Latino entrepreneurs moving forward without fear of risk.
A few weeks ago Bruce Schneier wrote an essay: "Our Newfound Fear of Risk", citing some examples on the exaggerated perception of risk, and how it has the power to hold back many initiatives. This article gave us a hint to understand why many tech companies are not lead or focused on Latinos, although it is a fast growing community in the US. Probably it is the generalized fear of risk, fear to face new things, to speak different languages and to study a new market. Fortunately, at Interesante, we feel we are in a positive environment and surrounded by people and companies that had overcome that fear and are betting on Latinos, and working on understanding their likes, wants and needs.
Being an entrepreneur is inherently risky, and tech entrepreneurs understand that. But apparently, Latino entrepreneurs still have an imperfect perception of those risks and maybe that is why tech startups are still not very popular businesses in Latin America. Fortunately, a new generation of Latinos is willing to take the risks related to technology ventures. People that have decided to be creators instead of consumers, people building companies or investing their time and money in startups, and most important, fostering a culture of Latino entrepreneurship.
Manos, an initiative that understands risk-taking
Manos Accelerator is providing a launch platform for early stage companies and guiding their Latino founders. They are betting on the long-term success of the Latino community through sharing their knowledge and experiences to seven startups. Certainly, the attention brought to Latino entrepreneurs by Manos Accelerator will help not only those selected startups, but also the whole Latino community.
We are looking forward to hearing from Latin American Startups and other accelerators or incubators in different countries in the coming weeks. We would love to hear what you think about Manos and its work.
We are doing our best to share our experiences in this program to let more Latin American startups know about Manos and encourage them to apply to this program. We want to be part of a single collective effort to empower Latinos in the tech world.