How Inclusive Entrepreneurship Lifts a Village Up
Serial Entrepreneur Touches Lives of Underrepresented Communities by Connecting the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
Meet Julius Alejandro, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Village Up, a San Diego nonprofit created to improve access and equity by coordinating resources across the San Diego entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Village Up issued the 2021 Impact Report, which discussed the data and challenges women and women of color founders face when starting and growing their businesses and how Village Up is working to support them. Village Up continues to grow and plans to coordinate a regional summit to help further measure change for underrepresented populations and entrepreneurs in the San Diego region.
Check out the vibe from Village Up events. 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
Amber Tarrac, FounderFuego's Founder and CEO and Richard Lopez, FounderFuego's Chief Learning Officer have attended Village Up events and, as you can tell, this group is diverse, inclusive, includes drinks 🍻, tacos 🌮, and excellent networking 🤝 opportunities to strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem in San Diego - what's not to love?!
Like many entrepreneurs, Julius wears a number of different hats to advocate for the community. Julius is also a venture capital (VC) deal partner for Ganas Ventures, a Latinx VC firm focused on investing in historically underinvested Hispanic and Latinx-founded startups. In this capacity, Julius scouts out early-stage startups that might be a fit for this firm to consider funding.
He is the principal consultant of Julius Alejandro LLC, where he offers marketing services and operations support for startups and works on special projects for nonprofits. He formerly served as an advisor for The Brink SBDC at the University of San Diego. He currently serves as adjunct faculty as the Entrepreneurship & Credit for Prior Learning/Workbase Learning Coordinator for the San Diego Community College District.
Julius was appointed as a Commissioner on the City of San Diego's Citizens Equal Opportunity Commission (CEOC) and supports the monitoring and evaluation of the city's Equal Opportunity Program. The Commission advises and makes recommendations to the Mayor, City Council, Civil Service Commission and other agencies of City government. CEOC assists in the recruitment of historically underrepresented communities, women, and the disabled to apply for city roles.
We asked Julius, where do you get your founder fuel from?
Founder enthusiasm, grit, and hearing their stories of sacrifice is what excites me in the entrepreneurship journey. These entrepreneurs with the drive, momentum, and resilience to persevere excite me to mentor them and provide guidance to help them grow. These founders are making a sacrifice, they understand their "why" and what their motivation is - this is where I get my founder fuel from. These are the "go-getters" that are going to make a difference for our communities!
If you could offer one piece of advice about entrepreneurship, what would it be?
Expect the unexpected. You might try something, and it may work or it may not. I never knew I could reach this level until I tried. Sometimes it's about pitching your idea, getting traction, attracting money, and seeing if the idea works. Sometimes the idea is a hot mess. If you persist and are consistent, you WILL get somewhere.
If you could ask readers to do one thing after reading this, what would it be?
Connect with me on LinkedIn
Visit my website at Village Up
Connect on Village Up San Diego LinkedIn
Connect on Instagram
Sign up for our Village Circle Program. It is $17 a month, where we circulate the dollars back to events for the community. Members receive discounted/free entrance to Village Up events, access to Village Circle only events, and quarterly special offers from local companies. This quarter, the participating companies are:
Radicle Law (legal service)
Nostalgia Coffee Roasters (premium coffee)
KOA+ROY Sustainable Body Care (wellness product)
Simply Luxe (home organizing)
Valle By Lozano (wine tasting in Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico)
To sign up for the Village Circle Program, click here.
