If you haven't heard of MiTú yet, you will. Starting as a collection of YouTube lifestyle channels aimed at Latino viewers in 2012, MiTú has grown its reach across new and old media, as well as its audience and its influence, to become the largest Latino digital media network worldwide.

"We're over 1 billion monthly views across all digital platforms and currently have over 5,000 creators" working with MiTú, co-founder Beatriz Acevedo said in an interview with Latin Post. Adding up all of the network's reach in social media and other platforms, Acevedo counts an audience of about 990 million across the globe.

MiTú is a new model in media, one that's part platform-agnostic entertainment network and part talent incubator, finding and fostering aspiring Latino talent in the way a startup accelerator churns out new businesses.

A Crush on Menudo Started It All

Part of why Acevedo has been so successful with this business model is because she's been on both sides of the talent/producer equation for practically her entire life.

"I started doing radio when I was eight," said Acevedo. It all started because she was a big fan of Menudo. "In my mind, I thought if I went into radio, I could get to meet them."

After having done a couple of commercials, she put together a resume and went to the local radio station in Baja Mexico, which had an hour of Menudo every day hosted by a middle-aged man.

"I told the general manager I thought it was appropriate that a kid who was a fan be the voice of that hour, and not some older guy," she recounted. "I didn't get the gig by myself. The really experienced DJ continued to run the hour, and I was like his sidekick." And yes, she did eventually get to meet Menudo.

"That's how it all started," said Acevedo. From co-hosting a radio program every day after school, Acevedo went on in her teens to work in TV, reporting entertainment news. She moved to the U.S. for college at UC San Diego, but ended up moving back to Mexico right after.

She explained the move happened "Because this little entertainment show that I had been doing in my local Televisa station across the border had won three Emmys -- the first Emmys Televisa had ever won -- so I moved to Mexico City when my show went national."

The Robert Rodriguez-Inspired Road Trip (Minus the Car)

Now in her 20s, she began her role as a producer, launching her own production company after getting some great -- but hard-to-follow -- advice from Robert Rodriguez on how to take the next step in her career while also remaining independent.

"You need to sell your car, shoot some pilots with the money, and take your three Emmys and go to this place called NAPTE," Rodrigo advised, according to Acevedo.

She had no idea what that was. "Like he wrote on a napkin: NAPTE," she added.

It's the conference of the National Association of Television Program Executives, which was taking place in Las Vegas. Rodriguez had told her she should just make some pilots, show up, and pitch people.

"Who does that? But I'm in my early 20's and I think 'Yeah, that sounds like great advice Robert,'" she laughed. "So I sell my car, I shoot the pilots, I grab my Emmys, and I'm off."

With her three pilots on a VHS tape, her three Emmys, and a spot near the bathroom of the convention center -- "So at least you have a chance of someone going to the bathroom and seeing your stuff" -- the first day, she gets noticed by Discovery Channel. Then USA Network bought a late-night show from her.

"And then I worked my way into calling every single network that I knew would launch into Latin America," pitching and selling shows through her company Hispanic Independent Producers (HIP) to cable networks, which at the time in the mid-90s were all looking to expand into the Latin American market.

"It was a fantastic time. I did a lot of shows for MTV, a lot of shows for Nickelodeon and USA Network," she said. "It was like the days of digital, but back in cable, when there was such an open market that you could be very creative."

MiTú Connects Because MiTú is You

Now in the world dominated by digital, Acevedo is the one to pitch your show to.

Like HIP, the MiTú network blew up in size and popularity to perfect timing: Acevedo was one of the first to notice and fill a big gap in the entertainment world that wasn't reaching young bicultural Latinos, both as an audience and talented source of fresh ideas.

"If you look at English-language traditional media, you get the stereotypes. So you're like please don't make us another maid or another gardener," she said.

"If you go to Spanish-language media, it's the opposite. There you see the really beautiful blonde, blue-eyed rich people being the main character in a soap opera -- completely different than the maid in the U.S.," said Acevedo. "But there's not a culture of supporting entrepreneurs."

"You're not nurtured to be entrepreneurial," she said. "But as you know millennials are a generation that thrive on being entrepreneurs. These digital kids see themselves as a brand when they build their channels, their content. So it's very hard for them to go through the structure of an old studio system where they're going to be told what to do 100 percent, they're going to own nothing. It's not about them."

Acevedo, having herself been an independent content producer before YouTube was even invented, was very aware of that fact when creating the MiTú network. "We would truly value these creators as partners. And we really wanted to be that coach next to them... to be able to help them as much as they want," she said.

Some MiTú stars are fine with what they're already doing online, and that's fine with Acevedo. Some want to reach a bigger audience or make it into the mainstream, in which case MiTú helps by brokering deals with traditional companies or retooling shows.

"That's why the community has grown so much," added Acevedo. "People are proud to say they're a 'MiTúbero' -- a 'MiTú-ber.'"


There are a lot of MiTúberos: The network offers entertainment and lifestyle programming ranging from Vine and Instagram stars, to short-form beauty tips, or a "Man Show" satire channel called "MiTú Macho" on YouTube -- to its own Martha Stewart-style home design show, "Casa Linda," which is now in its second season on Discovery Familia.

MiTú's content reaches young Latino audiences so successfully primarily because it's young Latinos that are creating it. And unlike other media companies' efforts to reach young Latinos, MiTúbers understand how to connect in a nuanced way.

"A lot of the media companies, and also advertisers, tend to think of Latinos as Spanish-only," as Acevedo explained. "But the data says that 90 percent (of millennial Latinos) consume content in English." But that doesn't necessarily mean a general English-language mass-media campaign will resonate with young Latinos, either.

The key is to be flexible: mitú doesn't care whether it's YouTube, Snapchat, Perisope, traditional TV, or any other form of media. And mitú doesn't care if it's English-only, Spanish-only, Portuguese, or a mix.

If you have an idea that can reach the audience, and one that has a "cultural wink" to young Latinos, as Acevedo put it, MiTú will foster it. And that's how MiTú network has gone from filling a gap for Latino audiences to fostering young Latinos to form their own cultural presence across media.

"It's a really exciting time for creators -- to be heard, to experiment -- You can start on your own, all you need is a phone," said Acevedo.

"I would encourage anybody to just do it... No need to sell their cars."