Pedro David Espinoza is a TED Speaker, entrepreneur, tech investor, and author. In 2014, Pedro became the founder & CEO of SmileyGo, an app that helped companies invest smarter. SmileyGo indexed the data of 1.5 million NGOs in addition to having users in 30 countries. Incubated at SkyDeck, his startup gained funding from 1517 Fund, Frank Baxter, Jack Larson, and Haas Seed Fund. In 2017, Janet Napolitano awarded Pedro The University of California Entrepreneur Winner. In 2018, Pedro founded Pan Peru USA, a venture that empowers rural women to become entrepreneurs. With the support from KPMG, Bristol Myers Squibb, MSCI, and Western Union, Pan Peru has scaled from empowering 1 to 100 women. In 2019, Pedro wrote his first book with Jorge Titinger with contributions from Eric Schmidt, Reed Hastings and Dan Schulman. Pedro's first book – Differences That Make A Difference – attracted 150 CEOs as writing contributors such as Pat Gelsinger who wrote the foreword. His book received The Latino International Book Award #1 Business Book.
Educated at Berkeley, Stanford, and Harvard, Pedro began his career as a car mechanic. In 2010, Pedro launched his singles on Apple, Amazon, and Spotify. Pedro is a venture investor in companies such as KiwiBot, MoCaFi, Noyo, Paladin, and Praava Health. In 2021, The Silicon Valley Business Journal recognized him as a Latinx Business Leadership Honoree.
In 2016, Pedro became a distinguished keynote speaker on DEI. Oracle, Visa, and Cisco are some of the companies Pedro has helped create a culture of belonging. Pedro has given 300 speaking engagements for leadership teams to help them attract diverse talent. In 2021, Pedro became a Special Advisor to Blue Shield’s Promise Health Plan Chief Medical Officer Dr. James Cruz. That same year, Pedro became a lecturer at Tecnologico de Monterrey to teach entrepreneurship and engineering. In 2024, Pedro's second book – The Real ROI: Return On Inclusion – was published, attracting 50 CEOs such as Michael Dell, John Hennessy and Shellye Archambeau.
Pedro has been profiled in Nasdaq, Univision, Telemundo, Hispanic Shark Tank, Times of Israel, KRON-TV, Fox and Forbes. In 2017, The Voice of America named Pedro "The Robinhood of Technology”. Pedro serves on the boards of Melzi Surgical, Norte Dame De Namur University, ActAware, synergEV, CuriOdyssey, and the Silicon Valley Tech Academy.
In 2020, Pedro joined the Silicon Valley Leadership Group as the Vice President of Business Development to lead the Launch Circuit to support 100 diverse founders. In 2021, Pedro was elected as the Vice Curator for Global Shapers in Palo Alto by the World Economic Forum. In 2022, Pedro got accepted to the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program as a Technology & Innovation Awardee having 22,700 followers. In 2023, Pedro received the NextGen 30 Under 30 Award presented by Goldman Sachs. In 2024, Pedro received the Silicon Valley 40 Under 40 Award presented by BMO. Pedro’s Pan Peru has given 10,000 children access to STEM education and reforested 15,000 trees. In 2025, Pedro joined the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) as Vice Chairman of Autoespar. Pedro has received recognition for his success, he has received the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 HITEC 100 Awards - which features the 100 most influential global Hispanic executives in technology.
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