Entrepreneurship is at an all-time high in the Latino community. Sure everyone knows about the Jeff Bezos, Carlos Slims and Artie Morenos of the world, yet there are other entrepreneurs that, although not as popular as the aforementioned, are still making some major moves. Here are some inspirational LLERO’s that have worked hard to build up their organizations and are on the rise.
Marco Gomes, Founder & CMO
Boo-box.com
Marco Gomes is the founder of the Brazilian-based, social media advertising company boo-box.com. The site reaches 60 million people in Brazil monthly with ads from clients like Google, Unilever, Volkswagen, Fiat, Ford, Intel and Microsoft.
Still in his mid-20s, Gomes has cornered the market in Brazil’s competitive ad industry with his business. As Brazil’s first tech advertising and social media company, boo-box’s technology classifies and categorizes ads across 430,000 blogs and websites. In 2012, boo-box was named one of the most innovative companies of the year by both Fast Company and Forbes.
At the 2013 World Technology Summit & Awards — held this past November in New York City — the Brazilian entrepreneur was a finalist in the Marketing Communications category, going up against comScore CEO Magid Abraham and Baidu, Inc. CEO Robin Li, among others. He was one of only two Brazilians nominated for an award. Gomes, who had stated that his nomination already made him feel like a winner, ended up taking home the gold in his category.
Words to Live By:
“Improve your networking, meet the decision makers and prepare to have long meetings.”
Jose L. Prendes, Founder & CEO
PureFormulas.com
Jose L. Prendes, 46, was born into Cuba’s communist regime and would have remained there if not for his audacious mother. In 1985 she fled with Prendes and his sister to South America. Six years later they moved to the U.S. Eventually settling in Miami, Florida. Today Prendes is the Founder and CEO of PureFormulas.com, an e-commerce site that sells pure and high-grade natural health supplements.
PureFormulas has grown into one of the biggest health product suppliers in the country. In fact in 2011, it made Inc.com’s 500 lists for the categories of Fastest Growing Health Companies and Fastest Growing Companies in Florida, Prendes also got a nod and was named one of the Top 10 Latino Entrepreneurs.
Prior to founding PureFormulas in 2007, Prendes studied agricultural engineering in college, but did not finish. In 2001, he founded VetAmerica.com, a pet and veterinary supplies e-commerce website. It was at this company that Prendes gained experience with e-commerce sites, which eventually helped with the creation of PureFormulas.
Words to Live By:
“First, be kind to everyone you touch,”
Prendes has said.
“Second, invest in your people. Don’t just enjoy your work, but be fanatical about it.”
Raul Russi, CEO
Acacia Network
Raul Russi is the CEO of Acacia Network Inc., where he manages the day-to-day operations of the largest Puerto Rican-founded organization in New York. The housing, economic and social services organization that brings a new name to an old movement. Once known as nine different individual organizations — including the Puerto Rican Organization to Motivate, Enlighten And Serve Addicts, Inc. (PROMESA) and the East Harlem Council For Community Improvement –Acacia’s goal is to “partner with communities, lead change, and promote healthy and prosperous individuals and families,” for the Latino community throughout New York City. The merging of organizations and restructuring of others occurred under Russi’s watch.
Before becoming head honcho at Acacia, Russi had gone from one facet of public service to another. The Puerto Rico-born, New York-raised Russi was a police officer in Buffalo, New York until he was wounded in the line of duty. At the time he was also the city’s first Latino police officer and was awarded the department’s Purple Heart for his injury. A conversation with a friend during his recovery caused him to change paths and so began the second act of his career: a calling to social justice that would help elect the county’s first Latino judge as well as increase the number of corrections officers in the city’s system. During that time Russi created the Consortium of Spanish Speaking Organizations, the first full service agency headed by a Latino in Buffalo. His dedication to community helped him create the first residential rehab center in Western New York known as Horizon Village.
Words to Live By:
“We have to have our own home-grown heroes,”
Russi says.
“We have to be able to get services from people who look like us. It helps us understand our own value as a people and as a community. It helps us to feel that we are not victims, but masters of our own destiny.”
Alejandro Velez, Co-Founder
Back to the Roots
Alejandro Velez, is a contemporary farmer for the ages. The co-founder of Back to the Roots, an urban mushroom farm out of Oakland, California that grows gourmet mushrooms by using recycled coffee grounds as soil. It was during a Business Ethics lecture at UC Berkley that Velez, 25, and his co-founder and college friend Nikhil Arora, got the idea to grow food using a composting method after their professor suggested the possibility. After this light bulb moment the two headed back home with a plan.
After successfully growing their hongos, they were able to convince a Whole Foods Market exec to sell their products in their local store. Shortly thereafter, they began supplying their products to over 300 Whole Foods locations nationwide. Today, Velez’s company offers two major products. The first is a Grow-at-Home Mushroom Kit, which allows anyone to raise mushrooms right out of the box that carries the contents needed to do so. The second item is the Aquaponics Garden, a self-cleaning fish tank that grows fresh herbs. As of August 2013, they had sold almost 350,000 mushroom kits and 15,000 AquaFarms.
Velez is also a founder and board chairman of the Sage Mentorship Project Inc., which offers one-on-one mentoring relationships between UC Berkeley students and low-income elementary school students in the area. Prior to founding Back to the Roots, the Medellin, Colombia native was headed towards a career in investment banking and had worked with Citigroup, UBS, and Morgan Stanley.
Velez has appeared on PODER Magazine’s list of “20 Most Influential Hispanics under 40” and was named Hispanic-Net.org’s 2012 Social Entrepreneur of the Year. The company was awarded an Empact100 award from the White House in 2012, recognizing Back to the Roots as one of the top 100 entrepreneurial companies in the country.
Words to Live By:
“We need to live our lives with passion. Find what motivates you and do it over and over again; through that passion you can motivate others, sometimes without even knowing it.”
