Our identities are what make us unique, and this uniqueness should not only be highlighted but also celebrated. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we are honored to feature these incredible businesswomen who are blazing a trail and setting a standard in their industries.
Being an entrepreneur and founder often requires you to be a brand as much as your company is one. From meeting investors, building teams, joining a community of fellow founders, and fulfilling their mission, founders have to show up every day. Our cultural identity makes us unique, and even though embracing this uniqueness is not always well received, these founders understand that being our authentic selves cannot be compromised.
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, founders Eva Goicochea, Stefanie Garcia Turner, Lisa Morales-Hellebo, and Vanessa Deleon share their enthralling stories and perspectives on how they’ve embraced their roots as they navigated their careers and how this has been crucial to their success.
Read their stories ahead…
Stefanie Garcia Turner
Stefanie Garcia Turner is the founder and CEO of TUYYO (“tu y yo” or “you and me”). She began working on her brand in 2020 with her first product line, instant agua fresca powdered drink mixes, debuting in 2022 followed by her instant coffee line launching in 2023. She drew inspiration from her Hispanic heritage and her childhood memories of the enjoyment she had when all her family would gather at the table and enjoy great food and drinks while discussing a variety of engaging topics. While Stefanie has built her career in the natural products industry, having worked at Whole Foods Market and celebrity-founded brands The Honest Company and This Saves Lives, she noticed that nothing much had changed in the Latin American grocery scene for decades.
Stefanie is on a mission to bring better-for-you drink options that evoke the nostalgia of her childhood that everyone can enjoy and add some Latin flare to these outdated grocery aisles. Stefanie’s business recently received an investment from Emory University’s Peachtree Minority Venture Fund which will help fund her growth in Texas and along the West Coast. TUYYO can be found on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Pinterest at @tuyyofoods.
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Speaking on how embracing her Latin roots has played a role in her success, Stephanie shared…
Embracing my identity as a 1st generation Latina didn’t really happen for me until I was in my late 20s. While I was always proud of my Mexican heritage, I was one of those kids whose parents did not teach them Spanish because they were afraid that my siblings and I would not have the same opportunities that other American kids might have if we were seen as different.
I also moved around a lot as a kid, living in mostly Caucasian neighborhoods and on military bases with my dad being in the Coast Guard. I only got a sense of my “whole self” when my family would travel back to San Antonio to visit our relatives and Spanish was the main language spoken, of which I would do my best to follow.
One thing that I always had though was our Mexican food, and my mom would make us dishes almost every night that were authentic to who we are. I believe that because of this simple action, I grew a passion for the food and beverage space and ended up with a career in it. As I navigated my way through, I was almost always the only Latina in the meeting rooms, sometimes in the whole building. The funny thing is, I didn’t think much about that fact.
“My heritage or being a woman was never something I saw as a barrier”- Stefanie Garcia Turner
I was always driven to achieve and my heritage or being a woman was never something I saw as a barrier. It may have been naivety, but I just went after the things I wanted and if I had to work harder for it than others, I did and I didn’t think twice about it. This approach may have actually helped me because I didn’t get caught up in being the Latina with the last name Garcia. I recognize now though, that this perseverance is something I truly believe that we Latinas innately have. We make things happen, we don’t let other’s opinions of us keep us back or down. As I work on growing my new business, I now embrace my “whole self” as the Spanglish-speaking 1st generation Mexican American from San Antonio, Texas and I feel even more prepared to achieve my goals.
I know what it’s like to not feel a whole part of one culture, but my superpower is understanding both of my cultures and using that to make the decisions that are critical to building a Latin-influenced business that will be embraced by people from any culture.
Vanessa Deleon
Vanessa Deleon is an Interior Designer, influencer, and lifestyle expert. She describes her style as modern with an incorporation of classic decor in residential, commercial, and hospitality venues.
She has run her business Vanessa Deleon for over two decades, including a Tile line, a newly launched Lighniing line, and a Furniture line in the works. Deleon has been featured on several networks from Bravo to HGTV and has won several awards including Tilebar-Designer of the Year, Berkeley College-Women’s Empowerment Award, and Ceramic Tiles of Italy Design Award to name a few.
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Speaking on how embracing her Latin roots has played a role in her success, Vanessa shared…
As an interior designer and expert in my space, I am constantly inspired by my Cuban roots as I embrace my heritage and admire those who do the same. Being that I’m a woman and a Latina, just embracing the differences of others, I feel that in return what goes full circle, comes back like a hurricane. Therefore, I treat everyone with respect, kindness, and love.
Lisa Morales-Hellebo
Lisa Morales-Hellebo is the Founder and co-managing GP at REFASHIOND Ventures: the Industrial Transformation Fund with 28 years in tech, design, and systems thinking. She is passionate about entrepreneurship and community building. Lisa is catalyzing the paradigm shift to localized fashion demand chains as CEO and Founder of REFASHIOND OS (rOS), which is orchestrating the digitization of local fashion value chains, from fibers to finished goods; delivering sustainability, living wages, and better margins; Made in the USA. She is also a founder of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation, an organization that is changing how supply chain professionals learn about, collaborate, and adopt early-stage supply chain innovation around the world. She is the author of two books and has been the recipient of several awards; including Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine’s Top Woman in Supply Chain 2022, Top 100 Women in Supply Chain 2020, 2021, 2022, & 2023; and WWD’s Most Influential ESG Leaders 2023.
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Speaking on how embracing her Latin roots has played a role in her success, Lisa shared…
Most of my life was spent trying to fit in and not embrace my authentic self, including my Puerto Rican heritage, initially out of self-preservation and later in my career as a result of trying to please my bosses. What I’ve learned is that it is better to embrace all the unique aspects that make you who you are so that your people can be attracted to your light rather than chasing people who will always want to diminish it.
“Getting good at identifying whether people want to champion and amplify you versus diminish you or dull your shine is the key to achieving even your loftiest goals.” – Lisa Morales-Hellebo
Our unique differences are the source of our superpowers. If people are telling you to change or “tone down” the things that make you stand out, they are not your people. Getting good at identifying whether people want to champion and amplify you versus diminish you or dull your shine is the key to achieving even your loftiest goals
Your potential is increased or diminished by the people with whom you surround yourself, so getting good at identifying my champions has helped me to see that there are no limits to what I can achieve if I surround myself with the right people.
Eva Goicochea
Eva Goicochea is a former legislative aide and the founder of Maude – an inclusive modern sexual wellness company launched in 2018 and the first-ever intimacy brand at Sephora. To date, she is one of only 10 Latinas to raise over $10 million in CPG and was voted Entrepreneur’s 2019 100 Most Powerful Women, Inc.’s Female Founders 100, and in 2023 was Vogue Business’ 100 Innovators—Beauty Disruptors in 2023.
She is on the Board of Advisors for Oyster Sunday and past board seats include Peer Health Exchange (NYC) and a seat on the Advisory Council of Women in Innovation (WIN). Eva is passionate about mentoring other founders through Founders’ Weekend an online resource and offline retreat for those building companies.
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Speaking on how embracing her Latin roots has played a role in her success, Eva shared…
I was born in Albuquerque, and I’m a proud 17th-generation New Mexican of Indigenous and Spanish descent. My experience was interesting. My dad’s family—Spanish-American—converted to Mormonism in my great-grandfather’s generation and my mother’s side—Mexican-American—is Catholic while both of my parents are spiritual nonbelievers. There was always a glaring paradox between my grandparents who were religious and traditional while my parents were forward-thinking artists.
My mom gave me a copy of Our Bodies, Our Selves when I was young, and she would talk to me about sexual health from an early age. Everything was biologically factual and spoken about in this normalized, de-stigmatized way. Meanwhile, you go to grandma’s house and it’s all about abstinence until marriage with no discussion beforehand. I’m sure that’s many people’s experiences within Latino households.
A big piece of my childhood in New Mexico was being around teenage pregnancy in my own family. It was one of those things that you didn’t talk about, but you saw, which really highlighted the disparity in terms of health access. I became a legislative aide in healthcare during my twenties and then went to work for brands. I saw the application of narrative and commodification of products in this start-up DTC (direct-to-consumer) ecosystem and thought, what do I want to do every day? What do I care about? In the corporate setting, I am the least likely to start a sexual wellness company, in some ways—I’m a pretty private person and I don’t talk publicly about my own sex life.
I think I was meant to start this company to represent the sentiment that more people feel around fear, shame, and guilt while also wanting to be private and holistic about the approach. It came down to changing people’s lives for the better, especially when it comes to cultural and social impact. To me, there is not a better category. Having that childhood and then my adulthood around healthcare was critical to me realizing I could take it on.
Eva Goicochea, Stefanie Garcia Turner, Lisa Morales-Hellebo, and Vanessa Deleon joined other founders on October 11, 2023 for a panel conversation on the Celebrating Latina Disruptors VIP Breakfast put together by Sandra Campos and Cate Luzio.
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!