Gary Acosta is an entrepreneur, public policy advocate, and investor. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP ®). NAHREP is the largest Latino business organization in the nation. Mr. Acosta is also the co-founder of L’ATTITUDE, a major event he produces with international business executive Sol Trujillo, former United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz, and music superstar Emilio Estefan. L’ATTITUDE celebrates the key role of Latinos in business, entertainment, sports, tech, and politics. Acosta is also a general partner of L’ATTITUDE Ventures, the nation’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on Latino-led start-ups. Mr. Acosta writes a weekly blog about business and current events at garyacosta.com.
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. Last week, L’ATTITUDE Ventures closed its first institutional fund, raising over $100 million through a strategic anchor investment by JP Morgan Chase and initial investments from the Trujillo Group and Bank of America. Other key investors in this fund, which is aimed solely at investing…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. For those of you that read my blog regularly, let me first say, thank you. The overwhelming comments I get from my blog are very positive and supportive. However, some of them make me feel like I have to periodically clarify what I…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. The Latino wealth gap in America is large. While Latinos have the highest workforce participation rate and are leading homeownership and new business formations, closing the wealth gap has been slow. According to the most recent Fed Survey of Consumer Finances, Latino families…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. When the economy is growing rapidly, companies and consumers have more money to spend. The stronger demand for goods and services can cause prices to rise and inflation to spike. Inflation is not good. The federal government has two levers it can use…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. Interest rates are soaring and the stock market is in a free fall. If you’ve been around, you know that recessions are a normal part of our economic cycles. It’s articulated clearly in the NAHREP 10. The former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan coined…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. For most people, there is little upside to writing about the January 6th hearings, but as you probably know by now, I don’t worry about those things. We all must stand for something. The hearings have almost everyone taking sides before a single…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. I don’t consider myself an expert in blockchain technology – at least not yet. Cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) both use blockchain technology. That’s what gives them value. However, very few people can explain what blockchains are or how they work. For those…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. My son Aaron graduated today from Colorado College. He and his two sisters have four-year college degrees. Colorado College is expensive. Tuition at CC ranks among the most expensive in the nation. Inflation in the United States is the highest it’s been in…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. Most people consider themselves either a conservative or a liberal. I think if we forget political parties, which flip their positions on things all of the time, and instead focus on the actual definition of what it means to be a conservative and…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. The speculation around Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter remained hot topic news this past week. Some of it is predictable: right-wingers who believe Musk will return Donald Trump to his rightful place as loudest voice on the social media platform, and lefties who…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. There is a saying that goes “when the tide rolls back, you can see who is swimming naked”. When the market is strong, it covers a lot of weaknesses. With interest rates moving up, inflation on the rise, and the economy heading towards…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. How would you like it if the person sitting next to your child on an airplane is openly watching pornography on their iPad? What if a co-worker posted on a company group chat that you once molested a kid? What if banks, targeting…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. The conversation all week has been about the Will Smith meltdown at the Academy Awards. Everyone has an opinion on whose fault it was. Some believe Chris Rock was at fault and admire Smith’s valor in defending his wife. Others like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. There is a mindset theory that states when things are going well, people tend to think they will always go well. When we are in that state of mind, we tend to ignore bad news… even deny bad news. The reverse is also…
Click on the red play button to listen to the audio version. Some of you may have heard the phrase “A lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinion of sheep”. I am sure this is true both literally and figuratively. Another way to put this is: Confident people don’t concern themselves with criticism that comes…
As I write this blog, the Russian army is invading the bordering country of Ukraine. War is hell, and my heart goes out to the people of Ukraine. Americans who were born in the United States have no idea what it feels like to have their country invaded militarily by another nation. Ukraine was a…
NFL teams have 53 players and twice as many coaches, trainers, and support staff, but to win a Super Bowl you must have two things: an elite quarterback and a superlative coach. The Rams won the Super Bowl last week, with veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford at the helm. This past season was the first year…
Despite a decade of lawsuits and scandals, the NFL is bigger than ever. I enjoy football as much as anyone. While basketball and soccer have gone global, and baseball fades to second-tier status, football stands alone as the quintessential American sport. The latest NFL imbroglio is the lawsuit by Brian Flores. Flores claims he has…
Almost everyone is familiar with the Tom Brady story. Growing up in San Mateo, California, Brady was a lightly-recruited quarterback who didn’t show up on any major scouting publications. Even after a successful senior season at the University of Michigan, almost nobody thought he would make the NFL. Brady himself had a resume ready for…
Twenty-two years ago, when Ernie Reyes and I first launched NAHREP, I was told all the reasons why it wouldn’t work. “Latinos aren’t monolithic” … “Cubans are totally different from Mexicans” … “Jealousy, gossip, and infighting will bring you down” … “Not every Latino has the same political views” … However, fast forward to today,…
