Andrés Barreto - Merging Latin America and the US
Andrés Barreto is a Colombian-American entrepreneur with several interests that stretch across Latin America and the United States.
Leading young innovator
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* The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35.
About Andrés Barreto
Early Life and Education
Andrés Barreto was born in 1987 in Colombia to an engineer and a dentist. When he was 12, Barreto moved with his family to the United States. They settled in Florida where Barreto completed his education. While studying at the University of Florida, he started his first business with the intention of helping Latin America become more financially independent.
Career
During 2005, while he was studying, Andrés Barreto created an online platform for sharing notes and homework, and launched a PR agency to help companies in the US reach Latin America.This was the start of Social Atom Group. The following year Barreto started the on-demand music streaming service Grooveshark along with three co-founders.
The company became a finalist in the 2011 Mashable Awards, but was shut down due to copyright issues in 2015. In 2008 Barreto started the technology media portal PulseSocial – now known as the Latin American version of TechCrunch. The entrepreneur is also an active investor in several tech companies as the founder and partner of Social Atom Ventures. Other vested interests include: Onswipe, Endeavour and Cloudomatic.
Philanthropy and Personal Life
Along with several colleagues from Onswipe, Barreto supports a non-profit company called Coderise which is dedicated to teaching underprivileged children how to write computer code. Outside of his business interests, Barreto spends time at home in New York City and explores his hobbies that include extreme sports and adventure travel. He was awarded with the TR35 Awards in 2012 by the MIT Technology Review and was included in the Top 30 Under 30 by Inc. magazine.
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