Samara Mejia Hernandez: Founding Partner at Chingona Ventures

Samara is the Founding Partner of an institutionally backed pre-seed stage fund, Chingona Ventures, focusing on investing in tech and tech-enabled companies across the U.S. The fund has $60MM in AUM and has made over 40 investments across technology sectors in Financial, Food, Future of Work and Learning, and Health/Wellness. Before this, she was an investor at MATH Venture Partners across two funds where she led new investment review, diligence, and execution. Samara started her career at Goldman Sachs, where she was continually ranked top 5 in selling financial products, providing market insights, advising on portfolio construction, and consulting business practices. Her career started in the Fixed Income, Currency, and Commodity (FICC) group where she led multiple tech-enhancing projects across global exchanges. She is on the advisory boards for Coolwater, an organization to support the emerging manager community; Angeles Investors, an organization investing in early-stage startups led by Latinx founders; and Venture Forward, a non-profit working to get more diversity in the venture capital ecosystem. 

Samara earned an Industrial and Operations Engineering degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University. 

Transcript

Pablo Castro: 0:01

Welcome to the New Light Ventures podcast, the definitive guide to navigate the venture capital landscape. I'm your host, Pablo Castro, and every week we dive deep into stories, strategies and successes of emerging VC managers, whether they're navigating their first fund in the midst of growing their second or successfully running their third. In this podcast, you'll gain exclusive insights from the front lines of fundraising, management and innovation. Whether you're an aspiring manager, Anhejdehe, experienced investor, or just curious of the world of venture capital, you've come to the right place. Join us as we explore the trials and triumphs of those shaping the future of investment. From in depth interviews with industry leaders to practical tips for our own venture journey, we're here to provide you with knowledge and inspiration you need to succeed. So subscribe now, share your thoughts and let's embark on this journey together. Welcome to the New Light Ventures podcast, where capital meets innovation. Let's dive in. Hi everyone. Thank you for joining the New Light Ventures podcast. Today we have a very special guest, Samara Mejia Hernandez, founding partner of Shingona Ventures, a VC fund that invests in the next generation of badass founders. Wow, this is amazing. Welcome Samara, to the show.

Samara: 1:14

Thank you for having me.

Pablo Castro: 1:16

So Samara, I'm really excited for having your show. I was telling you before and look up to you. I've heard a bunch of your interviews. I think it's amazing what you're doing and your track record. And before we go into your story, tell us a bit about Chingona Ventures, what type of fund it is, ticket size and how big the fund is also.

Samara: 1:40

Yeah, so Chingona Ventures is an early stage firm based in Chicago. We invest all over the United States and so we typically like to be the first and largest check in. We are high conviction from the very beginning and that typically translates into pre seed or seed investing more pre seed. So rounds under $3 million. We like to invest 250 to 1 million as a first check and we'll invest pre series a. So we have follow on Capital as well. And we lead about a third of the deals that we invest in. We don't have to lead, but we can lead, co lead or participate. Areas of focus are fintech, health and wellness, future of work, future of learning, and food tech. So really we look at the change in demographics and how people are building wealth and how they are educating themselves, how they are progressing in their career and how they're thinking about food. And so we will invest super early. We found pre product, pre revenue, all the freeze and I. Yeah. And we're a team of three chingonas here in Chicago.

Pablo Castro: 2:43

Amazing. This is your fund, too, right?

Samara: 2:46

Oh, yeah. So fun. Too. So fun. One, we started in 2019. We made 27 investments. Fund two, we started in October of 2021, and we've made now 17 investments.

Pablo Castro: 3:00

Wow. Amazing. Congrats. Congrats. Oh, so I've heard your background story, but I just think it's really interesting for our community. Tell us, how did you become a fund manager? What were the influences there, how this all happened?

Samara: 3:18

Yeah, I know we briefly talked about this before, but growing up, fund manager, venture capital, even startup was not a term we used at home. And as a matter of fact, it was just my parents. We came here from Mexico. I was born in Mexico. I moved to Diaz at a young age, and my parents worked minimum wage jobs. And so it was just about surviving, growing up. And for me, I always say that I picked up math quicker than I picked up English. So that's what led me to study engineering at the University of Michigan. So I'm an engineer by training, and my first job out of college was at Goldman Sachs. So I was fortunate enough to get an internship. I didn't know what Goldman Sachs was. I found them at an engineering conference, and I was like, what do you do? So I had no idea, and they took a chance at me. And so I started my career there, and I started shortly before the last financial crisis. So I sold financial products during the financial crisis, which was rough. And having an engineer mindset where I'm like, all the numbers have to be correct, you go straight to the numbers, to relationship building, storytelling, and that was a hard transition for me. But now I think everybody should do some sort of sales at some point in their lives, because you're always selling something. You're selling a product, you're selling your company, you're fundraising, you're trying to bring on an employee to your firm. And so I always think that's a crucial skill and getting turned down over and over again and having to, like, get back up and do it again. So I did that for the beginning part of my career, and then I went to business school, and then that's where I had an internship at angel group here in Chicago. Fell in love with it. I was like, what is this world of angel investing? Venture capital, early stage, where you have no information, no data, nothing, but these people are building these products that are just incredible, that are changing the world, and how do you assess whether or not to invest? And so that's what led me to start a local venture fund here in Chicago. Two gps took a chance on me and then helped build the firm from the ground up. And so I was there from the beginning, you know, looking at how we do deals, how we negotiate term sheets, how we go on boards. And that's what I think that's something that really helped me, as I thought, to launch my own firm. And by the way, I never thought I was going to launch my own firm in the last two years. I think there's a lot of new funds coming to market, and you saw a lot of that and there's a lot more capital. But when I was first starting, I was like, I'm just happy to have a job. I'm just happy to do what I do, and I freaking love what I do every single day. But as I went there and I saw some founders come through, I started to see an opportunity in the market to go in earlier, to go in ecosystems that didn't have mature angel networks, to go into industries, and with founders that didn't figure traditional mold. And so that's why I launched Chingbona Ventures in April of 2019. And the first fund, were just trying to get into some good deals, prove that we're value add to founders. And then once we started to do that in fund two, were able to raise a much larger fund and be able to truly prove out the portfolio construction of what we believe the firm is going to do as we grow in scale.

Pablo Castro: 6:43

No, thank you so much. And I love the tie in with Goldman. I, so my wife's cousin, she's been working at Goldman for like eight years. And I think everyone takes a different takeaway from working at Goldman. What would you say was your biggest learning experience working there and that helped you building this firm you have now?

Samara: 7:07

Goldman was an incredible place for me to start, and I didn't realize that until I left. And I was like, wow, I learned so much. Even so, I did two internships there. And the internships that I did, not internships, but the formal structure that I went through, it was invaluable. So anything from, like, how do you meet a mentor? How do you find mentors? I remember going in my first internship with one of my managers, who was incredible, and she would take me to her senior meetings, and I would just be there taking notes. And then I was like, you know, what about this? What about this? And I would ask her afterwards. She's like, why don't you ask about it in the meeting? I was like, I can. She's like, yes. You know, she encouraged me to speak up, even as a junior person. She encouraged me to take coffee chats with different people and start networking. I didn't know that's what that was. But she's like, I want you to take, go reach out to somebody in a different department, no matter junior, senior, and have a coffee chat with them. And Goldman was actually great about this because I wasn't. I could reach out to an MD and ask for a coffee, and they would take my meetings. And so I did do that. And I learned a lot about different areas of the firm, but I also learned how to network. And then, you know, early on, there's a rigorous process. When you first start, it's an intense process because they hire people that are from finance or not from finance. There's athletes or people that study arthem, and so they take you, walk you through an intense process, and that puts everybody kind of on the same ground level of, like, learning about finance. But it also they teach you certain things about how do you act in certain meetings, how do you dress, how do you know, you be in the office before everyone else. You stay after with everybody else. And so it was something that, for me, was, you know, invaluable. And I, afterwards, I even now, when I mentor people that are in venture capital, different groups, you know, you have to mention certain things, like bring an agenda to the meeting. But, yeah, so Goldman was a fantastic learning ground for me. And I was able to learn a lot about things, both in finance, but also things outside of finance and how you network and how you build relationships. Now, the one other thing was a little bit about my strength that I didn't know I had. And so that got thrown into sales as an engineer. And I was like, how do you sell these products? Like, I would call people asking for meetings, and they would hang up the phone on me. They wouldn't want to talk to me. And I would go to my boss, I'm like, why don't they want to talk to me? He's like, because you're covering Texas. One, so talk to them like they're humans. Don't jump into the numbers. And two, you're building relationships. These are people. These are humans. And different from, obviously, dealing with parts and processes and all these other things that you don't think about. And so for me, I learned a lot about relationship building. I learned a lot about selling in my own way. So many times, people think that sales is like being a used car salesman or just pitching a product. In reality, it's the way I think about it is solving a problem for somebody. So sales is more about listening than actually pitching, which I'm like, oh, I can listen. I'm an introvert. I love asking questions, right? And so I'm being infinitely curious, which is what happens when you're in venture capital. So we just go there and I would just ask them a bunch of questions about their lives if they want to tell me about their personal stuff, about professional. And so from there, I learned about them, and I could position a product based on it. And the other thing was around trust, because especially in financial services, especially during the financial crisis, people didn't trust banks. People didn't, especially when were out in the news every single day. And so it was really important for me through those years to build trust or authentically build trust with my clients. And when I did position a product for them, they trusted me because I remember they asked me about a product and I said, you know what, I don't think that fits your portfolio. And I lost the commission that day. But I gained their confidence and their trust. And when there was a product that I found maybe a much bigger sale, much bigger product, there were, you know, they trusted me to give them the advice that I felt was best for them. And so I learned a lot about, obviously, finance, but there were so many other things around trust, around relationship building, around selling my own authentic way, around things that they don't teach you outside, certainly not in venture capital, because typically, like, just go in and figure it out type of thing. And so I'm grateful that I got that groundwork at Goldmandous.

Pablo Castro: 11:41

No, that's amazing. I think one of the things you mentioned such important for relationship building, at least from what I've learned, is the serendipity that some of these meetings take, you know, and just like not everything is an agenda. Most times, the best things don't come out of an agenda. And.

Samara: 12:01

Yeah, and people know that you have an agenda. I remember there was one accelerator that had somebody come in and teach him about sales, and they said, you're either selling or you're not selling, or you're either like, you're networking or you're, I don't know what he said, but basically he told the founders that you have to be out, have an agenda, go meet a bunch of people, you know, have a plan. And I'm not, look, I'm not saying that when I go and network and I'm at a conference, I don't have a goal for sure, but I just remember being at this accelerator like reception, just the founders like asking me a bunch of questions to see who I was, what my title was, you know, and if they were like, okay, if I wasn't, if I didn't fit whatever agenda they had, you know, they moved on to somebody else. And I'm like, huh, that was, that's interesting. Like you as a person, I don't feel good about that.

Pablo Castro: 12:57

No, not at all, for sure.

Samara: 12:59

So I think I, look, everyone's style is different and it fits with whatever is authentic to you. But for me, it was always like, okay, get to know somebody. Get to know somebody on a personal level. And you never know who they are in an organization, who they know. And there's, I often talk about brand. There's brand that you build on the outside on Twitter, and you can be out there, and there's a lot of VC's that are and whatever else. And then there's a brand that you build inside. And there's a brand that you build with the colleagues in your firm. There's a brand that you build with your co investors, with your colleagues in the industry, with the founders that you back. And that brand is also powerful because it's not necessarily out and screaming like, I'm the best and you know, all this stuff, but it's letting somebody else basically do it for you. And you're not going to make everyone happy. Right. But you build a certain reputation with how you do deals, who you work with, how you help somebody. And so that is also part of, you know, just having an authentic self and authentic approach to sales.

Pablo Castro: 14:06

One of the main things you mentioned there, I think it's just so important is, yeah, people don't like you, don't trust you, and specifically people that do this. Oh, I'm looking for this person. And if you're not this person, I'm going to the next person. That for me, in some sense, it just cuts those people out for down the future. I'm not, probably not going to think of them, not going to reach out to them. So I agree completely. In that sense, going on your fund, I just think it's so interesting you started with a smaller fund. And correct me if I'm wrong, the first one was 6 million, right?

Samara: 14:47

Yes, first one, 6,000,002nd fund, 53 million.

Pablo Castro: 14:50

How did you create thesis for Chingona? I feel as fund managers, a lot of time we think that a thesis is something we come up with, and it's done. But in my experience, it has been something that you keep on creating continuously. How was your process for creating thesis?

Samara: 15:07

So, and I'm glad you bring that up because I got one of the pieces of advice as well from a friend, a really good friend of mine who is also a solo GP and emerging manager. He's two funds down the line from me. But I was like, all right, trying to put it together because I was like, all right, trying to build this fund. Like, do I do this check size or this check size? Do I do this for further construction or this. And he's like, you know what, you can have a thesis, but it's not until you get out to market where you're actually going to refine it, right? So you're just going to start writing checks and you're going to figure out, like, can you get into big deals with a big check? Can you get the equity ownership that you want early on or will you just be able to do a 50k check at the last part of the round? Will you not have any influence? Can you manage 100 companies in your portfolio or are you someone that is a more concentrated? And so for me, I had been in venture before, so it wasn't like I was new to venture. I was new to my thesis. So I had an idea of, okay, I don't want a ton of investment portfolio companies, but I'm not also super concentrated and for how I want to be involved with these companies. This is why this portfolio construction makes sense. And the first fund, I'm going to have this check size because this is the number of deals I want and this is what I can do. Now, the first fund was $100,000 to 250k. So that is a very different thing. So you can, it's easier to get into rounds. You don't have to leave, you don't have a certain equity ownership, but you can just kind of squeeze in and it's kind of easy, right, when you become bigger and you have to have a certain equity ownership or there's certain things that you have to do, right? Maybe you have to lead, maybe you have to have certain rights. That starts to limit some of your check sizes. That starts to limit maybe, you know, some of the deals that you can't get into and you have to be a little bit more aggressive with it. And so, but those learnings happen when you start doing, you know, your check sizes. And it has to be authentic to you because I do see some people like, you know, all of a sudden everybody was targeting a $50 million phone. Everybody was targeted, you know, and it's like, oh, well, why? Well, it was like, oh, well, certain lps don't go below 50 million, so everyone started doing 50 million up front. Like, that's a pretty aggressive fund size for a fun one. You know, hey, that's what you can do, and you can raise it and all power to you. But for me, you know, I found it very valuable to have a six month offer fund to start. And, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, I think that's great because I. The way I think about capital is, you know, I have a fiduciary responsibility, and this is capital that I'm raising on behalf of. There's foundations, there's institutional investors, there's individuals that build businesses their whole lives, and this is their money. Right? And so for me, I take that seriously. I'm not trying to play around and learn with that. I think about myself as an institutional fund manager. And so when I raise this capital, I'm like, I want to be very serious and very intentional about what I'm doing. And so 6 million made sense for me to say, all right, this is what I want to prove out. I have a thesis in the beginning, and if I'm able to prove it out, then I can raise second fund. And if in the second fund, I'm able to prove that out, then I can raise the third fund. And so with every fund, there's always a thesis. There's always, it doesn't change drastically, right? It's not like I'm going from crypto investing to, like, AI investing, you know, concentrated to spray and pray. But it's always been intentional about how I want to build the firm, because I do want to build a firm and I do want to sustain for the long term. And so that's advice I always give, is kind of like, you're going to have a thesis, but don't go crazy with it. Just, like, understand why it makes sense for you. And not just a $50 million fund, because everyone's doing $50 million fund, but, like, if it's 25, why that makes sense. Have a minimum viable fund size to say, like, this is what I can do to make a strategy work. And that could be $2 million fund, or that could be a $50 million fund. And if you look back at, like, some of the top investors, you know, floodgate and some other, like, their fund sizes were tiny, they were small, you know, Samuel Shaw. It was like, you know, I don't know, but it was under 10 million. And so you think about it, you can return a $5 million fund very differently, that you can return a $100 million fund as your fun one. And so there's no right answer. It's just the answer that makes sense for you and you have to own it. And once I started to own my strategy, why it made sense, the conversations were very different. And from a fundraising perspective, it just makes a lot more sense for LP's. And there's some LP's that are just not going to make sense for you and there's some lP's that are going to make sense for you, but you kind of figure out who those are and you can pitch differently to those LP's.

Pablo Castro: 20:02

Yeah. One thing I see that, and from what I've heard from other managers is exactly what you're seeing. Like this LP only invests the fund is minimum 15 million. So they changed their strategy to 15 million. They were five and now they're 15. And then something else happens. It's very reactive, a sense. And then I think in the end, you really don't differentiate yourself from the rest because it's. I think people, even unconsciously can tap into when a person is being honest or when something is really core to a person. And I think that kind of banishes it all when you're just being reactive to what lP's prefer or what you think lP's prefer, because it's your perspective, 100%.

Samara: 20:49

And, you know, it's hard too, because if you haven't been in venture, if you've never run a fund before, it's hard to know. And maybe you're just like, I have a startup before, maybe it's the same thing and it's not. It's not the same thing. Being an investor and being a fund manager is a very different thing. Maybe you were angel investor before, right? It doesn't mean you can't do it. And there's certain things that you can bring to the table that are different I than someone who hasn't done that, but it's just different. And to your point, around being different in a sea full of emerging managers, that's hard even for us. I mean, we're constantly trying to refine ourselves because we go out and we're unique in one sense, and then other people come in and then you're kind of like not unique anymore. And so you kind of redefine yourself and it's just like with a company or with a product, you're continuously refining, and that's also refining yourself in your learnings into the investments that you've made. But I got two pieces of advice that I want to share. One piece of advice was, yeah, there was. I remember there was a GP, same name, solo GP, that I really admire. And I talked to him and I was like, getting feedback on, you know, being solo GP. Like, people know we're not liking that and there's this risk factor and all the things, and they were. You were just like, just own up to it. That's who you are, right? It's what you do. And I was like, well, I can't just, like, turn away. LP is like, you know, they want to know about who I'm going to hire and whom. And he's like, you just have to own if that's what, you know, you're going to do for the rest of your fund, or if that just, you know, what you're going to do for this fund and why it makes sense. Just own up to it and explain it. And there's some lP's and be like, well, no, thank you, and great, fine. You know, you kind of move on, and there's some lP's gonna be like, great, I love it. And then move on. And so it does take a while to get that confidence. And it's not like I'm like, hey, this is what I'm doing. Take it or leave it. That's not my style. But it's like, this is why it makes sense. And let me share very specific examples of why this is gonna work. And so once I did that, the conversations were very different. The second thing was around staying authentic to me. So I was putting my deck together, and that's a hard thing, by the way, I had, like, two emails this morning from emerging managers who were like, can I see your deck one and deck two?

Pablo Castro: 23:16

You know, going off to market for sure.

Samara: 23:18

And I'm like, look, my deck was not beautiful, like, by any means perfect, but it's a hard thing. Cause, like, how do you explain your story? And people see millions and millions of these decks. And I remember getting feedback from one lp who I love, but he gave me just like, not the best feedback. It was like, all right, I look. He was like, I look too young in there, so take a picture that makes you look older, right? Yes. And look, I mean, look, all the ducks that this person had seen are older. You know, all the things. And sew in suits and very clean numbers, wipe black, like very, just plain so I understand. And look, they're an institutional investor. They manage a ton of money. And so I was like, okay. And so I did that for my deck. And I remember another LP was like, ugh, this is boring. This isn't you know? And I was like, you're right, it isn't me, because I was pitching them. And I'm like, I am not an old man, an old white man. I mean, I have a latino culture. I have, you know, a lot of, like, the fun's name is Chingona. Like, I need to embrace my natural, authentic self. And so I was like, effort. I scrapped it. I put in colors. I put in design. I put in people pictures of my founders. I put in pictures of me and my team and who were, and I added a little, you know, spice to it, a little flavor. And I got some lP's like, wow, this is different, right? And some probably hated it, and some loved it. But I always say, if you don't stand for something, you stand for nothing. You have to, like, take a point of view on something. You gotta own it. And so if you are someone that just looks a little bit older in your pictures and wants to have black and white and all the things great, that's you. That wasn't me. And so the minute I put that, my conversations changed my authentic. I wasn't afraid to say certain things. I wasn't afraid to double down. And I got more confidence just because it was me. It wasn't because I have this, like, natural confidence was just like, this is what I truly believe is going to work. This is what the founders of my portfolio are saying. This is specific examples of why I started my firm. This is specific examples of things that have happened as to justify why we need to exist. And so that helped the conversation to change as well.

Pablo Castro: 25:48

A good friend of mine says, be such an expert in your niche as a fund manager that you make lP's doubt their own thesis. So I think it's. It's so important because in the end, they're like, maybe I should. We should make an investment in this fund because of this reason. BC, but in talking about your investors, how did you build this credibility, this trust with investors? I know you weren't a first time investor. You were a first time fund manager when you raised your fund. One, but how did you navigate that?

Samara: 26:22

Yeah, I mean, and at the time, it was, you know, I started talking about this in late 2017, early 2018. So certainly before the last few years where there was a lot of free flowing capital everybody was starting their firms. And so I certainly didn't have the confidence to think, like, I can do this. And I know I didn't know family offices. I didn't know anybody outside of Chicago. I don't have come from Wells. I don't know. Certainly no institutions were doing this. But I was very fortunate that my first lp was somebody that thought way ahead of the game. He was someone that said, you know, we keep finding the same types of fund managers that kind of look the same or getting the same types of returns. Let's think about this more broad. Broadly, let's start to invest in differentiated strategies, differentiated gps. And it was a mix of two things. It was one, them saying, this is what we need. And me on the other hand, at the same time saying, I'm seeing this opportunity. I'm seeing these founders that need to get back. These businesses need to get back. If I had my own check, my own firm, I would write checks into these founders. And those founders were actually ones that did reference calls on me and said, yes, you know, Samara's been helping us. She's been. If she had her own fund, we would absolutely take her check. And then I started to have. I always tell this to junior investors, just having your own virtual portfolio, whether you're trying to get into venture or you're at a venture firm, because as a junior person, you can't always bring in a deal. Like, you can't. You get it. You can pitch the partnership, but maybe you have some flexibility around leading deals. But typically it's the partners that are, say yes or no. And so there was many times where I was like, well, I would have invested and I couldn't get it through committee, but I had my own virtual portfolio of companies that would have invested in. And then I track them down and see, like, okay, did they raise additional amounts of funding? Did their revenue grow? What was it? And basically said, if I had a fund, this is what it would look like. And so those two things happen at once. And that was able to create the first one, and it was smaller, but I was like, okay, this is what I'm going to be able to do. And an LP is backing me. So that's what fun one is. It's basically you, regardless. You might have angel track record, you might have a track record with your former firm, but really, it's like they're betting on you and your thesis. And so when I started, it was definitely unique to the midwest. There was little or no pre seed investing. Certainly, you know, the GP, my background was different, and I believe I have a different lens in the deals we look at and the deals we can relate to and the customers that they are targeting because of that. And so, you know, from that perspective, were able to get our LP, and they were incredible partners. I know not everyone gets that. There's some LP's that are great partners, some lP's, you know, that maybe don't fit. But my anchor LP and fun one was just incredible. And they were able to help me kind of navigate a lot of things that even though it was an adventure, there was things that I was still learning and I had to unlearn and I had to relearn for fund one.

Pablo Castro: 29:34

From what I, from a research fund two, I think it was a, it was supposed to be a $25 million fund, right? And yes, were oversubscribed, or maybe I incorrect with the number, so, no, please correct me if you hear us. But. And then you incremented the fund. How did that, how did that happen? And also, how did you find the other lP's to fill out this much bigger fund? Are there specific things you did, specific things you recommend?

Samara: 30:09

Yeah. So were fortunate with fundone, like, I set my target of 25 million because I was like, this is what I believe is the minimum viable fund size. This is what I believe we can get to work. And it's significant. It still was a significant step up from a $6 million fund. And we got there pretty quickly. And the first close, and it was, and those anchor LP's were one my fund, one LP was anchor, but it was also other investors that had, we talked to them before were even starting a fundraise, and they committed, and then they introduced me to somebody else who committed, and then I had known somebody in the ecosystem, one of my other LP's for a couple of years. This is the whole relationship building. And so they knew me from before, and so they had tracked me, and so they were ready to invest. So that was the thing. It was, it's really an important thing to get some anchor LP's. Now, I know not everyone can get that, and there's certainly other ways you can do it. But for me, having strong anchors that people knew, that people trusted, that can get on reference calls that, you know, my anchor LP basically called all, every single one of the founders in my portfolio. Oh, wow. And did due diligence on my company and some, you know, that said great things and I don't know who else, you know, I don't know, actually what they said, but they were able to do that, right? And so they did this full due diligence. So that LP was able to get on calls with people and do reference calls as well. Now this other, this LP, this anchor LP, he also was able to expand his network for me. Now, I never asked, and that was my mistake. I mean, there's up that I barely know that are like, hey, can you introduce me to your LP? Like, you know, ask all day long? And I was like, wow, you know, I never did that. So he was very fortunate to open up his network. And this is what I talk about with, you know, really value added lP's that do that for you without even asking. Or even if you do ask, you know, they're able to open that up. And so that helped me at least make, that only gets you in the door. It doesn't get you the check, and then it's up to you, right, to get that check. And so it was a position that I, so I had this thesis for a while. It just so happened that this thesis, then, people were looking for it. When I went to go raise my fund, too, I also wasn't a first time fund manager. I also had, you know, been a part of another firm, two firms, three firms. Part or, sorry, two firms. So one, my former firm, two across, two funds as well as my own fund, and had already made investments. And so I was in a different position than, you know, a brand new manager that never run a fund, that never did all that. And also I, you know, fund ones, a lot of times have family offices or individuals and then fund twos and threes, they try to raise from an institution. We were different in that we had an institution from the beginning. And even at my last firm, I started institution, I thought about a fund institutionalized, like, from the beginning. So we had our audits, we had processes, we have investment memos, we had all the things, and I've never known otherwise. So when people, like, just send a wire and like, don't get the fully executed documents or like, don't do audits or don't have do, like, I'm like, oh, my gosh, you know, like, well, I've never done that because, you know, yeah, and maybe it's my time at Goldman too, right? Like all these regulations and all these things. And so from the beginning, I've mentioned this before, like, I consider myself a fiduciary of, like, people's money. And, you know, I raise people from money from others to invest and I feel there's a huge responsibility around that. And so, building structure around how we, you know, what we say we're going to do, how we're tracking on what we say we're going to do. Structure around our due diligence structure around our sourcing structure around our portfolio monitoring, that's all really important to me. And so I had all that. But, yeah, lp's commented, they're like, oh, wow, like your data. Oh, my gosh, you have this, you have that. I'm like, yeah, so doesn't everybody? I didn't realize that until later. It's like now there's like, organizations that help people become fund managers for the first time and help all that. I didn't have that. You know, people ask me, how did you find your CFO? Or how did you find your audit firm? What I was fortunate with was that I was at a part of another firm that built that, and that I helped build that as well. And I was credit. My former CFO, my former firm, I love him to death, but he's a hedge fund guy. Former hedge fund guy. Very tough. Very, very tough. I've dealt with a lot of tough people, mostly men in my life. So my first job at Goldman, it was actually working with training desk, and then it was sales, and then, you know, working in venture capital with this really tough CFO. And my partners, there were also like a joke that they had an attention span of like, you know, three minutes. And so whenever I had to pitch a business, it was like, go straight for it, like no b's, you know, I had to, like, I don't know, ten page PowerPoint that I get down to, like, invest yes or no and why and how much. And my former CFO at the other firm, I mean, he, I remember he was so tough on me, just trying to understand pro forma cap tables, trying to understand, like, you know, calculating certain things or just simple things like price per share and their ownership and making sure that the share price was right. If were off, bye. You know, four decimal, like, if the fourth decimal point was off, I had to, like, recalculate it. And, it's funny, just before this, I was in a team meeting, and I was, like, going through an excel model, because we're doing a deal, and I was showing my team, okay, this is how you calculate. We need to make sure that the performance right. We need to make sure the price per share is right. We need to share the stock, and I was showing them how to do it. And I was like, wow, I learned all this from before, right? And even going through an audit with my CFO, I'm like, okay, this is right, this is wrong. This is why we should. And so I'm grateful that I had all that to bring to my firm, you know, and I learned all of this. And so when I went to go become pitch LP's, I was like, okay, I've done this before. I didn't realize how much I had done already because I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm starting from the ground up. And yes, I was my new firm, but there's all these learnings that I was so grateful that I learned ahead of time how to lead a deal, how to negotiate things, how do we, how to read financing documents, how to, you know, think about a term sheet and a board and all those things. And so what's been interesting for me is a lot of funds have started and, you know, the gps haven't been a part of former firms. And so there is a lot of learnings that need to happen. And I'm not saying, you know, and so, but there is a lot of support that people do provide that can get you that. There's a lot of cohorts and there's, like, organizations that help with that. But I was grateful that I had a lot of that in my former firm.

Pablo Castro: 37:28

And speaking about these processes, of course, from experience at Goldman, just background as an engineer also, what would you say is your process for deal flow? What has worked best for you? Finding great deals and also doing a due diligence, a proper due diligence that you feel comfortable with.

Samara: 37:52

Yeah. So my background is. So I studied industrial and operations engineering. So, like, process is. You speak music to my ears, you know, like, I have a process for everything, a structure for everything. And especially as a solo GP, especially as a firm of three employees, that is what really helps us scale. And even from my time and how I allocate it and how my calendar is color coded and if I'm not doing a certain number of meetings per week, I have to readjust. And so my whole kind of structure and the firm is built around process so that I can have time for the high value added things. What are the high value added things? Finding great deals and investing in them, working with our portfolio companies and post investment and helping them get to that next point. Right. And then fundraising. And so there's a lot of things that I need to make sure that I have time for as a small team and as a solo GP so I have a structure around everything, and part of our values too is around transparency. So you can even go online in our chingonadventures. And we have a whole process of what you can expect in the first second of meetings. Why we invest, why we don't invest. We have a form that everyone fills out. It's the same form that I would have a warm intro sent or cold intro sent. And that helps us prepare for the meeting. It helps us get you in our system, it helps us be like, okay, wait a minute, this valuation satisfied of our thesis or you are a series a company. We only do pre seeds and not waste the founder's time. We like to communicate and we come back to the founder typically in five to seven business days after we meet with them. And so, like everything about our structure is something simple, but not a lot of VC's do interesting enough. And for the experience, for the founder, we say no, 99% of the time, just like every other VC. But to be able to say that and why and be able to be communicating that, waste their time, I think that says a lot, right? And so for me, I experienced the same thing when I fundraise. So we have a lot of structure on that. We have frameworks around what we do. We have investment memo on every deal we do. And I know people are like, wait, precede, what do you do? An investment memo on? It's like a team and a dream, but we do, we have a structure on everything. We tend to say we do a lot more due diligence for pre seed investment. It doesn't mean that we hold up the deal, it doesn't mean that we can't move quickly. I always say we move quickly for the midwest, we move slow for San Francisco, but, you know, we're somewhere in between and we just want to make sure that we understand all the risks, because even in pre state early, it's a lot of risks. And so what are the risks? Are we comfortable with those risks? What are they raising for? Are we comfortable with that? Do we believe we can help them get to those next milestones and, you know, be able to track that and to have learnings for us, learnings for the founders. So, you know, we recently went through a post mortem analysis of, okay, companies that aren't doing well or kind of failed. What do we know at the time of investment? It, was it something that we could have known? Was it something we could have done differently in our sourcing, in our due diligence process? Or was it something that was completely out of our control. And so there's a lot of learnings that I think can happen that you can know, train yourself like a train. You're training a model. Right. You're training yourself to be like, okay, what are we learning that we can take into the next fund? And so, yeah, we have a process around everything.

Pablo Castro: 41:33

Amazing. I think it's so important because with many managers I've spoken with, even people that are on their fund three, they're like, you know what? We really don't have a process. And it's surprising because you think someone that's been doing this for a while and it's not in the bad sense. It's just like, maybe it's not as heard of, but it is a very good practice to have.

Samara: 41:56

Yeah. And sometimes people get lucky and sometimes, you know, you only need one deal to really make the fund and to be able to raise the next fund. And so you maybe don't need to think through that. Right. And that's fine. But I know, especially as you get to institutional peace, they want to see that the process is repeatable. They want to see that it's not just like a random thing or like someone in your network. They'll let you in with a ten k check. You never know. So, like, there's funds and there's investors that have been successful, but you don't know if it was actually like, oh, we did our whole sourcing model and went out and we found this. This was our thesis. And, and then we invested exactly 10% because that was what our model said. And that's what the ownership and, like some of this stuff is literally, they, their friend let them into this big deal with a ten k check, and then the deal went really great and then they were able to raise up on sometimes there's those stories. Right. And so, and that's fine. Right. But I think I really do believe that, again, as a fund manager, there's just a different thing than as an individual investor. And so really thinking through how you build a firm, how you make it, your process, repeatable and scalable, how then you're able to hire people and train them on this and then have them become the next generation of investors, which is actually really important to me. I mentioned this before, but I had people take a chance at me my whole career at Goldman and through my last firm. And I want to do that for the next generation of investors that may not look like the traditional investors that's important to me. And it's important to me to give them a shot and, you know, to continue at our firm, to launch their own firm, to launch their own business. So we've thought through that a lot as well.

Pablo Castro: 43:44

Amazing. I mean, I think it's just so important, this legacy of a firm, and just thinking about what do you want the end of the firm to. Well, I mean, the, what do you want the firm to look like in 20 years down the line, 50 years down the line. And I know we're running out of time, so I'm going to make one last question. I think it's super important. Is work life balance? I know it's a big question, so I'm going to keep it very short. What are maybe one or two best practices that you have to maintain? Let's not even call it balance, but your mom of two have significant other. How do you keep those limits? And so you're a great parent, family member, but at the same time being a great fund manager.

Samara: Yeah. When I saw one of your questions before, it was like, what does your day look like? And I literally picked it up at like 04:00 in the morning. And I was like, well, okay, I come up at four in the morning before everybody else wakes up, wake up clean, do the dishes, do my meditation, do my little workout. 05:00 a.m. You know, I know my daughter's going to wake up and then 06:00 a.m. I know my son's going to wake up. And then I got to get her ready. Got to get him ready. But by 08: 44:35

00 a.m. It's like, I've had half a day, you know, that's like most, I think, working parents, but I would say if I would break it down, the work life balance, it would come down to two things.

Samara: 45:16

So one is I say no a lot and it's really hard for people, but I think particularly women, to say no. And we talk about it all the time with the local. I have a group of local VC women here in Chicago that also have families, and we share a lot of best practices. We share deals, we share car seats, we share lP's, we share, you know, playdates and overwhelmed. Like, it's good to have a support network. And then there's also like a BC mama's group all over the US and so grateful for that as well. But it's saying Ola and it's really prioritizing what's important to you. And before I had kids, I was like, I was a lot, I was structured with my time, but really having kids and a family and responsibilities and then running a firm, there's just, you have to be brutal with your time, especially as a solo GP. So that's where I incorporate a lot of process. That's where I incorporate my calendar and making sure that I am doing the high value added things, making sure that my kids are taking care of my husband. And I do have a very supportive husband who does a lot of equal responsibilities. It's never going to be equal on either side, but it helps a lot there. So I'm very fortunate. I have family nearby as well. But I would say no a lot to things that you just can't. And it's really hard because you get asked to do a lot of things in venture capital. You get asked to speak at things, you get asked to pitch somebody, for someone to pitch you have to go fundraise all the things. And so it's just prioritizing, I think is crucial. And then the second thing is just being okay, not being perfect. And that's a portfolio. That's a piece of advice I got from a portfolio founder here in Chicago. She had three kids. She was running company. I was like, how do you do all of it? This is before I had kids. She was like, you just have to be okay not being perfect. And, you know, one of my mentors at Coleman also said that she was at first, like, the youngest GP or partner at the Chicago office. And she was like, you know, some days I'm a good mom and I'm a terrible employee, and some days I'm a good employee and a terrible mom. And that's the case with me, right? Like, I travel a lot as well, and some days I am out. Like, I win a deal, you know, peak commits. I'm like, you know, and I haven't seen my kids in three days. And some days I'm like, all right, you know, I got my son, I got his hair cut, I got him the dentist, he's got, you know, he's at summer camp, my daughter sleeping through the night. Like, I'm winning and then, like, I lose a deal and lp says no to me and company shuts down. And so you're just never going to be perfect, and you have to be okay with that, especially as your responsibilities increase. But I think it's just having that balance. And one thing I do prioritize is, like, morning and night. So I don't take early morning meetings. That's my time with my son, I wake up, that's my playtime with him. We color, we do as much as I can, and then drop off. And the minute drop off happens, boom, I'm in mama work mode. And at night, when people ask me to do things, it's like either has to be really like high value event or high value thing, or I say, you know, I just need to be home in time for pickup and dinner as a family and making sure that I can, you know, put my daughter to sleep when I can, and my son as well. And so that's really important to me, if I am home, to be able to have those moments, because I know I travel a lot as well.

Pablo Castro: 48:51

No, perfect. I think it's just so important. Of course, we don't hear this, the human side from many investors. There's not a platform. So I really appreciate you sharing this. And we do have to have a part two at some point also, because I feel time has run, but it has gone past super fast. And where's the best place founders can reach out to you? We have founders, we have LP's that listen to the show. What's the best way to contact?

Samara: 49:21

Yeah, so www. Dot Chingona Ventures. I promise you, it's not just sending you to a website. Literally, if you have a business, we are open for business. We are aggressively doing pre seed small seed checks under $3 million. Round, not small seed checks, small seed round. So round, under 3 million. If you're looking for your first institutional round of funding, reach out to us on our website. Is everything that we invest in our sweet spot what you can expect if you fill out your form, I promise you, all of us look through it. There's two people on the team that look through it. Typically, it's Perry on our team that goes to the first and then me, or they look through things and we, if it fits our thesis and interests, we reach out. And we have made investments from the website, too, so you don't have to have a warm intro to us. So that's the best way. And then, yeah, so there's a form there, but it's tomorrow at Chingonada Ventures. For anybody that is interested in reaching out and wanting to partner with us.

Pablo Castro: 50:24

I'm sure you will get a lot of people reaching out to you. And I want to thank you for your time. I know you say no to a lot of things. I knew that from before we had our call. So I really do appreciate you taking the time for our community and commend you for everything you're doing. I think it's amazing. You're an amazing investor, role model for a lot of women, a lot of investors like me. And I really appreciate your time and thank you so much.

Samara: 50:54

Yeah, and thank you for giving me this platform. Because part of this too is for me saying, all right, I can't talk to 100 people, but I can go on this and reach 100 people, or thousands of people potentially. And so for me, it is really important to share our stories, especially as latino investors, which there's very few of us, as Latinas, which is like 20 latino gps in the country. I know all of them, which is crazy. I think it is important to share our stories, to take time out, to be able to elevate each other, to share best practices, help each other as we grow our own businesses, as we try to deal with personal and professional challenges. Thank you for giving me that platform to do so.

Pablo Castro: 51:36

Perfect. No, thank you Samara. And we will have everything in the show, notes, everything you've mentioned, a URL, website, everything. And thank you so much. And we'll have you on for next episode also. Okay, thank you. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the New Light Ventures podcast. I'm Pablo Castro and it's been a pleasure bringing you insights and stories from the forefront of venture capital. We hope you're leaving with valuable knowledge and inspiration to carry you forward on your own venture journey. If you've enjoyed today's conversation, don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share it with your network. For updates, additional resources, and to suggest guests for topics of future episodes, visit our website and follow us on our social media channels. Were excited to continue this journey with you, exploring our ever evolving landscape of venture capital. Until next time, keep innovating, keep investing, and keep pushing the boundaries of whats possible. This is new light venture signing off. Lets keep.