Where it started

My parents are political exiles from Cuba and I was born in the US heartland. My dad worked for a multinational, and I grew up traveling the world with my family. As a kid, I attended schools in 3 different countries in Spanish & English. My mother was a great believer in service to your community and others, and early on she enrolled me in volunteer work. I guess I was destined to become a “helper”.

After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, I worked in my first TV job at Univision. Soon after I moved to NYC to pursue a career in advertising on Madison Avenue. Where I worked for FCB, US Hispanic agency and Grey Advertising..

My entrepreneur journey

You could say my entrepreneurial journey started when I began working as a freelancer in the Film & TV business. As a Producer and Executive Producer, I worked on many commercials for multicultural and Global brands, some documentaries, a few films and as an Executive Producer on the launch of several networks in the Pan-region of Latin America, including Nickelodeon.

In 2009 I returned to school and completed an MBA from Thunderbird in Geneva, Switzerland with field studies in China, India and Switzerland. In 2011, after graduation, I founded FWD Action a marketing consulting business. My goal was to create a business where I could work remotely with entrepreneurs and businesses. Learning how people conduct business in different cultures was something I wanted to pursue further.

One of the things I love the most is working on businesses that have never existed before and imagining new ways of creating solutions to human problems. This is all driven by curiosity, a global mindset, leveraging creativity, market research, analytics, and technology - because solutions exist everywhere.

In addition to having worked with media conglomerates, global advertising agencies and brands I have worked with entrepreneurs and founders for 13 yrs+. My passion is helping people bring their vision to life and create businesses that can sustain them and their families. As a Latina entrepreneur myself, I have directly experienced the inequities of the business world, and strive to help other female entrepreneurs and businesses in the black and brown community. Since 2022, I have served as a Builder in Residence for Builders + Backers working with entrepreneurs to Disrupt and to Democratize. 

As a Fractional CMO, I have worked with tech startups worldwide, and have held leadership positions with direct responsibility for business strategy and marketing.

Volunteering is important to me

I recently volunteered with Reading Partners, Tulsa, working with elementary school kids, and ACT House Tulsa, a 6-month accelerator program focused on bolstering Black and Latino entrepreneurs and creating innovative ecosystems. I also advise The Copperbridge Foundation an arts non-profit.

What’s next?

Looking ahead to web3, how to best leverage AI and building a courses around Marketing for entrepreneurs and founders, and an ebook on Personal Branding.