When Luzy King attended Pitch Latino Seattle in 2024, she thought, “This is what home feels like.” 

The CEO and founder of Say Hola Wealth knew it was something she had to bring back to the Tri-Cities.

Thanks to her lobbying efforts and generous community sponsors, the first Pitch Latino Tri-Cities event took place in March, bringing together seven local business owners to pitch their ideas. More than 200 people attended the event at Kennewick High School.

All of those who participated walked away with $1,000, and one entrepreneur took home an additional $3,000 to kick-start his new business idea. 

Top prize

Jose Chavez, owner of the Little Plant Shop on Richland’s The Parkway, earned the top prize.

Chavez opened the Little Plant Shop in 2021 in Pasco, then shifted to The Parkway location in Richland in November 2022. It was King who encouraged him to apply for Pitch Latino, and from there he was selected as a finalist and assigned a coach.

Chavez’s pitch centered on his idea to open a small, mobile coffee bar on the back patio at his shop to help keep business going during the slow winter months, when fewer people are interested in buying plants. 

After putting together his pitch, Chavez overhauled the entire presentation the night before so that it could be something he loved. 

“I think it was like 100% worth it because it was more of what I wanted to show. I’m glad I changed it, and yeah, the experience was really fun. It was, I’m not gonna lie, it was really nerve-wracking,” he said. But he didn’t lose his nerve and spoke about being a “small business owner and the hardships you face through that.”

The prize money will go toward fixing up his shop’s back patio and getting his coffee shop idea going, he said, though there’s no set timeline yet. 

Winning the money wasn’t the only good outcome from the event.

He also has the opportunity to take his pitch to Pitch Latino Seattle in May, where he’ll have the chance to earn other prizes. 

Chavez said he was also approached after the event by someone with the Tri-Cities Angel Alliance, where he was offered the chance to pitch for them in early April. 

“A lot of really great, positive things came out of participating in Pitch Latino. It just shows, you know, like hard work always pays off,” Chavez said. 

Other entrepreneurs competing included Marcie Torres of Gutter Girl; Saul Martinez of Cafe Con Arte; Michelle Ramirez of Mexicanadas; Veronica Perez of Nanis Bakery; Maria Berberian of Hilo Footwear; and Edward and Sthefany Lee of Pink Concha Cafe. 

While the seven pitchers at a recent Pitch Latino were each awarded $1,000, the real win for the event’s organizers, Latino Founders, was bringing together the entrepreneurs and the community.

| Courtesy Latino Founders

How it works

Pitch Latino is a program from the Portland-based nonprofit Latino Founders, spearheaded by Executive Director Juan Barraza. 

The group launched the event six years ago to highlight Latino entrepreneurs. It’s grown a lot since then, expanding to Seattle last year and the Tri-Cities this year, with plans to head to southern Oregon in June. 

Latino Founders also runs accelerator programs to help scale entrepreneurs so that they can reach $1 million in annual recurring revenues, one of the organization’s goals. 

Pitch Latino starts with an application process, and applicants are narrowed down to those the selection committee thinks are best suited to pitch.

The goal is to have fewer than 10 entrepreneurs pitching to keep the event from going too long. Three minutes of Q&A follow each five-minute pitch.

The Tri-Cities event received 24 applications and seven were selected to present. Latino Founders continues to work with applicants who weren’t selected, preparing them for the next event, Barraza said.

Entrepreneurs who are selected to pitch are notified a month before the event. Each person selected to pitch is partnered with a mentor from Latino Founders to help them work on their pitch. 

“It’s five minutes and it is on a stage. It is in front of people,” said Wendi Ayala Elizarraga, community manager with Latino Founders. “So for a lot of people, that’s very nerve-wracking, and, you know, not something … that they have a lot of practice in, so we do try our best to get them out there and prepared.”

The mentors help with slides and to prepare for the pitch, and then the entrepreneurs do the rest.

Pitching

Though a panel of judges is present, they don’t select the top pitcher but rather act as facilitators for the audience. It’s the audience that decides who should go home with the top prize.

The amount of prize money can vary at events, depending on how much funding the event receives.

Sponsorships from Kennewick Family Smiles and Yakima Federal Savings & Loan, as well as the money from ticket sales, funded the prizes which totaled $10,000.

King worked to secure funding, something Barraza told her was one of the biggest challenges.

“I was really good at connecting with people and securing partnerships” from her previous work, she said. 

But the real win lies in the event itself and being able to bring in entrepreneurs to share their story and their journey because the community gets to know them, Barraza said.

Returning to Tri-Cities

While Barraza said Latino Founders hasn’t yet finalized a road map for 2026’s Pitch Latino events, they plan to be around the region. 

“Entrepreneurship spirit is equally spread across the zip codes and the Tri-Cities area – opportunity is not. So, we are very interested in continuing working and collaborating with the community around the Tri-Cities area to support those emerging entrepreneurs,” Barraza said. 

The Tri-Cities area, he said, is “uniquely positioned to nurture and grow great companies that will have an impact on the local economy and the nation for years to come.”

Go to: latinofounder.com.