EMPRENDEDORES with Ricky Guzman

Like his visionary father, today’s guest, has been a stalwart and a leading voice for small businesses and Latinos across the country for many, many years now. Hector Barreto, is currently Chairman of The Latino Coalition, one of the largest and most effective latino advocacy groups in the nation. Since Hector took the helm of the organization in 2006, it’s stature in the business community and the political community has grown steadily. Hector is also recognized for successfully launching multiple business ventures, his community leadership and government service. He is also a frequent public speaker, a media guest, panelist and commentator on, not just Latino business topics, but multiple others, including policy, legislation, economics and politics. In addition, as Hector says, he “earned a very practical PhD” serving five years as the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, after being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2001. During his tenure, he led the SBA to record heights of support for small-businesses, especially minority and female entrepreneurs who have historically been under-served, by leveraging a loan portfolio that exceeded $60 billion. Hector’s additional accomplishment’s are plenty, including (1) creating the award-winning Tributo a Mi Padre Tequila in 2011, in honor of his late father, Hector Barreto Sr. and (2) founding Business Matchmaking, a non-profit that has helped small-business owners, especially women, minorities and veterans, to gain access to key procurement representatives at all government levels as well as with many major corporations. He has also been recognized by many organizations including, the US Congress and has been presented with many awards, including the prestigious Aguila Azteca by President Fox of Mexico in 2006. This was a great, all-encompassing conversation in which we discussed: Hector’s continuation and advancement of his father’s entrepreneurial and community vision; multiple entrepreneurial lessons; his SBA experience; scaling Latino businesses; The Latino Coalition’s key advocacy role and lot's more…

Lack of diversity - plus the fact that by the year 2020, there will be 1 million more jobs than workers in the Software Development industry - is what drove today’s guest, Liliana Monge and Gregorio Rojas, to bootstrap their way into co-founding Sabio: one of the premier Software Engineering teaching programs in the nation, led by some of the best coding bootcamp instructors in the industry. It was both Liliana’s commitment to diversity as a social entrepreneur and Gregorio’s tiredness of being the only Latino in his tech team - after 15 plus years laboring for such companies as PC Mall, Fox Media and SFW - that crystalized Sabio’s mission; which is to increase the number of women and people of color in the tech workforce. Based in Los Angeles but available online to anyone, Sabio’s 12 week training program has proven to be so successful, that it carries a 95% job placement rate for its graduates, of which 80 to 85% find employment within 6 weeks, at an average starting salary income of $50 to $60 thousand dollars. That is pretty impressive, considering that these are just starting salaries that can lead to 6 figure salaries within 3 to 5 years. And yet, as Liliana and Gregorio have expressed, “colleges and universities continue to theorize, write white papers till the cows come home, talk code all day, while the majority of Computer Science and Software Engineering college graduates have to be continuously re-trained to correctly code at the mainstream level.” Add to that the existing $1.3 trillion student loan debt crisis, which has proven to be a deterrent to quality-of-life post graduation, and you can see why Sabio is considered a true fiscal bargain with instant quality-of-life benefits. This was a great talk with Liliana and Gregorio about a much under-discussed yet crucial topic, and one in which we covered lots of ground, including: how, like Gregorio, it is possible to go from someone who’s terrible at math and could barely check email to developing software within a couple of years; how Sabio expands opportunities for Latinos, women and other minorities, including adults who may be working other jobs and would like a switch of career; bootstrapping Sabio while keeping their day job; what makes Sabio’s instructional path so effective and at enabling a person to absorb a full on entry level developer position in 16 to 20 weeks, and so much more...

Today’s guest is actually one of those who has a stake in supporting the growth of Latino businesses. Dr. Betty Uribe (@drbettyuribe1) arrived in the US from Colombia at the age of twelve, not speaking any English.  Her first job: cleaning houses to help support her family. Fast forward to today, and now she is a nationally and internationally renowned senior banking executive, entrepreneur, speaker and author.  Her recently launched international best-selling book titled: #Values: The Secret to Top-Level Performance in Business & Life. The book has been named one of Inc. Magazine’s “Top 60 Business and Leadership Books Written by Women”. Dr. Uribe has been named a Fortune Magazine “Top 50 Most Powerful Latina”, which is a testament to her unyielding commitment to knowing her values and following them without exception. She's had great success effecting business turnarounds as an executive for Fortune 500, national and regional, financial institutions. Dr. Uribe is currently an Executive Vice President for California Bank & Trust, leading both Commercial and Personal Banking throughout Southern California. Under her leadership, the bank has been named the “Best Bank in Orange County,” for three consecutive years, as voted by readers of The Orange County Register.  Her heart for serving others has opened doors as far-reaching as the White House, the Vatican, and beyond. On this episode, we covered: how Dr. Uribe’s journey from Colombia at the tender age of 12, shaped her; adjusting to a new life in the US; the key people that had a valuable influence in her life; as well as, overcoming challenging times, balancing ambitions, why so many otherwise smart leaders fail and much more.

Enjoy part 2 of my conversation with Fernando Niebla covering lessons from his board of director experience at multiple publicly traded companies, and the importance of diversity within them; investing criteria, the entrepreneurial character, capital access and much more.

It was July 16th, 1969 at exactly 9:32 a.m. when Apollo 11’s engines fired and cleared the tower, headed for the Moon, and Fernando Niebla, today's guest, was an instrumental part of this historic mission. He even went on to start his own high tech company after 18 years with Rockwell International. Fernando’s professional and entrepreneurial track record, his accomplishments and experience are vast, but most importantly it is ultimately his humanity, his humbleness, his selfless disposition to give back... what makes him a remarkable person. Having said that, enjoy the first part of my conversation with Fernando Niebla in which we discussed: his experience growing up just a short walk from, and on both sides of, the US/Mexico border; the forward thinking element of opting for an Electrical Engineering degree back in 1957 and the still prevalent need to increase Latino representation in the STEM fields; been an instrumental part of Apollo 11 firing its engines and changing the course of history; the need for more Latinos and other minorities to “Shoot for the Moon”; launching his own high tech company and what it took to scale it; access to capital, lessons learned and much more.

On this special bonus episode, we go back three years to the original pilot episode of EMPRENDEDORES, when I had the distinguished honor of sitting down with Rubio’s Restaurant Co-Founder, Mr. Ray Rubio, in La Jolla, CA. This episode was shot back when the original idea of EMPRENDEDORES was to be strictly a video interview format, whereas now the conversations are available in both podcast AND video format; both of which can be found at EMPRENDEDORESPOD.COM. Some time has gone by since the interview but the conversation remains as relevant today as it was then. Rubio’s is an exemplary blueprint of the potential ability of a Latino owned business to scale and go through a full business life cycle. On this episode, Ray and I covered: the Rubio's Restaurants Co-Founder’s career journey; the story and evolution of Rubio’s Restaurant; expansion and growth capital lessons; the fast casual restaurant industry and much more. 

Today’s guest is synonymous with the world’s highest quality coffee: Pedro Gavina is the CEO of F. Gavina & Sons. Celebrating its 50-year anniversary in Los Angeles, F. Gavina & Sons is the largest privately held minority-owned coffee roaster in the US. Most recently, led by its fourth generation of Gavinas, the company is immersing deeper into the specialty coffee trend by - for the first time - delivering coffee to its end-consumer directly with their first Don Francisco's Coffee Casa Cubana (coffee house), which recently opened in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles.  In this episode, we covered lots of ground, including, the joy of Pedro’s family life as a young boy back in the Cuban coffee fields, the challenges of the family’s journey amidst political unrest, overcoming challenges during the company’s early years, as well as coffee production, coffee economics and much more. 

In the EMPRENDEDORES podcast, financier Ricky Guzman engages in one-on-one in person conversations with one of the most underlooked, yet most impactful and rapidly growing segments of the US economy: the Latino Entrepreneur and the businesses they create. These conversations intend to go beyond all the statistical figures and data; and actually reveal the nuanced human side of the Latino entrepreneurial story.  This introductory episode answers why these conversations matter so much to so many, as it pertains to the potential Latino Entrepreneurs - and their businesses - have in profoundly altering the economic fabric of the nation.