He Built It for Free. They Paid Themselves Six Figures. The Nonprofit Coup: Missing Money, a Trademark Ambush, and 250 Signatures

What happens when the community you built with your own hands gets hijacked by the people you trusted to run it? Daveed Silva Ossa built one of the most influential Latino tech communities in America out of a happy hour where two people showed up. Within a few years, Uber was hosting his events and Google, Facebook, and Airbnb were partners. Then a group of volunteers quietly incorporated a nonprofit around his community, gave themselves titles and six figure salaries, and locked him out of everything, including the email account holding years of his own records. What followed was a cease and desist, a trademark ambush, leaked legal strategy, roughly $90,000 in combined legal fees over a volunteer group, and a member revolt: an online petition signed by 250 people from 30 major companies demanding he be reinstated. This one is a masterclass in why informal communities need paper, why whoever controls the accounts controls the evidence, and why the truth alone does not win cases. Daveed now runs Club Calima, connecting Latinx founders and executives globally. Connect with Daveed: https://www.threads.com/ ⁨@dvidsilva⁩ https://www.instagram.com/dvidsilva Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasminewegesq TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jas_the_lawyer New episodes Mondays at 5am. Subscribe, rate, and share Exhibit A-List to stay updated on new episodes. Stay curious, my friends.