Capital Start-Ups: What We Know and Need to Know about Latino Entrepreneurship in the DC-Metro Region

Abstract

This report presents preliminary data from an unprecedented original survey of more than 200 Latino entrepreneurs in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Researchers have extensively studied Latino-owned businesses throughout the country, paying particular attention to well-established Latino subgroups where they are most highly concentrated, such as Cuban economic enclaves in Miami and Mexican businesses in Los Angeles. However, little research has been devoted to Latino-owned enterprises in Washington, DC, which has emerged as an important new immigrant gateway city, making Latinos the metropolitan area's largest and fastest growing immigrant group, and the fastest growing of all racial and ethnic groups. The predominance of Latinos of Central and South American origin makes this DC a unique case deserving of particular attention. This study begins to fill this knowledge gap about Latino businesses in the DC region, and has a central objective of generating knowledge that will be useful to policy makers and service providers as they develop initiatives to address the needs of Latino entrepreneurs throughout the metropolitan area.

Keywords: Latino entrepreneurship, Washington DC metropolitan area, small businesses, small business owners, Latinos, start-ups, local economy