An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
First and foremost, universal design goes way beyond only making things more accessible for people with disabilities; think about curb cuts, originally designed for people with disabilities, but now everyone is using them. Same with text messaging, also originally created for people with disabilities, and is now an ubiquitous communication method for all. When we think about accessibility and inclusion, we are creating an environment that is helpful for everybody.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Diego Mariscal.
Diego Mariscal is the Founder, CEO and Chief Disabled Officer of 2Gether-International, the leading accelerator supporting entrepreneurs with disabilities. Their work moves us closer to a world where disability is recognized and valued as an asset for business and entrepreneurship. In his role as CEO and Chief Disabled Officer, Diego has collaborated with multinational organizations such as the U.S. Department of State, and corporate companies like Google and Blackboard to help them better understand disability as an asset for startups. In 2017, Diego became the first entrepreneur with a disability, from the US delegation, to participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Hyderabad, India. Diego also received the Global Leadership in Equitable Development Award from the World Trade Credit & Risk Summit in Washington, DC. Born with Cerebral Palsy in New Orleans but raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Diego also represented Nuevo Leon in the Mexican National Paralympics from 2004–2009.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
About 29 years ago, my parents traveled from Mexico to the United States for what was intended to be a short three-day visit to buy baby supplies. However, I had different plans, and surprised them by being born early — at 6.5 months. As a result of this early arrival, I was born with cerebral palsy.
But even though I had a disability growing up, my parents still had high expectations for what I should be able to achieve and didn’t treat me any differently from my brother, who I’m close to in age and who does not have a disability. From doing chores to our education, our parents expected the same from each of us, which certainly contributed to my ambitiousness and independence later in life.
My ambition and sense of independence was furthered when I discovered my love for swimming. I ended up immersing myself in swimming competitions and went on to win the first gold medal for my sport in the national paralympic swimming competition (representing Nuevo Leon in the Mexican National Paralympics from 2004–2009).
In high school, especially because I didn’t see many other visibly disabled students, I wanted to help my peers understand what it meant to have a disability. That’s when I started “Limitless Prepa Tec,” a disability education program in Monterrey, Mexico. Our activities included eating while blindfolded, communicating without speaking and riding public transportation in a wheelchair. These initiatives gave my peers a feeling of what it was like to be disabled. Within four years, the program was in 15 high schools throughout the country, impacting more than 3,000 students, and we were almost 80% corporate funded. To this day, Limitless continues to be one of the largest youth-led programs in Monterrey, Mexico, working to educate students about disabilities.
That set the stage for my current work in the United States, where I moved to attend college. In 2012, I was officially incorporated into a 501(c)(3), and within two years, I left school to focus on my non-profit and began traveling the world to teach people about disabilities.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away, you took out of that story?
There are so many interesting stories, it’s hard to pick one. But I think failing out of college when I was a teenager (I’m currently back in school at George Washington University to earn my degree) was a moment where I challenged societal conventions by focusing on the organization I was putting together, rather than the traditional classroom route. I had to pull on the skills I developed as a person with disabilities — being creative, resilient and tenacious — to survive. Live continue to use those skills now to thrive.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
A lot of people share the quote and sentiment, “It doesn’t matter how many times you fall, it matters how many times you get back up.” I always think it’s funny when people say that because I have literally fallen — no exaggeration — thousands of times in my life, and have gotten up again each of those thousands of times. So that translates into resilience and tenacity, which I apply to my work now and to all the different projects we take on.
Actually, there is one more quote I’d like to highlight: “I may come as one, but I stand as one thousand.” This reflects the idea that one is successful because one is able to stand on the shoulders of all these other people who came before me. This is certainly true for me, I wouldn’t be able to be where I am if it wasn’t because of the amazing disabled advocates that came before me. Reminding myself of this gives me power and confidence to show up feeling supported in challenging situations I encounter
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
First off, I want to highlight the overall community of people with disabilities and pioneering leaders in the disability rights movement such as Ed Roberts, Judy Heumann and other pioneer advocates. I wouldn’t have had the access and opportunities I have now if it wasn’t for them. It really harkens back to the quote shared in the previous question.
Also, a game-changer for me in my journey has been going to therapy. I’ve had a great rapport with my therapist. Having my experience validated and completely accepted was a big moment for me, especially as a person with a disability. Even though this experience focused on the personal, it also had a huge impact on how I approached my business initiatives. I learned to trust my skills and my instincts.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our entire mission statement makes us unique, but we hope it will inspire similar initiatives across the globe. At this point, 2GI is the only startup accelerator in the nation run by and for entrepreneurs with disabilities. We see a world where disability is synonymous with innovation and creativity and where founders with disabilities have a pathway to success, self-reliance and confidence.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Yes, absolutely. In October 2022, we announced 2Gether-International’s 2022 BIPOC Cohort Accelerator, powered by Comcast NBCUniversal. The participants, all Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) individuals with disabilities and founders of early-stage, high-growth startups, are immersed in 2GI’s 10-week accelerator program, designed to develop their businesses further. The program culminates in a pitch competition in December, providing the entrepreneurs with an opportunity to be awarded $10K in seed funding for their business.
The Cohort aims to address the employment and entrepreneurship gap for both disability and BIPOC individuals, and help set the stage for visionary founders from these communities to access investment capital.
Not to mention, creating and launching a successful startup is no small feat. Coupled with the lack of opportunity and resources available for entrepreneurs with disabilities — especially founders within the BIPOC community — we saw a critical opportunity to provide business guidance to ensure a pathway for long-term growth and success.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Through my role at 2Gether-International, I have worked to support entrepreneurs with disabilities, create new opportunities and moved us closer to a world where disability is recognized and valued as an asset for business and entrepreneurship.
One billion people have a disability, making disabled people the largest minority in the world and the only one you can instantly become a part of. This diverse and vibrant community, however, is often associated with pity and limitations, which has a direct impact on their acceptance into the workplace. People with disabilities are disproportionately unemployed worldwide. But, at 2Gether-International, we are flipping the disability narrative. We work to unleash the entrepreneurship mindset of disabled people.
Our goal is to bring the more than 1 billion people with a disability together and to “empower and unify disabled people to become actors of change.”
By bringing people with disabilities together, they can have a greater positive impact on one another and help others gain a better understanding of who they are and how to empower them. Personally, it took me years to embrace my disability as part of my identity and it wasn’t until I met other people with disabilities, and we discussed education, employment perspectives, and much more, that I truly understood the value of the disability community. I learned that my disability makes me creative, resilient, tenacious, and I am able to identify opportunities that sometimes other people don’t see.
We at 2GI see disability as a complex, yet competitive, advantage for business, diversity and society at large. To date, graduates of 2GI Accelerators have collectively received about $40 million dollars in funding from investment, revenues and acquisitions.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line?
First and foremost, universal design goes way beyond only making things more accessible for people with disabilities; think about curb cuts, originally designed for people with disabilities, but now everyone is using them. Same with text messaging, also originally created for people with disabilities, and is now an ubiquitous communication method for all. When we think about accessibility and inclusion, we are creating an environment that is helpful for everybody.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
It is so important to listen. And to extend your colleagues the respect and appreciation they deserve. I would not be successful as the CEO of the organization if it wasn’t for my team. Their role is just as critical and important as mine, and we are all working together towards a common goal and mission.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
I don’t have a particularly large team, however it is still important to reduce the number of people who report to you directly, so your core team stays around 5 people or less. A smaller core team allows you to maintain the positive company culture that you desire, and that can also be passed down to indirect reports.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
Richard Branson would be really interesting, as he credits his disability to his success. It would be really interesting to understand that from him on a more personal level.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Visit https://www.2gether-international.org/ and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Readers can also follow me directly on LinkedIn here.
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Diego Mariscal Of 2Gether-International On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
