As the US approaches a potential recession, economists and business leaders are racking their brains over how to improve the country’s fiscal health.
Solomon “Sol” Trujillo’s answer is simple.
In 2019, 70-year-old Trujillo founded L’Attitude Ventures. L’Attitude Ventures is a venture capital (VC) that invests exclusively in Latino-owned companies. Trujillo is a general partner at L’Attitude Ventures and former CEO and Chairman of United Airlines, where he sits alongside Oscar Munoz, Kennie Blanco, Laura Moreno Lucas, and co-founder Gary Acosta.
According to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the United States and could add 5.3 million new jobs and $1.5 trillion to the U.S. economy over the next few years. There is a nature. McKinsey & Co. estimates that by 2030, one in five of her workers in the United States will be Latino.
But Latinos are the most undercapitalized growing group in the country. According to Bain & Company, he will receive less than 2% of the VC funding received by US startups and companies with Latino founders in 2021.
Trujillo told CNBC Make It:
“I want people to know that there are many companies that can generate growth and, with proper support, stimulate our country’s GDP.”
How L’Attitude is closing the funding gap for Latino entrepreneurs
An international business executive who has served as CEO of three large global companies (US West, Orange, and Telstra), Trujillo was sick of seeing Latino founders fail. lock out funding The traditional networking ecosystem in the VC world. He knew that the full and equitable inclusion of Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S. economy would yield enormous benefits.
L’Attitude Ventures not only provides funding and mentorship to the entrepreneurs that the company invests in, but also provides connections with companies and distribution channels for founders to grow their companies.
The company closed its first institutional fund in August, and through a strategic anchor investment by JP Morgan Chase and investments from other large financial institutions such as Barclays, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley Raised over $100 million.
Trujillo is calling the fund an “opening salvo” that it hopes will be an “investment boom” aimed at Latinx companies.
These funds benefited dozens of companies across the United States, including Progeny Coffee Farmers. Noparella, a line of Mexican bath and body products. Raddle is an online collaboration platform for small businesses.
L’Attitude Ventures also hosts an annual showcase and competition where early-stage Latino entrepreneurs are matched with funding from long-term investors. Their latest event in September featured celebrities such as former President Barack Obama and “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Why Investing in Latino-Owned Businesses ‘Benefits for All’
Other companies are “well-meaning” to express interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments and make speeches about the importance of diversity and inclusion to their mission, but their investment strategies has not kept up with the 21st century. , argues Trujillo.
“Companies raise capital and look for opportunities in the same places they were in the 80s and 90s. But markets and populations evolve, right?” he says. “We found that our Latino cohort was the most productive and entrepreneurial group of all cohorts in the United States … If you believe in capitalism, I believe in it. Because I think capitalism works 92.5% of the time.Where does the capital go?There is growth, but it is not happening.”
Harmful stereotypes that still plague Hispanics and Latinos are part of the reason for the lack of funding, says Trujillo. “People would say Latinos are uneducated, they’re not businessmen, they’re neither this nor that…and that’s completely wrong,” he said. To tell.
Trujillo adds that investing in Latino-owned companies will result in a strong U.S. economy that “wins for all.” Latino economic output in the United States reached a whopping $2.8 trillion in 2020, higher than the GDP of the UK, India or France. A consortium of Latino donors affiliated with Wells Fargo.
“What we do here is not just ensuring the success of Latino-owned businesses,” says Trujillo. “This is a smart economic strategy that we know will absolutely help the U.S. economy remain competitive not only now, but for the rest of this century.”
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