Latinas in Business

Bauer College had a strong presence at the recent 2025 Latina Entrepreneurship Conference, with representatives from the college's Stimulating Urban Renewal Through Entrepreneurship (SURE℠ ) Program featured as speakers and presenters. 

Part of the Dakri Center for Economic Inclusion, the SURE℠ Program has been supporting Houston small businesses for over a decade. Since its launch in Fall 2012, SURE℠ has educated and trained more than 1,500 entrepreneurs and counting. 

This year was the third annual Latina Entrepreneurship Conference, with more than 500 attendees and a variety of panels and workshops that covered marketing, development and finance, which aimed to help uplift and support Latina entrepreneurs.  

One such panel was “Financial Planning for Growth” and covered forecasting, scaling operations and aligning investments with company goals to support long-term business growth.  

The discussion was moderated by SURE℠ Professor of Practice Esther Bailey with panelists Former UH Regent Paula Mendoza and Blue People Chief Innovation Officer Alfredo Arvide. 

Their audience was engaged and eager to learn more about the barriers that Latino and Latina businesses face when they’re trying to grow, Bailey said. She added that one of the more difficult challenges is in access to capital, understanding financial resources, understanding when to use them and how to approach getting them.  

The discussion focused on practical knowledge, such as the financial resources available when building a small business.  

Bailey also mentioned free resources such as the SURE℠ Program, which seeks to find and support small businesses and entrepreneurs who might not have the time or the resources to grow by themselves.  

“We wanted to find a way for the conference and SURE℠ to partner up,” she said. “We want to make sure we’re sharing all the resources with entrepreneurs as far and wide as we possibly can... this was basically an opportunity to share what SURE is to the attendees of the Latina Entrepreneurship Conference.”  

After conference coordinators reached out to SURE, Bailey said she contacted two panelists who she thought would be perfect to speak more on Latinas in business: Mendoza and Arvide.  

Mendoza was the first Latina appointed to the UH Board of Regents from 2013 to 2019. She is President and CEO of Possible Missions and has been a strong advocate for small businesses in the Houston community, specifically Latina owned businesses. 

Arvide is a student in the inaugural Bauer Executive DBA program cohort. He helps run Blue People, a technology company founded in Mexico 10 years ago that moved its headquarters to the U.S. four years ago to expand into the American market. 

He said that when Bailey, his dissertation chair, asked him to participate he saw it as a great opportunity to reach a community of business leaders like himself.  

Arvide’s dissertation relates to the topic they had their panel on. In his research he examines three different types of capital and how it contributes to a person’s business: economic, cultural and social.  

Economic capital is one that most people tend to focus on, Arvide said, which is money, investments and assets. However, he argues that social and cultural capital are just as important.   

Social capital relates back to networking and building connections. Cultural looks at a person’s background and how their education and ideology influence their decisions as business owners.  

Within his dissertation, Arvide asks, “How do those different types of capital affect your success?”  

Their panel primarily focused on financial barriers that Latina entrepreneurs can face. In his research, Arvide has found a trend among Latino-owned businesses that there is a lack of financial literacy. He believes that relates back to cultural capital, stating that in a traditional Latino household, families don’t openly talk about money. 

Arvide said that what he hopes to accomplish through his research is breaking down barriers between Latinos and their business dreams by acknowledging how different forms of capital, such as cultural and social, contribute to them reaching their goals. 

“If you want to get ahead and if you want to scale your business, you have to think a little bit differently from what we were taught,” he said. “Use the advantage that you have from your cultural capital while also forgoing some of those ideas (i.e. not asking for money) that are a hindrance.”  

A message that the group really wanted to get across through their panel was practical insights on how to help groups overcome barriers, Bailey said. With the SURE Program working directly with entrepreneurs, that’s something they’re proactively involved in, she added.  

The Latina Entrepreneurship Conference is one that SURE would be happy to attend again and continue to partner with them, seeing as they share the same mission, Bailey said.  

Arvide added that his company Blue People annually attends different events across Houston that support Latino and Latina owned businesses, and this is one that he would like to continue to be involved in.  

“Social capital is often underestimated, but it’s incredibly important,” Bailey said. “Everybody thinks when starting a business, they need the space and the money, and while this is true, what you need is to figure out what you don’t know... and all of these different opportunities allow someone to grow their network. Even if you’re a sole owner of a business, you cannot do it alone.”