Gary Acosta is an entrepreneur, public policy advocate, investor, and thought leader passionate about advancing prosperity for Latinos and other underserved communities. As an industry leader, he protects and improves the business environment required to close the wealth gap, particularly via homeownership. Amongst other endeavors, he is Co-Founder & CEO of NAHREP, the country’s leading Hispanic business organization, and Co-Founder of L’ATTITUDE, the preeminent platform for Latino economic empowerment. Acosta is also a general partner of L’ATTITUDE Ventures, the nation’s largest venture capital fund exclusively focused on Latino-led start-ups. Join Gary as he dives into today’s issues through many creative formats.
When we invited Gary Vaynerchuk to NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE in 2021, I was mostly relying on input from others. Several members loved his content, but the little I saw online left me underwhelmed. However, I thoroughly enjoyed his presentation at our event, particularly his comments about toxic employees, which he says to dump with impunity.
Selling during a downturn required a more strategic approach, but the opportunities for growth and expansion are available to the savviest of companies. Here are some of the best ideas I’ve read about.
I remember with NAR, the National Association of REALTORS®, invited me to participate on a panel session on diversity at their national convention back in 2002. I had never been to an NAR convention, but had heard that they were huge with 20,000+ attendees.
I am basically on lockdown from now until the NAHREP and L’ATTITUDE conference. This year we have a concert with Farruko and Juanes, a gala with Lin-Manuel Miranda, a basketball game with Manu Ginóbili, and our usual cadre of CEOs, VCs, entrepreneurs, and celebrities.
I had the honor of being the commencement speaker at the UC Irvine School of Business in June. I spoke about expecting the unexpected. I like to take a counterintuitive approach to business and life. I told the audience of 4000 students, faculty, and parents that regardless of how detailed your plans might be, your actual career will probably turn out very different than you expect.
In six weeks L’ATTITUDE will host its fifth annual event in San Diego, September 22 – 25, with another world-class lineup including CEOs, entertainers and some of the biggest names in business, media, sports and politics.
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 in Latina(o)-owned companies with high growth potential, include UC Investments, MassMutual, Barclays, the Royal Bank of Canada, Polaris Limited Partners (Oscar Munoz), Cisco, Nuveen Investments, and Morgan Stanley.
Many of us know that Latinos were hit harder than any other demographic during the great recession of 2008 to 2012, but not everyone knows why. Those of us in the real estate business were taught that we should invest in real estate, because it is what we know. That makes a lot of sense.…
Last week, Mortgage Professional America Magazine published an interview with William Tessar, the CEO of Civic Financial Services, a little-known hard money lender in California. The article claims Tessar has been ranked as a top CEO by “women and employees of color”, although it does not cite the publications who supposedly recognized him in this…
The term “start-up” is one we all have heard hundreds of times, but I have never been totally clear on what the term actually means. I know it refers to companies that are relatively new, but I also know that not every new company is considered a start-up. I decided to ask a few people…
Late last year, Spencer Rascoff, the former CEO of Zillow, reached out and invited me to be part of a new advisory board for his latest real estate start-up, Pacaso. I knew Spencer when he was at Zillow and we kept in touch over the years. I don’t sit on many advisory boards, but I…
Doctors Marlow Hernandez and Richard Aguilar founded Cano Health in 2009 to provide quality end-to-end health care for underserved Latino communities in Florida. In 2016, their company generated $1.6M in revenue, but they had an idea to roll-up other smaller medical practices in their footprint to leverage economies of scale. With the help of my…
The stock market is near an all-time high, while unemployment is up and wages are flat. It begs the question: is the stock market overvalued? I’m not a stock market expert, I don’t follow the market like some people, but I do know a few things. A share of stock is a piece of a…
In the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the government launched the Paycheck Protection Program, a trillion-dollar effort to incentivize employers to retain their employees during the quarantine and maintain most of their compensation. The program was administered by the Small Business Association (SBA) and provided forgivable loans to eligible employers…
The stock market had a great week, at the same time a record six million people filed for unemployment benefits. It doesn’t take a genius to realize there is something incongruent with these two data points. Our economy succeeds when there is a healthy balance of buyers and sellers of goods and services. The cataclysmic…
Oscar Munoz, the CEO of United Airlines, and the only American-born Hispanic CEO of a major corporation, announced his retirement last month. He will step down as CEO in May and will take the position of board chairman. United is the largest U.S.-based airline and the 76th largest U.S. corporation according to Fortune Magazine. Under…
The NAHREP National Convention is moving to the Spring (March 16-18) and will take place concurrently with our Housing Policy Summit. The move is designed to bring more business content to the first part of the year, and make room for our new Fall convention focused on Sales Mastery, Real Estate Skills and Wealth Building,…
I spent the Friday in El Paso with my friend Beto Pallares. Beto is an amazing guy. He holds several degrees including a BA from Brandeis and a PhD from UTEP. He manages a $150M venture fund for one of the wealthiest families in all of Texas. He also sits on eight corporate boards, but…
In today’s evolving economy, many of the jobs that exist today won’t exist in the near future. Robotics and artificial intelligence are changing the world as we know it. If your job can be automated, it will be automated. For someone, fifty years of age or older, this may not affect you as much, but…
I recently read that 40% of real estate agents and loan officers will change companies in the next twelve months. This tends to happen when the market shifts dramatically. Real estate is a cyclical business and after one of the longest bull markets in modern history, it’s not a surprise that things are starting to…
