Minority Innovation Weekend

Luis Martinez, MSOL is an Afro-Latino from Honduras and raised in Brooklyn, New York with an M.B.A. in Organizational Leadership, Luis is an advocate, networker and ecosystem builder for Blacks, Latinos in tech & innovation throughout the United States and abroad.

A Former Pro Basketball Player and U.S. Navy Veteran, currently he is the Director for Startup Grind San Diego. Startup Grind is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting 3,500,000 entrepreneurs in over 400 cities.

Luis felt the need to create a movement aimed at creating the super ecosystem for Black & Latino Founders, Venture Capitalist & Angel Investors. The lack of access and information about tech and innovation that flows to these underrepresented communities is causing these communities to be behind in Math, Science & current Technology.

Also, there is a disconnect between minorities that have been successful in tech & innovation and those back in communities in which they came from. By creating “We Tha Plug”, Luis is connecting businesses, organizations, and individuals, leveraging their resources and talents to build a stronger Black & Latino tech and innovation community through collective efforts.

Nina Archie (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-archie-06375880/) is the CEO and Founder of the Innovator-Connector. The Innovator-Connector™, LLC is an innovative consulting firm creating access to resources, initiatives, and solutions for client’s projects involving intellectual property, commercialization, government funding, small business ownership, and diversity gap issues.

Minority Innovation Weekend presents Empowering Women of Color in Tech Panel.This panel will explore the experiences of women of color throughout the tech ecosystem.

Rakia Finley is the Founding Partner at Copper & Vine Studio, an American software executive, Women in Tech Initiative Leader, full-stack developer, Salesforce MVP, mother, private investor, and philanthropist. She is best known for her work with the Obama Administration on their “Girls in STEM” initiative and continues to develop innovative technology solutions and community initiatives that promote diversity in STEM for girls of color. Named FemTech’s 2016 & 2017 Powerful Woman Programmer, she is one of the highest-earning African-American females in the software industry and North America’s first black female owner of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software and product development firm.

Sandeep Shah, Product Tech Innovator & Strategist Professional with a career working at the nexus of Technology, Policy & Sustainability in the Consumer Products Industry sits down with the MIW Disruptive Podcast Team to discuss venture capital, breaking into venture capital, and more. 

Sandeep Shah is a highly diversified & civic minded professional dedicated to leading global initiatives at the intersection of Technology, Education & Retail/CPG; with focus on supporting economically deprived & socially vulnerable communities. He currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Wonderous (E-Commerce Start-Up) and the Executive Lead of Partners & Talent supporting John Gannon & GoingVC (Venture Capital).

An experienced Innovator with a strong global network to draw from, Sandeep leverages his expertise in Product Development, Strategic Operational Support & Data-Driven Marketing with numerous Fortune 100 Companies, Government’s & Non-Profits on Corporate Social Responsibility, Operations and Tech-Entrepreneurial & Venture Interests.

Aurelia Flores has been in the digital marketing field for nearly 10 years. She also practiced law – intellectual and corporate business law – for nearly 20 years after graduating from Stanford Law School. As a business and intellectual property attorney, she helped structure deals for Angel and VC investments during the late 90’s dot-com boom. She has assisted small businesses in formation, launching and getting to profitability – including assisting in writing business plans and obtaining SBA funding for companies.

MIW Disruptive Podcast Episode 2020-012: Anne Griffin – Product Manager | Growth | AI and Blockchain | Public Speaker

Anne Griffin built her product management career working with organizations such as Microsoft, Comcast, Mercedes-Benz, and Priceline. She currently works at Priceline as a Product Manager and as the Chief Product & Curriculum Officer of Tech 2025, a platform and community for learning about and engaging with emerging technologies such as blockchain and AI, and exploring their impact. Additionally, Anne is the owner and Chief Product Coach of Griffin Product & Growth Coaching, where she coaches and advises emerging tech-focused startups and small and medium sized businesses. West Point, the University of Montreal, and Morgan State University are a few of the universities where she has guest lectured. She teaches her own course on Business Applications of Blockchain through O'Reilly Media. Anne holds a degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan.

In this episode, the MIW podcast team talks to Anne about her work at Griffin Product and Growth Coaching, Tech 2025, and her interest in Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), tech ethics, and blockchain products that have business value and can make an industry more equitable for partners and customers.

Earnest Sweat is an Associate Partner at GreatPoint Ventures who focuses on verticals whose emerging technologies will have the most significant impact on global GDP, specializing in retail, supply chain, real estate, and manufacturing. Prior to joining GPV, Earnest was a founding team member at Prologis Ventures, the venture arm of the world’s largest industrial real estate owner. Earnest is also a founding Board Member of BLCK VC, a community built for and by black investors, and, shortly after college, founded an online marketplace to provide college advisory and professional development services, which was acquired four years later. Earnest is an alum of Columbia University and earned his MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Claire Coder launched her first company at age 16, designed a bag for Vera Bradley that sold out in 24 hours, and has her own line of GIFs. The 22-year-old founder has been featured in TeenVogue, Forbes, and starred in TLC’s Girl Starter Season 1. When she is not jamming out to Macklemore and India Arie, she is pretending like she knows how to run Google ads.

Ms. Ellington West, CEO, and Mr. Brandon Dottin-Haley, CBDO, talk with the MIW Podcast team about launching the health-tech startup Sonavi Labs from an idea developed at The Johns Hopkins University, raising funding, and growing Sonavi Labs into an innovative device and software company focused on developing modern medical products that analyze body sounds for the diagnosis of diseases. Sonavi Lab's technology rooted in artificial intelligence that will evolve the patient experience and enhance the capabilities of providers world-wide.