Festival of UndocuInnovation 2019
Festival of UndocuInnovation, which initiated in September 2017, brings together undocumented entrepreneurs from around the country to connect, learn, inspire and motivate one another. Participants will have opportunities to learn from experienced undocumented entrepreneurs, attend workshops, and improve their ability to generate and present winning ideas through simulations and feedback.
Directory
DATE
March 22-24
LOCATION
SASC Building, Florida International University
StartUP FIU (MARC Building 3rd Floor), Florida International University
MAIN CONTACTS
Transportation/Logistics: Dean Santos | (650) 834-3951
Hotel: Alex Vargas | (510) 725-2531
Registration & Volunteers: Jesus Flores | (323) 335-9061
For-Profit Investors: Iliana G. Perez | (209) 648-5964
Non-Profit Funders: Katharine Gin | (415) 517-3049
Logistics/Media: Grace Yeo | (310) 738-0320
HOTEL INFO
Comfort Suites Miami/Kendall
RESOURCES & DOCUMENTS
Attendee Directory
Form: Shark Tank Audience Feedback
Shark Tank Schedule
Shark Tank: Non-Profit Letter of Intent
Schedule
Friday, March 22nd
06:00 – 08:30 AM | Breakfast
Location: Hotel Lobby| Hotel Continental Breakfast
08:30 – 09:00 AM | Transportation to Festival
Location: Hotel Lobby
09:00 – 10:00 AM | Festival Registration
Location: SASC 100
10:00 – 10:30 AM | Welcome & Introductions
Location: SASC 100
10:40 – 11:40 AM | Getting to Know Each Other
Location: SASC 100
12:00 – 01:00 PM | Lunch & Networking
Location: FIU (main space)
01:10 – 02:10 PM | Panel Conversation
Location: SASC 100
“The Power of the #UndocuHustle”
Moderator: Denea Joseph
Panelists: Armando Ibañez, Sam Waithaka, Asaia Palacios
02:20 – 03:20 PM | Workshops
Group 1 Location: Career Services (SASC 305)
“Embracing the Entrepreneurial Mindset”
Facilitator: Jorge Alvarez, Cris Mercado, Saba Nafees
Group 2 Location: SASC 100
“The Power of Storytelling”
Facilitator: Yosimar Reyes
03:30 – 04:30 PM | Workshops
Group 1 Location: SASC 100
“The Power of Storytelling”
Facilitator: Yosimar Reyes
Group 2 Location: Career Services (SASC 305)
“Embracing the Entrepreneurial Mindset”
Facilitator: Jorge Alvarez, Cris Mercado, Saba Nafees
04:30 – 05:00 PM | Transportation to Hotel
Location: Outside FIU between gold and blue parking garages
05:00 – 06:00 PM | Get Ready for Evening Activities
Meet back at the Hotel Lobby by 6PM
06:00 – 07:00 PM | Transportation to Dinner
Location: Hotel Lobby
07:00 – 09:00 PM | Dinner
Location: Versailles Restaurant | Dinner and Networking
09:00 PM | Transportation to Hotel & Free Time
Transportation to hotel will be provided immediately after dinner; transportation will be on your own afterward.
Saturday, March 23rd
06:00 – 08:30 AM | Breakfast
Location: Hotel Lobby| Hotel Continental Breakfast
08:30 – 09:00 AM | Transportation to Festival
Location: Hotel Lobby
09:00 – 09:30 AM | Morning Orientation
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space)
09:30 – 12:30 PM | Industry Group Introductions
Location: StartUP FIU (Individual Rooms)
“Pecha Kucha Style Introductions”
Arts, Music, & Media: Room 340
Professional Services/Consulting: Room 331
Food: Room 348
Non-Profit: Room 333
Technology: Room 353
12:30 – 01:30 PM | Networking Lunch (by Industry)
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space) | By Region:
01:40 – 02:40 PM | Media Workshop
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space)
“Media Workshop with Jorge Ramos”
Speaker: Jorge Ramos
Facilitator: Katharine Gin
02:50 – 05:00 PM | Industry-Specific Activities & Training
Location: StartUP FIU (Individual Rooms)
Arts, Music, & Media: Room 335
Professional Services/Consulting: Room 331
Food: Room 348
Non-Profit: Room 333
Technology: Room 353
05:00 – 05:30 PM | Transportation to Hotel
Location: Outside FIU between gold and blue parking garages
05:30 – 06:00 PM | Get Ready for Site Visits
Meet back at the Hotel Lobby by 6PM
06:00 – 06:30 PM | Grab-and-Go Dinner
Location: Hotel Lobby
06:30 – 07:15 PM | Travel to Site Visits
Location: Hotel Lobby
07:15 – 08:30 PM | Site Visits
Location: Varies by Site
Arts, Music, & Media: Univision
8551 NW 30th Terrace, Doral, FL 33122
Professional Services/Consulting: Title Answers, a Law Firm
7260 SW 39th Terrace, Suite B, Miami, FL 33155
Food: Misha’s Bakery
227 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, FL 33134
Non-Profit: with Gaby Pacheco
Technology: Venture Cafe
1951 NW 7th Ave, Suite #600, Miami, FL 33136
08:30 PM | Transportation to Hotel & Free Time
Transportation to hotel will be provided immediately after dinner; transportation will be on your own afterward.
Sunday, March 24th
06:00 – 08:00 AM | Breakfast
Location: Hotel Lobby | Hotel Continental Breakfast
08:00 – 08:30 AM | Hotel Check-out
Location: Hotel Lobby
08:30 – 09:00 AM | Transportation to Festival
Location: Hotel Lobby
09:00 – 09:20 AM | Morning Orientation
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space)
09:30 – 12:00 PM | Shark Tanks: Part 1
Location: StartUP FIU (varies)
Non-Profit Shark Tank Pitches: Room 340
For-Profit Shark Tank Pitches: Room 331
12:00 – 12:30 PM | Grab-and-Go Lunch
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space)
12:30 – 02:50 PM | Shark Tanks: Part 2
Location: StartUP FIU (varies)
Non-Profit Shark Tank Pitches: Room 340
For-Profit Shark Tank Pitches: Room 331
03:00 – 03:45 PM | Commitments & Deliberation
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space) | Individual Commitments (attendees) & Shark Tank Deliberation (evaluators)
03:45 – 04:00 PM | Announce Shark Tank Winners
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space)
04:00 – 05:00 PM | Closing & Evaluation
Location: StartUP FIU (Main Space)
05:00 PM | Transportation to Hotel
Location: Outside FIU between gold and blue parking garages
Shark Tank: Non-Profit
Non-Profit Evaluators
Anita Khashu, Four Freedoms Fund
Anita Khashu is the Director of the Four Freedoms Fund. Founded in 2003, the Four Freedoms Fund (FFF) is a national donor collaborative working toward full integration of immigrants as active participants in our democracy. FFF seeks to ensure this outcome by building and supporting a robust local, state, and national infrastructure of immigrants’ rights organizations and leaders. Prior to joining FFF, Anita worked as a non-profit lawyer, manager, and philanthropic advisor in the United States, Latin America, and Africa, managing large and complex non-profit programs, providing direct legal services, conducting research, and providing strategic consulting services to non-profits and philanthropies. Anita was the founding director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Center on Immigration, a scholar in residence at the Center for Inter-American Studies and Programs at Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), and a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society of New York in its criminal practice. Anita serves as a founding board member for the Mexico City-based Institute for Women in Migration (Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, A.C.) and the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund.
Jay Sherwin, Independent Consultant
Jay Sherwin is an independent consultant who works with foundations and other non-profit organizations to develop strategic plans, design programs and initiatives, implement rigorous outcome evaluations and improve communications. Before launching his consulting practice, Jay spent twenty years as a grantmaker for five national, regional and community foundations, specializing in efforts to promote college access and completion for students from low-income and underrepresented communities. As Vice President for Programs at the College Futures Foundation, he managed a grants program that supported 20,000 scholarships for low-income and first generation college students, including hundreds of undocumented students.
From 2014-2016, Jay worked with Immigrants Rising to design and launch the Invest in the Dream initiative, which partnered with scholarship providers nationwide to encourage them to create or expand college scholarship opportunities for undocumented students. Invest in the Dream awarded $750,000 and leveraged another $750,000 from other sources to help more than two hundred undocumented students attend college. Jay also helped to design and launch the Entrepreneurship Fund, which supports undocumented entrepreneurs, and was a member of the team that selected the first round of Entrepreneurship Fund grantees.
Marco Antonio Quiroga, Contigo Fund
As the Program Director of the Contigo Fund, Marco Antonio Quiroga lays the groundwork for and oversees the grant process and distribution of funds to strengthen and network existing agencies and identifies and supports grassroots efforts that advance Latinx and LGBTQ causes and the intersection of these two communities in Central Florida.
Marco has a long history as an advocate for the LGBTQ, immigrant, and racial justice movements, driven as a direct result of his own life experience as an undocumented and queer person of color. He’s worked extensively alongside LGBTQ, Latinx, and immigrant communities in Orlando and throughout Central Florida, including immigration clinics with Central American and Mexican farm workers and their families in Apopka, on the civic education and engagement campaigns with the Puerto Rican and predominantly monolingual Spanish-speaking community in Kissimmee, and with LGBTQ and undocumented youth on capacity building and leadership development efforts throughout Central Florida. Marco also served as the Director of Public Policy at the True Colors Fund and National Field Officer at Immigration Equality and has extensive experience organizing with United We Dream and its Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP), the American Federation of Teachers and AFL-CIO, and a number of other grassroots and national advocacy organizations.
Raquiba LaBrie, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Raquiba LaBrie is program director in education equity at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Previously, she served as director of community investment with L+M Development Partners, an affordable housing developer in New York City. Her work focused on the design and management of a grantmaking program aimed at strengthening low-income communities of color in the city by investing in academic enrichment, workforce development, and urban agriculture. She also worked for 13 years with the Open Society Foundations, managing grantmaking programs on racial justice, immigrant and LGBT rights, black male achievement, neighborhood stabilization, criminal justice, and other priorities. She started her career in a New York City–based law practice working with foundations and public charities. Raised in East Oakland, she graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a degree in English. She also holds a law degree from Harvard University.
Shark Tank: FOR-PROFIT
For-Profit Evaluators
Anna Etienne, StartUP FIU
Anna is the Program Director for StartUP FIU first Food Incubator. Startup FIU seeks to partner with local food entrepreneurs perusing sustainability and a scalable business model. Prior to joining the team, Ms. Etienne helped launch the first and subsequent cohorts of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program at Miami Dade College, where she served as the program manager for three years, connected over 200 graduates from among Miami’s local business owners. Ms. Etienne spent the past several years in various roles working within the local South Florida business community, college students, and institutional leaders. Currently a doctoral student studying Organizational Leadership at Northeastern University, Ms. Etienne is also an alumnus of Florida International University with a Bachelors in Business Administration and a Masters in Higher Education Administration.
Gladys Castro, Mission Economic Development Agency
Gladys Castro works to provide loans to small-business owners in the nine Bay Area counties. Prior to joining MEDA, Gladys worked one-on-one with small businesses at the startup level to help them establish a strong foundation through a business plan, understanding of financial statements and the development of a marketing strategy.
Gladys attended UC Berkeley where she studied Political Science and Education. Outside of work, Gladys likes to cook new recipes, which occasionally result in disaster.
Jesse Martinez, Latino Startup Alliance
Originally from Houston, Texas, Jesse found his way to San Francisco in March 1997 where he first experienced what it meant to work for a startup. As employee 27, he got to see firsthand the building of a Silicon Valley company (funded by Sequoia Capital) that ultimately grew into a thousand employee+ corporation all in less than a year as it was acquired for $180 million by Frontier Communications. That experience and access to his new mentors/advisors, led Jesse to cofound along with his brother in 1998 one of the first U.S. online bilingual Latino communities (Picosito.com) which was recognized by a U.S. Congressional Record by the House of Representatives in 1999 for their efforts around technology in Latino Community. They raised $2.3 million in seed capital and had two acquisition offers in less than six months. After the dot com era, Jesse went back to Corporate America; he has over 10 years in the BPM industry & has worked with industry leaders such as Xerox Global Services, IKON, & Kofax as a Business Development Manager. He was also the cofounder of his 2nd startup – Giggo, a groupon-like venture delivering their messaging all in Spanish. He was the cofounder/COO of histhird startup – Relevance, which took him to Brazil as the country director under the Startup Brasil Program. Jesse is the cofounder + co-chair of the Latino Startup Alliance, a non-profit supporting global Latino Tech Entrepreneurs and startup ecosystems. He is also the cofounder of dev/Mission, a non-profit focused on training diverse youth ages 16 to 24 for careers in tech.
Most recently, Jesse was the first Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) for the Salesforce Incubator (now Accelerate) where he incubated his fourth startup CareerForce – training the next generation of Salesforce Administrators that come from our diverse and underrepresented communities for career paths in the Salesforce Economy.
Jorge Soto, FirstCut.io
Prior to launching FirstCut, Jorge ran inside sales for Twitter’s MoPub organization, which was acquired by Twitter in 2013. He’s also the founder of Sotoventures Media and Sales4Startups (acquired by Sales Hacker Media), where he educated and inspired thousands of technology founders and executives around the world. Jorge has been a technology entrepreneur for over 15 years. He has founded an online travel community called Mytripz in 2005 and a commercial wireless service startup called Campus Communications in 2003.
Joseph Hornstein, FIU Foundation
Natalia Martinez-Kalinina, Cambridge Innovation Center
Natalia is an organizational psychologist, strategist, and technologist focused on merging innovation, entrepreneurship, and community impact. Her passion hinges on creating communities that are true ecosystems, most recently by leading the expansion of the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) to Miami. CIC is the oldest, most successful, and largest innovation hub in the United States, espousing particular philosophies for economic impact and community engagement. In Miami, CIC is building an innovation district that connects the health district with the rest of the innovation corridor – a massive and transformative undertaking that is already having an impact. In addition, Natalia is the Founder of Awesome Foundation MIAMI, the local chapter of a global network of grassroots micro-grant giving hubs that, cumulatively, have awarded more than $1.6 million globally to small, local ideas. The Miami chapter has awarded more than $75,000 to more than 70 grassroots ideas in Miami, helping to empower the average person to participate with their ideas and projects. She also serves as the Vice President of LatAm expansion of the Latino Startup Alliance and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers community. For this and other work, Natalia has also been appointed by Florida Governor Rick Scott to serve on the Governor’s Commission on Community Service, a body that oversees the administration of $32 million in federal, state, and local funding to deliver high-impact educational and volunteer programs in Florida.
Supporters
Thank you for our extraordinary funders and supporters, which include Chavez Family Foundation; eMerge Americas; Florida International University; The Grove Foundation; Enrique Gonzalez, III; James Gutierrez; Elise Haas, Robert and Colleen Haas; Jeff Hawkins; Immigrant Powered; Impact Fund; Jorge Ramos; StartUP FIU; Unbound Philanthropy; and Elisha Wiesel.