Cultivating the New Minority Entrepreneur
Right under our noses a new generation of minority entrepreneurs are crafting business ideas and refining their hustles. Comprising roughly 40% of Gen Y, the next generation up-and-comers, Blacks and Latinos have a disproportionate inclination toward entrepreneurship. A Kaufmann Foundation policy brief, Young Invincibles, found that 65% of Latinos and 64% of Blacks aged 18 – 34 wanted to start a business vs. 45% of whites.
This panel aims to explore the changing Gen Y minority entrepreneurship paradigm.
Presenters
Marcus is a co-founder of Incubate Enterprises. Mr. Mayo is a former private equity investor with ICV Partners (“ICV”), a $440 million middle market private equity fund that supports management leaders of strong companies at the lower end of the middle market. While at ICV, Mr. Mayo sourced and evaluated over 125 investment opportunities in the lower middle market. He also lead the acquisition process for three add-on acquisitions for two of ICV’s portfolio companies while playing a major role in the acquisition of a $100 million business services firm. Prior to ICV, Mr. Mayo was a consultant for McKinsey & Company where he was responsible for developing strategic plans for large Fortune 500 clients in business services, consumer, and transportation industries.
Mr. Mayo has also worked as a lead member of the business development and strategy team for Weight Watchers International. In this role, Mr. Mayo was responsible for sourcing and structuring new partnerships with startup technologies within the healthcare space.
Mr. Mayo is the founder of InHouse Group, an investment group that focused on providing capital and advisory services to new and growing businesses. Through InHouse Group, Mr. Mayo consulted over 100 businesses on growth strategy and financing. In addition, he invested in five businesses, resulting in two exits. Mr. Mayo graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College, with a BA in Finance, a minor in Economics and a Beta Gama Sigma scholar.
Laura Weidman Powers co-founded CODE2040 with Tristan Walker (Foursquare, Andreessen Horowitz) in early 2012. CODE2040 creates pathways to educational and professional success in technology and entrepreneurship for Blacks and Latino/as. CODE2040's flagship program is its summer fellowship for university students. Laura serves as the organization's Founding Executive Director. She has a background in entrepreneurship, nonprofit management, and technology. She has started two organizations in the education space, one nonprofit arts education organization in West Philadelphia that is now in its eighth year, and one for-profit tutoring company that gave rise to a book. Laura first explored the tech space as a project manager in a small web development shop and, most recently before founding CODE2040, she served as VP of Product Development at a consumer web startup based in Los Angeles. She has an AB from Harvard and a JD and an MBA from Stanford.
Natalia (aka Ms. Oberti Noguera) is Founder and CEO of the Pipeline Fellowship, an angel investing bootcamp for women philanthropists. The Pipeline Fellowship works to increase diversity in the U.S angel investing community and creates capital for women social entrepreneurs. Natalia holds a BA in Comparative Literature & Economics from Yale. She has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Dowser, Forbes CSR Blog, ForbesWoman, Mashable, New Prosperity, Reuters Money, TechCrunch, and The New York Times. Natalia was named to the Forbes list “Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter” and was selected as a Readers’ Pick for HuffPost Tech’s “27 Women in Tech You Need to Follow on Twitter." Women's eNews recognized her as a 21 Leaders for the 21st Century for 2012. You can find Natalia on Twitter (@nakisnakis).
Sunday, March 10
