Hispanic-Net

Aida Alvarez presenting awards at Apr 11th Dinner

2009-04-05T17:12:23-07:00

The Honorable Aida Alvarez will be Hispanic-Net's awards presenter at our upcoming Banquet on April 11th.

The Honorable Aida Alvarez
Former head, U.S. Small Business Adminstration

The Honorable Aida Alvarez has been an award-winning journalist, a successful investment banker, and a high ranking public official.

Appointed by President Clinton to head the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Administrator Alvarez was the first Hispanic woman to serve in a President's Cabinet. Ms. Alvarez was also the founding Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the agency with financial oversight responsibility for the secondary mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Ms. Alvarez currently serves on the boards of Walmart and Union Bank of California. She chairs the Latino Community Foundation and is a trustee for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Ms. Alvarez was formerly on the board of PacifiCare Health Systems and on the Harvard Board of Overseers.

Frank Carbajal to give keynote at Hispanic-Net Banquet April 11th

2009-03-30T16:54:29-07:00

Hispanic-Net is honored to have Frank Carbajal give the keynote speech at its upcoming Banquet on April 11th.

Frank Carbajal , Author,
Building the Latino Future: Success Stories for the Next Generation

Frank Carbajal is Founder and President of EsTiempo and coauthor of Building the Latino Future: Success Stories for the Next Generation. An inspiring collection of success stories from the country's most prominent Latinos, Building the Latino Future offers insight and advice for Latinos in any industry who want to succeed spectacularly.   

As a part of the Ken Blanchard network of keynote speakers and a member of the Silicon Valley Coaching Federation, Frank Carbajal provides small business owners, CEOs, executives, managers and directors, with the framework and tools necessary to achieve their personal best.  

Frank holds an MA, with an emphasis in Human Resources Management. Currently, Frank is a member of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), and sits on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley Chapter of NSHMBA.

Linda Ronstadt, James Gutierrez Hispanic-Net Honorees for 2009

2009-03-30T16:28:27-07:00

Hispanic-Net is pleased to announce Linda Ronstadt as Social Entrepreneur and James Gutierrez, Founder, Progress Financial, Entrepreneur of the Year. We will be celebrating their success on Saturday April 11th, from 6 to 9 pm at the Stanford Faculty Club, Stanford University. More details and tickets can be purchased at Hispanic-net Banquet RSVP

This year's Hispanic-Net banquet is sponsored by:

Silver Sponsor

Patrons Circle Sponsors

Linda Ronstadt
Hispanic-Net 2009 Social Entrepreneur of the Year

Ms. Ronstadt has expanded beyond her world famous entertainment career to raising awareness of issues relevant to the Latino community. These include immigration and childrens' rights, empowerment through entrepreneurship, health issues and cultural awareness. A native of Tuscon, AZ, her family is deeply rooted in Mexican culture with family heritage on both sides of the border.. Awareness of her Latina background was first widely promoted with her 1987 album Canciones De Mi Padre. It stands as the biggest selling non-English language album in American record history with nearly 10 million records sold worldwide.

James Gutierrez
Hispanic-Net 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year

James Gutierrez, CEO, Co-Founder, is a serial entrepreneur who believes in changing the world through entrepreneurship and early stage investing. After graduating from college, James started Magic Beanstalk, a 3rd party recruiting company that organized campus recruiting events at 40 universities in the US and Brazil, and later built a web application for online recruiting. As CEO of Magic Beanstalk, James raised $5MM in venture capital, recruited the senior management team, and grew the business from 2 co-founders to 50+ employees with offices in NY and CA.

In addition to Progress Financial, James is a General Partner of Great Oaks Ventures, a $4M early stage angel fund that has invested in 12 ccompanies, including Jumpcut (acquired by Yahoo!), Trulia (funded by Accel Partners), Zimbio, OKCupid, and Farmacia Remedios. James received his MBA from Stanford where he was co-President of the Entrepreneur Club and a BA in Economics from Yale.

Overlooked Rising Clean Tech Stars?

2008-12-11T12:40:22-08:00

By definition, all contestants are either early-stage startups and/or mostly self-funded.In fact, many of them are outright moonlighting ventures. However, if history is any guide (past winners have now raised more than $115M), some of these companies should advance to secure venture backing, and generate revenue and profits.

Naturally, the winners are already receiving wide exposure elsewhere. However, the competition was very steep. Whether or not other contestants were underrated is debatable, but can we all agree that many deserve more attention. So, I shall focus this post on runner-ups and finalists that lay low in the media radar screen, but that may have a good shot at earth and/or market game-changing, potentially disruptive or explosive growth.

San Francisco-based Porifera, led by Jeff Jensen, is developing ultra-low-friction filters based on carbon nano-tube membranes (CNM) for reverse osmosis and other uses.Their value proposition comes from the fact that overcoming filter friction is extremely energy intensive in flow distribution systems.

San Francisco-based NexChem, led by Bob Patterson, is developing low-energy chemical solutions for heavy industry applications which are currently energy hogs, such as those used on zinc galvanizing. Its is worth noticing that the chemical engineering market is plagued by processes that were developed under the old cheap-oil paradigm, particularly those in organic chemistry.

Redwood City-based Ground Source Geo, led by Dennis Murphy, offers shallow geothermal drilling systems for heat pumps.Geothermal heat pumps are as energy-efficient as they come, but costs of ground drilling for a heat source/sink could be a barrier to adoption. (This company was also the competitions’ sustainability award co-winner).

Foster City-based led by Joe Augenbraun, cuts the cost of solar installation in half with its proprietary roof mounting technology.Once back-ends of this type become modular and commoditized, why would anybody in their right mind buy any other roof system?

San Mateo-based Renewable Fuel Technologies, led by Mark Wechsler, has technology to convert agricultural waste biomass into renewable coal.

Standford-based , led by Saumya Garg, offers a home display and control system to reduce standby power usage. One measure of their potential is that PG&E estimates that stand-by power may account for up to 50% of residential consumption in their service area.

Seattle-based , led by Zac Corker, offers a dynamic scheduler web service for car/vanpools. Imagine the possibilities if every new building would came with a web-service based transportation kiosk?

Last, but not least, the following finalists were neither winners nor runner-ups, but I think they hold promise:

Santa Clara-based Atomic Precision Systems, co-led by Rafael Gomez, offers a new semiconductor process for ultra-cheap LED lighting. It could push LED beyond the bright light signs market.

Costa Mesa-based Enovative Group, co-led by Gab Ayala, offers commercial building energy-efficiency heat delivery systems and products, including a modular demand-controlled pump.HVAC modularization and mass-customization are inevitable.

San Francisco-based Parco Homes, led by Ray Meadows, offers turnkey custom-designed modular homes manufactured offsite. Imagine six-sigma for home-builders?

>Berkeley-based SequesCO, led by Lisa Dayson, is developing a microbial CO2 capture and conversion to bio-fuel process. If scalable, it could eradicate the human carbon footprint on the planet!

Are you interested in competing? We would love to see more Hispanic representation. The competition is already taking applications for 2009. All it takes is a three-page executive summary and a small entrance fee.

Clean Tech Open is a Palo Alto-based nonprofit that promotes clean tech businesses.

These are the good old days

2008-10-25T08:52:14-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted to this blog, but it is a great time for us to share experiences. The doom and gloom backdrop of the overall financial markets could have the effect of driving entrepreneurship to the back of the bus. However, this is really an opportunistic time. If you think about it, companies large and small are facing the same playing field. So, no one gets too far ahead. If you've got a new idea, you'll have more time to get it right. If you want to think about a new idea, you'll get mindshare from everywhere as people have time to give you specific feedback on the viability of your idea.

Here's my advice, in these distressed times customers will buy if your product or service 1) makes money or 2) saves money. It's pretty simple. Choose a big market opportunity, make sure you've got differentiation, and hone your go to market strategy.

For me, I've been entirely engaged in launching a new company in the energy efficiency sector. The company is called HID Labs and the product is targeted at commercial, industrial, and warehouse lighting. It turns out, the cost of lighting in warehouses is over two-thirds of their fixed expense. So, I'm after the 'saving people money' paradigm. The company is young, has big plans, and faces all the challenges start-ups have. But, we've got a shot if we execute.

Over the next few months, I'm going to write about launching this company and hopefully impart some nuggets of information that you can use.

All the best and start thinking of new businesses.

Oct 17 Hispanic-Net Venture Forum Sponsored by BestBuy

2008-10-08T07:23:49-07:00

Hispanic-Net Venture Forum Sponsored by BestBuy
Produced by Mitch Posada

Come attend our half day conference featuring a line up of Hispanic startups focused on ecommerce, entertainment, mobile, healthcare, microfinance, software, and technology.

There will be a world-class array of attending professionals from the VC and investment industry on hand. The class of opportunities being presented draws from highly trained professionals among the Hispanic community and brings fresh perspectives on how to monetize success.

Date:
October 17, 2008
11:30 am - 5 pm

Venue:
Quadrus Conference Center
2400 Sand Hill Road
Menlo Park, CA

RSVP:
Buy your ticket now

Silver Sponsor:

Partner:

SCHEDULE:
11:30am - 12:00pm – Registration

12:00pm - 1:00pm – Lunch, Guest Speaker, Short Industry Presentations

12:00pm - 12:15pm – Opening Remarks

Jeff Weness, Best Buy Inc.
Martha Montoya, Chair of California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Access to Business Capital group & U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Board Member
Hispanic-Net, TBD

12:15pm - 12:45pm – Keynote Speaker

Keynote Speaker: Miriam Rivera, former vice president and deputy general counsel of Google

12:45pm – 1:00pm – Hispanic Market Insights

Carlos Garcia, Garcia Research
Mitch Posada, Grupo Entrada

1:00pm - 1:15pm - Break

1:15pm - 2:45pm – Web 2.0, Ecommerce, & Entertainment Opportunities (Hispanic Market)
Moderator:
Mitch Posada, Grupo Entrada

(90 second Intro pitches followed by Panel Discussion)
Company A
a microfinance company serving the un-banked Hispanic community with fixed interest productive loans.

Company B
an e-commerce market development company designed for Latinos who want to shop online for products and services in Spanish, Portuguese, and English language but also have culturally relevant offline interactions through a nationwide branded event entitled "Taste of the Americas”.

Company C
a platform of personal communications, financial and entertainment mobile services to Hispanic immigrants in the US and their countries of origin.

Company D
Company is online destination where consumers compare prices in Latin America. It is the only shopping price comparison site listing products from all stores and marketplaces.

Company E
a web 2.0 Hispanic Local search engine for Business listings in Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.

Company F
a premier league that will forever change the sport of Professional Boxing. Company will cause a paradigm shift in how sponsorships in boxing are executed. It is designed to maximize all of the benefits of sports entertainment marketing for its underwriters while building on an existing audience and creating a new fan base.

2:45pm – Closing Remarks – Best Buy

3:00pm – Entrepreneur Interviews Hispanic Media Publications

3:00pm Technology Company Presentations
(Individual Pitch & Short Q&A Only)
Company G
Connects fundraisers and idea makers to their Supporters. Company has developed an easy-to-use web marketing platform to help political campaigns and non-profits harness the power of web marketing.

Company H
offers Airlines an effective way to shift from the current cost center approach of delivering on-board entertainment to one that generates significant revenue for all parties involved by providing personalized entertainment to connect people, and to deliver behavioral based targeted advertising with precision.

Company I
a global e-commerce solutions provider that offers U.S. online retailers an end-to-end solution for international expansion. Company offers an innovative, turnkey solution that enables U.S. on-line retailers to quickly and cost-effectively expand into international markets.

Company J
A garment cleaning retailer that develops, markets, and services innovative garment care and cleaning solutions for the residential, hotel, restaurant, real estate and fashion sectors.

Company K
Company is an investment opportunity to participate in the Colon Cancer screening market, which is about to expand two-fold from a $28 Billion to a $48 Billion a year in revenue industry by late 2012.

4:00pm – 5:00pm Networking Reception

Future of Renewables Symposium @ Google

2008-07-26T20:56:36-07:00

I am reporting on the CTO symposium dubbed “Future of Renewables" at Google, which I attended this week. In it, a panel of PG&E, Google , VC clean tech, policy experts and entrepreneurs explained where both the action and the roadblocks are in the renewable energy space. It was a sold-out event, with many other Hispanic entrepreneurs and volunteers also present.

On this post, I report on the 3000 feet view presented by the panel. There were also a number of CCTO entrants presenting at boots in the hallway. I will mention some of them in my next post covering the contest finalists.

Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar at Google and Hal LaFlash, director, Emerging Clean Technology Policy at PG&E spoke about their respective company’s strategies. They both aim to make competitively priced carbon-free power a reality in the marketplace, in “years, not decades”. “It’s imperative, [laudable], and feasible. PERIOD”.

Both PG&E and Google walk the talk. Not only are they repeat CTO category sponsors, but also cited other examples of their laudable leadership, namely Google’s RE<C initiative (i.e., renewable energy less than coal), and PG&E’s competitively bidding to pick the absolute best greenhouse gas emissions’ reduction projects into their portfolio.

Todd Woody, Fortune Magazine Sr. editor and Green Wombat blogger, moderated the group. He was be joined by Dan Adler (California Clean Energy Fund, a non-profit VC), Jon Bonanno, (Principle Power), Jim Shandalov (e-Solar), Neil Renninger (Amyris) and Marianne Wu (Mohr Davidow Ventures).

Dan spoke of the recent big concept moves by Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens. “The six trillion dollar global energy market [needs to] internalize the externalities of green house gases”.

Marianne sees a recent cross-disciplinary invigoration of resolve to confront the greatest challenge facing the planet.

Jon and Jim explained that their companies are physical-asset, capital-intensive plays. Jim said that as a power developer in the US, they had the need of finding distribution synergies. Yet, Jon mentioned that mass capital distribution investments might be much lower in Europe. For instance, grid owners are actively looking for power developers.

However, Dr. Wu explained that there are also a great number of renewables plays that look a lot like the traditional SV high-tech in sectors such as software or biotech.

From an exit perspective, even though exits are lengthening, alternatives after either commercial and/or hybrid/semi-commercial viability is proven are still available and include going public, or material acquisitions by large utility or energy companies.

For those looking to start a company today, C-funding investors are exiting the first wave of solar and bio-fuel plays. However, brighter spots exist in the higher efficiency (especially in lighting such as LED), energy storage, carbon management (trading/ capturing), and water management, to name a few. In addition, given the potentially catastrophic risk of blackouts, grid operators and regulators are particularly concerned about improving reliability of the grid, from production through distribution.

Public policy could play an important role in helping promising start-ups caught in the so-called funding “valley of death” to survive. For instance, the California Clean Energy Fund developed a program to provide seed funding for companies that are still be struggling to reach the point where significant venture investments become possible. However, the panel agreed that the most important factor to the investment community is policy stability and continuity (i.e., as opposed to creating uncertainty by changing the rules in the middle of the game).

In the US, Dan explained how policy leadership has shifted to the States, with the Federal government staying quiet and more than 30 States picking up the slack with significant and bold initiatives. For instance, he gave an update on CA AB32, which required ARB to develop a “discrete list of early action items” to implement in 2010. (His fund served as an advisor to ARB).

Carbon pricing is definitely coming to California. The initial scope of what to cap and trade practices to adopt will be completed by the end of the year. Details that still needed to be worked-out include how to divide burden between the different stakeholders.

However, cap and trade alone cannot do the job, it is merely a foundation from where to start building.

Next, the entrepreneurs talked in detail about many of their challenges, which include the upward spiral of piloting at a 1/8th scale, proving the reliability at that point, plugging the holes, and then scaling-up again.

The greatest lesson learned is that when one is trying to save the planet, technology or business model breakthroughs and innovation are global, while markets are worldwide.

Finally, the meeting closed with a copious Q&A session with the speakers and visiting several 2008 CA Clean Tech Open contestant entrepreneurs with boots on the hallways.

Hector Ruiz: The power to connect the world

2008-07-14T15:32:32-07:00

The head of AMD, Hector Ruiz is devoted to his company's 50x15 initiative, which seeks to give 50 percent of the world's population access to the internet by 2015.

Mitch Posada Launches QueVerde.com

2008-07-10T15:02:17-07:00

Here's a shout-out to Mitch Posada, managing director of Grupo Entrada, on his latest venture, www.queverde.com. QueVerde.com's mission is to be the leading media outlet dedicated to sustainability and green living among Latinos and Latino owned business in the U.S.

Why QueVerde?
There is no global news or media connection point between the Sustainability Movement and the Latino World >> Mass media is shrinking and media outlets are proliferating and segmenting the Latino into less coverage >> Sustainability Movement data is overwhelming and scientific oriented >> The Green Movement tone is negative and alarming >> Multi-dimensional topics are needed to address the interests of Latinos in the evolution of the Sustainability Movement

Queverde has launched two blogs: TodoVerde and SoyVerde. Check them out.

Download this podcast interview with Mitch Posada on Daniel Gutierrez' radio show. About the podcast: Join Daniel as he dives into the question of the new social capital and social networking. How does this new way of reaching your audience change the way we see our world and how we communicate with each other. Guest Mitch Posada, Managing Director of Grupo Entrada, and Founder of LatinLounge.tv and QueVerde.com.

Attention Clean Tech Hispanic Entrepreneurs

2008-06-06T03:55:30-07:00

Turn 3 Pages into $100k. Deadline to Enter: June 14th

Ready to take your clean tech business idea to the next level?

All it takes is a three-page Executive Summary and $250 per team ($150
for all-student teams), and you have the chance to win a
"Startup-in-a-Box" Prize Package worth $100,000 in cash and services.
Upload your Executive Summary by June 14.

To Enter and for details, click here.

For a personal perspective on CTO '07, see Steve Montoya's post in this blog.
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We'll Help with the Executive Summary - June 10th

We'll walk you through writing a first-rate executive summary. And
we'll provide tips on building a clean, green and sustainable
business. Meet CTO staff, get competition questions answered, form
teams, and Enter the competition.
Download slide presentations on Executive Summary and Sustainability
Guidelines, click here.

Tuesday, June 10 from 6:30 to 9:00pm
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, San Diego, CA
$20 online, $30 at the door (cash only), FREE for registered contestants

Click here to RSVP

________________________________

Smart Power Innovators Symposium - June 11th

The Smart Power Symposium is a unique gathering of domain expertise to
discuss pressing infrastructure needs and a huge market opportunity.
Rub shoulders with recognized technology experts. Chat with leading
investors in Smart Power technologies. Compare notes with seasoned
entrepreneurs, our CTO Smart Power Alumni. Refine your idea, and Enter
the Clean Tech Open.
Wednesday, June 11 from 5:00 to 8:00pm
One AMD Place, Sunnyvale, CA
$20 online, $30 at the door (cash only)
FREE for registered contestants

Click here to RSVP

________________________________

Our Mission: Clean Tech Open is a an organization dedicated to helping
great ideas become viable businesses that will drive the new green
economy. Driven by a network of sponsors, mentors, partners, judges,
and over 360 volunteers, the Clean Tech Open has built resources to
accelerate innovation.

For more information, visit: www.CleanTechOpen.com

Contact us:
To participate in the competition: contestants@cacleantech.com
For media inquiries: media@cacleantech.com
To volunteer: volunteers@cacleantech.com
For sponsorship opportunities: sponsors@cacleantech.com
Any other questions: info@cacleantech.com

________________________________

Copyright (c) 2008 Clean Tech Open. Clean Tech Open is under the
fiscal and administrative sponsorship of Acterra: Action for a
Sustainable Earth, a California 501(c)3 non-profit public benefit
corporation. Acterra is located at 3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto,
CA 94303-4303.
______________________________

Clean Tech Open
336 Portage Avenue, Palo Alto, California