Over 2 million business are currently fighting to stave off bankruptcy. Many of these are Hispanic-owned small businesses who lack the necessary resources to meet today’s unprecedented challenges. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, ex-McKinsey expert David Sardi knew he had to do something to help his community. “These aren’t rich corporations – they are real people that need to feed their families,” he told IQLatino.
David was born and raised in Cali, Colombia. Though he’s lived in the United States for over 15 years, he’s passionate about maintaining ties with his home country. He was married in Cartagena, and speaks to his two sons, Leo and Gael, exclusively in Spanish in hopes that they will maintain his same pride in being Hispanic.
For most of his career, David has been a professional consultant in Washington, DC, most recently with McKinsey & Company as a senior engagement manager. He has specialized in helping businesses ideate, build, and launch new products and businesses, leading launches for products that are now worth over $1B dollars. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit, David decided to leave McKinsey in order to focus on teaching everything he learned by helping Fortune 500 companies to everyday Hispanic businesses, which he knew would be severely affected.
“I started by doing some light pro-bono consulting work in my neighborhood and the response was amazing – I couldn’t keep up with the requests. I helped a daycare pivot their business and stay afloat when they lost their customers to the pandemic, and helped a restaurant renegotiate their lease with their landlord, saving them $30,000 in 2020,” he told us. To be able to reach more people and businesses, he decided to launch DineroHispano, a free, weekly newsletter for Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs and small business owners.
“There are 43 million Hispanics in the US that still learn mostly or entirely in Spanish. Think about that – that’s more than the entire population of California,” David explained. These people could not easily learn to grow or start a business from the existing resources, which David calls atrocious. They can now turn to DineroHispano to receive free, valuable advice and tips to apply to their businesses.
David’s main difficulty has been getting the word out. Though subscribers have shared and forwarded DineroHispano’s emails, which has helped them grow quickly, David would like to accelerate the efforts to expand and be in the inbox of over 100,000 Hispanics by the end of the year. “I want to help our community and won’t stop until every Spanish speaking Hispanic knows that these resources exist, and that we’re here for them,” he said.
As for advice to fellow Latinos who would like to start a venture or project in the United States, David encourages them to subscribe to the newsletter! A series of articles on this topic can be found here. Three tips he would give are:
- Your business idea should merge three things: something you’re good at, something you’re passionate about, something that solves a real problem for a lot of people.
- You need to validate your business idea before launching it – talk to your friends, colleagues and potential customers. Listen to them, especially when they tell you things you don’t want to hear.
- Don’t give up. There will be lonely times, it’s important that you surround yourself with mentors and people that will boost your energy when you think you won’t make it.
Subscribe to DineroHispano, or check them out on Facebook to learn more about David’s important work in helping the Latino community through these difficult times.