We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diego Mariscal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diego below.

Diego, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Our corporate partnerships have been incredibly impactful for us, as they help to power 2GI’s programming for entrepreneurs with disabilities, enhancing our reach and the resources we’re able to provide. We’re fortunate to have corporate partners that include Comcast, JPMorganChase, as well as BuildWithin, with whom we’ve partnered to start the first ever Registered Apprenticeship Program for aspiring start-up executives and founders with disabilities. In year one of the program we matched over 100 apprentices with employers.

We also have partnered with the Inter-American Development Bank Lab (IDB Lab), to introduce Accessible Ecosystem: promoting entrepreneurship by and for people with disabilities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. This new venture aims to create an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in these global regions with an enhanced focus on business founders with disabilities.

Diego, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Of course. My name is Diego Mariscal and I’m the CEO and Founder of 2Gether-International, the largest global startup accelerator run by and for disabled entrepreneurs. Our organization – ‘2GI’ for short – supports high-growth, high-impact startups, led by founders with disabilities.
Our mission is to empower Disabled Founders with the tools and resources they need for their companies to be leaders in their respective industries. Our vision is to create a world where Disability is seen as a competitive advantage in the business ecosystem.
I’m disabled and proud! I was born with Cerebral Palsy and grew up in Monterrey Mexico, where thanks to my parents and my community, I’ve long had a passion for entrepreneurship. In high school I started “Limitless Prepa Tec,” a disability education program in Monterrey, Mexico. Our activities included eating while blindfolded, communicating without speaking and riding public transportation in a wheelchair. These initiatives gave my peers a feeling of what it was like to be disabled. Within four years, the program was in 15 high schools throughout the country, impacting more than 3,000 students, and we were almost 80% corporate funded. To this day, Limitless continues to be one of the largest youth-led programs in Monterrey, Mexico, working to educate students about disabilities.

That set the stage for my current work in the United States, where I moved to attend college. In 2012, I founded 2Gether-International and since its founding, our organization has supported over 700 startups, helping them raise approximately $84 million USD in combined investment, revenue, and acquisitions. We’re on track to support a total of 1,300 by this year’s end, and we’re planning to support 5,000 Disabled Entrepreneurs by 2030 through investment, mentorship, and global networks, driving innovation, inclusion, and economic growth. 2GI has grown 40 percent year over year for the past four years, and in 2024 we secured $4.2M in funding across 15 major partnerships. We’re also launching the first-ever $40M investment fund for disabled founders (seeded with $20M LG NOVA match); RFK Human Rights is set to be a collaborative partner in this initiative.

I also serve on the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee among many other boards.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a person with Cerebral Palsy, resilience has been a constant theme throughout my life. And what I’ve learned from the seemingly simple experience of having fallen – and then gotten up – countless times has carried me through some of the most difficult times of my life.
I came to the U.S. for college with no money, no family, and no plan—just faith that I’d figure it out. My parents could only afford one semester, but I took the leap anyway. Two years later, I lost my full-ride scholarship after devoting all my time to building 2Gether-International. Suddenly homeless, I stood outside D.C.’s emergency housing office, faced with a choice: return to Mexico and give up, or stay and fight for the organization I was building that I believed in. I stayed.
I survived by tutoring strangers in subjects I barely knew, teaching myself from their textbooks. I turned my apartment into a makeshift Airbnb, at one point housing seven people, to fund my dream. I applied for an internship I wasn’t eligible for, which years later became one of 2GI’s biggest partnerships.
Even some of the first seed funding for 2GI came from jumping into Uber Pools, pitching strangers between stops – grassroots crowdfunding around D.C.
Resilience, for me, isn’t about avoiding failure. It’s about betting on yourself when the odds are terrible. I was born premature, taking a risk just to enter the world early. In many ways, that was my first act of defiance, and I’ve been taking bold, uncertain leaps ever since.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As 2Gether-International has grown from a grassroots initiative into an international national leader supporting Disabled Entrepreneurs, one of our biggest challenges has been aligning the evolving needs of our organization with the structure and skills of our team. We faced issues with role clarity, communication breakdowns, and inconsistent performance expectations— especially during times of rapid growth.

Another challenge and pivot was navigating the tension between mission and metrics. As a disabled founder myself, I often led simply with the passion of my firsthand experiences. But as we matured, our team needed more structured KPIs, consistent operations, and strategic discipline. I’ve worked to balance that shift by leaning into data-driven decision-making without losing our values-driven core.

Ultimately, I’ve learned that team challenges are not signs of failure, but rather signs of growth. Each turning point has pushed me to lead with more intentionality, empathy, and clarity. Today, our team is stronger and more mission-aligned than ever, and we’re better positioned to scale our impact because of these hard-won lessons.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.2gether-international.org/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/diego-mariscal-6363787a

Image Credits

Photos courtesy of 2Gether-International