UCLA Latino Alumni Association Virtual Career Panel: Latino Bruin Founders and Entrepreneurs
Tue 5/30/2023 • 6PM PDT
Online, Zoom
The UCLA Latino Alumni Association (ULAA) invites you to our virtual "Latino Bruin Founders and Entrepreneurs" career panel.
Have you ever wanted to start your own business? Do you have a great idea but aren’t sure if you can pivot out of a “traditional” nine-to-five job? Or are you already a founder but not sure how to scale and grow your venture? Come hear Latino Bruin founders who have navigated these and more challenges on their way to founding successful businesses.
Meet our Panelists
Corissa Hernandez, M.Ed. '06 is the co-founder and visionary behind Legacy Full Circle Financial & Insurance Services, The Empire Tavern, House of Xelas and Nativo Hiland Park and the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. After earning degrees at Cal Poly Pomona and UCLA, she began her career as a teacher in the Los Angeles public school system until the 2008 recession brought in her first call to action, and she launched her work as a school teacher by day and financial educator by night.
As Legacy Full Circle took flight, Corissa was inspired to meet unmet needs in her community, connecting with other first-generation people of color and underrepresented groups. She opened three craft beer and cocktail businesses over the next four years, establishing herself as one of the standout female entrepreneurs in a male-dominated industry. Her work has been highlighted in The Los Angeles Times, ABC VistaLA, LA Magazine, EaterLA, Telemundo, UCLA Magazine and more.
Today, Corissa successfully runs her three businesses while still working to give back. She has partnered with over 100 aspiring entrepreneurs, creators, chefs and restaurateurs of color to share everything she wishes she would have known in business through her mentorship sessions with other spirited entrepreneurs like herself.
Alejandro Guerrero '07 is the co-founder and general partner at Act One Ventures, a Los Angeles-based seed fund investing in business software startups, currently managing $140M in Assets Under Management (AUM). He has invested in 46 companies, 70 percent of which were founded by women or minorities. Alejandro is also the creator of the Diversity Term Sheet Rider for Representation at the Cap Table, an initiative to bring diverse co-investors to deals every time a company raises a round of funding.
Previously, Alejandro was the co-founder and CEO of Uniq Apps, a software as a service (SaaS) platform for encrypted work messaging. Prior to Uniq, he was the co-founder of Live Entertainment Network, an interactive video player platform that helped artists monetize live shows on a "premium-content-only" destination.
Andrés Snaider '88 practiced law for 10 years before leaving the corporate track to form Nextant, an international, Latino-owned business consulting firm that has grown to 200 employees and, in just the last three years, was named back-to-back winner of Microsoft's Supplier of the Year Award and certified as a Great Place to Work. Andrés is also co-founder of Avanxo, a cloud computing services company that was sold to a publicly-traded company (Globant) in 2019.
As a first-generation college graduate, he believes in the transformative power of entrepreneurship and is actively involved in increasing the participation of historically underrepresented communities in business, including through venture capital and service on the UCLA Latino Alumni Association Board.