Technology entrepreneurship runs in the family for Jennifer Lopez.
We're not sure how good he is at singing, but David Lopez - father of superstar and recent mobile technology entrepreneur Jennifer Lopez - is a Hispanic technology startup investor and accelerator.
Lopez co-founded Manos Accelerator, along with Edward Avila and Silvia Flores, to provide the connections, networking, and support that Hispanic technology startups need to succeed. According to Forbes, Lopez's Manos got a lot of attention this summer when Google's partnership program, Google for Entrepreneurs, announced that it would support the venture.
Manos Accelerator - which has the mantra "Dream Big, Believe More, Act Now" - was created to develop the Latino community and accelerate the growth of startups through fostering untapped entrepreneurial talent. With less than 1 percent of venture-backed startups founded by Latinos, according to the Manos Accelerator site, but so much science, technology, and engineering knowledge and experience in the Latino community, the venture hopes to address the dearth of Latino-led startups.
It does this by offering a mentorship-driven program that provides hands-on education, along with the business resources, infrastructure, capital, and guidance needed for a startup to move from start to success.
The capital - both financial and social - is especially where David Lopez lends a hand, as he helps Manos reach out to power brokers, celebs, and investors, according to the short Forbes profile on JLo's Dad. Mr. Lopez also has business experience, after coming out of a possible retirement from working as a computer specialist for a big insurance company to help his daughter Jennifer - who was already a huge star - start and run the Madres Restaurant in Pasadena, California.
The other support and learning comes in the form of a 3-month program which includes mentorship, workshops, networking parties, engaging startups with influential Silicon Valley business leaders, and a demo day, where each participating startup demonstrates their product or service to a crowd of angel investors, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs (and, who knows, maybe celebrities). Potential startups for the accelerator program are identified and selected by Manos at the start of each 3-month program. About six to eight startups are chosen.
Manos Accelerator, based in San Jose, California is founded by David Lopez and two younger founders, Edward Avila, who has worked as an HR executive at several high-tech Silicon Valley companies, and Sylvia Flores, who is an engineer and entrepreneur who, among other ventures, has worked with former President of Mexico Vincente Fox to establish a technology incubator for Mexican entrepreneurs, also in Silicon Valley. She also worked as an engineer at IBM, after earning a chemical engineering degree from San Jose State University.
Of course, Jennifer Lopez is also involved in a Latino technology business, being the spokesperson and design guru behind Verizon Wireless's Viva Movil - a wireless service and high-tech boutique launching in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Miami. Viva Movil aims to create a better, premium mobile device shopping experience. Its first boutique launched earlier this summer in downtown Brooklyn.