Latinos A Morir Article

A Cal State San Francisco student in journalism, Claudia Pocasangre, was assigned to write an article about an entrepreneur in SF under the age of 35 and she decided to write about LAM Founder, Giovanni Gonzalez. Check it out:
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Inside the Otis Lounge in San Francisco the lights were dimly lit. The dance room was surrounded by dark purple loveseats and heavy lamp shades, but despite lack of light, Giovanni Gonzalez, host of the Noche de Rock night at the Otis Lounge, illuminated the venue. Gonzalez ran up the stairs to the dance floor and sang a short verse during the middle of the song “El Duelo,” a song by La Ley. His deep confident voice echoed the room, and he clapped his hands to the beat of the Spanish rock ballad. He hurried over to the DJ, his big green eyes wide with excitement as he towered over dancers. He turned the volume down on the DJ equipment right before the chorus of the song began. Instantly, the crowd roared the chorus, “Sin dolor no te haces feliz!” they recited.

Earlier that week, a more studious Gonzalez sat at Tully’s Coffee waiting for his tea to cool, after having a long conversation with his professor. Gonzalez is both an entrepreneur and an engineering PhD student at UC Berkeley. At 28 he is the CEO of Latinos a Morir, a social network of people who love Latin Culture, which is catered to young diverse professionals.“You don’t have to be Latino but you have to be respectable and energetic,” said Gonzalez. What began as small house parties in Berkeley exploded into a large Latino social network, an alternative fundraising mechanism that extends to the East Coast and Southern California. “I never thought I could start a company that would pay more than just my bills,” said Gonzalez.
About eight years ago Gonzalez transferred to Berkeley pursuing a Bachelors degree in engineering with the hopes of finding the right group of friends who share his love for Latin music and culture. Leaving Guatemala at 14, he wanted to recreate the rich party atmosphere found in many Latin America countries that he felt was lacking at Berkeley.

Gonzalez’s search for the right group of friends did not last long. By networking and with the help of his friendly personality, Gonzalez formed an intimate group of friends from various ethnicities. With his group of friends he hosted parties and eventually decided to gather everyone’s e-mail and create a database called Latinos a Morir, or Latinos to the death. Using this database he sent e-mails notifying people of upcoming events. But he continually had to add e-mails to the account as the parties gained popularity. The popularity of the parties inspired Gonzalez to make Latinos a Morir an exclusive group. “Events would get crowded really fast, I kind of lost track of who was coming to the events,” said Gonzalez, “What I did was I made it exclusive, in the sense that in order to become a member of the organization you have to be invited by a member.” “Making the parties exclusive creates more of a demand,” said Gonzalez

Members get into parties for free or at a lower price than non members, and members can invite a guest to the party. “I don’t necessarily pick and choose, I don’t have time, so I trust my members when I say invite your trusted friends.” The result of the membership creates a comfortable party experience, “We want to be more than just parties,” said Gonzalez, “We want to be a network of people who find similarities. At my events people have started companies, have been hired for companies and started dating.” The crowd at the parties usually consists of late 20 to early 30 year old professionals, many whom already know each other, creating a safer atmosphere. “I’ve gotten a lot of members that tell me that they come by themselves, they know they will find people that are respectful,” said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez faced a few obstacles when he decided to create the membership. According to Gonzalez, there was a demand for the event; the problem lied in trying to gain the trust of venue owners and creating a reliable website. “Luckily I use to work. I used my own savings to fund the website,” said Gonzalez. For the website design, Gonzalez spent about $1,000. “At first I hired somebody to do the initial website design, but I wanted more functionality to it and I didn’t have the money to keep paying somebody, so I took it upon myself to learn website design,” said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez’s close friends, and fundraising managers for Latinos a Morir believe that his personality greatly influenced his recent success. Rael Silva DJ’s for most of the parties and he said what he admires most about Gonzalez is his fearlessness. “He gets some idea and runs with, and it might not be the best idea, but he goes with it,” said Silva, “When he started Latinos a Morir he was like ‘this is it, I’m a do it’ and it worked.”

Perla De Anda, who manages fundraisers for Latinos a Morir, met Gonzalez during a ball room dance class at UC Berkeley. De Anda believes that Gonzalez’s natural charisma has benefited his success. “What makes his parties so successful is that he’s a rumbero at heart, he loves to dance and have a good time,” said De Anda
Even after eight years De Anda still admires Gonzalez’s cool. “Balancing between PhD and Latinos a Morir has been tough,” said Gonzalez. However, De Anda believes his attitude has helped him succeed. “He’s very positive, not afraid to ask questions and find things out,” she said.

Gonzalez hopes that in the future he can expand Latinos a Morir to international territory, like South America, but for now his focus is school. His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is: “Instead of going out to party on a Wednesday night, work on that side project. In addition, you don’t need money to launch a business, you can always find money one way or another. Also, read a lot about marketing, networking, and building relationships. Networking is the number one thing to get ahead in life.”
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