FinTech Female Fridays: Meet CEO & Co-Founder, Beatriz Acevedo

Financial inclusion is top of mind for this FinTech leader who’s bringing the Latinx community a platform aimed at democratizing building wealth for those who are underserved. Beatriz Acevedo is putting trust and community at the forefront of the FinTech company that she co-founded. Incredibly grateful for the opportunities she has had to take a seat at the table and be included in important decisions, Beatriz is extremely proud to be a part of the Latinx community and to be able to give back in her current venture. We dive into Beatriz’s career arc and the challenges she has overcome, how she is building out SUMA Wealth, her daily diary, and more!

Full name: Beatriz Acevedo

Current job title: CEO & Co-founder

Current company: SUMA Wealth

Current location: Santa Monica, CA

Works from: Home

“I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career and I’m completely aware that I’m an outlier in my community, being an immigrant, a woman, a Latina and still being able to raise capital for every one of my ventures, sit on prominent boards, and be invited to tables where important decisions are made.”

Beatriz Acevedo began her career in media as a kid radio announcer. In her early 20’s, she followed Director Robert Rodriguez’s advice to move to the U.S. “He told me that Americans loved awards, so I arrived in Los Angeles from Mexico City with 3 Emmys under my arm and not much more!” Beatriz produced around 1,000 hours of Television, and then later became a tech media entrepreneur as the Co-Founder and President of mitú, the leading digital media brand for young Latinos in the United States. Since then, Beatriz has pivoted into the FinTech space, launching her company SUMA Wealth, with the mission to help close the wealth gap in her community.

“I am taking a very different approach than most FinTech’s that believe a product is king and that ‘if they build it, they will come.’ The reality is my community (Latinos/as/X’s) are by no means flocking to them. So I am making building trust and community the heart of what we do as we develop our own products and services with deep insights that don’t exist in the marketplace. We have a clear roadmap on how we can help build generational wealth like no one has done before within one generation and that will be our impact.”

Beatriz finds it incredibly exciting to see the democratization of who can build wealth today, particularly in her demographic, where few thought that they belonged in the money conversation. She loves to see the disruption of old ways of banking and investing with the innovation in FinTech making wealth building accessible from our smartphones.

“Now the key for these companies is to make sure underserved communities feel like they are welcomed and that the products were built with them in mind.”

Beatriz is excited for the launch of SUMA’s first product this month, a financial check-up as a freemium resource that they want to scale to millions of people in the community. It's hard to improve what hasn’t been measured, so their team is hopeful that this will give the community a good sense of what they need to improve. Aside from that, they’re also aiming to continue to grow their community (currently at 175,000 in just 3 short months), to build their new MVP by this summer, and to become the most trusted source for anything financial in the Latinx community.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career and I’m completely aware that I’m an outlier in my community, being an immigrant, a woman, a Latina and still being able to raise capital for everyone of my ventures, sit on prominent boards, be invited to tables where important decisions are made, etc.”

Beatriz says that she is still overcoming the disbelief of how she is in these places of privilege, and often wonders if she deserves to be in her position. She is consistently working to overcome her long term struggle with impostor’s syndrome.

Beatriz did not get where she is in her career alone, she has had many mentors along the way, and is especially grateful to have had mentorship from her father. While he didn’t work in the same industries as her, she credits her success to the self confidence that her Dad helped her build.

“I can’t say I had one career mentor who really changed my life, but there have been great colleagues along the way supporting and cheering me on. I try to be a good mentor particularly to other Latina entrepreneurs. I think it’s so important to open as many doors as possible for the next generation right behind you. If you are lucky enough to be in a position of privilege you also have a big responsibility to give back generously.”

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More about Beatriz

Quarantine: I’ve been living in Santa Monica, CA for the entire quarantine. I live in a home by the beach where every single space in the house is taken between my 15 year old teenage twins, Isabela and Diego, my husband Doug, my mother, our bilingual dog Charlie and myself! It is not a quiet home!

Family at home: I live in a multigenerational household, my mother has lived with us since my father passed away 4 years ago. There are a lot of comedic moments having so many generations in one household… Boomers, Gen X, Gen Z, speaking back and forth loudly in both English and Spanish.

Hometown: Tijuana Baja California, Mexico.

Favorite hobby: Cooking, eating and napping.

Favorite part of your day: Cuddling in bed with the family at the end of the day, including the dog!

Productivity hack: I don’t have one! I make lots of lists but not sure this is a hack, it just helps me cross off the most important things I need to get done by the end of the day.

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Daily Diary

Usual Weekday

7:00 am: Wake up and do transcendental meditation.

7:30 am: Quick scan of any timely emails or texts coming from the east coast, might also take a quick timely call.

8:00 am: Peloton or shower depending on how early I need to start my zoom day

8:45 am: quick shower, get dressed, etc.

9:30 am: First call multitasking while eating a quick breakfast, applying makeup with hot rollers on my head!

10:00 am to 3:00 pm: Non stop zoom meetings - I hate zoom so much!

3:00 pm: Lunch with the family (we are Mexican, we eat late!)

3:30 pm: Walk our dog Charlie with my kids Isa or Diego, they take turns - I love to be able to do this during quarantine, I couldn’t when I was at the office.

4:00 to 8:00 pm: Back at work… Follow ups, emails, pitches, reading, etc.

*If I am exhausted I take a quick 20 min break around 6 pm to meditate and reboot!

9:00 to 11:00 pm: Dinner followed by my entire family including the dog and the teenage twins in our bed. We talk about our day, cuddle, laugh, watch some TV, primarily news.

11:00 pm: Prep for next day, read or go on Pinterest to decompress

12:00 am: Lights out!

Usual Weekend

7:00 or 8:00

am: Wake up but try to stay in bed and sleep some more!

9:00 am: Out of bed

10:00 am: Walk with my husband and dog at the beach (weather permitting)

11:30 am: Brunch with the family

1:00 pm: Errands (there is always something we need from the market!)

3:00 pm: Have lunch

4:00 pm: Light work or fun read

5:00 pm NAP!

6:00 pm: I get some exercise (Mirror, Peloton or Trampoline) of course with our SUMA Wealth Spotify playlist!

7:30 pm: What’s for dinner? Order in or cook at home.

8:30 pm: Dinner

9:00 pm: Family Movie

11:00 pm: Shower and head to bed

Reach out to Beatriz on LinkedIn.