Susan Preston, an Angel Resource Institute (ARI) lead instructor and world-renowned expert on angel financing, will lead ARI’s Angel Investing Overview in San Francisco on Friday, June 27. Manos Angel Network, whose mission is to foster a new generation of Latino entrepreneurs and angel investors, will host the eight-hour flagship course. Less than 1 percent of venture-backed companies are founded by Latinos according to CB Insights, while all minorities represent only 4 percent of U.S. angel investors. This workshop will empower attendees to defy the statistics and effectively navigate the competitive early-stage ecosystem by equipping them with the fundamentals of and best practices in deal making.
“We are excited to work together with Susan and ARI to help close the funding gap for Latino startups through our Manos Angel Network’s investing programs,” said Hana Yang, a partner of Manos Accelerator. “We look forward to the collaboration to build a solid foundation for early-stage startups and the funding ecosystem within Latino hi-tech community.”
From 1990 to 2012, Latino entrepreneurs in the U.S. more than tripled from 577,000 to 2 million. This flood of entrepreneurs is underrepresented in the venture-funded community. Susan Preston, who is an experienced investor and a leader in the early-stage investing community worldwide, seeks to close this gap with entrepreneur and investor education for minorities. She is the head of ARI’s Women First Enterprise, the newly launched initiative geared toward educating females and minorities in the early-stage space. As the author of two books, Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs:
“Just as with the under-representation of women in angel investing and ventured-backed entrepreneurial endeavors, we need to provide minorities with the tools and connections for success”, explained Preston. “Creating a great company should be gender and ethnicity neutral. Education and training are keys to leveling the playing field; ARI and WFE are providing them.”