Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) Announces 3rd Annual Latino2 Tech Startup Conference in New York

May 25, 2012 - PRLog -- CONTACT:
Elianne Ramos
@ergeekgoddess
Vice-Chair, Marketing and PR
Latinos in Social Media (LATISM)
elianne@latism.org
646-932-7752


Washington, DC – High tech venture capital funding is almost impossible to find, especially with startups founded by Latinos and minorities. In fact, only 1.2% of V.C. funding is going to Latino(a) founders, according to last year’s Venture Capital Human Report. With this background in mind, Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) today is proud to announce its third annual Latino2 Conference. The event, to be held on June 7, 2012, at the Google offices in New York City, will address the needs of entrepreneurs and developers who are launching successful scalable ventures and smart investors who care about diversity.  More information about the conference can be found online at: http://blog.latism.org/latino2/

“When we first learned about the statistics surrounding minority tech entrepreneurs, we were outraged, so we decided to do something about it. The reason why the Latino2 Conference series has been successful is because both the entrepreneurs and the investors see the value of the exchange,” said Ana Roca Castro, LATISM’s Founder and Chair. “We are ready to jumpstart an innovation revolución, but this cannot happen unless there is a conscious effort to reduce the digital divide and build more inclusive tech valleys in the country.  We thank Google for all their support with this effort.”

The highlight of the event will be the pitching competition, which will give early-stage Latino tech startups the opportunity to pitch their ideas to some of the top venture capital and angel investors. There will be hands-on workshops covering the entire fundraising process including: The current state of Investments for Tech, Preparing a Great Pitch, Building Revenue and Customers, Building your Management Team, Preparing your Finances, and Meeting with Investors.

In addition to the pitching competition, Latino 2 will include panels and keynote speeches from some of the country’s best Founders, Developers, Co-Founders, Venture Capitalists, Accelerators, Policy Makers, Angel Investors, Corporations and Foundations. The conference will also include one-on-one mentoring opportunities and capacity building sessions where entrepreneurs can learn what it takes to secure venture capital financing and how to create opportunities to showcase their businesses. More than 20 Venture Capital and Angel Investor funds are already confirmed to participate.

For more information about Latino2, including a full list of speakers, and the agenda for the conference, please visit http://blog.latism.org/latino2/.

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact sponsor@latism.org.

ABOUT LATISM
Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) is a 501(c) 4 nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing the social, civic and economic status of the Latino community through technology innovation and social media. LATISM also helps to raise awareness among corporate brands, NGOs and government entities about using social media to reach Latinos. Our partnership initiatives include research, event sponsorships, and leadership training. A pioneering social media organization with over 140,000 members in its network, LATISM has been hailed as the most influential online movement in the new multicultural Web. To learn more about the Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) organization, visit http://blog.latism.org.