About Me:
Education & Training
Pedro David Espinoza
Vice President – Silicon Valley Leadership Group
Co-Founder, Pan Peru USA
Pedro David Espinoza is a TED Speaker, entrepreneur, investor, and author. In 2014, Pedro became the founder & CEO of SmileyGo, an app that helped companies invest smarter. His startup gained funding from Frank Baxter (Jefferies CEO) and was part of SkyDeck. In 2017, Janet Napolitano awarded Pedro The University of California Entrepreneur Winner. In 2018, Pedro founded Pan Peru USA, a venture that empowers women to become entrepreneurs. With the support from Bristol Myers Squibb, MSCI, Western Union and First Republic Bank, Pan Peru has grown from empowering 1 to 60 women. In 2019, Pedro wrote a book with Jorge Titinger, with contributions from Eric Schmidt (Google CEO), Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) and Dan Schulman (PayPal CEO). In 2020, his book received The Latino International Book Award #1 Business Book.
Educated at Berkeley, Harvard, & Stanford, Pedro began his career as a mechanic. In 2010, Pedro launched his music singles on Apple & Spotify. Pedro is an investor in companies such as NadineWest, Kiwi and Feed. In 2014, Pedro became an Under 30 Change-Maker and Young Entrepreneur to Watch by IdeaMensch. Given his commitment to sponsor Black & Hispanic entrepreneurs, the Silicon Valley Business Journal recognized him as a 2021 Latinx Business Leadership Honoree.
In 2016, Pedro became a sought-after inclusion speaker. Oracle, Walmart, and Splunk are a few of the companies Pedro has worked with to help them create a culture of belonging. Pedro has given workshops for Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Leadership Teams to help them attract and retain diverse talent. Pedro is working on his second book, The Real ROI: Return On Inclusion. Michael Dell (Dell CEO), John Hennessy (Alphabet Chairman) and James C. Morgan (Applied Materials CEO), are a few of the leaders he’s interviewed.
Pedro has been profiled in Nasdaq, KRON-TV, Univision, Telemundo, Hispanic Shark Tank, Times of Israel, Fox, and Forbes. In 2017, The Voice of America named Pedro “The Robinhood of Technology”. In 2019, Pedro wrote a book Differences That Make a Difference with Titinger (Silicon Graphics CEO) by interviewing 175 executives. Pat Gelsinger (Intel CEO) wrote the foreword. Pedro serves on the boards of Hertz Peru, Autoespar, and GESA.
In 2021, Pedro joined SVLG to lead the 100 Startups Initiative and The Innovators Fund to support diverse founders through funding, resources, and corporate partnerships. Pedro has received recognition for his success, he has received the 2022 HITEC 100 Award – which features the 100 most influential global Hispanic executives in technology.