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.
Some CEOs say great companies only hire the best talent. I say “bullshit”. The Los Angeles Lakers opened the 2021-2022 basketball season with two surprising losses after going 0-6 in the preseason. While it is way too early to draw any conclusions, it does raise some questions about their personnel decisions and team chemistry. During…
Saying those words out loud is pretty surreal, but last week, my wife Kathy and I became grandparents for the first time. Amelia Claire Smeraski was born on October 15th to our daughter Jaimie and her husband A.J. I can already tell that Amelia is a beauty, like her mom and grandma, with a calm…
Two weeks ago, Gary Vaynerchuk was the main keynote at NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE event in San Diego. I thought his presentation was great. One of the things I appreciate about him is that he does not hedge his opinions. He is fully committed to them, and I consider him one of the best experts on…
When people ask me what do I love most about my work as the leader of NAHREP, I always say it is the people who I’ve met along the way. Over a twenty-year span, I’ve met thousands of people. Now, with L’ATTITUDE, it seems like that number is increasing exponentially. Most have been amazing. NAHREP…
What do World Champion boxer Canelo Álvarez, actress Adria Arjona, Senator Alex Padilla, wellness guru Deepak Chopra, internet sensation Gary Vaynerchuk, music superstar Gloria Estefan, actor Andy García, and the CEOs of Disney, Nike, The Home Depot, Bank of America, Cisco, Sony Pictures, Dow Jones, and AT&T have in common? They will all be at…
I would not call myself a social media expert, but like everyone, I have my preferences. The truth is most social media posts are boring as hell, and I think we all know why. For most people, social media isn’t about conversation anymore, it’s about vanity. Almost every post these days are about one of…
If you’re in business, you probably hear a lot about the importance of managing your relationships. Good sales professionals maintain a database of past customers and prospects, but I actually know only a handful of people who are truly exceptional at relationship management. Here are some tips on managing relationships that can help you business-wise and personally…
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…
If you’re the type of person who thinks the people who oppose your political viewpoints are evil and secretly hate America, this blog is probably not for you. But if you are someone who is distressed by the divisions in our country, remember: regardless of where you stand politically, the enemy isn’t conservatism or liberalism…
The coronavirus pandemic was the crisis of the 21st century. For those of us who were fortunate enough to emerge healthy should be asking: did we take advantage of the opportunity to pause, evaluate and reinvent ourselves? I have been working on it, and I have been asking my team to do the same. I’m…
Familia, We’re Back! Last week, NAHREP announced their headliners for the NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE convention in San Diego on September 29th – October 2nd. Chopra, Vaynerchuk, and Montañez headline this year’s event. Coming out of a once-in-a-century pandemic, we thought a focus on mindset and mental health should permeate throughout the event. Chopra is not…
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…
Social media didn’t create cancel culture, but it did make it stronger and faster. In case you don’t know, “cancel culture” is a form of boycotting; it’s the practice of withholding support or publicly deeming someone as no longer being socially acceptable. For people whose public image is how they make their living, like celebrities…
Devin Booker’s maternal grandfather was from Mexico. He was raised by his Puerto Rican-Mexican mother, while his father, who is Black, pursued a basketball career internationally. Booker, who was just named to the USA Olympic team, is 24 years old and has been one of the marquee stars of the NBA playoffs this season. He…
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were knocked out of the NBA playoffs last week by the Phoenix Suns. As expected, the LeBron haters were in full force on social media calling him overrated and a fraud. At 36 years old, LeBron James has been in the NBA for more than half of his…
Two years ago, I met Richard Montañez in New York City. Richard was accompanying Indra Nooyi to a speaking engagement she had with the Latino Donor Collaborative. Nooyi was CEO of PepsiCo at the time. Prior to the meeting in New York, I had heard of Montañez. I knew that he had written a book…
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…
In a recent memo to chapter leadership, NAHREP gave the green light to begin planning live events, subject to state and local health protocols. NAHREP will also host its first regional event in Miami on July 13th. The event will take place at the JW Marriott in Brickell and will take on one of the…
Capital flows towards growth, so one of the biggest mysteries in the history of capitalism is how little capital has flowed to the U.S. Latino cohort. The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) says if Latino entrepreneurs had access to a proportional amount of capital as the overall market, it would add $1.5 Trillion to the…
The pandemic has been devastating for all of us – especially those that lost loved ones, and even though it seems odd saying this, there were also some positives. With the vaccines, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we can never forget some of the things we learned during the pandemic.…
