SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO / ACCESSWIRE / August 20, 2020 / Tony Delgado announced a new plan Free Public WiFi In Puerto Rico during the first-ever TEDx Condado event, streamed virtual during the quarantine. The new initiative takes inspiration from the LinkNYC program which provides super-fast, free public Wi-Fi, phone calls, device charging, and a tablet for access to city services, maps, and directions. The Internet has become a fundamental pillar in this technological era. Not only is it used in the Information & Technology sector but also in the eCommerce sector and literally all sectors. Internet access is therefore paramount but some people are still not able to access it. According to a study by Statista, 59% of the world's total population are active internet users. By now, 41% with no internet must be going through hard times, not only in the ICT sector but economically as well.
Digital economy
"If you are not able to make money online during this pandemic, you are in serious trouble," Tony Delgado, a Puerto Rican online entrepreneur and Founder of Disrupt Magazine ™, said during his keynote TEDx Talk. Tony further mentioned that 2020 and the subsequent years will be among the most disruptive years ever. "This is bigger than the Great Recession of 2008 because people have been locked in their homes throughout the entire world. In 2008, people were still able to go to work and open their business. So many industries have been forced to go digital in this new economy." Tony shares.
Before the pandemic struck, people were still moving from Puerto Rico to the Mainland US in search of better opportunities. According to a study, the number of Puerto Ricans living in the Mainland is double the number of Puerto Ricans on the Island. Puerto Ricans move to the Mainland in search of 'better' opportunities.
Their main motivation for moving there is the average income difference. Today, the average household income in Puerto Rico is only $20,000, while in the US, it is $60,000. Simply put, if Puerto Ricans move to the US, they will earn three times more, or so it seems.
The Big Problem
"Here is the problem," said Tony as he continued, "when moving to the US we will settle in places like California, New York, Florida, as we look for greener pastures. But those are the places that you are likely to live from paycheck to paycheck. It is true, You are making more money, but the expenses are increasing greatly. So what's the sense for moving?"
What if you can find a way to earn what you are earning in California, or New York when you are still in Puerto Rico, Africa, Philippines, India, etc.,? That would be the best thing for anyone. "Digital economy has made that possible, and it does not matter where you are situated or born, all that matters is if you are CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET.
18-year-old Tony made his first 20,000 through leveraging the power of the digital economy. All he needed was WiFi and creating accounts where he would transform his traditional business to digital business. Tony was making about $50 selling CDs and burning mixtapes. He was only visible to the 15,000 people in the small town in Jersey where he was doing his business. When Tony shifted to Digital Economy, he boosted his sales to $3000 a day by being available to anybody anywhere.
"It's sad that our grandparents were moving from places to places in search of opportunities and centuries later, in the advent of the internet, we are still moving from places to places." continues Tony, "yet through the WiFi, I managed to sell stuff to someone in Japan when I was living in a small town in Northern New Jersey."
Use WiFi to connect to the World
Nothing including education is now justified to make people move from one place to the other. "You no longer have to relocated to a big metropolitan city like New York to have access to the best job opportunities and education in the world. If you have basic access to broadband internet you have everything you need to learn more, earn more, thrive, and prosper in the digital economy. Online education apps like Moti App, Zoom, Facebook Live and YouTube, and podcasts."
Most businesses going down during this pandemic are those that had no online footprint. On the contrary, the businesses that had an online presence have performed exemplary in this period.
"My idea today for TEDx Condado," Tony continued, "to rebuild and innovate here in Puerto Rico, everyone deserves fast, free internet access. WiFi should be a human right." Just like water and electricity is a human right, WiFi, according to Tony, should also be on the list.
You cannot apply for a job without internet access. Necessarily, for a place to be economically stable, it must have internet access. Most marginalized areas, they mostly have no or poor internet access. Making WiFi accessible will not only boost their economic status but also make many people financially stable.
"You no longer have to relocate to a big city like New York to have access to the best opportunities and education in the world. All you need to succeed is WiFi and a Dream.
If you have basic internet access, you already have everything you need to learn more, earn more, thrive, and prosper thanks to the power of the digital economy." - Tony Delgado
Biography
Tony Delgado (born 02/06/1986) is a Puerto Rican-American software developer, businessman, activist, philanthropist and multimillionaire tech entrepreneur who has started multiple online and software-based businesses. He has also helped thousands create their first profitable businesses, all from the comfort of his home in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Career
Tony Delgado started his first 7-figure online business in 2009, which was focused on ecommerce. Tony soon after launched an online magazine called Hyper Eater that discussed music, fashion and pop-culture. After successfully launching his first online publication, Delgado used his computer programming skills to launch several other online magazines, Twitter Bots, content aggregators and video sharing sites. These online publications were all monetized with Google Advertising and Amazon Affiliate Marketing.
In 2015, Tony landed a role as the lead developer at Websignia, a digital marketing agency servicing corporate clients in the New York City metropolitan area. During his time there, Tony became widely known as a hacker in the professional developer community after winning numerous hackathons sponsored by Fortune 500 tech companies like Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Facebook.
In 2016, Tony moved to Newark, New Jersey to become business partners with internet entrepreneur, Gerard Adams, after he sold his company Elite Daily for $50 million dollars to The Daily Mail the year prior. Adams and Delgado started a company called Fownders, a tech accelerator & startup investment firm, that focused on investing in and mentoring minority owned businesses in the inner city area of Newark, New Jersey.
In 2017, Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico and the outcome was devastating. Many people were left without a home and even more, were injured and killed. Nobody knew how bad the Hurricane was going to be until it finally struck. People from all over the world went to go help rebuild and support Puerto Rico in their time of need, amongst those people was Tony Delgado.
Delgado made the bold move to go and fly over to Puerto Rico during the wake of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria when the island had less than 50% of its residents without power. He helped the people rebuild homes and distributed over 300 solar panel lights in addition to food and water. While he was there he noticed the economical problems that Puerto Rico faced. Only the wealthy had food, water, and power and it was the people with no money and no resources that were affected the worse.
Delgado decided to take on a problem that was much bigger than himself so he decided to live in Puerto Rico full time to help the people and the economy. He knew a shift had to change because it couldn't stay like this forever.
At that moment, Delgado realized he had to move to Puerto Rico full time so he could help out in any way he can, he wanted to help the community and the people in it. After he got back home, resigned from his role as the CTO of FOWNDERS and decided to go back to the island, start his non-profit and live there full-time. He saw a huge opportunity to teach people about technology, entrepreneurship and how to make money online by leveraging the power of the digital economy. He believes that all people need to succeed is "WiFi and a Dream". He then started Disrupt University, an online learning ecosystem, so that kids and young adults can learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship. The company's mission is to teach the youth about technology, innovation and the business opportunities available online. He knew that if he could teach more people how to make money online and how to create and run a business, that it would help grow the economy of Puerto Rico.
In 2019, Delgado partnered with hedge fund manager Alan Burak and options trader Gaby Berrospi to start Latino Wall Street, a movement to educate Latin America about the opportunities on the stock market and to help people create financial freedom.
In addition to his online programs, he also hosts an event series in Puerto Rico called Disrupt Week. The purpose of the event is to bring value and knowledge to hackers, doers, makers, successful business people and aspiring entrepreneurs alike. Some of the previous speakers have included Gerard Adams, Brock Pierce, John Malott, Jennifer Hopp, Sam Bakhtiar, Jason Capital and many more multi-millionaire entrepreneurs, investors and change makers.
Personal Life
Tony Delgado was born on February 6th, 1986 in Hoboken, NJ. Tony's father left when he was 2 years old and he grew up raised by a single mother, who was a computer programer in the late 80's and early 90's during the advent of the internet. Tony was one of the first kids in his town with access to the internet and learned to code in the 2nd grade.
His entrepreneurship tendencies started when he was 16 years old selling on eBay and Amazon where he began making money by burning and selling mixtape CDs, going from $50 a week to $3,000 a day using the internet. Those entrepreneurship tendencies have led him to where he is today.
Today, Tony Delgado is a multimillionaire tech entrepreneur and now a full time resident of Puerto Rico where he continues his mission to rebuild the Puerto Rican economy through his non-profit, The Disrupt Foundation.
Today, Disrupt Week is one of the biggest tech and entrepreneurship conferences in Puerto Rico and it is specifically aimed to help educate and inspire both the people of Puerto Rico and people from around the world.
Tony is also the host of the Disrupt Podcast, where he interviews the most disruptive entrepreneurs, leaders and change makers in the world. Tony also interviews and profiles world class entrepreneurs and thought leaders in his publication, Disrupt Magazine.
Tony Delgado Website and Social Media
http://disruptmagazine.com/
https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/tony-delgado
Tony Delgado On Instagram
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Tony Delgado On YouTube
Tony Delgado in the Major Publications, Press and Media:
https://money.yahoo.com/news/power-couple-tony-delgado-gabriela-183000490.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/08/21/why-puerto-rico-is-perfect-for-digital-nomads/#45de51c52f59
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tony-delgado-launches-disrupt-magazine-223000646.html
https://medium.com/@disruptceo/how-tony-delgado-is-disrupting-puerto-rico-aaef621bd38b
https://newtheory.com/meet-the-puerto-rican-gary-vee-tony-delgado/
https://hackernoon.com/tony-delgado-launches-coding-bootcamp-in-puerto-rico-0bl3y7w
https://gritdaily.com/inside-latino-wall-street-tony-delgado-and-gabriela-berrospi-are-on-a-mission-to-disrupt-the-stock-market/
https://disruptmagazine.com/tony-delgado-interview-on-good-morning-la/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/david-green-partners-wall-street-052500290.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-20-entrepreneurs-watch-2020-204500266.html
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/340555
https://www.eofire.com/podcast/tonydelgado/
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tony-delgado-launches-disrupt-magazine-the-voice-of-latino-entrepreneurs-1029362442
https://www.yolodaily.com/the-face-behind-disrupt-puerto-rico-tony-delgado/
https://caribbeanbusiness.com/disrupt-week-puerto-rico-promises-inspiring-keynotes-networking-events-and-diverse-programming/
https://apnews.com/7e052a7044479ec86a1fea2a161b8b3d
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11681485/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/298381
https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2018/08/17/the-island-of-enchantment-hasnt-lost-its-charm-an-entrepreneurs-guide-to-san-juan-puerto-rico/
https://siliconangle.com/2018/03/23/coding-away-margaritaville-new-concept-tech-ed-brings-real-sand-sandbox-blockchainunbound/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/07/20/keep-your-communications-secure-with-these-eight-encrypted-messaging-apps/#8ba172530899
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/07/30/what-does-microsofts-github-acquisition-mean-for-the-developer-community/#211ab76d556b
https://power1051.iheart.com/content/2019-04-30-can-entrepreneurship-save-puerto-rico/
https://money.yahoo.com/news/john-malott-tony-delgado-plan-185000500.html
Contact Disrupt Magazine
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CONTACT:
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SOURCE: Disrupt Media