This is the first in a series of profiles of entrepreneurs on The Huffington Post, a preview of my forthcoming book, Pursuit of the American Dream: Success Stories of Today’s Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Luis von Ahn’s new company, Duolingo, has set two very large goals: help users learn a language for free while simultaneously translating the Web. The start up may very well transform both the translation and language-learning industries in the process. Needless to say, von Ahn has a stellar track record for Internet start-ups.

This post originally appeared on Acento.com Just over one year ago, the hottest device since the laptop – the iPad – first launched. One of the first websites the Acento Team checked (probably like many of you) was our own flash-based agency website – Acento.com. We discovered (as expected) that it appeared as a blank page. Steve Jobs famously attacked Flash, promising that his devices would never accept the Adobe-owned development platform. The Web was in transition (again). Gone were the desktops and even laptops.

This article originally appeared in the Fordham Business Review. I recently re-discovered it and wanted to share it here as I found it very relevant today for executives that work in the Caribbean or Latin America. Click here to read the first and second posts in this series. Cultural Identity: Between the United States and Latin America Mr. Molina feels that Puerto Ricans differentiate themselves from the United States culturally and politically through the term “La nación,” (The Nation). “The nation is a cultural term.

This article originally appeared in the Fordham Business Review. I recently re-discovered it and wanted to share it here as I found it very relevant today for executives that work in the Caribbean or Latin America. Click here to read the first post in the series. Cultural Impact: Beyond Language José Molina illustrates that communicating in English goes way beyond language. American business people respect interrupting and getting your point across; whereas, in Latin America they value position power and formal hierarchy. “The higher you

This article originally appeared in the Fordham Business Review. I recently re-discovered it and wanted to share it here as I found it very relevant today for executives that work in the Caribbean or Latin America. In the century since July of 1898 when Puerto Rico became part of the United States, Puerto Rico has experienced incredible changes due to the influx of not only American tourists, but more importantly American business executives and entrepreneurs. They have provided a significant number of jobs to the

This article originally appeared on MediaPost. Does your company’s talent pool reflect the audience segments that will deliver the fastest growth? And have your executives fostered opportunities for a diverse leadership team that can best understand multicultural America? These are great questions to consider as consumers visit your stores, call your 1-800 numbers and buy your products and services. All of us in Hispanic marketing know that Hispanics represent the majority of the population growth. And, in many industries, they represent a substantial portion of

Are you (or do you know) an immigrant entrepreneur or immigrant executive that has a great success story to tell? If so, I would love to hear it. I am collecting stories for my forthcoming book, Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Pursuit of the American Dream. Please leave a comment on this post or email me at joe {at} kutchera.net with your contact information and the details about your company. Immigrants have moved to the U.S. for centuries to escape persecution, create economic opportunity, and pursue the

This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post. Immigrants have sailed to American shores for centuries to escape persecution, create economic opportunity, and pursue the “American Dream.” They bring an extraordinary hunger to succeed and a strong belief in our flexible economic system. Some of our country’s largest companies were founded by immigrants including Proctor & Gamble, Intel, Pfizer, eBay, Yahoo! and Google. Collectively, these businesses generated over $235 billion in 2010 revenues and employed 375,800 people globally. Who are today’s immigrant entrepreneurs and how

This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post. A recent post on WhiteHouse.gov outlines some discouraging statistics on Latinos getting the education they need to succeed later in life: • Less than half of Latino children enroll in any early learning program. • Only half of Latino children earn their high school diploma on time • Those who do finish high school are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college. • Only 13 percent of Latinos hold a bachelor’s degree

This article originally appeared on MediaPost. How should marketers customize a Facebook initiative for the U.S. Hispanic market? State Farm’s Aymee Zubizarreta answered that question during our recent conversation about how the insurance giant found its voice and connected to its Latino audience with content about music, family and culture on the leading social network. Q: This past April, State Farm became the first national insurance company to create a bilingual (English, Spanish) social networking site for Latinos. Why did State Farm launch a Facebook