Hey! I'm hosting a high-signal founder + investor event during a16z Tech Week NYC. We’re breaking down how fundraising decisions actually get made. If you’re raising, planning to, or simply want to learn about how investors think, this is worth it. Join here: https://partiful.com/e/pnXa8toI47YgXtDi6fLx

If you’re a founder raising capital right now and you are not looking at Puerto Rico, you are ignoring one of the most strategic startup advantages in the United States. I’m excited to share that Parallel18 Gen. 14 is OPEN! This is not just another accelerator. This is $100K via SAFE plus real access to investors, corporate partners, and operators who understand how to help startups raise and scale. But here is what most people overlook. Puerto Rico offers some of the most powerful tax incentives available to startups and investors in the U.S. For founders - Lower corporate tax structures under export services incentives. - Ability to operate in a lower cost environment while maintaining U.S. market access. - Structural leverage that extends runway. For investors - Attractive capital gains incentives. - Access to companies operating with structural tax advantages. This is not hype. It is math. Parallel18 is looking for: - Early stage startups operating 3 years or less. - Incorporated in PR or the U.S. and authorized to operate in Puerto Rico. - At least two full-time founders. - Teams preparing to raise pre-seed, bridge, or seed within 6 months. 🗓️ Application deadline: March 1st at 11:59 PM AST. If you are serious about building a scalable company, you should look at this. Apply here: https://parallel18.com Tag a founder who should not miss this. Puerto Rico is building serious infrastructure for founders. The question is who will take advantage of it.

We are officially preparing to launch The Latino Startup, New York City Chapter. New York is one of the most powerful startup ecosystems in the world. And it’s time we build a strong, intentional Latino presence inside it. This chapter is not about panels and pictures. It’s about: • Connecting serious Latino founders on the East Coast • Supporting capital access and investor readiness • Creating real collaboration between operators, angels, and VCs • Helping scale Latino startups into multi-million dollar businesses • Building an ecosystem where we refer business to our own first The goal in NYC is clear: To identify, grow, strengthen, and scale high-potential Latino founders who are building real companies, not side projects, not hobby startups, but scalable, venture-backable businesses. We want founders raising. Founders hiring. Founders building category leaders. If you know founders, operators, investors, or ecosystem builders on the East Coast, stay tuned. We’ll be opening a waitlist form soon and we’ll need your help sharing it with your network and East Coast connections. New York is next. Seguimos aquí and we’re building with intention. More to come soon!

More Latinos are starting companies. More of us are raising capital. More of us are sitting at tables that historically didn’t include us. But here’s the part we don’t talk about enough: You can enter the room… And still shrink inside it. Seguimos Aquí was built specifically for Latino founders who are done playing small. Not because we lack talent. Not because we lack work ethic. But because many of us were raised to prioritize safety over ownership, humility over visibility, gratitude over ambition. That mindset helps you survive. It does not help you scale. This 3-week workshop is about strengthening the internal side of leadership so that when you speak about your company, negotiate equity, raise capital, or hire a team, you do it with clarity and conviction. We meet once a week. Small room. Real exercises. Direct feedback. This is about building founders who can carry weight. If you’re Latino and building something real, this space was created for you. 👉 https://maven.com/yourfirstangel/seguimos-aqui/ Seguimos aquí. Y esta vez, lideramos diferente.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what business we’re really in at The Latino Startup. And the truth is… we’re not in the education business. We’re in the successful outcome business, and that's a bigger challenge. Last Thursday, I sat down with our New York Chapter Founder, Angel Leon, and we had one of those honest conversations that stays with you. We both acknowledged something simple but profound: The most important thing in the entrepreneurial process isn’t the curriculum. It’s the founder. When you leave a career to start your own company, the guardrails disappear. There’s no performance review. No defined ladder. No one telling you what “good” looks like anymore. It’s just you. You and your beliefs about money. You and your relationship to risk. You and the invisible rules you’ve carried since childhood about what’s possible — and what isn’t. That’s why so many founder journeys become deeply personal. It’s not just about product-market fit. It’s about identity fit. It’s about confronting who you are when no one is supervising you. It’s about deciding what you actually believe you deserve to build. If we want meaningful change in our community — real ownership, real companies, real wealth creation — we can’t stop at skills and information. Knowledge matters. Structure matters. But mindset determines how far someone is willing to go once the training wheels come off. So we’re evolving. In the coming weeks and months, Angel and I will begin developing and testing new MVP ideas focused specifically on the internal shift founders need to make. We’ll experiment. We’ll listen. We’ll refine based on what our community responds to and needs most. Because in times like these, our founders need more than workshops. They need a space to connect. To reflect. To strengthen who they are — before they scale what they build. This work is personal. And it has to be. We’re not just helping people launch companies. We’re helping them become the kind of people who can build them.