🧭 RUMBO — ISSUE #004

Saludos! Happy Tuesday, and welcome to Rumbo, edition 004.

Susie Jaramillo was told to pick one thing and stick with it. Art professors at Pratt Institute warned her against commercialism, urging her to become an "artist's artist."

She ignored them all.

Instead, the Venezuelan-American artist built Encantos, a children's entertainment company that's partnered with Nickelodeon, raised over $8 million, and reached millions of families worldwide. Along the way, she became the first Latina CEO of a children's entertainment company in the United States.

So grab your cafecito and dive in. If you enjoy today's edition, please forward it to your gente or share it online. ☕

Susie Jaramillo didn't set out to revolutionize children's entertainment. She just wanted to sing nursery rhymes with her kids.

"I'm a Latina and I'm trying to raise bilingual kids here in this country who appreciate where they came from, and there was nothing out there; no books, no apps, no animated content that represented us and our nursery rhymes," she says.

Born in Venezuela to a Venezuelan father and Ecuadorian-Irish mother, Susie grew up between Venezuela and Florida, always knowing she had a purpose. "I always had a sense that I was a diamond in the rough," she reflects. "I just had to figure out what I was supposed to do. I knew it wasn't going to be the same path that everybody else was taking."

That unconventional path led her to Pratt Institute in New York City, where professors pushed her to specialize, to avoid commercialism, to become an artist's artist. But Susie had a different vision. "I always knew I could make a bigger impact if I followed my heart and made art for everyone."

After graduating with her BFA in 1995, she co-founded LatinVox, which grew into one of the top 25 multicultural advertising agencies in the U.S. Her client roster read like a who's who: Macy's, Verizon Wireless, Coca-Cola, General Motors. She created the Voto Latino brand with Rosario Dawson and helped sell the Daisy Fuentes brand to Kohl's.

But something was missing. In 2012, she sold the agency and took a sabbatical to figure out what was next.

The answer came during maternity leave. Bored at home with two young children, Susie started drawing and writing. She hand-painted board books featuring Latino nursery rhymes, Los Pollitos, Elefantitos, Mi Burrito Sabanero, with adorable animal characters.

Meanwhile, she reconnected with longtime friend Steven Wolfe Pereira, who shared her frustration: there was no quality bilingual content celebrating Latino culture for their kids. "When it came to content, there was such a blank canvas," Susie recalls.

In 2015, they founded Encantos Media Studios with their spouses, creating books, an app, and sing-along videos. Then something unexpected happened. A video Susie created featuring baby chicks drew 19 million views organically. The channel grew to over 103,000 subscribers without any marketing.

Nickelodeon came calling.

In November 2017, just two years after launching, they struck a landmark deal. Nick would bring Canticos to its digital platforms and develop consumer products spanning toys, accessories, and home goods. The partnership was historic: Nickelodeon's first content specifically for infants and toddlers.

When Canticos launched on Nick Jr. in May 2018, the Emmy-nominated series proved what Susie had believed all along: "Our philosophy challenges the notion that Latin content is exclusively for Latinos. We believe that brands with Latin DNA can have broad appeal."

The momentum built. Encantos raised $8.5 million from investors including Kapor Capital, Chingona Ventures, and the Goldhirsh Foundation. In 2021, Fast Company named them one of the World's Most Innovative Companies. They launched new brands, created an NFT collection, and published over 20 children's books.

Then in 2022, everything changed. Encantos partnered with 3Pas Studios, the production company founded by Mexican superstar Eugenio Derbez. The board appointed Susie as CEO, making her the first Latina CEO of a children's entertainment company creating culturally inspired content.

"I'm incredibly humbled by the trust the board has shown me," Susie says. "With this partnership, we have celeb power and an A-list studio behind everything we do."

Today, Canticos is the #1 bilingual preschool brand on YouTube. The app has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. Millions of families engage with Encantos content monthly. YouTube selected Canticos as one of just five channels to showcase in its Impact Report for cultural impact.

But for Susie, it's never been just about the numbers. "I'm a Latina who went to art school and paints traditionally and illustrates children's books and writes children's books, but also has built a tech company and uses tech to reach families," she explains. "I'm a bit of a unicorn."

Her advice to other Latina entrepreneurs? "Choose the journey. Entrepreneurship means embracing struggle, late nights and uncertainty. Don't do it just for the money—it will get old fast. Do it for the impact and the joy of solving problems. Love the journey and let your passion light the way."

She also emphasizes ownership: "I've always felt strongly about owning your own intellectual property and creators owning your own story. It never made sense to me that creators—and Latino creators—could not be the stewards of their own visions."

From her Brooklyn studio, Susie continues to create worlds that enchant children while representing them authentically. She's proved that you don't have to choose between art and business, between culture and commerce, between your roots and your reach.

The girl who refused to be put in a box is now building a company that celebrates every kind of kid—and showing a new generation that the best path forward is the one you create yourself.

Explore Encantos: encantosworld.com | Download the Canticos app on iOS or Android 📸 Instagram: @getencanto | @canticosworld

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