At its first-ever Founders House LA, Eva Longoria reframes entrepreneurship through the lens of time and announces a $1 million investment in Latina entrepreneurs as Inc. signals a long-term commitment to building a founder ecosystem in Santa Monica.
Longoria opened the summit with a reflection that reframed the conversation from the outset. “Time is our greatest asset, but not everyone has equal access to it, and that’s what we have to change,” said Longoria.
Moments later, she translated that idea into action through the Eva Longoria Foundation announcement a $1 million investment in the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, launching a three-year initiative aimed at advancing Latina economic mobility through research, leadership development, and narrative change. “This grant is going to fund economic research and policy work for Latina entrepreneurs because we need to know what our economic power is and understand the problem, and be able to measure it to quantify the economic power of Latina entrepreneurs and remove the barriers they face,” Longoria said.
The initiative will generate data on the barriers Latina entrepreneurs face in building wealth, while also establishing advisory groups, fellowships, and mentorship pipelines designed to translate research into real-world opportunity - a statement about who gets to participate in the future of the economy, and how that future will be measured. She added, “Sometimes it’s not about millions of dollars - founders just need a small amount of capital to get to the next step.”
Founders House LA is not intended as a one-time gathering, but part of a broader evolution of the publication’s model from media company to platform, and convening. The concept was born from a smaller founder dinner in Santa Monica the year prior, a gathering that revealed a clear gap in the market. “We walked out of that first dinner in Santa Monica and knew there’s something special here,” said Inc.'s Editor-in-Chief Mike Hofman. “Founders were hungry to come together across industries; to share what they’re building and what they’re navigating.”
That demand has only grown. The inaugural event reached capacity, with more than 1,400 registrations, underscoring the appetite for a curated, cross-industry founder community in Los Angeles.
For Inc., the choice of Santa Monica is deliberate. “Los Angeles is a big, sprawling place, and there’s an opportunity to create a consistent space for founders to connect and build community,” Hofman said.
Alongside Hoffman, Inc.'s Editorial Director Bonny Ghosh emphasized that Founders House represents a larger strategic shift within the company. “We lean into service journalism - these conversations are meant to be live journalism for founders,” she said. “There are very few spaces where founders of fast-growth companies can come together to network with true peers, and that’s the entire impetus behind Founders House.”
The initiative sits within a broader expansion that includes Inc.’s membership-based Leadership Forum and a growing portfolio of events designed to support founders beyond traditional editorial coverage. “Founders have a unique journey; and they need access to both community and strategic insight to scale,” Ghosh added.
That community-first approach is reinforced through Inc.’s national programming. “Founders House is a series we bring to cities across the country,” said Kristin Mooney, Senior Vice President of Events at Inc. and Fast Company. “It’s about creating spaces where entrepreneurs can connect, learn, and grow; not just for a moment, but throughout the year.”
What distinguishes Founders House is not just who is in the room, but how the room is constructed. Unlike industry-specific conferences, the model is intentionally cross-sector bringing together founders from media, wellness, consumer products, and technology. The result is a collaborative environment where founders can share openly without the pressures of direct competition, a format that encourages learning across industries rather than within silos.
It is a structure that mirrors Los Angeles itself - a city where creativity, commerce, and technology intersect daily. The launch of Founders House in Los Angeles also reflects a broader narrative shift. “People talk about Austin and Miami, but California continues to be a powerful engine of entrepreneurship,” said Hofman.
From its earliest days, when Steve Jobs appeared on the magazine’s cover, Inc. has tracked the evolution of innovation in California - a legacy it is now actively investing in through on-the-ground programming and expanded editorial focus.
As large companies consolidate, a new generation of founders is emerging, building businesses that are closer to their customers, more culturally fluent, and increasingly mission-driven.
The timing of Founders House is not incidental as Los Angeles stands on the cusp of unprecedented global visibility, with the World Cup and Olympic Games on the horizon - events that will bring new capital, attention, and opportunity to the region, yet as conversations throughout the day revealed, access remains uneven.
For many small and mid-sized businesses, particularly those outside traditional venture networks, the challenge is not just opportunity, but access to the tools, relationships, and capital needed to participate in that growth, returning to the question that opened the day, "Who has the time and access to build?"
If the first Founders House LA is any indication, this is not a one-time activation, but the beginning of a longer-term presence across the city supported through events, editorial, and community-building. For Santa Monica, it represents something equally significant - a positioning as a hub for the next generation of founders operating at the intersection of culture, commerce, and innovation.
For the founders in the room, the takeaway was clear. “The most important tool every founder has is their own ingenuity, and spaces like this help fill in the gaps,” Hofman added.