Addressing under-representation of the Latino community in tech entrepreneurship.



LSA

Cultivation of startup ventures

Youth Startups

Entrepreneurship in public schools

Connect to Tech

Simplifying the tech world

Impact Investing

Educational series



News

News, Honors, and Awards

Build a Webpage in a Day with Black Girls Code, Mission Economic Development Agency, Google for Entrepreneurs and LSA

Apr 21, 2013 Black Girls CODE is proud to partner with Latino Startup Alliance (LSA) and MEDA to offer our compelling Build a Webpage in a Day class in Spanish! This workshop will teach participants to build their own unique webpage in one day using fun games and activities to introduce HTML, CSS, and basic web structure. This event is intended for girls ages 7-17. Read more, View press release

Connect To Tech is One of Five Private-Sector Initiatives Launched at First White House Tech Inclusion Summit

Feb 04, 2013 Last week, more than two hundred people convened at the White House Tech Inclusion Summit—an unprecedented gathering of innovative thinkers from business, government, non-profits, and the tech world seeking to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to learn tech skills–particularly those from underserved and historically underrepresented communities, including women and girls. Read more

From Curiosity to Innovation, Latinas Who Are Optimizing Technology: Jennifer Arguello

Jan 2013 Why are there still too few women and Latinas in science and technology? The reasons range from lack of mentors and support to lack of interest to outright discrimination. In a 2010 Bayer “Facts of Science Education XIV” survey of 1,226 female, African-American, Hispanic and American Indian chemists and chemical engineers, 77 percent said that women and minorities were underrepresented in STEM because they were not identified, encouraged or nurtured to pursue STEM studies early on. Forty percent said they were discouraged from pursuing a STEM career at some point. Read more

LSA co-founder Jennifer Arguello goes from Microsoft to Mozilla

Oct 11, 2012 This week on Tech Leaders, we have Jennifer Argüello, who took her computer science degree and ran with it, joining a startup that was bought by Microsoft and then moving to Mozilla. She has launched the Latino Startup Alliance as well, and has tips for Latinos who want to get into the entrepreneurial game. Read more

Spark America wins the City of San Francisco Latino Heritage Month Innovation Award

Oct 09, 2012 Latino Heritage Month Nominating Committee, in partnership with the Office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee, has selected Spark America to be the recipient program of this year’s Latino Heritage Month Innovation Award. Read more

Giggo co-founder Jesse discusses the motivation behind formation of the Latino Startup Alliance

Apr 12, 2012 "Most have been looking for something like the Latino Startup Alliance because there’s been this void,” says Martinez. “We all go to these tech events and we might see one or two (Latinos) and we’re like, ‘where are the rest?’ And they exist, it’s just that we haven’t come together.” Read more

Read more about us in the HuffPost's Cultura section

Nov 14 2011 "This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week. As the national debate rages about the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley and the technology industry in general, entrepreneurs from within the Latino community like Jesse, Edwardo, their co-founder Fernando Rivera, and others will be stepping into the mainstream limelight."Read more

AT&T Social Good Hackathon - Focused on improving society

October 26, 2012 The LSA team presented a mobile application to use for Connect To Tech. We won a couple awards: the Keen.io Quadracopter and the Tiggzi Best App award.

Community

Spark America and the Community

Youth Startups

Jan 2012 - ongoing Youth Startups brings awareness to students on what it means to be a tech entrepreneur by having them participate in a number of startup activities while promoting higher education. Read more about Youth Startups.

The Launch of LSA

2011 - ongoing LSA encourages the inspiration and cultivation of Latino led startup technology ventures by providing the venue, resources and network. Read more about LSA.

Team

Spark America is focused on creating an ecosystem to foster technology entrepreneurship in both our Latino youth and entrepreneurs by helping to drive education, jobs and innovation.

Meet some of the Spark America co-founders.

Jesse Martinez

Edwardo Martinez