New York Tech ✈️ Puerto Rico: 2023 SOMOS Recap

Last week, the Tech:NYC team — with a crew of startup founders and other leaders in our member network — traveled to the annual SOMOS conference in Puerto Rico, where we spent some time connecting with a broad coalition of other organizations on how to support Latino communities, here in New York and in Puerto Rico.

Not familiar with SOMOS? The conference is a key gathering of New York’s business, government, and advocacy communities all in one place. Presented in collaboration with the New York State Assembly and Senate Puerto Rican & Hispanic Task Force, it’s always a uniquely productive opportunity to catch up with local elected officials to ensure the New York’s tech community is closely collaborating on our shared values to support New York’s economy overall.

We got a lot of work done — amidst a backdrop of warm weather and beach views. Here are some of the highlights:

*Carefully founder & CEO Leslie Borrell; Mavity co-founder & CEO Tomás Uribe; Splyt co-founder & CEO Luis Barrera; and Lyft public policy manager & Latino ERG lead Larry Gallegos.*

Telling the story of Latinx founders in New York

We invited a group of Latino founders to join us this year, thanks to support from Google for Startups, to headline our official workshop at the conference in partnership with BRIC. The speakers included:

Leslie Borrell, founder & CEO of Carefully, a platform for building caregiving networks
Tomás Uribe, co-founder & CEO of Mavity, a platform for sourcing and collaborating with distributed creative teams;
Luis Barrera, co-founder & CEO of Splyt, an app making it easy for friends to save, share, and split expenses.

The founders shared guidance — pulled from their own experiences — on how to expand Hispanic and Latino representation in the tech sector. Among some of their key takeaways:

Access to digital tools is a basic building block that should be universal: The tech ecosystem won’t reflect the diversity of the city overall without key investments in access to broadband and digital equity, small business resources, and other support services.
The tech workforce directly generates the next generation of startups: And that’s why it’s important why the sector prioritizes diversity from the onset. Examining hiring practices and eliminating unconscious bias at every level of the industry ensure we avoid future founder diversity gaps.
The next Google or other global company is going to be built in New York: It’s important we create the conditions, regulatory and civically, that welcome new founders and encourage them to build their businesses here.

A special thanks to our panel moderator Larry Gallegos of Lyft, Tony Riddle and or co-sponsors at BRIC, and the legislative sponsors for our session: Assembly Members Eddie Gibbs, Latrice Walker, and Maritza Davila.

And then, tech ‘tinis

Tech:NYC also hosted its own happy hour this year, alongside several of our member companies, to provide a space for tech companies to interact with elected officials and leaders in San Juan’s tech ecosystem

Spotted at the party: Leaders from several Tech:NYC members, as well as representatives from New York City and State government, the White House, and a cross-section of other nonprofits. At the party, we were also sure to introduce everyone to the leadership team from Parallel18, a local tech accelerator and innovation hub in San Juan.

A big thanks to our sponsoring partners: Airbnb, Amazon, Doordash, and Lyft.

Leveraging cross-ecosystem engagement

During the conference, our team and the founders had a long list of productive meetings with local elected officials: It was great to connect with Assembly Members Michaele Solages, Kenny Burgos, Grace Lee, Catalina Cruz, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s staff; State Senators Nathalia Fernandez and Kristin Gonzalez; and NYC Council Member Amanda Farías to discuss the startup ecosystem, as well topics top of mind for all of us, including AI and workforce development and tech training efforts.

But we couldn’t leave Puerto Rico without connecting with its own local tech scene, too: On the sidelines of the conference, we were proud to partner on a number of startup events with Parallel18, an impressive ecosystem builder affiliated with the Puerto Rican Science, Technology, and Research Trust. The group has a lot of initiatives coming up — including a new biotech hub — we’re excited to support!

Until next year! #Somos2024