New York entrepreneur launches website for tween Latinas
Posted by Elena del Valle on October 14, 2008
Hip Chicas homepage – click on image to enlarge
Images: HipChicas.com
After extensive research Lazaro Fuentes created animated characters with young Latinas in mind. In 2007, he launched HipChicas, a website for tween Latinas. The new virtual world is open to English and Spanish speaking girls in the Americas. Still in beta trials organizers hope to entice 100,000 registered users to the site with a special promotion.
The first 100,000 people to register for the HipChicas.com Beta trial will receive a Hip V.I.P. membership and online badges to show that they are the pioneers to the HipChicas.com world as a reward.
Hip Chicas – click on image to enlarge
In HipChicas.com, registered members follow the antics of the Hip Chicas, five Latina characters from different parts of the U.S. that are in a popular band on tour. Their personal mission while on tour is to Help Improve the Planet [HIP] at each stop.
Lazaro Fuentes, creator, Hip Chicas brand
“We felt that there was a need for content that kids would like that parents would approve of,” said Fuentes, creator of the Hip Chicas brand. “It’s as if somewhere along the line, someone decided that being hip meant that girls had to dress or act inappropriately, or had to fit into a specific mold and that their only interests are picking hair colors or shopping for clothes. They are far more than that and are looking for content that gets them; a higher level of engagement. These are kids that want to save the world, be in a band and start a blog all in one day.
Hip Chicas is a brand for the 21st Century, updated for a digitized, multi-screen and multi-lingual world, in order to be everywhere the audience is. We are proud of our efforts and feel confident that it will meet with the parents’ approval, and most importantly the users’. That is a must if you are going to succeed in digital media today.”
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Fuentes developed Hip Chicas to be an empowering brand option for tween girls; he hopes parents find the website smart and appropriate and young girls find the characters hip and fun.
The members of the Advisory Board are: Antonio Perez, president, Borough of Manhattan Community College; Maria Sanchez Smith, former advisor to the World Bank on Women’s Micro-lending; John Billock, former president of HBO and past chief operating officer, Time Warner; Jose Rodriguez, partner, Latin American Capital Partners private equity firm; Michael Barr, chief executive officer, iPromote.com and former managing director, Investment Banking at The Rothschild Bank; Walid Kamhawi, managing director, The Blackstone Group; Kenneth Lamb, partner, Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher; Dimitry Herman, partner, Hinckley, Allen and Snyder; Adam Pritchard, vice president, Yahoo, Inc.
Fuentes owns 100 percent of the shares of the Hip Chicas company. The Company is fully funded by him and he is the sole Board Member. Options for shares total 30 percent of the company and are held among the management team, partners and the advisory board.
In addition to Fuentes who is chief executive officer and director, the management team includes: Randy Baker, chief financial officer; Wendy DeMarco Fuentes, vice president, Marketing and Public Relations; Gabriel Magana , vice president, Operations, Mexico; and Hernan Sanchez, vice president, Operations, Argentina. The name of the vice president of Finance and Business Development was withheld “for privacy.”
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