
And so asking someone else for money to share in your dream, it's it's kind of this weird thing that we don't understand very.

00:04:40:13 - 00:04:41:01
Gary
That's a very good point

00:04:41:20 - 00:05:01:19
Laura
So I when I was a founder, there was no way that I ever even thought about going after venture money when I was creating my business because I was like, well, why would they want to invest in me if I don't even have a sales or if I don't even have a dollar to show for in my idea.

00:05:02:02 - 00:05:23:05
Laura
But yet I had counterparts. I have this great idea. And let me go ask, this venture capitalist for millions of dollars for my great idea. And I was like, well, why would they give you that money? Because you're not making any money. So they're just going to do that based on your idea. Why? Who are you?

00:05:23:11 - 00:05:24:23
Laura
You know? And so I knew.

00:05:24:23 - 00:05:28:02
Gary
Got into the business as an entrepreneur, as a founder yourself.

00:05:28:02 - 00:05:28:21
Laura
Exactly.

00:05:29:03 - 00:05:34:16
Gary
And you wanted to grow your business. And somebody said you should raise capital from investors.

00:05:35:01 - 00:05:59:16
Laura
I went, ah, it well, it went a little different. What happened was, I actually had a 9 to 5 and I was working at TD Ameritrade and I've always loved fashion. My grandmother taught me how to sew and everybody would always make fun of me when I'd go to these big sales meetings with all men because I had my big suitcase with all my shoes and all my clothes.

00:05:59:16 - 00:06:21:20
Laura
And I wanted to look best in these in these meetings. And they were like, Well, Laura, you really take pride in like showing up with, different outfits for the day and night. I said, Yeah, I love to, dress up. It's, you know what, what my mother always told me that, again, you have to look presentable.

00:06:22:03 - 00:06:27:13
Laura
And so I always loved fashion. And then I started creating my own designs. And then, in Facebook, you can.

00:06:27:13 - 00:06:28:01
Gary
Study that in School.

00:06:28:01 - 00:06:30:00
Laura
No, my grandmother just.

00:06:30:04 - 00:06:30:13
Gary
Wow

00:06:30:16 - 00:06:55:04
Laura
Taught me how to sew. And I, always sewing my own dresses. And so then when Facebook came out, I just started my own Facebook, dress for store. But, no idea that anybody would like the dresses that I was putting in that store. And next thing I know, I'm, working at TD Ameritrade and I have people actually order in them off my Facebook store.

00:06:55:09 - 00:07:10:08
Laura
So I'm like, I got to go home and make this dress and ship it up to this person. So I was getting, a small orders here and there. And this is the time where I feel like, online and offline fashion was really developing. It was. Becoming

00:07:10:08 - 00:07:10:18
Gary
How long was this?

00:07:11:09 - 00:07:13:22
Laura
This was in 2008, 2009.

00:07:13:22 - 00:07:15:00
Laura
Okay. all right

00:07:15:00 - 00:07:40:01
Laura
And where people were, exploring more of this online shopping ecosystem. And there were new models coming out. And so there was this gentleman in Canada who started a big online shopping model in Canada. And he came he got a visa and he came to the Bay Area. And so, again, I was doing this thing again part time.

00:07:40:21 - 00:08:05:09
Laura
And then the next thing I said, well, I'm going to do a fashion show in San Francisco. And so, I like, again, love events, love networking. And so I had this big fashion show and somehow there was an investor in the crowd and saw this fashion show. And he's like, You're amazing. I love your designs. What are you doing with this?

00:08:05:20 - 00:08:11:05
Laura
And his name was Enrico, and he was an investor for Gucci for

00:08:11:05 - 00:08:11:16
Gary
really?

00:08:11:16 - 00:08:12:23
Laura
For Gucci. Yeah.

00:08:12:23 - 00:08:13:11
Gary
Wow.

00:08:13:11 - 00:08:16:09
Laura
And so then he, he then.

00:08:16:20 - 00:08:18:21
Gary
He's like a scout. He goes and looks for no.

00:08:19:05 - 00:08:46:11
Laura
Well, so he was also starting a fashion accelerator by his background was Gucci. And so then he said, hey, what are you thinking about doing with your business? And I was like, you know that I'm just doing fashion. He's like, I have somebody you should meet. So he basically had me meet this other guy from Canada who had already online launched this online model.

00:08:46:19 - 00:08:54:23
Laura
But it was a guy who really didn't know about fashion. And so he connected us and said, here's the person that has all.

00:08:54:23 - 00:08:56:01
Gary
he's a tech guy.

00:08:56:01 - 00:09:03:04
Laura
He was a tech guy platform. Yeah, exactly. And so I brought more of the business, the fashion side of

00:09:03:04 - 00:09:03:22
Gary
the product.

00:09:04:07 - 00:09:16:20
Laura
Yeah, exactly. And so he put us together and so he basically put us together and created a what I was later known as Laura , which was a fashion subscription service that I sold.

00:09:16:20 - 00:09:17:17
Gary
Wow.

00:09:17:17 - 00:09:20:06
Laura
And that's what I went out to go raise money for.

00:09:20:14 - 00:09:24:03
Gary
So you did that led to you going out and raising some venture capital?

00:09:24:03 - 00:09:24:13
Laura
That's right.

00:09:24:14 - 00:09:30:12
Gary
So you capitalize your business. You started to build some scale. I'm sure you weren't making every individual dress anymore.

00:09:30:16 - 00:09:49:02
Laura
No, no, no. No, I. I once he put us together, he brought his breadth of expertise in terms of, like, manufacturing. I got connected to a bunch of manufacturers out of Shanghai, out of Australia, out of L.A. We were, also starting to bring other jobs.

00:09:49:02 - 00:09:54:06
Gary
you don't know any better. You thought this would be a cool side hustle and, you know.

00:09:54:06 - 00:10:04:01
Laura
Yeah, well then TD Ameritrade was like, What are you doing? Guess, I was like, And my dad was like, No, dejes tu trabajo. He's like, What are you doing?

00:10:04:01 - 00:10:05:17
Laura
is your job?

00:10:05:17 - 00:10:13:05
Laura
And it was, it was a great job. And so he goes, you can't leave your 9 to 5. I said, This thing has legs, it's taking off.

00:10:13:13 - 00:10:28:22
Laura
It's making money on its own. We had a lot of guidance from Enrico on how to really scale it and it started to make money on its own. Again, no venture capital taken and then after it started scaling on its own, that's when we started looking.

00:10:28:22 - 00:10:30:11
Gary
For it so itself self-funded.

00:10:30:18 - 00:10:31:11
Laura
It was self- founded at the beginning

00:10:31:16 - 00:10:55:04
Gary
Okay, so all right. So you had a successful run, right? You were a successful founder. Sold your company. I'm sure you made a little money. That's okay. And then you thought, I learned something about the financial markets, venture capital, angel investing in something. All of that clicked in. Yeah, of course. I also know that your husband is a founder himself.

00:10:55:14 - 00:10:59:03
Gary
And was that. How did you guys meet? How did that happen?

00:10:59:03 - 00:11:23:09
Laura
Yeah, my. My husband's CTO. He's an engineer. He's a, a technical founder, which is incredible because the one thing that when I was a founder and as I was building our business, it's just incredible how much technology allows you to scale and how much it's needed and how much you need to understand about that. And so that was something that I was lacking.

00:11:23:09 - 00:11:24:14
Laura
I didn't I didn't.

00:11:24:17 - 00:11:25:14
Gary
But did you meet him when you had your business

00:11:25:22 - 00:11:31:01
Laura
I mean, I met him during or. Yeah, I met him during we just had started dating.

00:11:31:01 - 00:11:31:15
Gary
Okay. Okay.

00:11:31:16 - 00:11:37:00
Laura
He came to one of the fashion shows put on, so we had just started dating

00:11:37:00 - 00:11:37:22
Gary
What was he doing there?

00:11:37:22 - 00:11:38:07
Laura
I know!, Right?

00:11:38:18 - 00:12:10:06
Laura
he said, you had a lot of really fantastic looking friends, so I'm going to go hang, go hang out. So, yeah. So then, we started dating and, and yeah, he gave me a lot of guidance through the growth of the business on, how to build the, the front end, the back end, the user experience, the conversion and how to, really set up everything to track the metrics, the data.

00:12:10:06 - 00:12:35:20
Laura
The most valuable thing that we had was the data. So we had all of the components where if we sent out a box where it was a subscription model and you had five dresses that you sent out and all of these dresses were categorized, we'd get more information that we would send the retailer to. So there was a lot of technology that I had to understand that he had tremendous background in.

00:12:36:04 - 00:13:00:16
Laura
And, that was extremely helpful. I don't think that if he hadn't have been involved, I would have been able to scale it the way I did because he shared he gave me some tips on how to cut costs because, I mean, engineering is so expensive. So, sure, I had my own little right hand engineer that was kind of helping me navigate and my co-founder navigate through times.

00:13:00:16 - 00:13:06:22
Laura
But yeah, he's incredible. He's exited three companies and four companies.

00:13:06:22 - 00:13:08:07
Gary
And exited means.

00:13:08:07 - 00:13:09:23
Laura
So he won. He had an IPO.

00:13:10:10 - 00:13:13:21
Gary
So. Oh. Oh, really? Okay. So one of the companies that he started went public.

00:13:13:23 - 00:13:20:18
Laura
They went public and then got acquired by Fox. Okay. Yeah, so it went public and.

00:13:20:19 - 00:13:21:18
Gary
It was a media company.

00:13:22:05 - 00:13:23:20
Laura
No, it's credible. Dot com.

00:13:23:23 - 00:13:24:04
Gary
Okay.

00:13:24:07 - 00:13:25:12
Laura
It's a student loan company.

00:13:25:12 - 00:13:25:22
Gary
Oh wow.

00:13:26:01 - 00:13:30:21
Laura
Okay. So him and his co-founder started it very successful.

00:13:31:21 - 00:13:35:17
Gary
So I know what an exit is, but I just wanted people to understand what you meant by that.

00:13:35:17 - 00:13:48:15
Laura
So there's, I mean you can exit in a couple of different ways, You can get acquired, you can go public, then you can go public and be taken private again and then go public again. So there's a lot of a ways to exit.

00:13:48:18 - 00:13:55:20
Gary
subsequent to that, you got connected to the financial markets. You ended up working at Nasdaq?

00:13:56:03 - 00:13:57:03
Laura
Yep.

00:13:57:03 - 00:13:58:12
Gary
And so

00:13:58:12 - 00:13:59:18
Laura
that was incredible.

00:13:59:19 - 00:14:00:12
Gary
How long were you there?

00:14:01:01 - 00:14:01:14
Laura
Three years.

00:14:01:16 - 00:14:02:14
Gary
Wow. Okay.

00:14:02:21 - 00:14:03:06
Laura
Yeah.

00:14:03:06 - 00:14:05:15
Gary
And so you must've made some great contacts.

00:14:06:09 - 00:14:21:09
Laura
That if I had to say what Nasdaq did for for my career is it put me in a position to meet some of the strongest and really predominant leaders in business.

00:14:21:09 - 00:14:21:18
Gary
Period.

00:14:22:05 - 00:14:47:16
Laura
I was I was always in it. Like when we were talking to Uber, you had, Dara crossed and then the board members that were behind him sitting at a table, I mean, an Uber, quite frankly, is a global company. Sure. Airbnb, you had the CFO, you had the, the founders that grew this business to incredible skills.

00:14:48:02 - 00:15:13:17
Laura
And then all of their investors, all of the bankers, just the entire ecosystem that supports these companies to take them to billions of dollars. And I will say what I did notice in a lot of those meetings, in a lot of those closed door meetings is, number one, I was normally the only woman and number two, definitely the only Latina or Latino in that room.

00:15:14:01 - 00:15:23:05
Gary
Yeah, That's reality. So that's amazing. So congratulations. Incredible career. Somehow you and I became business partners.

00:15:23:11 - 00:15:24:18
Laura
I know.

00:15:24:18 - 00:15:47:22
Gary
You know Sol Trujillo, who is, we both know is a force of nature of sorts. Prolific business person, really. I he doesn't like it when I say this, but I call him the elder statesman of Latinos in corporate America, essentially, because nobody really preceded him as a CEO. US born Latino, that is. And what he's done with his career is just phenomenal.

00:15:48:08 - 00:16:05:07
Gary
And, I've gotten to know him really well because, I'm the one who came to him with the idea of doing this scaled event. And, he had his own ideas on how to make it even better. And, he had gone to places like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Aspen Ideas Festival.

00:16:05:07 - 00:16:31:12
Gary
So he had he had been to elite, elite conferences that attracted, the movers and shakers of the business world. And I had run a pretty successful real estate organization. And we did great conferences as well. And, I had a nice network and together we were able to launch Lattitude, but we didn't want lattitude just to be this cool event where people came and listened to speeches and, had cocktails and did some networking.

00:16:32:03 - 00:16:53:12
Gary
We wanted to be purpose driven. We wanted it to have an agenda. We want to have some goals attached to it. And, access to capital is at the center of that. So we started, with a baby step. We had a tiny fund, $2 million. We invested in a handful of companies and we both said, hey, we should try to do something bigger now.

00:16:53:12 - 00:17:12:07
Gary
Sol said, $100 million. And, I kind of like like really $100 million. But, I've learned not to doubt him. So we we did that. Kenny was a partner from the very beginning. He had a relationship with you. You guys must have known each other. You and Kenny. How do we end up with do you how did that happen?

00:17:12:11 - 00:17:22:07
Laura
So it's, life works in mysterious ways. So, yes, you guys had this incredible conference going on. And then we had a COVID hit.

00:17:22:15 - 00:17:23:00
Gary
Yep.

00:17:23:00 - 00:17:53:20
Laura
everybody was at home going like, what do we do with our lives? Because we can't go anywhere And then you started seeing more and more of these conferences go online. So somehow I got I got obviously very focused on on helping our community. After I left Nasdaq, I started consulting, doing a lot of the same things that I was doing at Nasdaq in terms of helping companies go public and helping them think about their capital structure.

00:17:55:06 - 00:18:13:05
Laura
But then obviously, we all saw what happened, after the events during COVID and the focus that shifted towards really, really helping the black and Brown community. And I started hearing more about George Floyd. George Floyd. Just yeah.

00:18:13:05 - 00:18:15:03
Gary
And so national dialog during that time.

00:18:15:03 - 00:18:42:13
Laura
Yeah, exactly. And so then I started hearing more about Latitude and it going online and I joined online. Oh, you did? I did. I joined online. I didn't know Kenny. I didn't. I didn't know. I mean, I had heard about Sol and everything you guys were talking about. And I remember when he was talking to Jim Cramer, he had a bunch of a segment on that and talking about Wall Street and talking about media and all this stuff.

00:18:43:00 - 00:19:01:05
Laura
And all I kept remembering was I was sitting in my living room going, Yes, yes, this guy gets it. This guy gets it. I need to talk to him. I'm like, I need to talk to him. How do I talk to him? Who knows him? Like, I didn't know Sol. So I started like, I'm like somebody. Somebody must know him who knows him.

00:19:01:23 - 00:19:29:05
Laura
So I just started going through my network and somebody knew that Kenny was working with him. And so they connected me. Jesse Martinez connected me to Kenny, and I talked to Kenny right after in 2020, right after that happened. And, I was so excited. So I just gave him all my excitement speech and he was like kind of heads down very busy, you know?

00:19:29:18 - 00:19:31:14
Gary
You know Kenny

00:19:31:14 - 00:19:52:04
Laura
he's like, okay, sounds great. I'll talk to you, you know? Sounds good. Send me something, send me something. So I keep sending him things and I'm like, Hey, this guy's not really paying attention to me. I don't know what's going on here, but I got to get his attention again. And I don't know, I think it was because I was very persistent and I kept sending him data points and information.

00:19:52:04 - 00:20:03:22
Gary
And why? you had you obviously you were successful in your own right. You beat the Nasdaq or you had your own business. why were you so persistent pursuing Kenny And Sol?

00:20:03:22 - 00:20:27:21
Laura
I Think because of the national conversation, again, like we pointed of what happened to George Floyd, and then people discussing like access to capital and not understanding the dynamics of Wall Street in the private and public markets. And I had that view. I knew what was going on in the private markets and what was happening at the later stage of the public markets and why these dynamics were happening.

00:20:28:03 - 00:20:50:07
Laura
And so I was trying to educate. I was going I was doing,video podcast and sharing information just because I wanted to. And I kept sending that those newsletters and information to Kenny and to really everybody who was part of the Pando community. And so somehow I don't know if it was one of them that really hit with him.

00:20:50:07 - 00:21:16:11
Laura
And he called me and he's like, Hey, what's going on with you? What are you up to? And I'm like, What do you mean? And he's like, Let's chat. there's a lot going on and so let's have a conversation and what do you have going on? I said, Well, actually I'm working with this company and I'm doing syndicates raising money for a really fantastic company that I found, and I'm working with a few other companies.

00:21:16:11 - 00:21:17:23
Laura
And he's like, Really? Tell me more.

00:21:17:23 - 00:21:19:23
Gary
And that company was Flo. Yeah, okay.

00:21:20:02 - 00:21:45:13
Laura
So and so he ended up actually being very interested in this company and that's where we ended up doing a deal together with Flo. And you guys were the biggest investor at that time. And yeah, and then from there he's like, Well, do you have any more of these? I'm like, Huh? I actually do. I have more.

00:21:45:16 - 00:22:03:20
Laura
But they have to be Latinos. I'm like, I know a lot of Latinos. Yeah, I have more for you. And so then, I started working and he goes, and I happened to have this big event called Lattitude that's happening in two months. Can you help me?Okay. Like the one that you guys had online last year, He's like, Yeah, that one.

00:22:03:20 - 00:22:13:03
Laura
But it's in person and it's thousands of people and it's going to be in San Diego. I said, Sure, I can help. I'm kind of working on this other stuff. And again, I was.

00:22:13:05 - 00:22:14:18
Gary
I think that was the first time I met you.

00:22:14:18 - 00:22:18:09
Laura
Person Yeah, and that was the first time. And, and here we are.

00:22:19:01 - 00:22:45:10
Gary
So you joined the team. You became part of a partner of Lattitude Ventures. And so let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about what we're trying to accomplish there and why we think it's important. So we raise $100 million and we've already invested some of that money. One of the things that people told me when I when Sol and I were talking about doing a lattitude Ventures was you're going to have a hard time finding companies to invest in.

00:22:45:21 - 00:22:55:22
Gary
There aren't that many Latino led startups that are investable. I don't know if that's a word, but you know what I'm saying? Investment quality firms.

00:22:56:02 - 00:22:56:09
Laura
Yeah.

00:22:57:04 - 00:23:07:10
Gary
And so you guys are going to have to broaden your scope a little bit because if you're only going to invest in Latino led startups, you're going to run out of prospects pretty quickly. I have not found that to be the case.

00:23:08:00 - 00:23:08:18
Laura
No.

00:23:08:18 - 00:23:18:06
Gary
And you would agree. Right. So there's in fact, I would say that if we had $500 million, we'd find a place for it.

00:23:18:06 - 00:23:27:14
Laura
Absolutely. There is a lot of talent out there now. There is a certain way that the venture world has operated.

00:23:27:14 - 00:23:34:09
Gary
Let's talk about that a little bit, because it's one of those barriers that I think we have to, use knowledge gaps out there that we need to address.

00:23:34:14 - 00:24:00:21
Laura
Yeah, absolutely. I think, in terms of of the venture world, it's always looked at as, who are the founders, Is their product market fit? Do they have capital behind them? what's the technology scale, all of these different components. And then you have to understand again, how to work through the vc ecosystem in terms of who to pitch, how to pitch and how to position.

00:24:00:21 - 00:24:21:16
Gary
there is a whole language and there is a whole process. And I remember our first few meetings, I thought you guys were talking a different language. I was like, Wait, what? What are you talking about? But I understand that, right? And I do think I have a, a theory that Wall Street intentionally tries to make things sound more complicated than actually is, because that's what keeps their little clicks going.

00:24:21:16 - 00:24:42:20
Gary
But but there is some truth to it. I mean, to be able to make a judgment about whether or not a company is investment quality, whether or not a company is worth X versus Y, you have to have some metrics to look at and you want companies to be able to present themselves in a certain way. Yeah, correct.

00:24:42:23 - 00:25:00:15
Laura
That's correct. I mean, there's definitely, like they say, art science. You know what? What there definitely is kind of a recipe that you look for. But then a lot of it is just your gut instinct, because 100% of it has to do with the person you know.

00:25:00:20 - 00:25:12:19
Gary
I look at the numbers. Let's talk about the data for a second. And it's not encouraging. I don't know what the number is, but it's less than 2%. Yes. Of investment venture capital.

00:25:12:20 - 00:25:23:12
Laura
So there's yeah, there's two stats. There's less than 2% of venture capital and there's less than 1% of all capital, whether it's early or later stage, because you're also including

00:25:23:13 - 00:25:29:15
Gary
Less than 2% of venture capital that's invested every year goes to Latino led startups.

00:25:29:16 - 00:25:30:00
Laura
Correct?

00:25:30:01 - 00:25:43:03
Gary
We're almost 20% of the population here in the U.S. We get less than 2% of the capital. When you move further down the food chain and you include private equity and growth capital, and that actually drops to below 1%.

00:25:43:03 - 00:25:46:10
Laura
That's right.

00:25:46:10 - 00:26:11:07
Gary
So even our $100 million is a drop in the bucket, right? in the grand scheme of things. But we have a chance to demonstrate something, right. And that is that there are viable investments to be had, there is money to be made, and that the people who have capital are losing out if they're looking at this sector or this demographic as a great growth opportunity.

00:26:11:18 - 00:26:12:07
Gary
Fair enough.

00:26:12:09 - 00:26:55:20
Laura
Yeah, that's right. And I think it's going to take, I mean, it's going to take us and it's going to take a lot of our ecosystem to come together to support these founders, to get them through the process. Because what you typically see in terms of the capital structure is that a lot of us can get them to maybe Series B or Series C, and then the same structure that's been there that you're talking about, that's a closed structure that where the money goes, they take over and then they're the ones who either a, start to restructure the company or get or sell it or move the founders or a lot

00:26:55:20 - 00:27:11:17
Laura
of change has happened. So it's it benefits us if we work not only latitude ventures but the whole Latino ecosystem that is in this works together to help them grow beyond just early stage startup. Right.

00:27:11:17 - 00:27:37:02
Gary
And that's the key, kind of health that's kind of a, a story I it was before I knew Sol, unfortunately. But when you know I think it's probably been six years now. The founders of Cano Health, Dr. Hernandez and Doctor Aguilar reached out to Sol, Called. They didn't know him and they said they had an idea and he had an idea for a new health care business.

00:27:37:12 - 00:27:55:00
Gary
And so, like the idea, he became the first investor. He put $1 million into their business. The business was doing about $1 million a year in EBIDTA. And, fast forward five years, they go public on the New York Stock Exchange. Sorry, not Nasdaq, but they're.

00:27:55:00 - 00:27:55:18
Laura
Both. Great

00:27:55:18 - 00:28:08:15
Gary
with like a $5 billion valuation. Lots of wealth created for the investors, not a wealth created for the founders. A lot of the investors were Latino. Obviously. Sol is one of them. It's a great story.

00:28:08:15 - 00:28:10:22
Laura
Fantastic History Very few.

00:28:11:05 - 00:28:38:23
Gary
Had they not reached out to Sol who had experience in the financial markets, who could help put a board together, probably never would have happened. Right. And we believe that there are probably hundreds of stories like that, that could have been right or still out there to be had. This is what inspires me. I have a thesis and you and I talked about that a little bit.

00:28:39:04 - 00:29:03:05
Gary
And I think that when these Latino led startups actually do become successful, when they achieve scale, it's great for all the participants and the investors and the founders and the employees. But something else happens, and that is they attract more capital. The guys who have money look at that and say, We're not going to let you make all the profit here.

00:29:03:13 - 00:29:28:05
Gary
We need to find our own gig. We need to, invest more money into those markets. And in theory at least, a lot of those, new entrepreneurs, a lot of the employees that are going to be are going to be Latino as well, right? Yes, I say all the time, whether it's true or not, I believe that Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry have done more for blacks in the entertainment industry than 50 years worth of political advocacy because they proved the model.

00:29:28:08 - 00:29:42:20
Gary
They made money, they showed how to create products to reach that marketplace. And now everybody is jumping in trying to get a piece of that market. Right. That's the dynamic that we want to create. A lot of inventors know.

00:29:43:08 - 00:30:05:08
Laura
That is exactly the dynamic and that is the dynamic that has been happening in other communities. And so a great example is what is known as the PayPal Mafia. So I don't know if you know the PayPal a little bit. Yeah, PayPal Mafia is Elon Musk. And there was another gentleman by Peter Thiel. Yep, and then another Max.

00:30:05:15 - 00:30:29:05
Laura
And so all of them were part of originally PayPal. Now, if you think about obviously they all made a lot of money after they exited PayPal. But then what happened next? All of them went out and started another business. And so guess what happened? All the investors that were part of the PayPal exit and that ecosystem that said, of course, we're going to give you more money to start this other business.

00:30:29:06 - 00:30:41:08
Laura
And then they had wealth to again create these new businesses, which now are tremendous. all of them have tremendous business is and now, Peter Thiel has his own investment vehicle.

00:30:41:08 - 00:30:41:15
Gary
Yep.

00:30:41:15 - 00:30:42:23
Laura
So that

00:30:42:23 - 00:30:45:10
Gary
I think he. Was the first investor in Facebook.

00:30:46:13 - 00:30:48:08
Laura
Yet one of the things he was one of the

00:30:48:08 - 00:30:48:21
Gary
Yeah. Yeah.

00:30:48:21 - 00:30:57:02
Laura
And so what what we see is like that example is how it snowballs and exactly building this wealth in the community.

00:30:57:02 - 00:30:57:15
Gary
Exactly.

00:30:57:15 - 00:31:09:21
Laura
That's the playbook that we have to take and make sure that we continue to support entrepreneurs all the way up to these exits so that they can build that wealth and then put it back into the ecosystem.

00:31:09:21 - 00:31:12:16
Laura
And then other capital, as you said, will come and they'll follow.

00:31:12:17 - 00:31:32:11
Gary
So at the very beginning, you started to talk about one of the barriers, and that is Latino business owners, business people, whatever you want to call them, don't necessarily like the idea of some stranger investing in their company. I don't know if it's cultural or it's just a lack of experience or whatever the case may be. It's true, and we know that's the case.

00:31:32:11 - 00:31:39:02
Gary
Right. So what do you say to that? I mean, how do how do we it is expand that vision a little bit.

00:31:39:02 - 00:32:03:00
Laura
Yeah, it is cultural because, I mean, my experiences with money, I don't come from money, so I've always had a very interesting relationship with money and I think our community does. And so, we like to see money. We and that's and that's how we kind of progress. We're like, okay, I'm making this money. Here's like, save it, save it, save it.

00:32:03:00 - 00:32:30:20
Laura
My dad would always tell me to save, save, save. So it's it's it's a different dynamic that I think that we have to get used to allowing investors and trusting not just any investor. Right. Because I think it has to be the right investor and a strategic investor that could really help. And I think we come from a perspective of, hey, we are you.

00:32:30:21 - 00:32:45:20
Laura
Yeah, we have those experiences and we have people who have worked in the industry like Sol, like Oscar, like you, who have built incredible companies at scale and can give you that feedback and.

00:32:45:20 - 00:33:06:08
Gary
That people don't understand. And that should be, at least half of the whole model around venture capital. So some great stories. Their Sol's already done incredible things for some of the companies we've invested in. We have portfolio companies. Right. And, I know he's matched a couple up with Target because he used to be on the board of Target.

00:33:06:17 - 00:33:30:00
Gary
He matched another one with, I think, the former CEO of Pepsi North America, Sol was on the board of Pepsi. I can think of a few others. But, Qualcomm, we connected one of our portfolio companies with Qualcomm. There's not a lot of people who can open those types of doors. That's got to be part of it as well.

00:33:30:07 - 00:33:48:07
Gary
And unfortunately, we don't have a lot of Latinos who served in the sweet c-suites of a lot of these big, Fortune 100 type companies. So, right now, you and I and Sol and Kenny and Oscar, we have a lot of I don't wanna say pressure, but a lot of responsibility to deliver on this. Yes.

00:33:48:11 - 00:34:16:10
Gary
Because hopefully our success as a venture capital firm will cascade out to a lot of our friends and peers who also have funds, other Latinos that are trying to do the same thing, who generally have relatively small funds. But I think we're probably the first Latino led venture capital fund to reach the $100 million threshold. That's correct. And hopefully they'll be ten more that follow in the next few years.

00:34:16:10 - 00:34:31:06
Gary
And then we start to, I think things start to parlay and get interesting at that point. More capital, more startups, more companies achieving scale, more wealth created. All of that just creates this domino effect that we're striving for, right?

00:34:31:11 - 00:34:57:16
Laura
That's absolutely correct. like I was saying earlier, it's going to take all of our community to come together. Yes, we have this incredible opportunity just really change the face for entrepreneurship. But again, it's it I was talking to another B.C. I was like, we got to all work together. We got to unify these and help support them because it's going to be a benefit to all of us.

00:34:57:19 - 00:35:16:18
Gary
I just to go back to Kano for a second and to piggyback on what you just said, when Sol was helping them raise additional capital, he really wanted to raise as much of it as possible from other Latinos folks that had money who could write checks because he wanted to keep it in the family.

00:35:16:18 - 00:35:37:03
Gary
He knew this company was going to be successful. And he one of the beneficiaries of that. We don't think about that very often. We think about the company itself. But he wanted the beneficiaries of that success to also be Latino. And, I don't think people have thought that way, at least thought it through that way. Maybe you have to that degree.

00:35:37:03 - 00:35:38:18
Gary
But I think that's important as well.

00:35:38:22 - 00:36:05:05
Laura
No, not in the past. I think recently, even prior to joining Lattitude, I was asking some of the companies that were going to IPO, I said, hey, you're about to let these traditional investors make tons of money on your IPO. Can we carve out like five or 10% for some diverse LPs? I know some people who have that are Latino who can help here.

00:36:05:13 - 00:36:09:14
Laura
And that kind of got me thinking, Yeah, yeah. And so.

00:36:09:18 - 00:36:32:11
Gary
Well, and I got me thinking, too. And know as I'm the co-founder of NAHREP Yes. And still it's my day job and my passion. But I want to create Angel Investor Network within the NAHREP network. Yeah. And we've got a lot of people who are interested in it. They made pretty good money over the last couple of years.

00:36:32:19 - 00:36:53:12
Gary
They've got money to invest. They don't know anything about investing in startups because it seems so specialized and so technical. But if we do it right, we can bring people who have that expertise. Individual investors can invest, small checks, $5,000. They don't have to come up with a lot of money and they can pick and choose the companies that they want to invest in.

00:36:53:20 - 00:37:10:09
Gary
But even further, if it's a proptech company or a fintech company, we might be able to help accelerate that company by introducing it to our members, by talking to the people who we know in the industry. All those things can really help these companies.

00:37:10:09 - 00:37:36:16
Laura
That's huge. Yeah, market validation is huge. And you have a platform of, like you said, thousands of people that can give market validation quickly and product market fit. And that is something that any startup, any startup would just love and get in that can very quickly give them scale and opportunities that nobody else has.

00:37:36:16 - 00:38:01:08
Gary
when I interviewed Sol, I talked to him about the fact that there wasn't a lot of Latino representation or Latina representation in C-Suites, Fortune 500 tech companies. And I said, why? And, he said, there's a lot of reasons why. And some of it's on us. And we talked about that a little bit.

00:38:01:18 - 00:38:30:10
Gary
And I want to sort of ask you the same question, right. Those numbers of 1%, 2%, we want to change those things. Some of it is definitely, not our fault, but maybe some of it is on us. What do what do people need to do? What we want to our our intent needs to do differently to change those numbers and start to get more capital flowing into our communities?

00:38:30:10 - 00:38:48:13
Laura
Yeah, I think that one thing that's been interesting to see and I think Sol is doing a great job of it, is, showing that transparency of like, hey, I think there was a report that just came out the other day that said there's like only two Latina CEOs in the United States,

00:38:48:13 - 00:38:50:20
Laura
period. Yeah. None in Fortune 500 companies.

00:38:50:20 - 00:39:04:12
Laura
Right. And so that was shocking, but not shocking. So I think, number one, we need to understand, like governance processes in companies and what that means

00:39:04:13 - 00:39:17:02
Gary
My question is around venture. how do we get more Latinos in this business? How do we get more Latinos? founders start how do they get into this ecosystem that we're talking about here today?

00:39:17:14 - 00:39:55:22
Laura
Yeah. So I think there's two, it's a two pronged approach. One. One is it has to absolutely start at the educational level. And I see so many Latinas and Latinos now being interested in this space. And I think there's a lot of new programs coming out in the educational system. And, Stanford and UC and a lot of programs, there's a Latin MBA program that's from MIT, Harvard and all these elite schools, and they're building kind of programs to help even a broader base of Latinos come together that aren't part of those ecosystems.

00:39:55:22 - 00:39:58:07
Laura
Because, again, that's also a tide ecosystem

00:39:58:19 - 00:40:00:07
Gary
The students we've hired as interns.

00:40:00:07 - 00:40:03:15
Gary
Yes. We have some great Interns

00:40:03:15 - 00:40:04:02
Gary
Yeah, yeah.

00:40:04:02 - 00:40:40:06
Laura
We have some great interns. But I think it takes that starting getting those people exciting and understanding of what and giving them opportunities because then they can go back out and say, Hey, this is what they do. This is what was cool and, and allowing them to network and build that interest. And then after that, then it's helping along the way understand sort of the next steps in growth on, hey, how do you break into venture giving them opportunities if we don't have those opportunities within lattitude, connecting them to other venture capital firms that are looking for that talent?

00:40:40:10 - 00:40:51:22
Laura
And there's a lot that are looking for that talent right now because again, I don't know if if anyone this, but generally you don't see job postings for venture, right?

00:40:52:07 - 00:40:54:23
Gary
Right. That's what I'm saying. It's this click. It's a boy's club.

00:40:55:09 - 00:41:13:18
Laura
I remember when I started going through like after I exited my company, I was like, maybe I'll go do venture before I went to Nasdaq. And honestly, I had no idea to where to start to apply. Like what? Like how does that work? then I started to educate myself on it.

00:41:13:18 - 00:41:19:09
Laura
There's a lot of venture capital firms that don't take calls. No, they don't receive emails. They don't do interviews.

00:41:19:21 - 00:41:46:23
Laura
No. So it's, again, changing the landscape, which we're doing a great job of being all Latinos, changing the entire firm landscape, hiring interns, hiring associates that are Latino and Latinas, and then helping them outside of that by building the ecosystems that help educate through NAHREP through LATTITUDE supporting them in through the educational system.

00:41:46:23 - 00:41:51:15
Gary
Well, I'm glad that you pestered Kenny what you did.

00:41:52:15 - 00:41:54:10
Laura
I don't know if you do that story.

00:41:54:11 - 00:41:56:04
Gary
I didn't know that story. So right now,

00:41:56:04 - 00:41:57:09
Laura
So funny

00:41:57:09 - 00:42:13:01
Gary
I'm glad you did. it's been it's been great knowing you for a year. I know. We're just beginning. It's starting to. Get exciting. It's starting to get fun. There was a big announcement a couple of days ago. Obviously, that was really, I was really proud to see all that.

00:42:13:08 - 00:42:32:18
Gary
And, it's on us now. It's on us now to make it work and to prove the model and to open doors for others. I am big on entrepreneurship. I think it's one of the keys to closing the wealth gap, and I'm glad that I'm in the epicenter of it and I'm glad I'm working with you. Laura.

00:42:33:11 - 00:42:57:05
Laura
Thank you, Gary. I'm very excited. I've enjoyed the ride so far and I've learned so much from, your mentorship from Sol, from Kenny and from Oscar, from the short period that he's been involved. It's been great. And I think the thing that just really drives me is just seeing how great our founders and appreciative they are to be able to have this.

00:42:57:10 - 00:43:02:17
Laura
It is. So that's amazing. So I look forward to all the wins. We have to come.

00:43:03:09 - 00:43:12:20
Gary
Absolutely. Thank you