Edrizio De La Cruz is the co-founder and CEO of Arcus, an international fintech company technology platform that uses APIs to power millions of payments and bill data points worldwide.
Entrepreneurship is a personal journey. When you grow up in a city like New York it prepares you and perhaps gives you an “edge”. My fellow New Yorker, Edrizio De La Cruz, exemplifies this archetype.
“The path from the south Bronx to Silicon Valley really prepared me for this particular endeavor. Entrepreneurship requires a lot of tenacity, a lot of commitment, and vigor. The ability to have a lot of grit and overcome a lot of adversity after years of hearing a lot of no’s. You need to be able to embrace and weaponize those setbacks and make them an advantage. Turn a disadvantage to an advantage. I think without that background I would not be able not only to survive but thrive.”
Since some people are writing that New York City will not recover from the pandemic, I asked Edrizio his opinion. He compared the impact and challenge for New York to that of a business or entrepreneur.
“It’s natural for any city to go through a series of ebbs and flows. It is essentially required or necessary. Like entrepreneurship, success is not a straight path. I am absolutely certain New York will bounce back, it’s only a temporary setback.”
Entrepreneurship is difficult. It’s a hard journey that requires grit and determination no matter where you are from or your background. The secret to success according to Edrizio is “once you embrace that as part of the journey you are setting yourself up for success.”
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