🎯 latam entrepreneurship with gabriel flores

Welcome to another founder wisdom pod with Gabriel Flores with us today. He is co founder at Latino Founders. So we're going to talk about Latino founder stuff today. Excited about that. I am in Mexico, married to a Latina and have been traveling the full latam in the past seven years. So quite bullish on the region in terms of investment. First market I'm most bullish about is probably India. Actually. India would come second, first would be latam, third would, yeah, probably be somewhere in Asia and fourth would come as the classic markets like Canada and US Exciting stuff happening there and there's a lot of Latinos in the US as well. And these folks, well, we're going to talk about their situations because I don't know almost anything about what's up up there. I know what's up in Mexico, but Yeah, in the U.S. not sure. So we're going to talk about that with GAB today. This podcast is brought to you by Dot com. If you want to start scale, be invited to podcasts like this one. If you want to learn from great guests like gab, if you want to create connections and if you want to generate leads and clients, bot buyer.com for that. Gab, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about your organization? Latino Founders?

Yeah. So first and foremost, thank you so much for allowing me. Gabriel Flores here from Portland, Oregon. I do quite a few different things. I am the co founder and president of Latino Founders. We are a non profit 501c3 business accelerator program. We have 12 Latino entrepreneurs going through our business accelerator program right now. We just had a meeting today and what we're primarily focusing on helping these electing entrepreneurs scale their business, create an exit strategy, talk about product market fit, talk about branding, talk about marketing. Marketing talk about their sales funnel so we can really try to help them succeed. We at the end of this competition, at the end of this 12 week program, we actually encourage these entrepreneurs to submit to a it's called Pitch Latino. And so this Pitch Latino competition is actually a free opportunity for these Latino entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to venture capitalists and community members like yourself to really kind of get the word out about what they're doing and how they're doing it and then seeing if, you know, venture capitalists are willing to, you know, go ahead and support that or invest into those ventures. Addition to that, I actually work in healthcare. I've been working in healthcare for over 23 years at Oregon Health Science University where the the largest academic medical center here in the state of Oregon. We Are also, I also, in addition to that, host the Shades of Entrepreneurship, the podcast, which is a local podcast here in the Pacific Northwest, really focusing on our local, you know, entrepreneurs, engaging them, understanding what they're, you know, how they succeeded. So again, trying to learn and trying to help individuals succeed in the entrepreneurial world. Because, as you know, it's, it's, it's difficult to be successful. You know, it's, it's, it's a lot of work. And, and, you know, you and I have already discussed helping each other out. Helping each other grow is really important. Latinos in Oregon, we're about 14% of the population, about 20% in the United States. And we're continuing to grow. Right. And, and I think we're going to see the Latino, Hispanic, Chicano, you know, Americans continue to bring up these various entrepreneurial endeavors that aren't just construction. They're not just in the food industry. Right. It's very diverse. They're in the wine industry, they're in the social media space, they're. They're creating, you know, CBD drinks. And so, so there really is a very diverse economy within the Latino entrepreneur ecosystem. And we're just trying to help bring that to light.

And what's the reality of a Latino founder in the US like, are. What are the struggles versus, you know, like a privileged founder?

Great question. To be venture capital, you know, especially during the pandemic, I think we probably saw it be more exploited during that time, where roughly like 95 or 98, I think of the. The venture capital funding went to the white Caucasian male, and that also excluded the white Caucasian female. Right. Females weren't getting any funding, Latinos weren't getting any funding or African American community. And so really, funding has been a big issue, I think predominantly in the United States. It's generally seen as in order for me to be successful, it has to be, you know, a white male. But we're trying to change the status quo. We truly are. We're trying to break down those barriers. We're trying to break through the glass ceiling. And then when we do, we're going to usher a whole new generation of Latino entrepreneurs in. Right. To really help them succeed. But first, I think our biggest need right now is, is venture capital and support. Right. I think that's. That's the biggest kind of hiccup.

Yeah, I'm a big believer in bootstrap, you know, so if you want me to come and preach that gospel, let me know. Because VC capital right now, there's one problem and it's pretty dry this year.

Yeah.

Except if you're in Jenny I right, Then you give out some piece of your company to another white male that probably doesn't understand what you're going through. That's another fact that I, I don't like about capital. And if you're an entrepreneur, you're, you're freedom seekers, you're sort of a pirate. So. And sometimes bootstrapping is, is the way you can still get money from a bank, for example. My. And I, I guess there's another stigma there because yeah, they might not get that money from the bank, but when I started mine, yeah, I got at least 50 to 100k from the bank, sought my first supplement startup. I wish they didn't gave us that money because we put it down to the ground and we had the full depth to reinforce after that me what I advise young entrepreneurs to start in the service business. You can make good money with that. Productized services to be precise. So to start some kind of agency and to a b test the concept, right? Facebook ads agency, a TikTok ads agency. You get paid for your time, you can scale that, you can get pretty rich with that. And with that money then you can start a product business and anyone can learn that it's the main thing. And that leads to my next question. The main problem here is mindset. People think, oh, I'm not this intellectual that can make Facebook ads. I'm not this marketer, I'm not this, I'm not that. And I feel that can be often, you know, the, the Mexican mindset or the Latam mindset comes from a humble family, you know, oh, I don't want to take my space too much. And do you feel that there's this, this mindset in, in Latam when they come to the US or am I wrong about that?

Well, one thing you kind of, and it kind of goes back to that first question as well is, is one of the things, you know, when you're having Latinos come over, you know, immigrating to the United States is limited resources, right. Latino owned businesses, especially those in lower income communities, they may have limited access to resources such as business training, mentorship, professional networking. Right. Comparing to their counterparts. Language barrier is also an issue. Right? Trying that's, that's not only an issue with their vendors, but their consumers, suppliers, financial institutes, as you mentioned, you know, working with banks, which then kind of leads to the like, like discrimination. Right. And those biases where you know, migration, immigrants coming over, they tend to fill that you know, especially United States, we do have, though, that discrimination in those biases, whether they're pronounced or not pronounced. Right. And overcoming those biases and stereotypes can be a significant challenge, I would say, for our migrant community and then the immigrant status. Right, you're true. You know, some Latino entrepreneurs, they have concerns related to their immigration status when they're coming over, which can impact their ability to grow and start a business. You know, there's, there's also, also those regulations and you know, as I mentioned, you know, the venture capital, but also health care costs in the United States, health care costs are extremely high, and they can be a huge burden for our small business owners. You know, Latino entrepreneurs in particular, you know, they sometimes struggle to provide healthcare benefits for themselves and their employees. Right. And then they have to deal with regulation compliances. So there, it's, there's a lot of different kind of aspects. You know, I think that it's challenging. However, I think Latino founders and there's other, you know, Hispanic chamber of commerce and there's other chambers that are really trying to help with the networking and mentorship. Right. How do, how do we build a professional network finding mentors, opportunities to help those challenges.

Right.

Really assess and assess their needs and then get them access to experienced mentors and advisors to really truly benefit them as entrepreneurs. Right. Because again, we're trying to. I think the, the most important thing is trying to make sure we understand their culture in their market. But then also when you migrate to the United States, understanding the, the, the new market. Right. The new culture, the new market, that's, that's sometimes a struggle too, because what you do in one country or for one target audience may vastly differ when you come into a different country or different market. And I think most entrepreneurs know that. Right. But those are just some of the, Some of the areas that I think are challenging.

A contrarian take from someone that has a foot in Mexico since the last seven years. I don't feel most well in Mexico. Right. I'm not talking for full latam, so let's not make that mistake. But I believe people should not immigrate to the US they should just get a phone or a computer and start an online business. Because the U. S. Government, the past administration, did not respect immigrants at all.

So I agree.

Why, why the would I go in a country that I'm not even wanted, you know? Yeah, that's true, Mr. Yellow Hair. You know, like, if you don't want me, I just won't come. And guess what? Your full country will will lose because of that. You know, it will, it will lose massive resources because that's called taxes. And it's always funny to see people at the top, how basic of an understanding they have. We think they know their shit, but they don't. It's really elementary reasoning. And yet I want to start my own country one date and I'm surely gonna want to have immigrant smart ones that can add value and people that understand win, win. And it happens at most latam people and Mexicans that I know they do have that mentality and you know, it's, I think it is at this point prejudice just to see a skin color and oh, little guy here with black hair and dark skin. I'm gonna, we're definitely gonna have our eyes on him, right? He's not white and oh, we might, he might have more chance to be put in jail, this guy in Afro Americans, for example. So. And there, there is that and I mean we can't deny it. And it's, it's also like very elementary psychology to understand that this is happening. And for that reason, I think just starting an online business, having access to wi fi and producing your own income and having your own freedom in Mexico, for example, can be a great move. Now there is some heated regions in Mexico and that would lead to another very long discussion about legalizing cocaine, which I would be very pro on that to start all that. And obviously that's a very long discussion. But I think most hubs in Mexico are safe. You know, I have a bunch of friends, they traveled, I traveled throughout the Republica Americana. And just think that crossing the border illegally is, is not a good decision. And I can understand, or parents, for example, that thought that going to university and getting the best education was the best move. And yeah, that's level three, you know, but level 10 is taking your own education in your own hand. Obviously there needs to be a spark to ignite that. So that's my project in Mexico. I do want to help kids understand all these principle, understand that you can make 100 times more money starting an online business than selling bricks or passing bricks at the other side of the border. But yeah, that's my opinion. What do you think about all these sharp edged opinions?

You know, you, you bring up very valid points. You know, I think back in the day, you got to remember, I'm like, I'm an indigenous migrant here in the United States. So my family, you know, brought up from the early 1700s of South Texas when it was Mexico. Right. So back in the day you know, the border was wide open. My dad went to school, you know, he had his, all of his classmates were from Mexico. They'd come across the border. I was just in Mexico City just, you know, last year. Beautiful, beautiful location, Second largest populated city in the entire world.

Right.

And, and you, you, you feel, you know, I, I, I don't, I truly believe that we are in a global economy. Right. I, I truly do believe that if our, if our community is not doing well, our economy never will and our community members aren. I completely agree with you. I was not a fan of our last administration. That was not someone I voted for. I, I certainly have videos of me marching against it, actually, and, and being sprayed at that same time, going through that process, because that's something I believe in. I have two little girls, I have two daughters making sure that they come up in a community in or in a world where I believe is safe for them.

Right.

Which you're, you're talking about as well. I think it's, you know, it's, it's very valid points. I would, I'm one thing I think I try to, you know, encourage people to do is travel, right? Get out and travel. Because if you travel and you experience things, you're going to learn about others cultures, you're going to learn about their actual communities, their likes and dislikes, and it's, it's quite phenomenal. I was in Cuba recently. I went to the, you know, the formal federal, the former presidential palace, which is now a museum. And they talk about the way the United States treated that country. I would encourage everybody in the United States to go and actually tour that location because I think what you read in the textbooks is very different sometimes than what is, is truly happening in the real world. And unfortunately you're not going to get that unless you travel. But it's also going to create experience. You're also going to find inspiration, right? Starbucks here in the United States. You'll probably find a Starbucks at every other corner. However, that entire concept was created because of traveling. Going out to Europe, seeing the coffee stands, wanting to create that similar product here in the United States, and boom, that's how it was created. So traveling not only is going to help you grow experientially, it's also going to help you grow an understanding. Hey, there are differentations in the world, but again, we're all a global economy. We all eat and shit the same way, right? And so making sure that we have that understanding is very important. And I agree. I think, I think we're having the online presence of those folks. If you have Wi Fi, if you have Internet, you have immense amount of opportunity to learn, to build something. I mean, look at YouTube, YouTube University, right? You go and you can learn almost anything on YouTube. There are people like Charles are going to help you. They're going to go out there and they're going to reach out to you and they're going to really help you grow. I mean, Charles, I gotta tell you, you've helped me immensely, right? Teaching me some things to help my podcast and my show grow and things to think about. And it's all about the community of network, right? Finding like minded people. You know, we're the average of the 10 people we hang out the most. You look at the 10 people you hang out with and you, you're the average of those 10 people. So you got to begin to think about how do I want to be who I want to be with? Align yourself with those people. If you continuously go to conferences with CEO and you're going to start to network with those individuals, you're going to start to see yourself change, your mind's going to change, you're going to learn more, you're going to network more, right? You're going to start, you're going to start adapting you and you start learning their kind of traits and you're going to start to adapt and start to learn them and implement them into your own life, right? That's, that's what, why it's so important to network. That's why it's so important to find mentorships. And then again, back to traveling, that's why it's so important to travel. Because again, you know, to your point, Charles, we are in a global economy, right? If, if everybody is doing well, we have to have everybody doing well or else nobody's going to be doing well, right? And right now it feels like nobody's doing well, right? And so everybody's kind of pissing each other off. Everybody's getting mad at everybody, pointing the fingers without really, truly taking, you know, the bull by the horns and saying, no, I actually have the opportunity to do something like the old saying goes, when there's blood on the street, buy real estate, right? And what that truly means is when you, when you're faced with adverse situations, try to make an opportunity out of it, right? Don't cry over spilled milk.

I mean, the economy is pretty bad this year for sure. Second, yes, we're all ping from the inside, you know, so one day people will get past the Skin color thing, I think I did. And I'd paint myself blue if I could. Second, I think AI will make that obvious. AI will remove skin color. And now we're going to talk about IQs. And everyone under the bar of 8 on 10 will suffer. And then it will become 9 on 10 and then 9.5 on 10. And I think that will unite us as a humanity. We will understand, you know, that we are humans. Eventually we'll meet the Aurelian friends, or at least for concept of it, and then we'll understand, oh, we're human. Oh, we're on this planet Earth. You know, there's a bunch of astronauts that go into space and look at this big globe, this big blue globe and are amazed their odds and they understand. They literally understand. Oh, we're all one. I think we could reproduce that with AR in, in some shape and form just to have people understand or comment humanity. And, and then yeah, like obviously travel, travel is a good one. And I mean I'm, even to this day I won't claim that I'm, I'm like, I don't have any racist in me. So do you gab? Like anyone has a bit of that in us. We're hardwired for that. But I think we can come together and produce something useful. If people would think in win, win as well. I can win, you can win. That's most of capitalism. There's a part as well that is win, lose. But yeah, that is changing. And if people would just think of building amazing products and really making it simple for the other party to win, have nice offers, I think we would grow faster. Just curious though, with what you're building right now, what does a meeting look like with these 15 Latino founders? What have you heard from them? What are their goals? What are their challenges?

Great, great question. So what we're doing now, we have a, we actually have a 12 week cohort going with these entrepreneurs. And so we, we actually meet every Wednesday for an hour virtually and then we do breakout sessions. So the first meeting was first like, hey, let's just introduce, give us a summary. And then now we're starting to get in. Okay, what's your value proposition? And then let's build your value proposition. Okay, now what's your, who is your target audience? Right? And then each one of those entrepreneurs, we actually identify what is their market because we're actually business agnostic. So what that means is we're really trying to identify all Latinos in Oregon with the business. We're not trying to be just food industry, just this industry or that, because that would be very difficult to find 12 Latinos. So we try to go business agnostic and try to be all inclusive. Now what we're doing from there is we're actually going to break those out. Right. Okay, now let's find you a mentor. You're trying to grow this social media site. Well, let's find on head Munoz.

Right.

Onion Munoz is very well known national serial entrepreneur, has done a lot in the, in the social media world. Maybe he might be opportunity to mentor with you.

Okay.

Product development. Okay, here's, here's, here's another product developer over here that actually created the first battery powered commercial boat engines. Right? So no more gas engines. We're trying to create a battery powered boat engine, Marcelino Average, which is being done here in Oregon. Right. The first ever commercial boat electronic engine. If we do that. Okay, now, now we're talking about product development, right? He, he's been doing it for some time. Here's your mentor. And so it's, it's just beyond just kind of meeting on a virtual basis. It's truly like, hey, let's connect you with a mentor who's done it before, who's been successful, who knows the trials, the tribulations that can walk you through these steps. We're really just a spoken will model. Come to us. We're going to find who's best fit for you and let's bring you out and then we're going to bring you back. Okay. Now that you've figured out all what you need to do, now we're bringing you back. Let's put it all together on a nice bow. Let's pitch it again. To your point, Charles, some people want to go grassroots. They don't want the venture capital money. And if that's the case, perfect. We still have an opportunity to pitch your idea to the community. So at least you can get the name out there, right? Bring your product or service out there, right? Free marketing. And in addition to that, we also, all those individuals that participate on the pitch Latino, we give them a grant. Not, not a loan, not nothing like that. It's a full grant. So it's. You can do whatever with it you want. You can use it for marketing, branding, you can pay your employees whatever you need to do. And so that's truly the, the crux of it, right? A lot of our funding, actually almost of all of our funding goes back to the entrepreneur outside of, you know, paying for administrative costs.

Love it. So, okay, what are you Aiming for this year. What is your top three goal?

Oh, man. So lifetime goal. My lifetime goal is to impact a billion people. How are we gonna do that? Well, I want to impact a billion people by influence a thousand. If we can influence a thousand people enough that they go influence another thousand people and then they go influence another thousand people, we have impacted a billion people in our lifetime.

Right?

That's the goal. That's, that's lifetime goal. Now goal one, how are we going to do that? First, we need to create a successful non profit. Now this nonprofit, this is our first year doing the non profit. The non profit's been around for several years, but the pandemic, right. Took the well of this, the wind out of the sales. So now reinvigorating it now is trying to ensure that we create funding. So this is just not a flash in the pan product. Right. This is a, this is a non profit that if I come back 20 years to the community, it's still going with a new executive director, with new president of the board. It's self sustained. I don't need to be a part of it all the time. Right. Two, how do I, how do we get better? How do I get better? How do I continuing to grow? And Charles, thank you again. I can't thank you enough. How do I continue to grow from a creative perspective from my podcast, from my own personal self, my own profession. Right. And then lastly, how do I continue to be a good father? As I mentioned, I have a, I have two girls, I'm a husband. And so making sure that doing all of this extra stuff, right? Growing and being an entrepreneur and building a community, entrepreneurs, not losing sight of why I'm doing it right. And, and making sure that those are, those are kind of still in my, my core because it's easy to lose sight of things that are in front of you when you're running around doing a lot of things. And so you know, my girls keep me grounded, so I'm very thankful for that. But those are, those are my top three. Right.

Love it. Where can people find out more about you? Gaming? Yeah.

If they want to find out more about me, please visit the shadesofe.com you can, that's where you can find my bio, you can find my podcast, you can find our newsletters. Please feel free to subscribe or you can visit latinofounder.com if you would like to learn more about the Latino founder non profit 501c3 as well as information about the pitch Latino competition which will be coming up in October. I'm not sure when this airs, but this will they'll be coming out in October, so hope if you're in the Portland area, please look us up and we'll happy to see you there.

My name is Charles that was Gabriel Flores for another founder wisdompodcast. Com.