Moneda Moves

Early in her career at Google, Eliana Murillo learned she had “rookie smarts.” When she first heard this from a manager, she was perplexed. Was this a compliment? Less so?

Little did she know this flexible and hungry mindset was an absolute asset and that it would set her up for success in her 10 years at the company. Rookie smarts, a term written up by leadership expert Liz Wiseman, explores how being new and naive can be a benefit when it comes staying ahead in the workplace.

“Sometimes when you’re a rookie you don’t even understand what failure means or don’t even know all the rules, so you just go for it,” Murillo said in a recent episode of Moneda Moves.

As it turns out, this kind of smarts was embedded in Murillo’s approach for quite some time.  Prior to her first corporate job, she’d taken on a variety of ideas from impromptu business at garage sales as a child to selling chocolate- covered strawberries in college. At Google, she started the first Latinx employee resource group, HOLA. Since then, Murillo founded more formal companies from the national network, Latinas Who Brunch, and her family business based out of Mexico, Tequila Alquimia.

A champion of Latina bosses, we sat down to talk with serial entrepreneur and former Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient Murillo about what it is exactly that fuels her work and why she’s decided to now start a company of her own, Eliment and Company.

This episode is done in partnership with The Mujerista, the digital-media publication and network dedicated to empowering and celebrating the next generation of Latinas making an impact on la cultura. Check them out across platforms at @TheMujerista.

Today, we meet Rita-Soledad Fernandez Paulino, an educator at her core. 

This is the story of a former math teacher turned personal finance guide. At some point in her life, speaking about money with Soledad’s family was difficult, and she had a hard time envisioning beginning to invest. 

Now an aspiring Certified Financial Planner, Soledad is taking followers on her debt-free and learning journey via her platform Wealth Para Todos. Soledad shares how she speaks about dinero with her family as a first-mover today and leads by example.

Meet Latina entrepreneur, Beatriz Acevedo. You may know her as the Co-Founder of mitú, the digital media brand for young Latinos.

Her career started in media at a young age, first on radio and later on television in Mexico. She later went on to co-found and chair LA Collab, a Hollywood initiative aimed at doubling Latino representation in Hollywood.

Acevedo’s latest co-founded startup is set on closing the Latino wealth gap. SUMA Wealth is making financial education accessible and relatable via in-culture content, fintech tools and digital experiences.

Last October, SUMA has raised more than $1 million in a pre-seed investment round led by Chicago-based Chingona Ventures. We speak with Acevedo about the vision for the Latino platform and why launching now is critical.

This episode of Moneda Moves is done in partnership with The Mujerista, the digital-media publication and network dedicated to empowering and celebrating the next generation of Latinas making an impact on la cultura. We couldn’t think of a more fitting brand to help amplify the message of jefas in the Latina community. Check them out across platforms at @TheMujerista.

Today, we are going to talk about the “Mexican Beverly Hills."

It’s what one culture writer calls the city of Downey, the California city with nearly twice as many Hispanic residents than any other race in ethnicity. Here, residents are also higher-earning than other neighborhoods in Los Angeles with similar ethnic makeup.

In his piece for The New York Times, author and Downey resident Erick Galindo writes, that moving to and growing up in a place like Downey “shows that Latinos can live a life of relative wealth and influence in the United States without having to give up ties to their respective and diverse Latin American cultures. But it also exemplifies a distinctly American idea: the possibility of upward mobility across generations.”

We speak with Galindo about what a place like “Mexican Beverly Hills” means for Latinos, his family building generational wealth, and how Downey challenged his relationship with money.

No te lo quieres perder.

Have debt? Perhaps a better question is: Who hasn’t? 

Today on Moneda Moves, we will talk about a Latino and Black-led fintech company Qoins helping users pay off more than $15 million dollars of debt at this point.

I speak with Co-Founder and CEO Christian Zimmerman who not only was named Forbes 30 Under 30 for social impact but also raised $1.5 million in its first institutional investment round to expand its platform and double its staff. Zimmerman didn’t build Qoins alone, but with the help of his co-founder Nate Washington. Today we’re going to discuss how a pitch turned into a full-fledged company and what it takes to build a team you trust.

No te lo quieres perder.

We are speaking with Ramona Ortega, founder of personal finance platform My Money My Future. As daughter of farmworkers and the first generation in her family to attend college then build wealth, she is on a mission to help other underserved millennials have a roadmap to wealth. In 2020, Ortega was named One of the Most Notable Women in Financial Advice by Crain’s New York Business. 

In the first Moneda Moves episode of the year, we’ll discuss her journey as being the first in her family to secure wealth, to securities attorney, to founding her own company and what growth has looked like.

Hi, Moneda Moves listeners! When we think of the holidays, we think about sharing some laughs, drinks, maybe a good game or two with our loved ones. That’s the kind of feeling founder Carolina Acosta set to elicit when she created Tragos — a card and drinking game that celebrates Latino tradition and cultural-isms.

It’s got quite an impressive history too. Latino run and self-funded, the game has made more than $1 million since its founding two years ago. And earlier this year, Carolina earned a spot Forbes 30 Under 30 list. On this special episode of the podcast before closing out the year, we talk with the founder about her entrepreneurship trajectory and what inspired her to create the viral tabletop game for Latinos.

You can purchase the decks here and support a small business: https://tragosgame.com/ 

Let's talk Latinos and business in 2020. At the start of the year, you could say our demographic was ...crushing it. I remember this story from USA Today titled: “Puro Cash: Latinos are opening more small businesses than anyone else in the US.”

In a country with roughly 60 million Latinos, Latino business owners grew 34%, compared to 1% for all business owners in the United States and they were applying for more loans than ever to grow their businesses. Our representation in the world of small business could not be ignored. But seven months into the year, Latino small businesses are among the most devastated by the economic side effects of COVID-19.

Joining me on this episode is Xiomara Peña, California Program Director and National Entrepreneurship Director for Small Business Majority. We speak about how Latino small businesses have been surviving, best resources to use and what the recent boycott against Goya products (#GoyaBoycott) could mean for these businesses.

Small Business Majority focuses on research, advocacy and education with the goal of building an inclusive economy that works for all, and specifically focused on serving minority populations. Learn more about them at https://smallbusinessmajority.org/

On this episode of Moneda Moves, we discuss unpaid internships, what's wrong with them and how we put an end to them.

More than half of graduating students who held an internship will receive a job offer by graduation. This is an abnormal stat: Less than 20% of students overall usually have a job offer at graduation, per a 2016 Rudolph Foundation report. And yes, students and graduates have it tough overall, but when you start looking at who gets paid, there are some glaring concerns. Women tend to engage in more unpaid internships than men, only one third of families can support students through an unpaid internship. Most students end up working a second job to make financial ends meet.

Due to the pandemic, this summer is not any easier for students, leaving them in a more vulnerable state than in years past. More than 60% of student internships have been canceled this summer, per CNBC. With Latinos and Black students holding the lowest internship participation rates overall, this week we talk about how our internships can better serve students, starting by paying them. On this week’s Moneda Moves we speak to Carlos Mark Vera, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Pay Our Interns. 

We are coming to you at the end of a busy news week, in part, courtesy of the Supreme Court.

LGBT rights advocates had a big win at the Supreme Court Monday, winning a sweeping decision from the justices that protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees in the workplace from being fired, demoted or paid less based on their sexual orientation -- a 6-3 victory to those arguing for anti-discrimination protections.

This Thursday, June 18, the Supreme Court also blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants. Immigrants who are part of the 8-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program will retain their protection from deportation and authorization to work in the United States. The decision was a 5-4 outcome, with Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal justices were in the majority.

On this episode, we speak about what these decisions mean for how companies will respond to the LGBT decision and what the DACA decision means for Latinos and their contributions to the economy. We invited Moe Vela, the first Latino and LGBT to serve twice in The White House in a senior executive role, to speak to this on this episode.

Vela was born and raised in the Southern tip of Texas on the Mexican border and proudly Mexican American. He was CFO and Senior Advisor on Latino and LGBT matters to Vice President Al Gore. He was also most recently Director of Management and Administration and Senior Advisor on Latino and LGBT Affairs to Vice President Joe Biden. He is an attorney and ownsVela Group, a global business development consulting firm with clients in the United States and Latin America.

We get his take on these decisions and commentary on business trends he’s noticing from Latino clients and what the future could hold for the next generation of Latinos powering the American economy.