Local Latina businesswomen share their entrepreneurial journeys

As we continue celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, KSBY spoke with two Latina women about their journeys as local entrepreneurs.

Latina entrepreneurs are working to beat the odds little by little.

For Silvia Martinez, it’s through food.

Martinez, originally from Mexico, came to the US and started her cooking company Mama Latina Tips in 2012 — teaching her culture through food to over 300,000 people online.

“I love to be able to be at home with my kids and work the hours I want to work and make my own product,” Martinez said.

It's a way she connects with her two children.

“When they get to raise their own families they can go back to the blog and get the recipes from there,” Martinez said.

She is a self-made entrepreneur experiencing opportunities she didn't think possible.

“I create my own content in my blog and I have advertisements in my blog and companies hire me to develop recipes using their products and then write about them so people know how to use them,” Martinez said.

Her friend, Norma Rapko, also runs her own business.

She started out selling her arts and crafts in 1999 and decorating them with crystals using a tweezer. After a couple of years, her work took off.

“I ended up growing that company into hundreds of accounts and stores and hotels selling our products . I started manufacturing these products and we were using tweezers to apply these crystals,” Rapko said.

So, she invented the Crystyler, a product she needed that didn't exist, making her craft work faster than before.

“I glued 700 crystals onto this shoe in less than 40 minutes using my innovative tool,” Rapko said.

Her product can now be found in hundreds of Michael’s craft stores nationwide.

According to a study from McKinsey and Company, Latina founders run nearly 2 million businesses across the country and are the fastest growing cohort of entrepreneurs, but receive less than 2% of venture capital funds.