Spain

Dr. Luis Estévez

Episode 39: College? If at First you don’t Succeed, Try Again!

Meet Dr. Luis Estévez, an entrepreneur who has taken advantage of the opportunities presented to him with the same drive characteristic of people who come to this country in search of a better future.

Dr. Estévez grew up in Queens, NY and was born into a blue-collar family to parents from Spain and Chile, and grew up working in the restaurant business from age 8. He got into college at age 18 and after a couple of years, he decided to go back to NY and work at his parents’ restaurant. It wasn’t until almost 10 years later, that he decided to go back to college, and this time he was all in!

Dr. Estévez has a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University, he now owns his business called Advanced and Innovative Multifunctional Materials (AIMM), and likes to say that he won the “genetic lottery”, but we know he has worked hard to take advantage of every opportunity presented to him. 

He is also a podcaster and has created a space called What’s the PhDeal, to help demystify the PhD degree, and to help new PhD students navigate the process and have a better chance of succeeding. 

Check out What’s the PhDeal here: https://realphdeal.com/ 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7JsREAfp4KKBYad21hfskj?si=21RlTi1WTbWa5Lo6dCBFFQ&nd=1 

Also, check out the amazing work AIMM is doing here: https://www.aimmlabs.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-estevez-9187a31a/ 

Juliana Garaizar

Episode 29: About the Funding Gap in Venture Capital and Ways to Address it


Meet Juliana Garaizar, an experienced investor whose career has evolved into one focused on supporting inventors from minority groups, including women. Juliana has lived in multiple countries. She was born in Bilbao, Spain, and lived in France where she obtained an Erasmus scholarship to complete her last year of university studies. She also lived in Singapore while working for the Spanish Trade Commission, and now lives in Houston, Texas, where she serves as the head of Houston incubator Greentown Labs. Juliana explains to us the funding gap in venture capital and some of the factors that help perpetuate the problem. She encourages us to cultivate our network, and to aim to diversify our sources of income, so that when our values don’t align with our jobs, we have an easier time doing something about it.  Juliana also offered a different perspective about the imposter syndrome, and explains how microaggressions can put us down without us even recognizing them, leading to us losing confidence that can be mistaken as the imposter syndrome. Lastly, Juliana encourages us to learn more about investing, so that even if we don’t have large amounts of money, we can still support inventors looking to develop ideas that can solve problems experienced by women and minorities.  

Some of the opprtunites mentioned during this episode:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliana-garaizar-8443b7/ 

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