If you ask young Latino entrepreneurs like Ricardo Garcia and Nina Vaca how they got so far in business so fast, you will hear similar answers—determination, networking, goal-setting and a teamwork mentality. Such leadership characteristics, coupled with an overwhelming sense of urgency, have enabled these whiz kids to accomplish early on what it takes other successful entrepreneurs until middle age to achieve. There’s a world of possibilities out there, and they let it be known there’s not a minute to spare to get to where they’re going. From technology firms to media companies to tile industries, many young Hispanic entrepreneurs have officially arrived on the scene. They are making an impact in the business world with successful enterprises, civic involvement, and a vision for an even greater future.
Sometimes success comes in accidental ways. Other times career changes are needed in order to make a splash. But each of our representative Latino whiz kids under 35 started early, worked late and refused to give up.
And that’s what sets these prodigies apart. It’s not angel investors, lucky breaks or merely being in the right place at the right time that they depend on. Their common denominators are the passion and endurance to continue pursuing their goals in the face of adversity and sometimes even failure.
Nina Vaca
IT Titan
In less than a decade, Nina Vaca has built her Dallas, Texas-based firm, Pinnacle Technical Resources, into a $10 million operation. “I understood what it meant to run a business from a very young age,” says Vaca, whose parents emigrated from Ecuador in the 1960s.
“I’m doing what I always dreamed of. Entrepreneurship is my true calling.”
Today such Fortune 500 companies as Verizon, IBM, AT&T, Pepsico and Motorola rely on her company for IT services from enterprise data warehousing and custom application development to system/network architecture and call center technologies.
As a result, Pinnacle has grown 13-fold over the past two years and has about 350 employees in 15 major cities. There is yet one more talent Vaca has to her credit: capable mother of three. Vaca, 34, stays home with her kids in the morning, spends evenings with her family, and works just about every other minute she gets, be it midnight or 3 a.m. Call her driven.
“The only way I can manage it all is by having structure,” she says. “I would be a liar if I said I don’t get burned out sometimes. But I remember what I am doing it all for—the family—and it keeps me going.” And Vaca plans to keep right on going. The goal is for Pinnacle to one day act as a holding company for myriad businesses. She’s already taken the first step toward that goal. She launched a call center staffing company, Excelsior Services, in April. The company is already generating $6 million and employs 180 people