Photo: Pexels
What Nevada runs on
Of 17 counties, the most common economic types are mining and energy (9), government (4), tourism and recreation (4). Latino-owned firms in Nevada concentrate where the work is — field services, transport and equipment contractors. Construction is worth naming specifically: Latino-owned construction businesses grew 86% between 2017 and 2023 against 2% for white-owned.
What gets reported
"Latino entrepreneurship is on the rise."
— the framing in university press releases, bank small-business marketing, chamber of commerce material and corporate supplier-diversity disclosures.
And it is true. 465,202 Latino-owned employer businesses. Up 44% between 2018 and 2023 while white-owned businesses slightly declined. Revenue up 36%. More than 55% of every net new firm in California and Florida. 72% report a positive outlook on where their business is going.
Every one of those figures is real, and every one of them measures the same thing: formation. How many businesses got started.
What our research shows
The same body of research measures something else, and that figure does not travel.
| What is measured | Latino-owned | White-owned |
|---|---|---|
| Share of all US venture funding | under 2% | — |
| Received the full amount requested | 21% | 40% |
| Given a reason when denied | 51% | 87% |
| Cited immigration enforcement as a business challenge | 15% | 5% |
Formation gets a press release. Capital gets a footnote. Both come from the same survey, in the same year, of the same businesses.
Brown to the back. 465,202 firms are told they are a success story and handed under 2% of the venture capital in their own country. When they ask for money, 21% get what they asked for. When they are refused, 49% are not told why.
The answer offered is that the ventures lack merit. The next page is what the data says about that.
By county
What actually exists
- SBA 7(a) and 504 — federally guaranteed, and the guarantee is the point: it transfers the lender's risk to the government. sba.gov.
- Community Development Financial Institutions — mission lenders that underwrite differently and are federally certified. cdfifund.gov.
- SBA Microloans — up to $50,000 through nonprofit intermediaries, for the requests banks decline without explanation.
- Small Business Development Centers — free counselling and help assembling the package before it goes in. find yours.
- MBDA Business Centers — federal, built for exactly this gap. mbda.gov.
Ask for the denial in writing, every time. A written reason is the difference between a market signal and a closed door — and you are entitled to one under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act for credit applications.
The capital that does arrive is still male. Why SHE Matters is the other half of this argument: Latinas in the work that pays, counted honestly, because brown to the back does not stop at ethnicity.
En español
Menos del 2% del capital de riesgo en Estados Unidos va a negocios latinos — mientras hay 465,202 empresas latinas con empleados, que crecieron 44% mientras las empresas de dueños blancos disminuyeron.
Cuando piden financiamiento, solo el 21% recibe la cantidad completa, frente al 40% de los dueños blancos. Y cuando les niegan el préstamo, solo al 51% le explican por qué — frente al 87%.
No es falta de mérito: cuando sí reciben capital, el monto mediano es de $6 millones, por encima de la mediana nacional, y el 84% fueron rentables en 2024.
El capital que sí llega sigue yendo a hombres. Why SHE Matters es la otra mitad de este argumento.
Pida siempre la negación por escrito. Bajo la Equal Credit Opportunity Act usted tiene derecho a una razón.
Photographs on this campaign are licensed stock used as illustration — not portraits of the owners in the Stanford counts. Full credits: CREDITS.md.