Yoli Rabadan Barragan, founder of traditional Mexican bakery Barro, wowed the crowd Tuesday night at this year’s Pitch Latino event.
She took home the top prize, a $7,500 grant, at the event, which took place at the Redd on Salmon, that featured nine founders pitching products including a new lightweight travel trailer, an online platform aimed at helping Gen Z explore careers, and a coffee company that shares its revenue with farmers.
Barro specializes in Mexican bread, cookies and pastries. The company sells at farmer’s markets and other events. Barragan said this money will go toward her effort to open a storefront.
Barragan said her business is not only a way to make foods that she craves, it's also a link to her heritage and cultural identity — and that, she told the crowd, is an important element of the business.
“(Selling her goods) is also a chance to educate. People ask what this is, well, be prepared for a three-minute discussion of what it is and why it’s important,” she told the crowd.
The audience voted on the winner and 170 votes were cast. All of the participants received $2,500 grants and Barro took the big prize. The prize money came from a grant from Oregon Community Foundation as well as ticket sales.
Pitch Latino is part of the nonprofit Latino Founder, which has received support from Oregon Community Foundation in the form of a $200,000 grant from its Latino Partnership Program. Latino Founder has coalesced over the last four years after a series of ad hoc events including Startup Weekend Latino and several past Pitch Latino events. This year, organizers also launched an accelerator for companies with Latino founders.
Commissioner Carmen Rubio attended this year's event and announced a $125,000 grant for Latino Founder.
“This work and your voices are needed for our community,” she said. “Change and inclusion of our innovators and entrepreneurs only happens if you demand it.”
She added, “It is my intention this is only the beginning of our partnership with the city.”
Here’s who pitched in addition to Barro:
- 360Sierra: Founder Paola Restrepo Tafur and Andres Valejo have created a lightweight travel trailer that can be towed with a small car or an EV. The trailer has a bed, pull-out kitchen, power ice chest and solar panels. They launched sales three months ago and have sold four units.
- Ballroom: Founder Fernando Rojas is developing a new social network that is designed around local discovery and real social connection. He is aiming at helping people who move to new towns find not only activities but new friends in a video-first platform. The app is in private beta.
- Parra Wine Co.: Sam Parra is a winemaker focused on giving visibility to Latinos in the industry. He told the crowd the U.S. has 7,762 wine brands but only 105 are Latino-owned. He launched his brand in 2019 and has a canned wine under the label Vino de Oregon that sold out its first offering. He is set to release a hibiscus-infused wine.
- Life Stages: Founder Zulma Terrones is developing a science-based wellness app to help people build sustainable skills for better managing mental health. The app will be direct-to-consumer and generate revenue from subscriptions. The startup has participated in REI’s Path Ahead Ventures.
- Love Preferred Coffee Co.: Founder Enrique Sanchez-Rivera is building a coffee company focused on also helping the farmers who grow the beans through tips and revenue share. The company focuses on coffee from four regions of Columbia. The company also has a radical transparency ethos and allows customer to track where the tips and revenue share money goes.
- Nico’s Ice Cream: Founder Nico Vergara is introducing New Zealand-style soft serve to the U.S. The ice cream is made from a vanilla base that has fresh fruit mixed in using a special machine. The company started two years ago with a pushcart in Portland and now has grocery distribution in Oregon and Washington and two retail stores.
- Future Gen: Founder Eddie Mazariegos is building an online tool to help young people — read: Gen Z — explore careers that is more dynamic and video-focused than current tools. The app is designed to help match personal interests and talents to career paths.
- Loco por la Aventura: Founders Maria Teresa Lopes and Anibal Rocheta are working to be a bridge between the Latino community and outdoor activities. They organize outdoor activities like hiking, camping and climbing and offer how-to information in Spanish. In the last three years they have built a reach of 5,000 people and held 35 activities this year. Rocheta is a veteran mountaineer and climbing instructor and is the first Latino climbing leader for Mazamas.
