San Diego Companies to Watch in 2021 | January 28

Luis Martinez, MSOL is an Afro-Latino from Honduras and raised in Brooklyn, New York with an M.B.A. in Organizational Leadership, Luis is an advocate, networker and ecosystem builder.

A Former Pro Basketball Player and U.S. Navy Veteran, currently he is the Founder/CEO for “We Tha Plug '' WTP works with Pan-African & Latinx founders and startups at all levels. (Ideation Phase to Pre-Seed & Series A Round). We Tha Plug empowers Pan-African, Latinx and other minorities & underrepresented founders as well as Minority Venture Capitalist and Angel Investors in the Startup, Tech & Innovation space.

The overall mission of “We Tha Plug” is to raise the awareness of innovation in Black and Latino communities in technology and create an ecosystem for entrepreneurs from grassroots to professional levels. We have over 100 Black & Latinx Founders in our organization across the U.S. and abroad. We want to provide a global ecosystem that gives founders access to startup fundamental education, mentorship, programming, and access to funding.

Luis felt the need to create a movement aimed at creating the super ecosystem for Pan African & Latinx Founders, Venture Capitalist & Angel Investors. The lack of access and information about tech and innovation that flows to these underrepresented communities is causing these communities to be behind in Math, Science & current Technology.

Also, there is a disconnect between minorities that have been successful in tech & innovation and those back in communities in which they came from. By creating “We Tha Plug”, Luis is connecting businesses, organizations, and individuals, leveraging their resources and talents to build a stronger Pan African & Latinx tech and innovation community through collective efforts.

Craig Cecilio is the CEO and Founder of DiversyFund, a loving husband, and a dedicated father to three beautiful daughters. A family man at heart, Craig’s mission is to break down the barriers that keep most Americans from investing like the privileged, well-connected, and wealthiest 1% in our country. Craig believes the American Dream should be available to everyone, regardless of socio-economic status. That's why he founded DiversyFund in 2016. With DiversyFund's wealthtech platform, Craig combines the power of crowdfunding with cutting-edge technology. Craig is a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, earning a bachelor's degree in 1996. He received his California real estate license in 1998. Before DiversyFund, he sat on the board of ARTs (A Reason to Survive) which promotes art as a means of therapy for children.

I wish to play a positive role in the technology revolution that is happening these years in the Precision Medicine/Omics/Digital Biology space, where biology and digital compute power are getting directly connected and allowing us unprecedented insight to life and diseases.

Digital Biology is starting to empower the Life Science Industries in a way that will make our current Healthcare system look very very outdated.