162: Laura Maydón (Business Leader, Investor, & Advisor)

Laura Maydón on Innovation City

“It is clear through the years that inclusion and diversity drive innovation. The more diverse views you have, that’s better for everyone.” – Laura Maydón

Welcome to Season 3 of Innovation City, a podcast featuring innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s guest is business leader, investor and advisor, Laura Maydón, former Managing Director and CEO of Endeavor’s first U.S. affiliate, Endeavor Miami. Laura is currently an advisory board member of NovoPayment and Sustalytics. She’s also Co-president of the Harvard Business School Club of South Florida. In this episode, Laura sits down with the team to discuss her journey from Mexico City to Harvard Business School to Miami, as well as innovation in Miami, the importance of inclusion, and much more!

They discuss:

• Her passion for helping people
  • She advises entrepreneurs
  • Thinking about purpose
  • Interested in helping women across the board, as well as Hispanics and minority groups
• Identifying who she can help
  • Main focus is on entrepreneur
  • She looks for those who listen, think big, are willing to be flexible
• Laura’s journey
  • She grew up in Mexico City
  • Harvard Business School MBA
  • Private equities, investing, focusing on Latin America
  • The fund closed, and Laura came to Miami
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • The decision to stay in Miami
  • She joined Visa
• The Miami of Laura’s past and now
  • The evolution has been great
  • That’s why she brought Endeavor here
  • Wants her daughters to grow up in a city where they will have diverse experiences
• What does Miami need to grow in innovation?
  • You need a thriving community, companies that are growing, and talent
  • Purposefully inclusive talent
  • Inclusivity and diversity drive innovation
• Specific strategies to create inclusive spaces
  • No one rule fits all
  • Be open to see different people join your team
  • Reach beyond your own network
• Relationships she has built outside her traditional circle
  • Always purposeful about reaching out to people
  • Focuses where she can bring something to the table
• Other ways to be purposeful and drive inclusion
  • Collaboration
  • Leveraging community-based activities
• Get in touch with Laura: LinkedIn @Laura Maydón, Twitter @LIMaydón, lmaydón@gmail.com

Lightning Round:

1. What risk are you happy that you took?
   • To launch Endeavor, the first U.S. affiliate. And then stepping down from it.
2. What is most important to you?
   • My family. And being able to fulfill my purpose, which means having impact in the community.
3. What does impact mean to you?
   • Being able to change for the good.
4. What question would you ask a fortune teller?
   • Where can I fulfill my purpose?
5. What is something new you recently tried and love?
   • Exercising more frequently. Peloton, for sure.
6. What does this world need more of?
   • Empathy and people who care for each other.