Latina Disruptor: Redefining Finance With A Cultural Twist

by LUZ CORONA.

At age 50, Beatriz Acevedo was supposed to be scaling back the “hustle of the startup life.”

Her career had already seen multiple milestones. At age 8, she was a member of the union in Mexico for radio broadcasters. She’s written, produced, and hosted Emmy-winning shows, representing the 1% of showrunners in Hollywood who are Latinx. Her multiple startups catering to the Latinx audience in entertainment and media have proven to be more than successful—Mitú has become a leading media company that speaks to the “200% generation” (100% American and 100% Latinx) and has scored major investors.

But after seeing the community hit hard by the pandemic, both financially and physically, she used her “superpower” of raising capital through investors like Chingona Ventures and founded Suma, a wealth-building digital platform for the Latinx community via fintech, digital media, and soon a major experiential activation “Dinero Fest.”

Over the last three years, Suma’s year-over-year growth average exceeds 350%, with a monthly reach of 8 million unique users across its ecosystem (i.e: site, app, newsletters, social media, etc.). Thirty percent of those users are not Latinx, which is in line with what Acevedo is doing—reimagining financial inclusion by making finance relatable and easy to understand through culture-first creative. To date, users have increased their savings 2.5 times over, compared to the national average.

Acevedo sat down with ADWEEK to discuss her work on rebranding finance for the Latinx community and beyond, why she is hyperfocused on connecting with the next generation, and her insights on cultural nuances that play a role in Latinx consumer behavior.

Finance needed a reinvention

My father had a family foundation in Mexico that I wanted to bring to the U.S. After he passed away, I intended to run the foundation, sit on my boards, which I’m lucky to be asked to [be a part of], and do my social good.

Then the pandemic hit. In just looking at the data, our community took a hard hit, with not only deaths but economic hardship. I told my friend, [ImpactX Sports Group chairman and CEO] Xavier Gutierrez, I wanted to raise a fund and support Latina entrepreneurs. I was already an angel investor, but I wanted to do more. And he was like, “No, you don’t want to do this. You want to start a fintech company.” I said absolutely not. I know nothing about finance—there’s no way I’m gonna do it. He [reassured me I was] the right person because people who know about finance don’t know how to build companies at scale and engage audiences.

Finance needed a makeover, a reinvention. For younger generations—or even for older generations—finance is the topic that makes you very stressed. There are a lot of financial education apps that help you manage your money or grow your money. They’re great products—they’re just not built by Latinos.

I don’t want to dismiss my other CEO colleagues who run fintechs, but they tend to be focused on language. There’s a huge demo that is only Spanish-speaking; they’re older, they’re immigrants, etc. I wanted to focus on the youth—the impact is greater. That’s the key to moving the needle on closing the wealth gap. So [finance] had to be reinvented. It couldn’t be boring. It couldn’t be daunting. It needed to be culture first.

I was scared to death—I enrolled in every single class. Fintech [at] Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Wharton; I was studying day and night, weekends, slept like for two hours [because I was just] absorbing everything. I said, I’m not going launch this and then be a fake; I was super privileged and lucky that a few investors [were interested], particularly female investors.

If this really scales, this means we’re going to make a massive impact on the community’s wealth. That excites me so much. I feel like I could die in peace.

The key to the next generation

It was a shock to me when I built Suma and tried to understand that the young generation, [who were] U.S.-born and spoke English, felt like “ni de aqui, ni de alla” [from neither here nor there]. Here they’re “not American enough.” When they go back to visit their parents’ countries of origin, they don’t speak perfect Spanish. They’re almost in no man’s land.

The moment you start speaking English, you are responsible for translating at the doctor, [for being] the legal person, etc. Navigating the American ethos, literally and figuratively, is what we do as Sherpas or navigators.

The youth that we serve today at Suma is managing the finances for three other family members, who tend to be older and Spanish. Being a sandwich generation puts a lot of stress on younger kids in our community, because they are responsible for their parents or responsible for their kids as they become parents themselves. And it’s really hard. Our parents did not plan for retirement. Or [there is this] perception that whatever [mom] had saved, she gave to her parents [and we are expected] to do the same. It’s a cycle of “you are my 401K.” So, when are we going to be able to build a generation of wealth if we’re always sort of catching up with whatever small wealth we build?

The other thing is that you are the first in your family to do many things and you don’t have anyone in your family to give you that advice. For example, you’re the first in your family to go to college. There’s very little that they could have helped you with, whether it was a college essay or how to navigate internships, getting a job, career advice, or asking for a raise. The system here [in the U.S.] is very different [from other countries]. So, you’re at a loss for information education.

A lot of these younger people are making more money than their parents and grandparents made in a lifetime. So, one, there’s a sense of guilt. Second, there’s a sense of worry, of “I don’t know how to manage this.” Third, there’s a sense of distrust. The parents didn’t trust the financial institutions. They don’t have a legacy financial institution that is the “Fabuloso of finance,” where everyone in the family uses Fabuloso, and everyone in the family can trust this financial institution.

If you know you’re responsible for your aging parents, and you’re eventually responsible for your kids and yourself, you have to start early. You have no choice. And hopefully, as you do that, the next gen will be set up because hopefully, your kids will not have to take care of you. That’s where there is an opportunity to advance in closing the wealth gap if we get to that point. So that’s why I’m hyperfocused on this generation that has that big burden on their shoulders, that needs that help and that support. Those are the ones that can make that change in generations to come.

The biggest opportunity with [this generation of] Latinos is to make them feel that they are “de aqui y de alla” [from here and there]. Not every brand does a great job with that. I’ve seen a lot of ones doing it now, and I’m glad that they’re catching up, but it’s not just English or Spanish. I fully believe in the power of culture. Lead with culture more than leading with language.

Leading with culture is everything

I go back to my Latinidad in everything I’ve done. So [on Suma] you’re going to see luchadores [Mexican wrestlers]. Paletas [Mexican frozen treats made from fresh natural fruits] instead of emojis. You are going to see arepas and gorditas [cornmeal cakes] to explain the difference between FICO and Vantage credit scores.

I always thought I was going to focus on English and culture because that’s my demo. But then I would get questions [from users]: Do you have this in Spanish for my mom, for my tía? And I’d be like, well, why don’t you go to these other fintechs that are only for Spanish people and Spanish-speaking people? And they would say no, it’s not fun, it’s not funny, it’s not cool, it’s not Suma. So, we’re now scrambling to make that [content] in Spanish, making all the education available as a resource for our core demo. Our core demo is not going to consume [our content] in Spanish. But again, we want to take off that weight on their shoulders that they’ve had their whole life, where they have to translate for their family members, and they want to recommend something that they like.

I want to build things where people feel that they belong. And if you think about Mitú and Suma, even though it wasn’t my experience growing up, I want to make sure that my kids are those kids [who feel like they belong]. My kids are U.S.-born. They speak perfect Spanish, but they speak perfect English. They’re proud to be Latinos. They’re proud to be American. They’re proud to be Jewish. There’s so much in their identity that they’re proud of, that I absolutely love, and I worked very hard for them to feel that way. So, I want to do the same for every other young person in America. I want them to feel that they belong, whether it’s in media or the money conversation. They deserve to build wealth, and they belong here.

Being a Latina is my superpower. I never feel less. I don’t feel small. I don’t feel inadequate. I see that there’s nobody there like me and I get to represent. And I come in and I take a lot of space. I come in with my embroidered shirts, my big hoops, and I speak with my hands. I’m loud, I’m passionate. I am unapologetically Latina, and that has helped me.

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See Original Article at Adweek