Samara Hernandez is the founder of Chingona Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on investing in overlooked and underrepresented founders. Born in Mexico and raised in Rogers Park, Chicago, Samara's early life was marked by her family's hard work and resilience. She earned an engineering degree from the University of Michigan and worked at Goldman Sachs during the Great Recession, gaining valuable experience in finance. Samara later pursued an MBA at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business, which led her to a role at MATH Venture Partners. There, she made significant contributions, including leading the investment in Liveoak Technologies, which was later acquired by DocuSign. In 2019, Samara launched Chingona Ventures, raising $6 million for her first fund and raised $52M in 2022 for her second fund. Her mission is to be the first check for founders and companies that don't fit the traditional mold, with a particular focus on empowering women and minority entrepreneurs.
[00:00:03] This is the Let's Grab Coffee Podcast and I'm your host George Khalife. It's Samara. Thanks for officially being on the podcast. I was just telling you we've been catching up and I'm like, we got to hit record. This is what happens when you have friends on the podcast.
[00:00:17] Yeah, no, thank you. You know, it's been a while since we caught up. It's been a while since I've done some regular podcast. So I'm ready to get back in the game. Let's do it. We are appreciative of you being here.
[00:00:28] I usually like at least if I know the person I'm having on. I always be up with that with a quick personal story. You probably don't know this, but I'll tell you very quickly. First time I ever met you, I think was either 2020 or 2021.
[00:00:43] I had just moved to Chicago. I didn't know many folks yet like in the ecosystem. I still trying to get my groove going. And do you remember we we sort of shared a panel with Generator? Do you realize?
[00:00:56] Yeah, so for folks that Generator is like a Midwest based incubator, accelerator, they were doing this, I guess in short, I think it's like a little bit of a tech, you know, corporate venture capital kind of a theme of a panel.
[00:01:07] I was moderating Samara was one of the panelists along with Victor Guttwine who's also a good friend also a guest on the podcast. And I remember Vic sort of pulled me aside. He's like, Hey, you know, because by then we started knowing each other
[00:01:19] and he was trying to help me get plugged into the community. And he's like, do you know Samara? And I'm like, honestly, no, I don't like I've heard a lot about her. I'm really excited to get to know her. He's like, dude, I'm going to tell you something.
[00:01:29] I think when you probably just raised 6 million for fund one for Chingona, he's like, she's already a badass, but I'm telling you from now, like this is one person in Chicago to stay very close to because like you're looking at a rocket ship.
[00:01:43] And I'm like, oh my gosh. All right. Oh my gosh. So he called it to this was before fun too. He's like, you got to stay close. Like she's, she's really something she's already successful and something, but like what you're about to see is even even crazier.
[00:01:59] So anyways, I did want to. Oh, thank you for telling me that. No, Victor is incredible and what he's done for the ecosystem and for the Midwest and, you know, thank you. Thank you, Victor for saying that he's so kind.
[00:02:13] So but yeah, look, you know, the Midwest is we have our own ecosystem. There's so much opportunity here and I'm so grateful that you know, I met you early on in your journey here and all that you've done so far. Right.
[00:02:28] And so yeah, which is we need to work together to build this up because it could be really, really be something huge and we're just in the early stages even now with all the progress. I think there's so much opportunity, you know, so so
[00:02:43] yeah, so thank you for sharing that story. I felt you'd appreciate it. And again, for folks who might not know Vic founder of M25, we did have a podcast. So if you want us to do that. But to your point, arising tide lifts all ships and
[00:02:55] that was kind of my first foray into the Midwest and seeing truly how people could be supportive, especially in the, you know, in the VC ecosystem. Before we dive in to all of that, I kind of wanted to go folks will eventually learn and understand
[00:03:09] your story better throughout this episode. But I want to go grassroots with you first. I want to go back to Mexico where you lived from zero to six years before moving to the US. So you grew up with immigrant parents.
[00:03:25] I grew up with immigrant parents from the Middle East to Canada. So I know the immigrant story really well. I can resonate, but I want to hear from you. What was the internal chingona of Samara like when when she was a younger, younger child?
[00:03:40] Yeah, you know, as you know, with any immigrant parents, there's a lot that goes into your upbringing that is very different and that on top of the low income, you know, household was rough because just with anybody struggling to get ahead and to have
[00:04:06] parents that work minimum wage jobs, multiple jobs. You're it's not like you have access of anything, access of time with them, access of resources, food even, right? And so you have to make do with very little. And so and there is no cushion, right?
[00:04:28] There is no oh this this can't work, right? It has to work. And so I learned so much from my parents and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to do that. And I remember thinking most of my life, you know, I'm here in spite of that.
[00:04:47] And now I say I'm here because of that because of those experiences and coming to the U.S. And finally being in this kind of low income household and seeing my parents struggle and seeing all the challenges, but then on top of that,
[00:05:04] the cultural differences on top of that, the language differences. That was a lot and my parents were just trying to survive and so me and my sister were left home by ourselves a lot and that what that allowed us to do is, you know,
[00:05:18] kind of learn from each other. And so I may have heard this story, but the way I got ahead in math was my sister would come home. She's three years old and she was wanting to be a teacher. Jeff teaches at Northwestern right now. Engineering design. Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:33] So this was something she wanted to do for a while, but she is three years older than me and she would come home and teach me all the math that she learned that day. And so we had this little chalkboard that only half of it
[00:05:45] worked because we got it like for free from a garbage somewhere or something. And so she would write down problems and I would just do them and that's how I got just better at math. And so that was, I guess there was some natural ability,
[00:06:01] but some that my sister would teach me. And so that's how I got ahead. My parents, you know, just taught us the value of hard work and that we had limited resources. So I got three out my parents remind me three outfits in
[00:06:15] the beginning of the year for school and three outfits for the summer. And that was it. Right. And so you just kind of and not fancy outfits, you know, pay less than whatever else. So with that, you know, there was always the you're
[00:06:29] not part of the crew or you're not part of the same, you know, of people getting what whether it's how you look your name, how you talk, how your family lives to all the things. And so I just learned to be different and be comfortable with that difference.
[00:06:45] And so now being the same is kind of boring for me. Right. And so if there's everyone's going one way, I typically tend to go the other way just because that's just how I was raised and I was comfortable around that.
[00:06:58] But you know, I'm very grateful for my parents and the upbringing. And also one other thing is that, you know, no matter how much they little they had, they always gave, you know, and so when we came here, my we came to Rogers Park
[00:07:14] and my grandma was here and she lives in a one bedroom apartment and we it was us. It was my aunt at one point. It was other cousins from Mexico that would come in and we would just like sleep on the floor like sardines,
[00:07:29] you know, and that was it. And that was what we had and we kind of all shared in the resources and then my mom when we finally were able to afford our own little apartment, a two bedroom apartment.
[00:07:40] Five of us at the time would sleep in one room to twin beds and then we got the other room. We would have people come that recently came to the country would kind of help them get it get the get
[00:07:53] a job, get it, get all the things and then they would move on. And so even at the young age, you realize, okay, you know, you even if you have nothing very little, there's still something you can do and that's a real power of
[00:08:05] all of these communities as you probably experienced with immigrant community. There's so few of us and so you come together and you really help out each other. And so I saw the power of that the beauty of that and you know now I'm just super proud of being
[00:08:19] Latina. I mean it Chingona even. I mean, that's like a super my parents were super Chingones, I Chingones. I mean the word of my mom and my dad just be coming to a new country with two kids. No job. No not knowing the language and having to simulate
[00:08:35] and then having you know their daughters be able to pursue their passions. I think it's just a beautiful thing. Yeah, yeah. And for folks listening to Chingona as I've come to read is Badass Woman right in Spanish. Yes, right. So I love that and I resonate a lot.
[00:08:57] There was so much on back and what you just said the two that stand out to me, which I also kind of went through myself is having to be resourceful. So doing a lot with little and I know you sort of
[00:09:08] it's interesting hearing you talk about your personal upbringing. You're weaving a lot of what you had to go through into what you want to see in founders you ideally would want to invest in. So it's kind of an interesting thing.
[00:09:19] And the second to me that stands out is the creativeness like if you can't fit the mold. Don't kind of force it just create a mold that you fit in and you're comfortable with exactly your authentic self. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:09:32] And for a while it was like why am I different? You know, I can't why can't I get the latest whatever like the night is just like well, yeah, yeah. I mean, I got the Nike version on pay loss, you know, but opposite to us, you know, right
[00:09:46] exactly. But it's huge. It's huge, you know, it's it works and even that was a step up for my father who was an orphan, you know, in Mexico and barely had shoes or food right. So so it all kind of you right and this this perspective
[00:10:06] that you build in your life then you know as an investor you learn to see things differently. You learn to see opportunities differently. You can relate to different types of foundation with different experiences and that was really the promise of Ching-Wen Avengers was there's this whole set of
[00:10:25] demographic shift in the United States. A lot of these demographic groups I come from these groups that are changing the way you know that they make money the way they live the way they work the way they eat it. There's just so much so many changes happening
[00:10:43] and the VC world at the time was, you know, still run by certain types of people with certain types of background. And so I just thought, you know, well, if there's this opportunity here to really see businesses that are investing that are that are creating businesses
[00:11:01] around these demographic shifts that are being built by people that don't put your traditional mold that are seeing these opportunities in geographies that aren't kind of the core geographies but are getting significant early validation from these unique customer sites.
[00:11:17] And so that was the promise of launching Ching-Wen Avengers. Did it ever frustrate you when because I was reading part of that upbringing that, you know, your father was an accountant in Mexico immigrates to the U.S. and like many immigrants they can't necessarily have
[00:11:33] the same kind of profile they had back home in a new country. And I remember that was frustrating for me even as a kid. I remember because, you know, the stress sort of boggles down from your parents to kids and I can feel
[00:11:44] my dad like both my parents, you know, like this, this this anger, you know, like I worked so hard back home and I don't have the same level of respect here. Did that push you even more to because you sort of bear this guilt, right?
[00:11:57] Or even responsibility that because they did this for us, I now have a responsibility to make up for that Delta that they lost. 100%. Yeah. You know, some might call it trauma. Some right, but but whatever it is I share with you sisters.
[00:12:15] We had some of our own, you know, trauma we had to go through but it, you know, it. Yes, it there. I remember there's a specific situation where my mom she was working at this country club and she was filling people's coffee and one day she spilled
[00:12:32] by accident coffee and this guy stood up said racist comments to her, I said yelling at her in front of everyone and she couldn't say anything back and she just sat there crying and you know, she did the job. She's a health insurance and I remember her coming
[00:12:48] home and telling me that is in her crying and she said, you know, this is I'm doing this so that you don't have to right so that you can get ahead so that you can have a voice so that you can speak up and that always sticks
[00:13:02] with me and I know that's a lot of responsibility and I'm kind of a little kid but I always think when I'm in a room and I feel, you know, a subconscious or imposter syndrome or, you know, usually it's the only woman the youngest, you
[00:13:16] know, all the things throughout my whole career. I'm like, I'm in this room for a reason. I don't care how I got here, but I'm here. So it's now my duty to speak up and say something especially when I feel that there are
[00:13:30] injustices and those injustices can be in very different forms and so for instance, you know, I often take board seats and I'm able to be in these rooms where these decisions are being made around compensation around hiring around early structure in a company and being able
[00:13:47] to say just ask the question. Why is this happening? Why is for instance the woman co-founder getting significantly less equity than the male co-founders? Was it as simple as she didn't ask for it? Okay, well, let's get her the same because she's doing
[00:14:03] the same work right or if it's an all male team and I'm in the room and say, well, okay, did we interview women? You know, not okay great. Let's let's get a whole list of potential candidates. So you can be in these rooms to say something
[00:14:21] and speak up and you can build a fun. You can build a company that you're able to have these voices in the room. And so for me, my those that upbringing that frustration that you know our parents experienced they I always
[00:14:38] feel like you're right is our duty to go into a room and to speak up for people that can speak up like our parents or the people in the room that the people that are not in the room and you can fight for them
[00:14:52] and you can get them to a position that is equal that there's more equality. If it makes sense, right? They're doing the same work for the same title and be able to have to change the ecosystem. And that's what we're ultimately trying to do with making
[00:15:09] money of course. Yeah, of course. Love that. Love that. Yeah, there's a I want to touch on imposter syndrome and all the sort of mental health aspects maybe towards the latter part, but I can't help myself at this point just kind of asking you because
[00:15:26] I can imagine an aspiring woman VC or founder sitting here and we're talking about like boards having an influence on board seats. And before we even get to that stage, I know what they're thinking is how do I even break into VC as someone who
[00:15:41] pursuit engineering you join Goldman Sachs on the asset management side. You then joined math ventures Chicago based fund. How did what was that career track? Like was it ever for you very strategic tactical like you knew you wanted to launch Gingona at some point or
[00:15:57] was it a bit of luck opportunity and timing? So the beginning part of my career honestly was just very unstructured. There was no I'm going to do this. I'm going to go to the school. I mean, this is my first job.
[00:16:17] I in a lot of it was because I didn't see anybody like me in those positions right like the fact that I had a job where I could sit down and health insurance. My parents were happy.
[00:16:27] So that was literally their goal was just to get a page up right where I didn't have to do hard labor and I just sat down or and I got health insurance. And so they obviously wanted me to be happy and to live
[00:16:41] up to my full potential, but there was no none of that and certainly when I did see people in those positions they certainly didn't look like me. So it wasn't like I saw that as an example.
[00:16:55] And I've just worked my butt off my entire life and I think and people ask me well, where did you get that motivation from and I just didn't see it's any other way. There was no, you know, my parents are going to hear me.
[00:17:08] I don't have an alternative. I started working on 13 years old. I am the alternative. Exactly. Exactly. I mean there is nothing so and I knew that I'm my parents for one K, you know, so it's not like I had, you know, anything around that.
[00:17:21] And so I early on I just worked my butt off and I think I really do feel that when you meet people and when you're going you are so motivated and so focused on getting after one thing and maybe you might not even know what
[00:17:39] that one thing is, but you're just so just work your butt off doing whatever it is that you're doing people see that and I do believe that you know early on my career I just happened to meet the right people at the right time
[00:17:53] and they just saw something in me that I didn't see in myself and I'm always grateful for them. So, you know, start off with my sister teaching me the math skills then it was a teacher noticed that I was really
[00:18:02] good at math and so she put me in, you know, advanced math and then from there my sister said, you know, you're really good at math and science. Why don't you apply for engineering? I was like, sure, you know, that legally blonde moment
[00:18:14] like what? Well, like it's hard, you know, and I just and I was just I guess naive or I just didn't know in the beginning. I didn't know how hard it was to get into one of the top engineering programs in the country.
[00:18:24] So I just I just like the football program at Michigan. So it was just like, great, you know, I'll go because I like football and you know, obviously years later they won the championship but I was like, okay, and then
[00:18:36] when I was at Michigan, I saw nightmares that I didn't graduate. It was so hard, but I was just like, well, we don't give up. So I just got to keep going and that was my thing. It wasn't I didn't know the probabilities actually
[00:18:49] actually calculate the probability of someone like me with my background with my demographic getting to where I got to because I did this I did this keynote for undergrad these younger students, undergraduate students. I was like, wow, the probabilities are extremely
[00:19:04] low. This immigrant Mexican girl, you know, with basically the poverty line getting to this position. They're very low. I just didn't know when you don't know you're naive, you just work your butt off and you don't know that it can't happen or you don't know how all the
[00:19:19] challenges are going to face. And so when I was at an engineering conference with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, I just joined because I was like, okay, it's a group of Latinos. We're all kind of similar backgrounds. We're all struggling to get ahead and
[00:19:33] we're all engineers. So I joined this group and then being a part of that, I saw Goldman Sachs at an event and I was like, what do you guys do? I had no idea. I just asked the question was just curious. And we need
[00:19:44] more engineers at Goldman. And so that's how I got my first job there. And then I got my first internships and then I got my first going to Kellogg in business school, right? It was just all kind of happened.
[00:19:57] I worked my butt off but there was people that helped me get there. I think the second part of my career was a lot more intentional. But I will say this, even just more recently launching my own firm, I would I sat at math enter partners, you know,
[00:20:11] when Troy and Mark hired me the first my first day on the job. I was just excited to talk to entrepreneurs. I was just excited. I was like, this is the best freaking job ever. No way did I think I was
[00:20:22] no launch my own firm. You know, at the time I was like, I'm just happy to be here. I don't know anybody rich. I don't know anything about running a firm yet. So I'm just excited to be here and over time you learn and I really feel
[00:20:36] like there's this internal feeling that this has to work. I don't know how many get there. But I know I'm going to get there. I don't know that I don't know the exact steps, but I know this needs to exist. I know I need to be here. And
[00:20:55] I've always kind of led with that way and work my butt off to get there and and you had people around me inspire me and I just worked. I always say, you know, I'm not I'm not the smartest. I'm not the fastest, but I cannot work
[00:21:13] anybody. I just I you know working nights and weekends and when I'm just focused on something I am just obsessed with it. And I really feel that the universe sees that and there's people around you that will guide you and help you get there. And so
[00:21:30] I'm grateful for those people throughout my life. But yeah, it wasn't I would be lying if I said I planned this whole thing out because I certainly didn't. One for one. Yeah, I mean having recently I was telling you gone through the executive MBA Kellogg and Shulik
[00:21:46] instead dual program. Curious for you was the MBA sort of a nice catalyst to pivot from banking to venture. I know a lot of people use it for pivots in their careers, but especially I feel like for folks to your
[00:21:59] point as we're talking about, you know, we moved in new country. We don't have the same level of access. We don't have legacy money and family and family offices and the MBA can serve as a you know, as our anchor. Was that right for you?
[00:22:14] So, you know, I realized part of your question I didn't really answer around like getting into venture right and how to think through that. You know, look, I always say certainly an MBA is one way, but it's not the only way and it's an expensive
[00:22:28] way to get there. I will say that so I didn't know what's going to get into venture when I was at Goldman, I just a Goldman had paid for a lot of MBAs at the time. I don't think they do anymore,
[00:22:42] but a lot of my friends were applying for these programs and I had been at Goldman for a while given you know most people at that time at my age had gone to multiple jobs and I'm a very
[00:22:55] loyal person. I just like to you know, I say to the company and I was in different groups, but I was like, well, maybe I try this MBA thing because it'll help me kind of figure out what I want to
[00:23:07] next and I had a lot of mentors there that said, you know, you can always come back. You know, go figure out go to business school, figure out what you want to do and then if you want to come back, come back. And so I went there and
[00:23:19] I did I do feel like that opened up my world of opportunities and I always tell this to our MBA interns because we have one every year since for the last almost 10 years. We say go there and you're in this bubble because everyone's like
[00:23:32] your everyone's competing with each other and they get their consulting jobs, they get their whatever banking jobs, whatever it is and they have their internships ready and then they have the offers ready and all that. But you really go in there if you're not sponsored
[00:23:46] by your firm or you know exactly what you want to you're really going there to explore. So spend the time doing that. It is a student you can email people and say hey, I want to learn more about your job or what
[00:23:56] you're doing and I want to learn about this industry. You have the opportunity to take classes and to have an internship somewhere or to start a business or to just explore different things. And so for me, I apply for this thing called VC lab. It's a class there
[00:24:10] and it's grown their entrepreneurship program and their VC program that's grown since I was there but I remember it was again one of these moments that I talked about early on maybe naive, maybe whatever. It was a group of four of us women that were looking at
[00:24:25] finance roles and we were just helping each other out because it was mostly I mean there's very few of us that were applying to these very specific roles and we're helping each other to kind of prepare and one of them
[00:24:35] said oh I'm applying for this VC lab thing and I'm like what is it? And so I just kind of applied it even though if I'd get in if it was for me but that's what helped me get into my first job
[00:24:46] in early stage investing and I fell in love with it. Absolutely. I'm like whoa what is this world where you're seeing these brand new businesses that maybe you know I haven't even launched these crazy ideas and products and you somehow have to figure out
[00:25:01] how to invest in them and so I just fell in love with it and I was like I want to get a job in venture and I remember you know especially at the time the jobs weren't posted there's very few jobs especially in Chicago and nobody that I
[00:25:18] knew from my class was really interviewing for a venture it wasn't like the thing now I have literally high school students emailing me asking me for a job in venture capital but at the time it wasn't as big as it you know it is now and so again
[00:25:31] this maybe naive moment of I didn't know how hard it was to get into venture I didn't know that it's a lot of you know I'd be at Stanford, Harvard then you start a company or you work for Big Tech Company early on right like all
[00:25:44] these things I didn't know that that's the traditional path so I decided I'm excited to do this and I spent a lot of my I graduated without a job and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to do and network in the
[00:25:56] community there was Nick Rosa from sandbox industries he saw me at 1871 and where you're at right now and I was there with my friend and he gave me my first project in venture capital so I'm always grateful for him for doing that and then through networking
[00:26:12] I found David Weinstein and Roman Morales their amazing human beings and actually made my daughter after Brumi she's you know just a really good friend and yeah and so she connected me with Mark with David Weinstein David Weinstein connected me with Mark and Troy from
[00:26:31] math and they giving my first opportunity and so you know this is the was this was my path but certainly that's not the path that I see you know everybody everyone should have their own path I will say that there's no structured path
[00:26:46] there is common paths that people go down which is start a company they do your own investing what I always say about a new job is do the work before you're actually doing it and really see more for you to see that something you're personally excited about because
[00:27:01] a lot of people that say they want to get into venture capital but then they get into those roles and they're not actually doing the investing in the source they're not excited about it when I'm excited about like they're obsessive they spend their whole
[00:27:11] waking moments doing it you know like I remember when I was in venture I got in and not that anybody told me to but I was every day I was going to these events I was meeting founders I was talking to VCs I'm like look this
[00:27:24] how we're looking at deals how are you looking at it because the NBC there's not many structured programs it's not like you know these big banks that have the three months they teach you everything about it now they yeah you know they just throw
[00:27:36] you in and just like figure it out and so you really have to be infinitely curious you have to be kind of really obsessed with trying to find these amazing founders and these businesses and really dive in and learning from colleagues and so I was grateful that I
[00:27:56] that I met these you know my group of people in the ecosystem we would want one group was fintech fun tech we would have monthly happy hours and we would talk about fintech deals and then I had my other group that we talked about
[00:28:10] you know how they do do diligence and how they do read financial models how they do their own financial models and so I built this ecosystem in Chicago that I'm always grateful for so just it was a lot smaller and it
[00:28:22] is now but it was a small group of us that just helped each other out and so with anybody that wants to get into venture try doing the work before you actually do it tried writing now there's a lot of opportunity to write small angel checks into companies
[00:28:36] to to build a virtual portfolio and see if you're even good at it and see internally what excites you like do you actually get excited talking about or if you actually get excited about putting your own personal check and with the real probability that it's going to fail
[00:28:49] right right it's 70% chance it'll fail do you get excited about thinking about themes and and researching them and then pro actively going on talking to people about it like that sort of thing I think you know really resonates with me when I'm looking for someone
[00:29:06] to join our team and you know how proactive are they before they even come here to do the role because there's things a lot of things you can do but we actually have the title right or or the actual job at a
[00:29:18] firm and for me it's always about excitement and interest I can teach everything else and the technicality is a bit right right the cap tables the term sheets like we'll teach you that all I can't teach you excitement I can't teach you motivation I can't teach
[00:29:36] you you know true passion and to curiosity to see these companies and then also just a personality I think for me the VC world as you know is filled with a lot of people with a lot of ego and it's hard
[00:29:53] to say humble and so for me I always look at you know is someone going to join the team and truly be humble and there's this power position that happens with founders and investors and people can abuse it and so can these team members join and stay
[00:30:10] true our values what values do they have that they can bring and and I love bringing younger young the younger generation oh my gosh is so like you know I can I think I'm young but then you bring in younger people people in the
[00:30:24] early 20s and it's just like just the opportunities like what they do with technology what they do with the marketing well how they you know might my analysts found is like distribution team of like founders that are about to start companies and she's been practically emailing
[00:30:39] them and they're responding and I'm just like I love this excitement and passion and there's there's so many things that for me I learn kind of from this new generation and so I always think alright do the job before you actually do it what can you bring
[00:30:54] to the firm that you're joining really think about what stage you know early stage versus late stage that's a very different thing late stage is more about kind of mirrors more of an investment banking model or you actually have numbers and traction and all that
[00:31:06] early stage is more team in a dream and so how do you find those deals and diligence them and then you know finding what is understanding what you are uniquely passionate about what energizes you and then finding and what do you value and then finding a firm that
[00:31:23] aligns those values love it yeah thanks for that recap that's like that's kind of what I wanted like you know those actionable items that people can take because you're right there isn't your chartered course is also was at a different time at a different
[00:31:37] market but nonetheless you can still pull the key themes and apply it to you now what I wanted to also get into a little bit is and I remember reading an article where you know you had the benefit of also working for like a
[00:31:52] legendary Chicago based fund math with two also legendary figures in the community in Chicago Troy Hanikov Mark Ackler who I'm sure you'll learn a ton from they describe you as like a I remember reading something like she was like a pit bull you know and that she
[00:32:09] would you would never give up until you really figured something out through and through it's one thing to join an already established fund and you know you have kind of two mentors and founding partners it's another to get to a point where you're like you
[00:32:25] know what I'm ready to do this on my own I think a lot of people have those aspirations but then it's like where do you even get started I always wonder that with people who actually sort of you know how do you even dip your toes into getting
[00:32:38] to a serious part in your trajectory to say like alright I'm ready to actually open the door here how the hell does that even happen you know it's yeah it's interesting so so obviously what I say is going to be very different from some of
[00:32:53] the newer funds and for me it was never so the last two years two three years there was a lot more capital and ecosystem there were people all sorts of people starting funds many that didn't have any VC experience any formal you know
[00:33:08] working in another fund and some operators somewhere MBA students that just won't right and and for me I was like crazy because I just always thought at least for me I was so grateful to your point that I was got this opportunity with
[00:33:23] Mark and Troy and you know other team members Dana and David Summel and Scott Wold because not only did they give me my first job but a lot of it was giving the freedom to do a lot of things that
[00:33:40] I you know wanted to do so I was able to go out and practically find deals I was able to create structure around what we were doing and bringing my industrial engineering background I was able to join boards and I was able to
[00:33:55] negotiate you know term sheets on our behalf I was able to get the freedom of a lot of things I credit them for this but I was also early on so it wasn't established from when I joined it was fun one and they didn't
[00:34:08] even have a website or a name or they had a name they have a website I remember like who met I was googling them I was like is this real you know so they yeah yeah yeah and they had done deals already they
[00:34:20] just didn't even have a website up yet and so going in super early and helping build the infrastructure from the ground up that was really helpful for me because that's what you do with your own crime and we also had institutional investors and so it was institutionalized from
[00:34:37] the beginning and that's really important for me because it's not just about being a good investor but a good investor doesn't mean a good fund manager your fund manager you are taking people's money they're investing it in the fund you were steward of their capital you're investing
[00:34:52] base on a thesis it's not just it's not just you and if you like somebody and you invest your own money and you lose it or you know make money that's your own thing now this is other people's capital these are people these are it might
[00:35:03] be foundations this might be a few individuals that have spent their whole lives building their wealth from the ground up and they're they're investing in you to get some sort of return right and so that I take seriously and and so for me I was able to
[00:35:21] learn a lot of that and I remember David Samo the CFO I'd love it but he is former hedge fund guy who's very tough on me but unfortunate because even going through our audits and our valuations like I remember if we were we had to be four
[00:35:36] decimals points you know correct number we're two decimal points off and during Christmas one year and I was like trying to figure out the calculations and all that and yesterday with my team we're doing the Q2 valuations and I was there calculating with
[00:35:52] everybody and then we weren't you know we were two decimal places off like no no we got to be right you know and they're like why just rounded like no you know and I know this is kind of extreme but but I there's
[00:36:03] there's a lot that I learned that under a safety net of Mark and Troy and and and David and Scott and Dana where I could fail I could mess up and one thing they always did to is they took it for the team like like they show
[00:36:24] leadership I remember one time there was a founder that didn't want to talk to me because I was an associate and and I'm like you know mark this guy doesn't want to talk to us or to me because I'm an associate I'm not a partner and what
[00:36:36] should I say and he's like well if he doesn't want to talk to you I don't want to talk to him you know he always he always showed those leadership skills that I now incorporate with my team and if if somebody on my team makes
[00:36:50] a mistake that's ultimately my fault right and so I will sit up and say it was my oversight it was me right and so there's a lot of leadership things I learned from them I was able to start from the ground up and see
[00:37:03] how the firm is built and it wasn't perfect right we had to adjust but they also gave me the freedom to do a lot of things that if you work at a big corporate big firm there's very specific roles and you don't go outside of that and only
[00:37:17] focus on the sector are you only do this and you can't you know be on board until you get to a certain point and all the things and so because of that I do believe I was better prepared than you know I thought I was
[00:37:32] I there wasn't this aha moment love like I want to start my own firm it was not that at all it was I had seen an opportunity in the market after years years years you know of deals and seeing them and over and over again
[00:37:45] and I was like there's something here this aha moment of this needs to exist it doesn't currently exist and certainly not in the Midwest and again back to the earlier conversation around I know this needs to exist I know this needs to happen I have no idea how
[00:38:01] I'm going to get there but I know it needs to happen and so I was actually going to create this angel group of like-minded individuals that you know have this deal flow now is an ecosystem talking to a bunch of people and that's why I found my
[00:38:13] anchor investor and you know grateful that I am they were looking for something new at the same time that I was looking for this new thesis and they were my first check in and they you know were years ahead of its time now there's a lot more
[00:38:27] people doing this but having institutional investor anchor your first fund huge right and and again I wasn't new to my thesis I wasn't new to venture investing I was new to my thesis so when I launched my firm I was like oh I know my legal people
[00:38:44] I know my audit I know my CFO Oh I've done this before you know I was like wow there were so many things that I had learned there was obviously things that I had to learn and there was things that I had to unlearn and relearn
[00:38:56] but I am grateful that I have that experience and again I'm not saying that you need that to launch your own firm but for me that gave me the confidence to say all right you know there's there's something here that I've learned and there's and there's a vision
[00:39:10] there's the thesis that I have that I believe can really drive alpha and it's a personal personal goal that I want to accomplish and how I want to change the landscape and the ecosystem who makes money and who gets funded and and that's why you know
[00:39:27] and I'm grateful that I was able to have partners around me that that were supportive yeah and what I love to about thank you for sharing that I the for me what what I took away from the last piece is sometimes it's as crazy as it sounds
[00:39:41] it's like just put it out in the universe I know this sounds very cheesy and like you know to what's the word like outer space mindset but sometimes if you just even put it out in your ecosystem like hey this is what I want to do
[00:39:56] I'm serious about this how do I even get there you kind of be surprised how the stars could align for you especially if you've done the groundwork not you know you you've never even you don't even know what venture is and all of a sudden
[00:40:08] you just had to find that's not what we're saying you've you've laid the groundwork and now you're trying to do something to level up but you have the the backing for it so I think sometimes it's not as daunting as it could be or maybe as
[00:40:21] as you would feel initially yeah yeah and you know there's a lot of risky take but I always say it is a calculated risk you know so at the time I didn't have you know two kids and married and married and I said okay I can do this
[00:40:36] for this amount of time and I can pay myself a tiny tiny bit and I have some you know interns that are getting school credit for it and there was and I also didn't go to raise a hundred million dollar fund from my first fund you know
[00:40:50] some people that did that it's great you know for me it was like I want to it was grateful that I did a six million dollar fund because I was able to prove out certain things that I wanted to prove out with the first fund
[00:41:01] and if the second fund I'm like okay now I laying the groundwork the foundation there I want to build off of that and that's what I will do for fund three and so it wasn't like I was taking I was like okay I'm just going to do this
[00:41:15] there was a lot of thought behind that and if you know me and you know one of my op said this is there's a lot of thought that goes into it any investment and make any new person that I hire any thing that I create it's not just
[00:41:28] I think about it's not too much but there is it's not just throw something you know out there and see and see what sticks there you know it is some of the like figuring it out as we do it but there is a lot of intentionality
[00:41:44] behind everything we do everything I do and and I was just grateful to build that confidence of being able to do my own thing because I had partners that that gave me the ability the opportunity to learn with them but also the freedom to be able to explore
[00:42:03] new ideas and and new ways of doing things hmm I'm not going to go because I know we only have 10 more minutes I want to talk I want to keep this all personal because I feel like for people you know wondering about the criteria and stuff you can
[00:42:17] that's all findable online I'm more interested in the behind the scenes and how you get there so 6 million fund one 52.9 fun to what I was kind of joking with myself is like how would I even tell my grandma as an example or even my parent
[00:42:33] who would know nothing about the venture space that like hey I'm running a 52.9 million dollar fund do you ever get like is it still difficult to explain for like family members back home they think it's your money like I just wonder what totally yeah
[00:42:48] yeah no it's funny because my you know my parents have asked me my my son asked me my son called the Chingona adventures so yeah basically I say you know there's somebody that has an idea of creating something that's going to change the world and
[00:43:07] I'm fortunate to be able to see them early on in their thinking of that idea and be able to support them with money with capital and that's what I do back to the sort of imposter syndrome I want to get there a little bit mental health
[00:43:27] your mom of two you know you you have your own social life you have yourself to look after you have 52.9 million dollars to look after you have a portfolio of founders to look after you have a team at Chingona to look after
[00:43:41] I feel like me just saying that I'm not looking into any of that and I'm I needed like a deep breath you know so I honestly I always wonder like how do you deal with if it comes up the anxiety the stress
[00:43:54] and how do you just level set while all of this is on your shoulders and I'm glad and I love by the way this podcast that is it's a lot of personal you know you're not asking very specific unfulfilled construction and specific deals because there's enough out there
[00:44:10] yeah and I don't and that's what I like to talk about when I meet with people and you know how are you doing what is going on in your world everyone has a story everyone has something they're dealing with and
[00:44:23] you know we talked about early on around the immigrant experience and there is a lot of trauma with that as well that I'm just finding out now and I do think it's important to discuss mental health it affects all of us in some way you know
[00:44:37] and some everyone has their own mental health journey a lot of the things that I've had to learn was what the things that made me really strong and the things that got me through my childhood were the things that helped me be successful
[00:44:52] and now are the things that I need to manage right and so this like work outwork everybody else is hustle culture this thing a lot of it was because I had to there was no other option right and this mentality of your poor your poor your poor
[00:45:08] something can be taken away at any moment that is no longer the case I mean you know and so there are things obviously can be taken away but this this this mindset you have very limited things that you growing up like you don't have it anymore
[00:45:25] and so taking yourself out of your childhood and bring yourself here and say no you don't have that and you can actually rest and this rest piece has been something that I had to struggle with because
[00:45:35] as a type A person as you know is just go go go and when you're have a child or when you're on maternity leave and all you do is you're just focusing on this little human being and feeding them but you don't get sleep and you're like
[00:45:47] oh my gosh I spent my whole career go go go and you actually have to rest and you actually have to just enjoy the moment exactly and that that was something that I've had to kind of go through
[00:45:59] and this you know you're you when you when I didn't have kids it was like this a lot of focus on me because that's what you do and I can on Saturdays I would do kept people say I was
[00:46:11] I called it so I would look at bunch of kept tables and I don't kind of where but I would I would model it out and figure out like okay what's the best price and how can we negotiate and model different scenarios and exit scenarios
[00:46:24] I have that time and we have it to do all that I was actually up at four in the morning my daughter decided to wake up and you're bright and early and so I've been you know now
[00:46:33] for almost six hours and I have my day but what I what I always say and I have learned this from this amazing mentor is that you can't you're not there's not the you got it you're killing it you're never killing you're never just being
[00:46:49] the best at everything some days I'm a great mom and I'm a terrible employee or terrible fund manager some days I'm a great fund manager and a terrible mom right and like for instance I'll be closing deals and I got you know all P commitments
[00:47:03] but I haven't seen my kids in a few days on the other hand you know I've been taking care of my kids and my kids are sick and you know I made it to their school musical and whatever else but there's things that
[00:47:15] you know I haven't been able to do maybe I haven't been able to be with people that want to get into venture they've been emailing me and all of this and so you're never going to be perfect. You just have to somehow balance it out but the biggest
[00:47:27] thing for me is really making sure I have at least a few moments for myself so one of the things I always do minus today couple couple of the morning either screaming child but I try to wake up typically around 430 in
[00:47:39] the morning my child usually with about 530 and I take five minutes just to meditate minimum meditate if I can get a few little exercises and I will do that but I have to get my mind set for the day and that really helps
[00:47:53] me and so I find little things that I can do I know that meditation I know that you know working out in the morning puts me in my best self I know that getting some more than 6 or than 5 to 6 hours of sleep helps me I don't
[00:48:06] always get there but making time for that I know that I need to fill my bucket with my family and so mentioned this before you know we've been the podcast or record started recording it but if I'm home I travel a lot so if I'm home in Chicago.
[00:48:22] I try to make sure that I'm there for drop off my kids pick up my kids and there for dinner and they're to put them to bed and so anything I do after that before that you know I try to schedule my flights out I try to
[00:48:35] schedule my events and things have to do around that you can always get that but spending as much time as I can with my children and that the last thing is just saying to support the support system you really have to you know think about your community around
[00:48:50] you and sometimes that's a nanny and sometimes it's a Niner's and sometimes that's or and sometimes that's literally just women that support you so I have this group called BC Mamas in Chicago some in Missonia Nagar and Alyssa Jaffe like we meet and
[00:49:06] it's made from the course we meet and we'll meet at somebody's 4pm because that's before pickup time we talk about deals and we talk about you know leading firms and we also talk about like what's the best car seat and a birth story and I literally
[00:49:22] have had a second birthday she had an Easter egg on that Easter Bunny Easter Bunny ears on my head with Easter eggs in my hand talking about this deal that we eventually end up doing together while my kid was screaming because you know they needed
[00:49:40] snack time but so that's how that's the support that we have and it's just this expectation versus reality exactly literally like how did this deal get done you know I wish I could put that on my LP update well we're at Easter egg hunt and you
[00:49:54] know that's how I sourced it but but really like it's just meeting people where they are and I think about that for founders to think about that for you know during the pandemic where we started to get a dip in female founders reaching
[00:50:07] out to us and he said why and then I realized oh my gosh parents all parents but particularly a lot of you know the female founders were taking a lot of responsibility and so can I do something simple as adjust the time I meet with them to
[00:50:21] nap time or if they're nursing turn off the you know the video and we just chat through you know the business so little things like that really be intentional about supporting the person and what they're going through so I'm grateful that
[00:50:36] I have a great support system around me. I'm grateful that I have you know mentored that helped me realize that hey you know it can't be perfect just have to manage that and then finding my own moments for myself and what makes me what
[00:50:52] energizes me even if it's just five minutes of meditation to be able to set my day up for you know on a better at a higher note and you know if it doesn't work we have a bad day kind of
[00:51:04] you know moving through that and then the one last last piece around that is really honing in on the upbringing the beautiful upbringing that I had and what made me get to where I am but also be able to manage that and understand that and
[00:51:20] to and a lot of that is is also me as a parent there's a lot that comes out when you have children a lot of your internal kind of traumas come out and triggers you realize and so being able to be a better parent or
[00:51:34] be a better parent for my kids and making sure that I do spend those special moments with them. Damn well that's a nice way to start a morning. Yeah, I can't thank you enough honestly it is 9 59 this was still 10 time management is key
[00:51:53] especially when your parent I promised you were going to be on time so we are not going over even though I can talk to you for like 700 I know I literally feel like we can talk all day. Yeah, but I need to be mindful for you.
[00:52:05] Look I can't thank you enough. I genuinely mean it when I say to me and to many I know in Chicago in the US around the world in Mexico I'm sure you really do serve as an inspiration and I feel like you're an inspiration
[00:52:19] not just to me but even to someone like my wife. You know a community of aspiring founders women founders women investors and that's a really beautiful thing like you're doing a lot that's visible and invisible and yeah you got to give yourself good o's I know
[00:52:35] you do but sometimes it's nice hearing it from someone else so. No thank you thank you so much. I really appreciate your comments and and again I love seeing what you're doing what you're building and bringing out these stories of people in the ecosystem in Chicago
[00:52:50] because people need to hear them people need to hear you know what Victor is doing and all the great things that he's building and others in the ecosystem and I love this. This was so much more just like literally a friend
[00:53:01] conversation and it takes you down to the just kind of like the mental piece of human piece of doing the job that we do which is also just as beautiful because that's what we look for in founders and then the people we interact with.
[00:53:15] So thank you for them.