Lack of financial inclusion shines at one of the most important technology conferences

In the context of a possible economic recession in the United States, thousands of entrepreneurs, investors and innovators gathered in San Francisco to explore and learn from technological advances and the most innovative startups in the industry.

TechCrunch Disrupt, which took place from October 18 to 20, has had the participation of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. This year the list included comedian Kevin Hart and tennis star Serena Williams.

“At Serena Ventures, we want to invest in companies that improve people’s everyday lives and solve problems that disproportionately affect women and people of color. They are often systematically ignored within the business community”, highlighted the athlete.

That was precisely one of the main themes this year: the lack of financial inclusion. According to figures from the Crunchbase website, in 2021 US startups with Latino founders received around 2% of venture capital funding.

“It’s not something we’re going to fix overnight,” said Beatriz Acevedo, founder and president of Suma Wealth, a platform that uses entertainment and culture to educate and empower young Latinos about their finances.

“For us to have access to resources if we want to grow our companies, we need more people who have that capital and who believe in us. Ideally, they should be like us, because you don’t have to explain to them why we have value,” added Acevedo.

This sentiment was shared by Mike Elanjian, Head of Digital Investment Banking and Digital Private Markets at JPMorgan, during the panel “The Art of Inclusion with Kevin Hart”.

“Diversity is not just a question of diversity within companies,” Elanjian explained.

“We all know that less than 10% of venture capital funding goes to these types of companies. The same goes for diversification among investors,” he added.

For his part, the renowned comedian and businessman Kevin Hart, who founded the investment company Heartbeat Ventures together with financier Robert Roman, said that in order to promote financial inclusion he had to change the way he perceived the world of investments.

“For me, the investment world was tied to scams. Are you trying to scam me? I do not trust you. I’m not going to give anyone my money to go off and do whatever they want. The biggest learning curve for me was understanding that investing has a time frame. It’s about understanding the economy, how the economy works, understanding how to make your money work for you,” Hart explained.

“We look for companies that also have the initiative and a mission statement to empower minorities. What I mean by that is that they have to have their own structures that allow not only leadership, but equity in minorities,” added Roman.

Practical tips

Acevedo, whose mission is to close the racial wealth gap and create generational wealth, offers some practical advice for taking charge of our finances.

1. Have a budget: The most important thing, and it sounds very simple, is that you have a very well done budget. Most people don’t have a budget and don’t know what money is coming in and what money is going out. Having a budget is critical so that you can truly be in control of your finances.

2. Have an emergency fund: It is very important to have an emergency fund and the recommendation is three to six months of budget.

3. Invest early: The younger you can start investing, the better. There is no way to get generational wealth without investing or with money under the mattress. We have always thought that you have to be a millionaire to invest and that is not true. You can start by investing with five dollars buying shares in companies you already support.

4. Teach your children from an early age: If you always take your children to an amusement park, what better than giving them actions on their birthday or Christmas. We have to change that mentality in our children, nephews, nieces. That it is good to be consumers but better to be owners.

5. Negotiate your salary (for women): Don’t be shy about negotiating and sharing your salary information with someone else. Otherwise, how will you know that you are being paid less? That is against the law. We have to push companies and all large corporations to do what they call “transparency”. That there is a lot of transparency in relation to how much they are paying other people.

Interesting data

• Investor diversity is less than 10%. -Mike Elanjian, Head of Digital Investment Banking and Digital Private Markets at JPMorgan
• Less than 10% of venture capital funding goes to these types of companies. -Mike Elanjian, Head of Digital Investment Banking and Digital Private Markets at JPMorgan
• Latino entrepreneurs only receive 2% of venture capital investments in the United States, despite accounting for almost half of the net growth of small businesses between 2007 and 2017. -Crunchbase.
• This disparity was also seen in 2020, when less than 1% of the top 500 venture capital and private equity deals involved Latino-owned businesses. -Bain & Company
• Latinos are the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the United States, with the potential to add 5.3 million new jobs and $1.5 trillion to the US economy in the coming years. -Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative.
• The Latino population has grown 23% over the past decade, outpacing the country’s overall population growth by 7%. Meanwhile, money going to Latino founders has increased slightly in the last five years. -Pew Research Center.

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