In the pandemic-induced chaos that is the American economy, angel investor and entrepreneur Manny Fernandez is quickly emerging as a leader in a shifting financial landscape.
Fernandez' list of accomplishments makes for a sterling resume:
• Founder of SF Angels Group focused on tech startups in California's Silicon Valley
• Founder of DreamFunded, a world-class equity crowdfunding platform providing exclusive insider access to some of the most sought-after seed- and later-stage private companies in the country.
• Best-selling co-author of How to Make Money Investing in Pre-IPO Stocks: An Investor's Guide to Building Wealth in Private Companies, available at Barnes & Noble.
• 2014 San Francisco Angel Investor of the Year
• Named Hispanic Shark of the Year by California State Treasurer John Chiang
• Named by Inc. Magazine as one of the top 33 Entrepreneurs to Watch of 2016
One of his early investment successes was TaskRabbit, the same-day service platform recently acquired by IKEA.
Fernandez built on his early success with national television appearances on two Shark Tank-like reality shows, the Oprah Winfrey Network and CNBC's Make Me A Millionaire Inventor. He also has been featured on CNBC Squawk Box, and was showcased in Forbes, Fox News, CNN, and countless other media platforms. He created the first Shark Tank event on Clubhouse, the audio chat platform. It was one of the biggest events on the app and featured Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington, Grant Cardone, and many more major influencers. More than 25,000 people attended the event over a 24-hour period.
Fernandez is a sought-after public speaker on angel investing and other financial topics. He has been a featured guest speaker at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Harvard University, Angel Capital Association Summit (ACA), TiE New York Conference, University of San Francisco, Pepperdine University, Draper University, Plug and Play, Yahoo!, USAWeek in Europe, Qianhai Equity Exchange in China, Intel, California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's (CHCC) Shark Tank, Startup Grind, Milken Institute, AngelHack Global Demo, Slush Singapore, Slush Shanghai, Slush Finland, Startup Weekend, SXSW, and many more.
Early in his career, he was mentored by a Google/ PayPal angel investor who is one of the leading experts in the field.
Fernandez says his motivation for becoming an entrepreneur and going into the investment arena was the desire to create something of his own and establish a brand that he could take pride in.
Judging by his accomplishments to date, most would agree that Fernandez can check that box on his bucket list.
