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.
2020 will be known as the year coronavirus shut down the world as we knew it. It will also be known as the year when terms like systemic racism and economic disparity rose to the top of the national dialogue like never before. In his first week of presidency, President Joe Biden signed three executive…
Former Countrywide and PennyMac executive Stanford L. Kurland passed away last week from COVID-19. The Wall Street Journal wrote about Kurland’s career focusing on his conflicts with Countrywide Financial founder, Angelo Mozilo. While Mozilo was a scrappy and flashy entrepreneur from the Bronx, Kurland was a polished former accountant from Los Angeles. Kurland famously left…
COVID-19 got into our household during the holidays. We had a small gathering on Christmas of only immediate family, and within a few days we all had the virus. We still don’t know how we got infected. While most of us were lucky enough to have only mild symptoms, it was still very scary. Six…
We purchased a Peloton just a few weeks before we all went into quarantine last March. I must admit I was skeptical. I walk and shoot hoops when I can, but I have never regularly used any sort of exercise machine. The technology is what first piqued my interest in a Peloton. The more I…
The Urban Institute released a report last week with some interesting news for household and homeownership growth. The report showed homeownership rates are likely to fall in the next two decades, with the exception of the Hispanic homeownership rate which will rise to above 50% and plateau for most of the next decade. Every other…
I watched the movie The Green Book last night. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It is a true story set in 1962 about a Black-American classical pianist and his Italian-American bodyguard traveling in the South while on tour. For some reason the movie really hit me hard. It is the kind of story…
Last month, some Democrats, including a number of Latino celebrities, called for a boycott of Goya Foods after their CEO Robert Unanue praised President Donald Trump at a White House event to announce the administration’s Hispanic Prosperity Initiative. I blogged about the issue to boycott or not to boycott. To my surprise, my blog about freedom…
I woke up on Saturday to some tragic news. Frank Amadeo, the president of Estefan Enterprises, passed away after suffering a heart attack on Friday night. He was 57 and in good health. When Emilio became a partner at L’ATTITUDE LLC, I became close to the family, but my working relationship was primarily with Frank.…
For years I have been talking to corporations about the growth and profit opportunity of the Hispanic market. Factually speaking, Hispanics are the youngest and fastest-growing demographic segment in our economy. In the housing sector, Hispanics account for about 50% of the homeownership growth in America. The numbers are big and the opportunity is clear.…
In the coming weeks, Americans will start receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. We were able to get to this point in about ten months – a remarkable achievement. In tests, the efficacy of the three vaccines that will hit the market have ranged between 90-95 percent – equally as amazing. Even more encouraging, the Moderna vaccine…
Last Week, Eva Longoria was being interviewed on MSNBC about the significant role that Latinos played in the presidential election. When the interviewer asked about Black women, Eva said “of course we saw what Black women did in Georgia, but Latina women were the real heroines”. Social media was swift to criticize her for “diminishing…
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…
Jerry Ascencio and I hosted a webinar last week on stock-based investments. It was a well-attended session with great content. Our objective is not to sell people on the stock market, but to help close the knowledge gap about investing in general, and the stock market is an important part of that. Generating income is…
This week we got some good news from Pfizer on a vaccine, and a whole lot of bad news about COVID infections exploding nationwide. A recent trial indicated that Pfizer’s novel vaccine was more than 90% effective. This would make it about twice as effective as the normal flu vaccine. Medical experts believe that up…
Joe Biden will soon take over the reins of the United States government which is currently under more stress and turmoil than any time before. Solving the nation’s immediate problems will require every ounce of our intellectual capital and a strategic apportionment of our financial resources. While most Americans have confidence that Biden will be…
Somebody once told me that you get power by giving power and you get respect by giving respect. On election night, I posted a statement on Facebook that said Latino voters delivered Florida for Trump, and Arizona for Biden (I may have been premature on the latter). The post received 143 comments and included a…
My vote in this election will mark the tenth time that I have voted in a presidential election. Ronald Reagan was the first candidate I ever voted for, and I still remember the feeling of power that I felt when I punched a hole next to his name. I didn’t know much about politics at…
There has been a lot of conversation lately about whether college is still worth it. There are some notable people, like Elon Musk and Grant Cardone, who think that college is a waste of money. Coming from two successful entrepreneurs, that’s not a surprise. Musk believes that success in college may be a good indicator…
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…
Rapper turned actor, Ice Cube, created a little controversy last week by working with the Trump Campaign on something he calls “The Platinum Plan, Contract with Black America”. So, if you’re wondering what I think about, here are my thoughts. I appreciate the idea, but the execution was a disaster. I like Ice Cube, he…
