Finding the Beat: Mireya Arteaga and the Power of Human Stories
She plays drums.
And not in the “garage band, someday we’ll make it” kind of way, but in the “sometimes you need rhythm, something grounding, something to let you hit things until the beat feels right” kind of way. Mireya Arteaga is that person: drummer, sci-fi and mystery reader, biker, explorer, and—yes—someone who unapologetically gets drawn into reality-TV love triangles. All these little details add up. Because when you look at her life now, building Human Stories, a company that exists to help underrepresented founders find their place in an often-exclusive entrepreneurial world, you realize: it all started with rhythm. Keeping a beat when things are messy.
“I’m supporting this community as a representative of the groups I serve: a minority and autistic person plus origins of a low income family. Neurodivergence had been the largest barrier to entry and continues to be a large influence.”
There’s a story she tells about a client. She had put in the work, designed a consultation proposal she thought would help this client grow. The client’s response? They told her to revise the proposal - not down, but up. Not because it wasn’t good. Because the bid was too low. She hadn’t valued her own value. That moment was a hinge. A pivot. One of those times you stop, rewind the tape, listen again, and suddenly hear the off-note you missed before. And from there, she knew: if she wanted to help others—founders who are constantly told they’re “too small,” “too risky,” “too different”—she had to start by refusing to undervalue herself.
It’s not like Mireya just dropped into this world from nowhere. She’s put in more than fifteen years with gorilla-sized companies. Google. GoDaddy. Names so big they practically cast a shadow over the startup scene. And in those jobs, she learned how decisions get made, how systems grow, how culture shapes who gets through the door and who doesn’t. That knowledge—practical, hard-earned, often frustrating—is now the toolkit she carries into Human Stories.
And the thing about Human Stories is that it’s not a charity. It’s not a pat-on-the-head “good luck out there.” It’s infrastructure. It’s mentorship. It’s a seat at the table for founders who don’t come from Stanford or Sand Hill Road or family offices with patient capital. Mireya is building something that says: “Your background, your identity, your community—it’s not a liability. It’s your edge.”
If you listen to Ira Glass on This American Life, there’s always this moment where the small anecdote—the drummer beat, the sci-fi paperback, the rejected proposal—turns into the big story. The universal thing. For Mireya, that universal is about worth. Knowing it, naming it, and helping others claim it.
And she’s not doing it from behind a paywall or a polished pitch deck. She’s opening the door. On October 4, 2025, from 7–8:30 PM PST, Human Stories is hosting a free event:
Event Title: Free Small Business Help Desk for Underrepresented Founders – Identify Your Target Market
Event URL: https://human-stories.com/underrepresented-founders
It’s a chance to meet Mireya, hear her story live, and walk away with tools to find your audience—the right audience—for your business.
Because, as she’s learned, it’s not about underbidding. It’s about understanding what you bring to the table, and making sure the world sees it for what it’s worth.
