The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative is a partnership between Stanford University and the Latino Business Action Network. Through research and education, they hope to expand the knowledge of the Latino entrepreneurial segment of the U.S.
The program is jointly supported by LBAN and the Stanford GSB Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Each year a national survey is issued to assess the current state of U.S. Latino entrepreneurship. In doing so, this survey is developing a “significant panel of Latino entrepreneurs to enable longitudinal research to understand trends over time.”
Recently, the preliminary findings from the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative’s (SLEI) annual survey of business owners were released. Some findings included “an overlooked high-return investment: If Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) were funded at parity with White-owned businesses (WOBs) to reach the same revenue distribution, they could generate $1.4 trillion in additional GDP today and $3.3 trillion in additional GDP in the year 2030.’ The findings also showed that, ‘Latino entrepreneurs are fueling the U.S. economic engine, responsible for approximately 50% of net new small business growth over the past decade (2007-2017).”
The preliminary findings, as stated in PR Newswire, indicate that “Latino entrepreneurs are responsible for about 50% of net new small business growth in the US over the past decade, according to data from 2007 to 2017, and they are growing in annual revenue faster than white-owned businesses. However, Latino-owned businesses have received just 1% of all investments from the top 25 venture capital and private equity firms over the past decade. And in 2020, Latino-owned businesses made up less than 1% of the $487 billion invested across a sample of the top 500 largest venture capital and private equity deals.” This research from Bain & Company, SLEI, and the Latino Donor Collaborative, shows that Latino-owned businesses hold great potential. They are, however, some of the most overlooked opportunities for investors.
According to another recent article from SLEI, COVID-19 has had a continued impact on Latino-owned businesses. They have “less cash on hand and when requesting funding from the Payroll Protection Program, Latinos have their PPP loans approved at half the rate of white-owned businesses. An even smaller proportion of Latino-owned businesses gets their full funding relative to white owned-businesses, 3% compared to 7%. We found one surprising exception: 82% of SLEI Education Scaling Program alumni received PPP funding compared to 18% of scaled Latino-owned businesses and 28% among scaled white-owned businesses.”
The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative is bringing to light vital information about our current economy and the future of Latino businesses. More comprehensive data will be released in the State of Latino Entrepreneurship report at the annual State of Latino Entrepreneurship Forum in late January 2022.