After seeing that less than one percent of venture-backed startups were founded by Latinos, Ed Avila, Silvia Flores and David Lopez joined forces to change that statistic. The human resources executive, the award-winning entrepreneur and engineer, and the retired computer technician and veteran of the insurance industry formed Manos Accelerator. Based in San Jose, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, the company recently partnered with Google for Entrepreneurs to further increase the number of Hispanics in the startup community.
On July 31, the application process will close and six to eight Latino startup teams will be chosen — from the 45 submitted so far — to collaborate with other startups, meet with angel investors, mentors, corporate executives and venture capitalists to help develop their business plans– all for free. The first session begins on September 9.
So far, Avila says about 100 people have volunteered to be mentors for the program, and a third of submissions are from international startups.
Partnering up with Google for Entrepreneurs has only helped the initiative more. Lopez says it was a collaboration which progressed naturally after they pitched the idea of Manos Accelerator.
Lopez says Google will be providing mentors, engineers, and other resources to the Latino entrepreneurs.
“Let’s say a person has a high-tech web-based idea — they will send one of their engineers to help train the entrepreneur, give them technical help and provide outings,” says Lopez.
Lopez also says that other successful Latinos have shown willingness to help Manos Accelerator as well, and in the next couple of weeks, they will be holding meetings with them.