3 Lessons Karla Gallardo, CEO Of Cuyana, Learned As A Latin American Founder

Karla Gallardo founded Cuyana in 2011 with the mission of creating quality products that last. She was inspired by her childhood in Ecuador, where she witnessed the importance of heritage craftsmanship and traditional artisanry. “Throughout my childhood in Ecuador, our family lived in a fewer but better way. I was taught to invest in quality items, and take care and repair my pieces, rather than throwing them out. My passion for fashion was formed in an intentional way and this became the basis of our Cuyana vision,” she shared.

Gallardo initially went into investment banking at Goldman Sachs working in the Capital Markets group. She left Goldman in 2008 to get her MBA at Stanford to combine her creative desire to be in the fashion industry with her analytical brain that desired to build a different kind of company. During that time she met her now co-founder, Shilpa Shah. “Shilpa and I met when she was visiting the Stanford campus in late 2009. She too was ready for a new challenge in her life and I recognized we shared many of the same values- an ability to work hard towards a creative and impactful goal. She and I had a shared tenacity that may have come from our unique immigrant journeys. While she was born and raised in the US, I knew we approached business in a similar way. We both valued our upbringing and wanted to see it reflected for other women like us.”

Gallardo’s and Shah’s shared confidence in creating an accessible alternative between high-priced luxury brands and the overconsumption shopping options that were then dominant in the US mixed led them to start Cuyana in 2011. The brand has experienced double digit growth every year since our inception with a robust omnichannel model. “I am proud of what we’ve built at Cuyana, and I am even more proud to be part of a community of people who share my heritage. I once shied away from being labeled as Latin American, because although I was proud of my background, I didn’t want my cultural roots to define my entire story,” she explained. “Now, I see how my background and story is proof for other Latin American females that they are worthy of the position they’ve worked for. Now, I see that as minorities, we had to work twice as hard in order to get recognition or support from the most powerful people in those rooms we entered along the way.”

While Gallardo always knew her background played a role in her journey, she’s learned that her Latin American heritage has impacted her entrepreneurial experience more than she had realized. “As a Latin individual in America, I know that the odds were stacked against me. At investor pitch meetings, my co-founder and I were often the only women in the room. On top of that, I was usually the only Latin American in the room, too. It took years for me to realize how being the minority affected the way we were received in those early meetings. Only .7% of venture capital money in the U.S. is given to women of color. And still, if we were turned away or denied an opportunity, I always assumed it was because I hadn’t proven myself yet. Why would I assume anything was getting in my way besides the fact that I had more work to do?” she reflected.

On the other side of Cuyana’s success, Gallardo has taken time to reflect on her Latin American heritage that has helped her achieve the American Dream. She wants to share what she’s learned as a Latina woman in America to inspire other Latina’s that they, too, deserve to be in the room. Here are the three most imperative steps to success Gallardo has learned as a Latina entrepreneur in America.

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Do The Work

Gallardo acknowledges the fact that many minorities in the US have to work twice, and even three times) as hard in order to be successful. While she does not want to perpetuate this precedent she does believe in doing good work. “Showing up prepared, knowledgeable, and with the confidence that you are capable of demonstrating measurable success is the first step to getting in the room. Good, quality work speaks for itself. When you peel back the labels (whether gender, identity, or cultural labels) good work is good work. Nobody can take that away from you,” she explained.

“I’ve always been the double minority in most of the “rooms” I’ve been in. From my math classes to the trading floor to our investor meetings, there are very few women and individuals of latin descent. I never saw this as a disadvantage as I knew that first and foremost I had to be excellent at what I was doing – labels aside. I achieved top marks on every test, I was the last to leave the Goldman offices, and revised our Cuyana pitch decks over and over again to make them the best possible,” Gallardo shared on how she has always put in the work. “I always strived to exceed my own very high standards. Once I had achieved excellent work, I made sure to open the next set of doors for myself and keep claiming my place. Those doors have continued to open for me, but not without the hard and good work. That comes first.”

Claim Your Place

Once you’ve shown up prepared and confident in your work, you deserve to be in the room, sitting at the table, contributing the work you’re there to do. You are there to be heard. You are there to be seen. Allow yourself to be accepted for the great work you are capable of doing. “One of our mentors Stacy Brown Philpot, the former CEO of TaskRabbit, a member of the Board of Directors of HP Inc and Nordstrom, recently reminded us, “You are not there to get the coffee.” In other words, you are not there to shrink in order to make others feel comfortable,” Gallardo shared.

Gallardo is finally starting to talk about her heritage as part of her story. Although she was never embarrassed to share where she came from, she didn’t want her heritage to be the label that defined her success. Her focus was on building a business that worked, a brand that people loved, and a team that worked well together. Now that she has put those elements into motion, she feels compelled to deeply tie her heritage into her story. “After all, my Latin DNA is the reason we exist – the values of Cuyana are founded deeply on the way I was brought up. I’m ready to take my place as a Latin American entrepreneur,” she added.

Pay It Forward

Once you’re in the room doing the work, make it less difficult for others like yourself to be there. Make those labels—whether gender or sexuality or heritage—represent connection and leadership rather than discrimination and limitations. Rather than gatekeeping what you’ve learned, share it. Be an encourager. Use your labels to connect and become stronger. Being in the room comes with the opportunity to be a mentor, a coach, and a sponsor — an advocate for those around you. “We need all three of these people: A mentor talks to you. A coach talks with you. A sponsor speaks about and for you. Every female entrepreneur needs these types of people in our lives — but we also need to be these people. By being these things, we can break down the barriers that have once kept many deserving and capable people out of the room,” Gallardo explained.

Gallardo reflects on meetings in which she and her co-founder were dismissed, “I can see more clearly how my gender or background impacted our journey. I can see how our success probably took a little longer just because of the extra hoops we had to jump through in order to prove ourselves as capable business leaders. Now, I believe that by building a strong community and sharing our learnings with one another, we can help create equality. We can support each other and empower a younger generation to find their way into the rooms they deserve to be in, too”

She finds the most rewarding part of her success is dedicating her time to mentoring others and giving back to other women who can relate to her story. Gallardo is also leading initiatives to demand action and raise voices within the Latin community in the US and abroad in Latin countries. “I recently began a campaign to end the misrepresentation and erasure of Ecuadorian indigenous toquilla straw weavers by calling for a renaming of the famous “Panama Hat” (Cuyana’s first ever product). For more than a century, the term “Panama Hat” has described the popular flat-brimmed style, which does not recognize our indigenous women’s contributions to Ecuador’s most notable fashion export. With this endeavor, I am using my voice to give rise to the social plight of the voiceless,” she shared.