GOOGLE FOR STARTUPS INITIATIVE
Latino Founders Fund
The Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund provides $150,000 cash awards — without giving up equity in return — and hands-on support to help Latino entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses in the US. In addition to non-dilutive capital and up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits, recipients also receive hands-on mentorship from Googlers, along with other resources such as sales training, investor prep, mental health therapy, and community offerings at no cost.
2022 Cohort
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Joshe Ordonez
Airpals
Airpals is a B2B platform that helps teams book and coordinate local courier services for in-house parcels.
Joshe OrdonezEcuadorian Entrepreneur committed to sustainable social and economic development. Capable to inspire and be inspired by others.
Before Airpals, Joshe created Loop Fairtrade, a digital platform that connects Ecuadorian artisans with global designers to co-create ethical products. JBalvin endorsed one of the products created through this platform. This tool helped low-income artisans to receive an extra source of income while keeping ancestral techniques alive.
In 2017, Ordonez presented at the United Nations as a panel speaker to talk about sustainable and social development and delivered talks and presentations at Google, Pratt Institute, and The New York Public Library.
Among other projects, Ordonez was invited by the Brooklyn Fashion and Design Accelerator to join the Tek-tiles initiative. Here she worked alongside engineers and other experts from institutions like MIT and NYU to invent products that integrate technology like virtual reality and nano pressure sensors into smart garments and functional textiles.
Currently, she is the CEO of Airpals, a B2B courier for in-house parcels. Ordonez founded Airpals after years of struggling with internal logistics at companies and projects she worked on within the fashion industry and other operational-heavy fields.
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Alejandro Garcia-Amaya
AnswerBite
AnswerBite is powering marketing enterprise teams with social proof videos and customer insights in minutes, not weeks.
Alejandro Garcia-AmayaAlejandro Garcia Amaya is a 2x tech founder. Signed 135 Fortune 500 clients and managed a fully distributed workforce across 4 continents for his previous MarTech company. Created two sustainability podcasts fostering an audience of 50,000 professionals. Founded TopLatinxTechLeaders, an organization with a mission to have 40 American LatinX founders running billion-dollar tech companies by 2040.
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Alejandra Molina
Beepboop
Beepboop is a language-learning platform that transforms trusted content into easy-to-teach, gamified, group exercises that improve speaking skills.
Alejandra MolinaAlejandra Molina is the co-founder of Beepboop.
Originally from Peru. Prior to starting Beepboop, Alejandra’s language skills allowed her to pursue work in international marketing and trade in Asia and Latin America. She’s a polyglot fluent in four languages that has studied and worked in 14 countries across 4 continents. She co-founded a social impact project in Perú called WarmiShine, which empowered girls in school to feel safe within their bodies and communities.
Her early global exposure made her a firm believer that learning languages can open doors for people around the world by unlocking economic opportunities for them.
Alejandra Molina is a LIU Global alumna with a B.A. in Global Studies, an experience that led her to study at Zhejiang University and Fudan University. After this enriching experience, she is now based in NYC and is passionate about gender equity and ensuring everyone has access to quality education irrespective of their location.
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Manuel Saez
Beyond
Beyond is a subscription service for e-bikes and scooters.
Manuel SaezManuel Saez is an entrepreneur and award-winning industrial designer. He is the Co-founder of Beyond, a subscription service for e-bikes and scooters. As a designer, Manuel has won more than seventy design awards and is a recognized speaker at conferences and design schools worldwide. Manuel’s work has been exhibited and is part of the MoMA permanent collection; he is considered a prominent figure in the new generation of designers.
Originally from Tucumán, Argentina, he graduated with Honors from the University of Bridgeport with a B.S. in Industrial Design and a Masters in Technology Management. Manuel also holds an Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from M.I.T.
Before starting Beyond in 2015, Manuel established and ran Manuel Saez & Partners, a multi-disciplinary Design Consultancy working with clients such as Staples, Herman Miller, Humanscale, Crate & Barrel, DuPont, Black & Decker, Shell, and Procter & Gamble.
In 2002 Manuel established the in-house design team at Humanscale and served as Design Director for six years. He designed several award-winning products for both Humanscale and external clients such as GE and Fellowes.
He is also extremely active in the design community and writes as an Expert Blogger in Fast Company.
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Fernando Machin
Boxes
Boxes combine physical and digital technology to democratize convenient, affordable and sustainable retail.
Fernando MachinFernando is a resourceful entrepreneur. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and grew up in the vending machine business working with his father since he was 7 years old.
When he was studying business at University his father passed away and Fernando decided to set up his venture taking into consideration all his learnings working with his hardworking and resourceful father.
He managed to get a $2.000 grant from his university, and invited some friends who were studying engineering to join Boxes. After a year working from Fernando's bedroom they developed their first prototype.
With that first prototype they were almost another year trying to get their first partner, finally Boxes launched its first pilot
The company has now more than ten partnerships with CPG companies like Unilever, Sc Johnson, Kimberly Clark and have devices in LATAM and the United States. In 2021 Boxes was accelerated by Techstars in the US and launched its first pilot in the country. The startup set up its US headquarters in Texas and from there, with Fernando in charge and an energetic team of Latino entrepreneurs, they are accelerating their commercialization strategy and driving more innovation to power the future of retail across the world!
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Brian Alonso
Built Story
Built Story is a marketplace for self-guided tours.
Brian AlonsoBrian co-founded Built Story in 2018 with a mission to connect people and place, and to share the stories of the buildings – and communities – around us. Born and raised in Miami, Brian’s appreciation for storytelling and historic preservation began while he was principal at La Epoca Department Store, whose roots date back to 1885 in Havana, Cuba.
After working at Ford Motor Company, Brian and his brother took the lead in their family business in 2005, long after the business had relocated to Miami, in a historic downtown building. Brian has also served as President of Dade Heritage Trust, working to preserve historic buildings throughout the South Florida area. He served as co-chair of the Flagler Street Taskforce, working to revitalize this district of downtown Miami. Brian received both The Achiever award from MiamiToday and the Alvah H. Chapman award of Excellence from the Miami Chamber of Commerce in 2014 for his work on Flagler Street.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University, and a master’s degree in civil engineering from The George Washington University, Brian now resides again in Durham, NC – but this time with his wife and three children.
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Leslie Borrell
Carefully
Carefully is an easy way to build a network of parents you know and trust to share care and provide mutual aid, redefining the traditional ‘care circle’ model for the digital age. Carefully understands finding, organizing, and paying for childcare can be a challenge. Carefully connects parents with their friends, families, and communities to create a safe and free option for childcare that’s fun for the kids.
Leslie BorrellThrough her 20 years as a technology and product leader for industry leading companies including Etsy, Travelocity, and ThoughtWorks, Leslie has demonstrated a unique talent for building diverse, strong teams capable of solving complex problems with simple solutions and delivering above expectations. She combines her deep understanding of agile values, engineering ethos, and practices that promote early delivery with her core values of empowerment and accountability to grow inspired teams. Since shifting her focus to Carefully in 2020, Leslie has shown her flexibility and adaptability as she pivoted to a new role and industry. First came the FamTech Collaborative 2020, where Leslie was invited as one of the early members and had the opportunity to build a robust network and nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the childcare space by interacting with advocates, founders, and experienced leaders. In 2021 Carefully was one of 7 companies accepted into the start.coop accelerator for cooperatively owned businesses. Most recently, in March of 2022, Leslie joined the inaugural cohort for the City Fellowship, a public private partnership between the NYC Economic Development Corporation and Company Ventures supporting impact focused startups working to make NYC better. Leslie has always worked at the forefront of the technology industry, looking for the newest areas where she can adapt her experience, tackle new challenges, and expand her thinking. Carefully is well aligned with that ongoing journey as she works to make the world better through mutualism, community and care.
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Andrés Felipe Joya Mosquera
Coally
Coally is a platform that connects Latinx recent college graduates with work opportunities.
Andrés Felipe Joya MosqueraAndrés, CEO, grew up in government-subsidized housing in Bogota, Colombia. He envisioned the idea of enabling connections between youth and companies as a way to generate impact. He owns a magna cum laude from a Msc degree in management in entrepreneurship from Babson College. He has more than 5 years of experience in entrepreneurship, consulting & business intelligence.
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Jesus Salas
CodersLink
CodersLink is a platform that empowers global companies to recruit, manage, and develop their LATAM tech teams, on-demand.
Jesus SalasBorn & raised in Torreon (MX). Thrived in San Antonio & Austin, TX. Citizen of the World.
After living and working in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and China managing tech projects and connecting tech ecosystems for the last six years I was able to learn the three most important lessons of my life.
1. Talent is distributed equally around the world but opportunities are not.
2. Attitude will always beat aptitude.
3. The world is getting smaller or at least more connected than ever.
These lessons empowered me to launch the venture of my life, CodersLink.
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Osvaldo Montelongo
ConnectCareHero
ConnectCareHero helps senior living organizations drive engagement & streamline operations to help them meet their goals.
Osvaldo MontelongoOsvaldo is a 1st generation Latino immigrant from Mexico and was born to a 57-year-old Spanish-speaking father, Abraham Montelongo. By his early 20s, he found himself on an isolating senior care journey to help his father live a vibrant life through culturally relevant activities using technology.
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Cesar Torres
DapIt App
DapIt App is a digital wallet community for small businesses.
Cesar TorresCesar Torres is a father of fifteen-year-old twin boys and has been married for 22 years. Cesar was born in a small town in Jalisco called Mazamitla. His family migrated over around the early '80s. After finishing high school, Cesar attended a technical school and received an associate's degree in Computer Science; soon after, Cesar got hired on with IBM, where he worked for over ten years. During this period, he got married, hoping to have a family. It might have taken longer than expected, but his wife eventually married and delivered twin boys. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, Cesar's wife was diagnosed with stage 4 head and neck cancer. Working through this tough time and trying to support his family, Cesar realized although his career with IBM had its benefits, he didn't envision a foreseeable future with the company. Cesar's focus was always to protect and support his family and ensure his wife's health improved. However, managing a family and all the bills on a single salary seemed more challenging. In addition, Cesar and his family had lost their home and had to find a way to keep surviving. Cesar had decided to leave IBM and committed himself to build a company doing things he has always been good at creating and connecting. What came next would forever change his path and create a new, exciting world that he is proud to share with this family. DapIt is the final piece to Cesar's story; stay tuned.
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Laura Rocha & Jose Daniel Ramirez
Dathic
Dathic is a data insights and AI-powered recommendation platform for brands to authentically serve the US Hispanic consumers.
Laura Rocha & Jose Daniel RamirezLaura Rocha: Laura Rocha is the CEO and co-founder of Dathic and NYU Female Founder Fellow. She is a lawyer and holds a Master's of Public Administration from NYU. Laura worked on implementing open data and artificial intelligence models that understand community behaviors applied to optimize brands’ strategies and government programs.
For over 10 years she led the implementation of social programs and public-private partnerships infrastructure projects in her native Colombia.
Jose Daniel Ramirez: Jose Daniel Ramirez is a manager in the financial-tech sector and an AI entrepreneur. He is a computer scientist and holds a Master's in Data Science from Columbia University. Jose Daniel has worked for over 14 years in software development and AI and big data projects to understand human behavior. Given the social impact of his inventions, he was awarded an Innovator Under 35 by MIT Review and honored by the Congress of the Republic of Colombia as “Colombiano Estrella”.
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Ariana Abramson
DivySci
DivySci is an analytics tool that augments workplace behavior to reduce communication bias.
Ariana AbramsonAriana Abramson, MSc, is an Afro-Latina Data Scientist, Writer, STEM Advocate, and TEDx Speaker. She is the CEO and Founder of DivySci Software, a behavioral analytics platform for teams.
Ariana earned a Master of Science in Data Science from Columbia University and has advanced certifications from Columbia and Harvard Business School. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Pace University.
With her vision of leveraging communication research and artificial intelligence to build equitable workplaces, Ariana has been featured across various outlets, including Camelback Ventures, GrepBeat News, Black Girl Ventures, NowThis News, and Home and Business Magazine.
Due to the intersectionality of identities Black and Latinx women hold, Ariana believes by centering AI research and technology on ensuring women of color experience true equity and economic prosperity, we create a world where equity exists for everyone.
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Mario Amaro, MD
Ease
Ease make it easy for clinicians to start, grow, and manage private practices.
Mario Amaro, MDDr. Mario Amaro, MD:
Dr. Amaro worked as a flight medicine clinician in the Navy for 8 years, operating as though he was running a solo virtual practice. Once he left the Navy, he worked in multiple hospitals all throughout the US and saw that most clinicians were exhausted and looking for an exit from the current system. Before founding Ease he talked to almost 1000 clinicians and learned that most were seeking a better work-life balance and stronger patient relationships, but were confused about how to start their own practices.
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Max Echeverría
Eskuad
Eskuad is a field data platform for field workers.
Max EcheverríaMax Echeverría is a tech geek who grew up with a mother and a father who told him he could do whatever he wanted as long as he did it with passion and tried to be the best he could at it. As he was born and raised in Chile, the only way to do what he wanted was always creating his path, turning him into an entrepreneur at an early age. Max holds a master's degree in industrial engineering, is an industrial engineer, and loves coding. He also plays basketball, rides a snowboard and a bike, and likes to play the bass guitar.
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Clay Treska
Family Proud
Family Proud is the first social platform designed for care making it simple to give and receive support through persistent digital communities.
Clay TreskaClay is a two-time cancer survivor, driven patient advocate and healthcare executive. With a focus in clinical oncology, business and financial planning, he is also a proud veteran of the Marine Corps, Ironman, and UCSD MBA. Clay is passionate about sharing his patient journey in hopes of helping and inspiring others.
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Diego Sampaio
Globalfy
Globalfy is a platform for entrepreneurs worldwide to quickly expand e-commerce, technology, startups, and industrial companies to the U.S.
Diego SampaioDiego Sampaio is Co-founder and CEO @Globalfy. With 20 years of experience in digital business, Globalfy is the realization of an old dream: help entreprenerus to think and grow global.
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Eric Alvarez
Grapefruit Health
Grapefruit Health is addressing the workforce shortage in healthcare by recruiting and training clinical students to perform interactions with patients remotely.
Eric AlvarezEric Alvarez is the CEO and Founder of Grapefruit Health, a company that is creating a brand new workforce to help meet the significant shortage of healthcare workers today.
Prior to this adventure, he has held multiple positions within the healthcare industry. Most recently Eric was the COO of a healthcare technology startup called Fibroblast, which was acquired by the EMR giant Cerner Corporation in 2020. In this role, he oversaw product, development, human resources, finance, general company operations, and was active in all major sales cycles.
Before joining Fibroblast, Eric was a hospital administrator at the University of Chicago Medicine and Northwestern Medicine. In these roles, he led large clinical and nonclinical teams mostly in specialty services that included the services lines of Cardiovascular surgery, Urology, and Ophthalmology. These roles have provided Eric with a deep understanding of how health systems function as a business and what their systemic challenges are.
Eric earned his Masters in Healthcare Administration from Rush University, a top 5 program, and his Bachelors in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University, a top 10 program. Prior to college, he served in the United States Airforce during Iraqi Freedom. Most recently, Eric was named a top 100 Rising LatinX founders and Distinguished Alumni of the Year from his Master’s program.
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David Lopez
Gritly
Gritly is building the infrastructure for skills-based training and hiring.
David LopezDavid Lopez is a tech founder based in Denver, CO. Growing up, his environment allowed him to overcome adversity and understand what it takes to break generational cycles of poverty and lack of access. As a change-maker, he decided to break down the barriers that underserved communities face with a lack of access to workforce opportunities that lead to economic mobility. He and his team understand that everything they are doing at Gritly is much bigger than themselves. In his free time, David enjoys spending time with loved ones, watching sports, and traveling.
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April Dominguez
HANDSOME app
Handsome is a career and advice sharing platform for the $190B beauty and barber industries to find coaching, techniques and earn more income.
April DominguezApril Dominguez is a Native American and Latinx startup founder & CEO of HANDSOME, with a life mission to raise the tide of underrepresented people. Prior to Handsome she was the 5th hire at an investment startup that raised and deployed $130M in Joint Venture Capital. Today, she's building the leading career & education network for professionals in the beauty & barber industries, an industry that is comprised of the underdog. She’s led the company in raising $2.1M in funding, when less than 0.5% of venture capital dollars go to Latina Female Founders. She's been awarded $160,000 in non-dilutive grants, and has been featured in TechCrunch, Business Insider, American Salon, Modern Salon, DocSend and recognized as a Top 50 Startup to Watch, Austin A-List Finalist, and the first recipient of the Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund $100K grant.
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Sayeed Mehrjerdian
iAccess Innovations Inc
iAccess Life allows users to rate, review and research locations based on how accessible the venues; parking, entrance, bathroom and interior space is.
Sayeed MehrjerdianIn his profession as a product manager and product owner, Sayeed's job is to gather technical requirements, identify and investigate the viability of third party API’s as a data resource, weigh in on interface and design questions, and ensure that the product being delivered meets the expectations of the user. He feels that his experience in this field lends itself perfectly to what Brandon is doing and where he is going with iAccess Life.
Sayeed is the son of immigrants from Venezuela and Iran and a fluent Spanish speaker. His multi-cultural upbringing has exposed him to many cultures and countries throughout his travels to over 20 different countries around the world. Sayeed is an Atlanta native, a Georgia Tech graduate of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, a live music enthusiast and an avid sports fan, where he is especially fond of Web3, NFT’s, Foodie Culture and Soccer (Avid supporter of Arsenal and Atlanta United football clubs).
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Beto Altamirano
Irys
Irys is an innovative and collaborative two-way engagement tool that helps to drive community inclusion on infrastructure projects, improving project workflows and optimizing outcomes.
Beto AltamiranoBeto Altamirano is the CEO & Co-founder of Irys, a company building AI-driven tools that engage communities to bring real-time visibility and data analytics to urban stakeholders. Beto's interest in public policy has led him to work at the Texas House of Representatives, United States Senate, White House - United States Trade Representative, and the Alamo Area MPO. Beto’s involvement in public policy was recognized by the Aspen Institute Latinos & Society and the Center for Urban Innovation, where he served as a scholar, co-authoring reports highlighting the Millennial civic potential. Beto is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Grant, a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur list maker, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and an American Express-Ashoka Emerging Innovator.
In 2021, Beto was appointed by San Antonio's District 1 to serve as a Board Member for the Port Authority of San Antonio, a public entity that manages a 1,900-acre technology and innovation campus focused on aerospace, defense, manufacturing, and cyber security. In 2022, he was appointed as a Member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Task Force on Digitalization in Energy.
Beto holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master's in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he served as a U.S Latino Leadership Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership and as a Cheng Fellow at the Social Innovation and Change Initiative.
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Amy Jarczynski
Kiss & Tell
Kiss & Tell is a private social network with group booking and crowdfunding that gets everyone to weddings and gatherings without the headache.
Amy JarczynskiAmy Jarczynski is the Founder & CEO of Kiss & Tell, an award winning marketplace and private social network hybrid ushering in the future of gatherings globally. She's spent her career growing and scaling the market leader in the digital wedding space and left them to create a better solution for event hosts, guests and vendors. In her free time, she enjoys travel, food, wine and spending quality time with friends and family.
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Alex Harb
Lena Health
Lena is a Personal Assistant for concierge care navigation
Alex HarbAlejandro (Alex) Harb is the founder of Lena Health, an AI-enabled Concierge Care Assistant for patients that improves health and transforms the care navigation experience. Prior to founding Lena, Alex was a Business Strategist and an Innovation Fellow at the Texas Medical Center's Innovation Institute with prior training in software engineering and degrees in Biochemistry and Economics.
During his tenure at the TMC, he observed, first-hand, a major and unaddressed barrier for vulnerable populations to receive appropriate care. This barrier is the challenge of navigating a highly complex system of health providers, care pathways, and resources. With the funding and incubation of the Texas Medical Center, Lena was commercialized and is now being utilized by prestigious health institutions across the country with ongoing clinical studies showing that patients that utilize Lena have improved health outcomes and reduced use of the ER and hospital.
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Tomás Uribe
Mavity
Mavity is the end to end collaboration tool for cloud-based creative teams.
Tomás UribeTomás Uribe is a Colombian entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO at Mavity, the end to end collaboration tool for creative teams. Tomás has been a featured speaker at SXSW, Harvard University, and included in the Forbes Next 1000 list. Mavity has been backed by Techstars, Pharrell Williams and his Black Ambition Fund, as well as OasisCap and StartaVC. He previously worked at United Nations and Wildstyle-Network with clients including Qualcomm, HERE Technologies and Leica Camera. As a composer and creative producer, he was a touring musician, film score composer and bass player. In 2020, the Colombian Government Trade Agency recognized Tomás as Ambassador for Entrepreneurship, along with other regional companies like Rappi and Platzi.
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Cristian Waitman
MindCo Health
MindoCo Health delivers effective and accessible therapy and programs.
Cristian WaitmanCristian Waitman is a seasoned marketer, whose product development background led him to work with companies like Uber, Samsung, and MTV.
His expertise and enthusiasm for social impact projects lead him to produce a virtual reality documentary for United Nations to bring awareness for the migrant crisis in Central America and get involved in a project to preserve and re-forestare the Mexican coral reef.
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Alejandro A. Alvarez
Moneta Tech
Moneta is the first financial service designed for franchises to digitally issue spare change from cash transactions to their customers via the receipts, whether they are banked or unbanked.
Alejandro A. AlvarezAlejandro Alvarez is a 23 year old entrepreneur from Caracas, Venezuela. After going to college for one year, Alejandro decided to drop out in order to pursue his idea and try turning it into reality. His idea can digitize spare change from cash transactions. He is currently the CEO of Moneta Tech.
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Pedro Sostre
Navigate Accelerator
Navigate Accelerator democratizes access to support for early-stage entrepreneurs.
Pedro SostrePedro is an entrepreneur and author in the tech and ecommerce space. He's driven over $100M in revenue for early stage startups and after his last exit, he shifted his focus to helping under-supported founders at the earliest stages. Over the past 5 years he's helped hundreds of founders through personal mentoring, his role leading innovation and startups for WeWork, and now through his own accelerator called Navigate at the LAB in Wynwood.
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Jonathan G. Blanco
Niftmint
Niftmint lets brands build loyalty and awareness, while selling new digital products directly on their website, without the need to manage or introduce cryptocurrency to the customers.
Jonathan G. BlancoJonathan G. Blanco is the Founder and CEO/CTO of Niftmint, a startup building NFT Commerce Infrastructure and Web3 Wallets simplifying NFTs, Crypto, and Crypto Wallets for Brands and Organization. Jonathan has been building companies in retail since 2009, building eCommerce and social commerce technology integrations since 2014, and been at the intersection of crypto and commerce since 2017. Jonathan has lead product and technology teams across startups, enterprise retail, and retail brands, ensuring customer experience is value is highest priority in product design.
Jonathan graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Business Entrepreneurship and now teaches a course at the University of Washington PCE on Software Product Management.
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Max Mergenthaler
Nixtla
Nixtla deploys production ready forecasting pipelines in minutes.
Max MergenthalerMax is CEO and Co-Founder of Nixtla. He is a technical founder with more than 7 years forming and leading high performing teams. Previously he co-founded and was CTO of Levo (YC S21), an emerging fintech company that improved financial wellness for Latinx. He has served in as technology advisor in different advisory boards and has co-authored different papers in machine learning and behavioral economics.
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Noelle Acosta
Noula Health
Noula makes personalized reproductive health information and support more accessible through affordable at-home testing, digital care plans and 1:1 health coaching.
Noelle AcostaNoelle Acosta is the Founder & CEO of Noula Health.
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Omar Hernandez
ONEBIT INC.
ONEBIT helps independent businesses make smarter financial decisions.
Omar HernandezOmar Hernandez is the founder and CEO of ONEBIT, Inc. He invented the ONEBIT application to help independent businesses keep track of their operational data in one place and provide business owners with better knowledge of their financials to improve decision making. As a former business owner himself, Omar has also worked for a number of companies and industries ranging from digital marketing agencies, non-profits, and tech startups. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from DePaul University and completed his Master’s in Data Management & Analytics at Illinois Institute of Technology. Omar’s mother has worked in the food and beverage industry for the last 30 years and inspired Omar to build the ONEBIT application after hearing the many problems that independent businesses faced when keeping track of and managing resources.
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Kyle Pierce
Options MD
Options MD is a telemedicine platform that provides personalized care for people suffering from severe and treatment-resistant mental illnesses
Kyle PierceAs cofounders of Options MD, Kyle Pierce and Morgan Hewett are on a mission to prevent thousands of deaths from suicide by addressing the $200B whitespace of severe and treatment-resistant mental illnesses.
Having watched firsthand as family and friends struggled, Options MD is a telemedicine platform that delivers personalized care to the 32M mental health patients will be deemed “treatment-resistant” by physicians, meaning that they will not respond to 1st line medications. With the help of their medical research team, they have developed a treatment-matching software that allows patients and clinicians unparalleled access to innovative treatments, created access to specialist clinicians to create research-backed treatment plans focused on higher quality care, and built continued engagement through their private patient community.
Prior to Options MD, Kyle was a healthcare attorney leading caseloads for the largest payers and hospital systems in California. He received his bachelor's degree in economics and Chinese from Swarthmore College before going on to receive his J.D. from UCLA. Kyle was raised in a Puerto Rican/Caribbean family entrenched in political activism, including civil rights leaders like Errol Walton Barrow, who have reminded him that social change requires you to be bold and creative. Before launching Options MD, Morgan worked at Facebook where she helped launch the company’s healthcare marketing division.
As Latinx, queer, and Black cofounders they've broken barriers to be part of the only 2.4% of founders like them who have received VC funding in 2021.
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Ivan Huerta
Parabeac
Parabeac helps app development teams automate their design to development processes.
Ivan HuertaIvan Huerta is a self-taught programmer who started his first dev shop from his college dorm room. Since 2018, Ivan has been building a new category of developer tools as founder of Parabeac. He divides his time between El Paso and Austin and is heavily involved in the start-up scene in both cities.
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Pauline Roteta
Pasito
Pasito’s software gets more employees to use the high deductible health plan (HDHP) and health savings account (HSA), saving both them and their employers a lot of money. We do this with personalized data-based recommendations and an incentive structure that enables employers to advance health expense payments for HSA enrollees.
Pauline RotetaPauline Roteta is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pasito. She is an experienced business builder, leader, investor, and advisor, and a Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Financial Planner® professional. Prior to Pasito, Pauline was a Senior Investor and Portfolio Manager at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager. Pauline is originally from Argentina and holds a Bachelors of Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
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Camila Lopez
People Clerk
People Clerk support individuals throughout the small claims court process which are disputes under $10K such as security deposits, auto accidents, and contracts. Their mission is to create a more accessible legal system for those of different social, economic, or cultural backgrounds.
Camila LopezCamila’s passion is to make the law accessible to all. She was born in Cartagena, Colombia, and has lived in Florida, Texas, New York, and California throughout her life. She earned her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and is a California licensed attorney. While in law school she worked for the New York Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Frauds & Protection and at a mass torts law practice. After having family and friends constantly reach out to her with small claims issues, she realized that their issues were monetarily too small to hire an attorney and too complex to handle it themselves. With that problem in mind and with the help of her co-founder, Gustavo Lozano, she built People Clerk, a case management platform for small claims where the litigant can prepare, file, and serve the lawsuit, as well as create a judge-friendly trial binder for the hearing. She was named as one of the 2022 American Bar Association’s Legal Rebels and as part of the Legal Technology Resource Center’s Women of Legal Tech. She is also a founding board member of the Justice Technology Association.
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Alvaro De Jesus
Pivot Market
Pivot Market is a sales channel that allows independent stores to stock their businesses without purchasing inventory.
Alvaro De JesusAlvaro is a Serial Entrepreneur, with experience in startups from Fin-tech to Retail. He has driven tens of millions of dollars in sales for his own ventures. He has a strong focus on Social Entrepreneurship from helping small businesses gain access to micro loans to developing sustainable brands.
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Liyani Rodriguez
Raddle
Raddle is an engagement-driven video platform that powers facilitated conversations to unlock creativity & innovation
Liyani RodriguezLiyani is the product of two teenagers and one wild night after a high school party. Her father was a Marine Corps Drill Instructor, so growing up she was shuffled between military bases and her hometown of San Francisco. As the perpetual new kid on the block, fitting in was a challenge, and as a 5’0 woman of color, she’s always had to work extra hard to be seen and heard. These experiences strengthened her resolve and ignited her passion for helping others be seen and heard.
After graduating with honors from University of California Irvine with a bachelor’s degree in business economics and a minor in accounting, Liyani built a successful career as a CPA and finance professional, first with PwC and then Connor Group, advising tech companies including Snapchat and Survey Monkey. On track to becoming partner, she made the conscious decision to pursue her dream of being a purpose-driven entrepreneur, setting her sights on changing conversation culture, and in 2020…
Raddle was born. Raddle helps people feel heard at work through fun, equitable, and engaging conversations while at the same time helping employers retain their teams. By creating a space for psychological safety, Raddle uniquely taps into a team’s collective creative intelligence. Raddle is a Techstars Anywhere 2021 company and backed by investors including Andy Ballester (GoFundMe co-founder), Lat VC, and a diverse group of angels.
Liyani also co-owns Lundy Way, a bootstrapped, wildly successful apron company with her chef/husband/business partner, catering to top chefs around the world. Liyani spends her free time walking the beaches of Pacifica, California with their rescue pit bull/chihuahua mix.
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Ricky Regalado
Route
Route is creating a End to End system for Cleaning small business owners to win, build and grow their companies with our Suite of tools.
Ricky RegaladoRicardo Regalado is the proud owner of Rozalado Services, a family-owned facility services company based out of Chicago that is a single-source solution for facility service needs. He is also co-owner of Roza Contractors, a facility maintenance and contracting company. And the proud founder and CEO of Route, a technology software/app that is a solution for the commercial cleaning and field service industry. Route is the first to digitize the sales process from walkthrough to bid to proposals, all on the same platform, plus many more features.
Ricardo started in the commercial cleaning industry 9 years ago with his wife, dad, aunt, and cousin, but quickly realized that he wanted to grow and scale his business. He decided to create his own brand, and that's how the family of R brands began. During the first 4–5 years of the business, he wore several hats and did all the cleaning.
Ricardo manages over 300 employees, 6 companies, operates in 25+ states, offers over 20 services and has made the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies for 4 years now-2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Regalado recently made the Crain’s 40 under 40 prestigious class of 2021. His mission is to create jobs and assist the average blue-collar, hardworking American in earning a living and being happy while doing so. His vision is to empower the cleaning industry and have a positive impact on his colleagues and team.
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Luis Suárez
Sanarai
Sanarai is a mental health platform that connects the Latinx community to Latin American mental health professionals and provides culturally sensitive, Spanish-language emotional support at accessible rates.
Luis SuárezLuis Suárez is originally from Mexico City and came to the US to pursue his MBA at Duke University. He is an engineer by training and worked as a management consultant at Kearney focusing on Digital Transformation and M&A for three years before launching Sanarai.
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Tanya Menendez
Snowball Wealth
Snowball Wealth is a community-first mobile app that moves people from debt to wealth.
Tanya MenendezTanya Menendez is the Co-Founder and CEO of Snowball Wealth, a community-first platform that moves people from debt to wealth. The Snowball Wealth web and mobile app provide a community, money challenges, and ai-driven planning. Tanya is a second-time tech founder and before becoming an entrepreneur, she worked at Goldman Sachs and Google. Tanya has been included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List and named one of People en Español’s Most Powerful Latinas.
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Luis Barrera
splyt
splyt is peer-to-peer payments for groups of friends splitting restaurant bills.
Luis BarreraLuis Barrera is a serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder & CEO of splyt. He grew up moving between Peru and California before attending Chapman University to study finance. Driven by his love for building things, he's launched ventures in custom apparel, E-commerce & tech. He now lives in New York City and enjoys biohacking, poker, surfing & "trying to" code.
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Francisco Cornejo
Storybook
Storybook is the togetherness app for family wellbeing and sleep
Francisco CornejoBorn and raised in Cuenca, Ecuador, Francisco is a husband, father of two boys, and entrepreneur. He started and sold 3 companies before turning 25. Now he is the Co-founder and CEO of Storybook, a parent-child wellness and sleep app that has been featured by CNN, Forbes, Business Insider, and over 50 media outlets throughout Latin America. He holds a Business Degree and a Master's in Communication from RMIT, Australia
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Tlacael Esparza
Sunhouse Technologies, Inc.
Sunhouse is a technology company creating the future of AI for the music industry. By adopting the latest advances in machine learning, music information retrieval, and signal processing they make products to empower musicians, not replace them.
Tlacael EsparzaTlacael Esparza, Co-founder & CTO at Sunhouse where he leads all product development. Tlacael is a professional drummer and specialist in applying machine learning to real-time audio. As a musician, technologist, and programmer, Tlacael specializes in uniting mathematics and music to develop technology based on human intuition. A professional drummer with over fourteen years of experience, Tlacael has toured, performed and recorded with acclaimed artists Nicolas Jaar, The Dave Harrington Group, ARMS, and Friend Roulette. Tlacael holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Music from Columbia University and a Master's degree in Music Technology from New York University where he was also adjunct professor until 2019.
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Eli Rivera
The Way Out
The Way Out is a contextualized, anti-bias employment platform that brings together equal opportunity employers and justice-involved job seekers to fill workforce needs.
Eli RiveraEli Rivera is Co-founder and CEO of The Way Out, where they are breaking the cycle of incarceration through technology and living wage jobs.
As the first person of his Puerto Rican family, born and raised on the United States mainland, Eli grew up in poverty on Milwaukee’s north-westside where he experienced extreme gang violence and the onset of the crack cocaine and AIDS epidemics in his neighborhood. These experiences heavily influenced Eli’s life and his subsequent decision to manufacture and distribute marijuana (which eventually landed him in prison).
As an ex-felon, Eli experienced firsthand the challenges associated with seeking employment with a felony conviction. Upon his release Eli utilized various leadership positions to employ, mentor and coach formerly incarcerated individuals within the hospitality industry. In 2018 Eli created ShyftFly, a pre-shift and training app for the Hospitality Industry and in 2019 he was drawn into the justice-tech sector, where he co-founded The Way Out with his business partner, Ruben Gaona.
At the end of 2020 The Way Out launched its comprehensive anti-bias employment platform and in 2021 released its mobile support app. Currently Eli and his team are preparing to launch The Way Out's new CRM system and have started working on a new and improved, anti-bias employment platform (AEP).
The Way Out has participated in the Gener8tor Social Impact startup accelerator, been featured in US News & World Report, and has received significant financial support from American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact.
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Oscar Pedroso
Thimble
Thimble is a technology academy based in New York that prepares kids for 21st century careers in robotics, coding, machine learning, and other tech disciplines. Thimble is making learning accessible to underserved children through a hands-on curriculum, reusable electronics, and multilingual lessons in English and Spanish.
Oscar PedrosoOscar Pedroso is founder/CEO of Thimble - an education tech business based in New York that prepares kids for 21st century careers in robotics, coding, machine learning, and other tech disciplines. His team is working with over 300 schools in all 50 states and 20 countries and has a plan to reach 3 million students by 2024. Prior to founding Thimble, Oscar worked as a K-12 educator and college admission officer - recruiting high school students for admission into top universities. In his roles, he worked closely with underrepresented students - inspiring them to pursue STEM majors and careers - even if STEM wasn't their first choice.
Oscar is a first generation high school and college graduate, and entrepreneur. His family hails from Honduras and Costa Rica. In his free time, Oscar enjoys swimming on a masters swim team, making wine, mentoring newbie founders, and becoming a better cook in the kitchen.
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Sergio Rodriguez-Valenzuela
ToDooly
ToDooly connects communities and provides formative work experience to young adults through manual labor.
Sergio Rodriguez-ValenzuelaSergio Rodriguez-Valenzuela is a social entrepreneur and vocal advocate for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (ED&I) in tech. Currently, he is the CEO and Founder of ToDooly, a technology platform connecting communities and providing access to formative work experiences to young adults through manual labor.
Dozens of peers have recognized and endorsed Sergio for his public speaking, leadership, and fundraising abilities. Sergio was one of six to graduate with a degree in Biomedical Physics from Wayne State University in 2017, and the only one who managed to do it debt-free through manual labor; ToDooly is an evolution of his personal experience. While wrapping up his education, he also led and founded the WSU Grappling Club, a student organization promoting wrestling, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and other grappling disciplines on campus.
Before ToDooly, Sergio founded Timmy Global Health WSU, a non-profit chapter of Indianapolis-based 501c3 whose mission is to empower communities to address health disparities in a sustainable way. He has also worked for numerous economic development organizations in both project management and fundraising roles.
In 2020, Sergio was awarded the Crain’s 20 in their 20’s award, received acceptance into the world-renowned Techstars accelerator program, and was granted the O-1 visa, given to individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary ability in their field. Sergio currently splits his time between Detroit, where ToDooly is headquartered, and Chicago.
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Camille Padilla
VODIUM
VODIUM is a transparent technology inspired by a traditional teleprompter that enables professionals to maintain eye contact with their virtual audience and come across confident and in-control.
Camille PadillaBefore going to VODIUM full time, Camille was Vice President at one of the top boutique political media firms. She likes to say she’s a conundrum because she’s a skilled operator and creative. Camille ran all the operations and budgets for multi-million dollar ad campaigns. But she also wrote, directed, and produced national TV commercials. The idea of VODIUM came to her while she was conducting a video shoot over Zoom, and the first person she had to call was her best friend and roommate, Mary Mellor.
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Ivo Machado
Wisecut
Wisecut leverages speech recognition and AI to edit videos automatically and at scale.
Ivo MachadoIvo Machado is a Brazilian-born award-winning serial entrepreneur based in Miami, FL. Ivo is one of the co-founders of Movpak, the world's first backpack and electric scooter in one, featured in Forbes, TIME, TechCrunch, and Business Insider. Besides helping with the business development and design of Movpak, Ivo served as the CMO of the company.
Ivo has over 15 years of experience in video editing, and in 2019, Ivo, alongside his brother, Vicente, co-founded Wisecut AI Video Editor, where he serves as the company's CEO.
Wisecut leverages speech recognition and AI to edit videos automatically and at scale. Soon after launch, Wisecut joined the Miami accelerator TheVentureCity and became the go-to application for thousands of creators.
Besides the creator economy, Wisecut is poised to disrupt the online education industry. Remote learning often requires students to watch long/unedited recorded classes leading to lower engagement and attention deficit when studying from home. Schools and Universities are recording thousands of hours of video classes per week and are unable to edit these videos manually. Wisecut's API-based solution can pull thousands of hours of raw content from the cloud of choice and produce engaging videos at scale while reducing storage needs.
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Remy Meraz
Zella Life
Zella Life is a coaching on-demand platform for professionals of color to grow and thrive in the workplace.
Remy MerazRemy Meraz is Co-Founder and CEO of Zella Life, a coaching on-demand platform for professionals of color to grow and thrive. Zella Life is on a mission to create a level playing field by bridging corporate America's diversity gap in workforce development.
Before taking the entrepreneurial leap, Ms. Meraz had a 25-year sales and marketing career spanning various industries, including media, entertainment, and technology, where she led and built numerous teams.
A natural-born innovator and social entrepreneur, Ms. Meraz graduated from several accelerators supporting founders of color, including PlugIn South LA and Founder Gym, as a Google for Entrepreneur scholarship recipient.
A dedicated community servant, Ms. Meraz is a past President of the National Latina Business Women Association, where she mentored and advocated for Latina entrepreneurs. Her efforts were recognized in 2015 as 1 of 100 business owners in the United States selected to attend the Small Business Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. The Summit provided a unique opportunity to interact with key policymakers and senior members of the Obama Administration to identify policy recommendations to help move the needle on important issues affecting small businesses.
