Startup founders and VCs keep missing out on a significant market segment, OVO Fund investor Ilse Calderon wrote recently in TechCrunch. Entrepreneurs who solve problems for this group have the potential to “create companies with venture-like returns,” she predicted.
A member of the Hispanic community herself, Calderon calls this audience the “Hypercultural Latinx,” a second-generation Hispanic who is 100% Hispanic, 100% American, and frequently identifies as Gen Z or a young Millennial.
“As an investor, I often find myself reduced to frustration with the lack of founders and investors committed to exploring audience segments outside cookie-cutter ones,” she wrote. “If you are more driven by quantitative data, know that paid spend targeting this Hypercultural Latinx could result in lower click cost rates and higher engagement.”
In the US, the average age of a Hispanic person is 28 compared to 42 for their white counterparts — and that increase in prime spending years means dollars for businesses, according to Calderon.
For our regular curation of must-read innovation and tech news, the Plug In South LA Beat, we’re finding out why the tech community has been so slow to embrace this group: