Isabel Rafferty Zavala: "Driven to lead, create, succeed"

Isabel Rafferty Zavala is the Co-founder and CEO of Canela Media an innovative multicultural data and media company. She also co-founded Mobvious Media, which was acquired in under one year of being in business by Prisa Group.?Early in her career, Isabel leveraged her understanding of the Hispanic community and her intuition about the rise of digital and mobile advertising, to accelerate her career at Entravision and other national and local media companies. Born in Mexico City, Isabel immigrated to the United States. at age 15 when her entrepreneurial parents expanded their business to the U.S.

Unlike many of her peers, Isabel’s mother was the entrepreneur in the family. She started her career as a designer and then moved into manufacturing home goods. While Isabel now admires her mother’s hard work and entrepreneurial spirit, as a child she found it difficult. She often felt left out because her mother didn’t have time to volunteer at school or join other mothers for coffee and social activities. Instead, her mother was busy running her business or traveling. When Isabel turned 15, her mother’s business expanded to the U.S., prompting their move to San Diego, CA.

School did not come easy for Isabel due to dyslexia, but her strong work ethic allowed her to succeed. This meant focusing 100% on her studies and many sleepless nights, ultimately leading to her graduating high school in just three years. Initially, she thought she wanted to study medicine, but after a few biology classes, she shifted her focus to business. After completing college in three years, she joined a local newspaper in a sales support role. At the time, most media companies were not catering to the Hispanic community, despite its size. However, Isabel’s youth and willingness to learn about digital technology led her to success. She quickly became the top salesperson and was approached by one of the largest Latino-focused media companies, Univision’s biggest syndication partner, to join their media sales team. Shortly after joining, Isabel took on the role of General Manager for Digital Media at just 22.

Initially, the CEO didn’t think Isabel was ready for the promotion, but she made him an offer: she would take on the new responsibilities without a pay increase - to prove herself. Isabel understood that being young—close in age to many of the sales executives’ daughters—meant she couldn’t come in as a “know-it-all.” Instead, she focused on being a servant leader, enabling her team’s success and proving the value she could bring.

Her success didn’t go unnoticed, and Impremedia soon approached her about leading national digital sales across their properties and transforming the company into a digital-first operation. Although this was a challenging role, Isabel took it on and gained the opportunity to work with some of the largest brands in the world. She also saw the growing importance of mobile media. After a year in this role, Isabel was approached by Grupo Cisneros to launch the first mobile ad network, which later became Adsmovil. Isabel played a key role in growing the business.

She stayed at Adsmovil for four years, helping the company grow from zero to a leader in mobile advertising. Eventually, Isabel was recruited to start her own company in the data space, with a partner providing capital and Isabel serving as the operating CEO. The company did so well that their largest customer approached them about an acquisition within a year. Although Isabel didn’t want to sell, as the minority owner she had to. She stayed on as CEO for three years after the acquisition before deciding she wanted to fully control her own company, which led to the founding of Canela Media .

The premise behind Canela Media is that Hispanic culture has become more widely accepted in the U.S. For many years, particularly before the 1980s, Latin American immigrants often felt pressured to assimilate into American culture. While food remained a strong cultural tie, many felt the need to distance themselves from their native language and content. But today, Hispanic culture is celebrated. Mexican cuisine is the most popular ethnic food, Bad Bunny is one of the world’s most successful musicians, and products like Topo Chico are rising to the top of their markets. Recently, Siete Foods was acquired by PepsiCo . Isabel saw an opportunity in this cultural shift and decided to create a media company focused on the growing Hispanic audience, launching with a streaming product supported by ads, drawing on her decade and a half of experience and industry connections.

However, the journey wasn’t as easy as it seemed. A year into the business, Canela had a streaming platform, revenue, and growing usage, but when Isabel went out to raise capital, she was met with rejection after rejection—over 100 times. Determined not to give up, she shifted her focus to funds that invested in underrepresented groups, including Hispanics and women. This change in approach led to the breakthrough she needed. During this challenging time, she and her husband even took out a second mortgage to keep the business afloat.

Today, Canela Media is experiencing double-digit growth, expanding into Latin America, and has added a data targeting division to help marketers better reach the Hispanic audience.

Isabel’s impact on the media industry is only beginning. Though she once thought she wanted to live a more traditional life like her classmates’ mothers, she has realized that, like her mother, she is driven to lead, create, and succeed.