VamosVentures

At VamosVentures we are investors first – but we are more than that. We believe strong, independent journalism is essential for a thriving democracy and vibrant communities, starting with our home of Los Angeles. That's why we proudly support the L.A. Local News Initiative, a groundbreaking effort to increase quality local reporting across Los Angeles. Guided by the input of nearly 900 L.A. residents, this initiative will fill critical information gaps and create dozens of new newsroom roles to serve neighborhoods, the region, and the state. What’s more, our very own Marcos Gonzalez has the honor of being on the search committee for their first CEO. If you care about journalism, community empowerment, democracy and love Los Angeles, please check out the links below to learn more about the organization and job opportunity. 📰 Learn more + get involved: https://lnkd.in/g-erbhat 🔍 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gVa5YyRb #SupportLocalNews #StrongerTogether #LAForAll

Last week, Marcos Gonzalez and Maya Trujillo attended the New Mexico Startup Forum in Albuquerque hosted by the Arrowhead Center at NMSU & Scale Up NM. Our friends Sandra Hirschberg, MBA and Andres Sebastian C. at the New Mexico Startup Alliance and X-ITO (respectively), also helped us organize a Diverse Innovators Happy Hour at UN-17 (Pangea). It was wonderful to bring together so many NM-based founders, funders, and allies.   At VamosVentures, we invest across the US, but we are intentionally working to contribute to numerous local ecosystems, including Portland, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and now, Albuquerque and NM at large. Maya’s family is from NM, so she is really excited to lead our efforts here.   If you’re an NM-based founder building your business, please reach out so we can get to know each other. If your company falls outside of our investment scope, we'd still like to connect and give feedback + make connections.   Thank you to Carlos Murguia and his team for organizing a wonderful event and inviting us to be involved. Huge kudos to Sandra Hirschberg, MBA for being a true champion of NM startups, we so appreciate all the connections you made on our behalf.   We can’t wait to visit NM again soon!

Congratulations to our own Ashley Ryder on her promotion to Partner!! 👏 We are so proud of her hard work and dedication to VamosVentures.

A huge shoutout and thank you to our superb 2024 Summer Associates, Sofia H., Siani Mora Mak, and Nathaniel Ezolino! Thank you so much for all of your hard work this summer! 👏 Main learnings directly from our Summer Associates are below ⬇ #venturecapital #summerassociates #talent #ecosystem #investing

We've partnered with our portfolio company, Nestment, to offer early access to apply to their first-of-its-kind NestGen Homebuying Accelerator! The free six-week program guides first-time home buyers through every step of the homebuying process to help them house hack their way to their first home 🏡 Participants will receive: 💸 An opportunity to receive up to $25,000 towards their home purchase. 📚 Education from industry experts on home analysis, loan pre-approval, house hacking strategies, closing on a property, and taxes. 🤝 Personalized mentorship from a Nestment team member throughout the entirety of the homebuying journey. Nestment was founded to help combat the home affordability crisis through a combination of education and empowerment. The company specializes in utilizing house hacking strategies to help people achieve homeownership. The NestGen accelerator is their latest effort to bring homeownership to more people and is sponsored by CoreLogic, Jason Mitchell Group, New American Funding, Bilt Rewards, and ProsperityNOW. Spaces are limited. Apply soon via this special link! ➡ https://lnkd.in/gZJSGbWe

Don't miss out on two wonderful opportunities by our friends at AWS Startups ➡ Elevating Black Entrepreneurs: A Webinar Series and Pitch Competition by AWS Startups and Accenture ⚡   💻 The Webinar Series starts on October 2, 2024 and is focused on how to leverage cutting-edge AI technologies. 📣 The Pitch Competition is for underrepresented founders that are building AI startups. This will take place during AWS re:Invent in December. Apps are due by 11pm PST on September 6, 2024!   Register now for the webinars + apply for the pitch competition here: https://lnkd.in/egVZZ6di

Two weeks ago, we held our 3rd Annual VamosVentures Founder Summit in San Francisco, CA. We were generously hosted by our friends at Finix and Google 🌉 This year’s summit theme was Leadership: Gains, Grace, and Grit. Our programming included a workshop led by Stanford University Graduate School of Business facilitators on the Harmony of Success + Wellbeing and masterful sessions led by the Google School for Leaders, Costanoa Ventures, and AI experts at TPG, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Gradient Ventures.   We were also grateful to have a candid conversation about leadership with Lisa Cohen Gevelber, Google’s Chief Marketing Officer for the Americas Region, Founder of Grow with Google, and Leader of Google for Startups.   We look forward to our Founder Summit every year because magic happens when our portfolio founders all come together. It is incredibly inspiring to see firsthand the power that diversity brings to the worlds of entrepreneurship and venture capital.   We asked our founders to share a parting word to describe how they felt at the conclusion of the summit. Here are a few of our favorites: ✨ Reinvigorated ✏ Humbled 💫 Inspired 🔑 Grateful ⚡ Emboldened   Thank you to all our partners who made the summit such a success. + A special thank you to Danny Navarro, your support was invaluable in bringing this year’s summit to life. Google Finix TPG Holland & Knight LLP Bank of America BMO JPMorganChase

TechChicago Week was a blast. We'll see you again soon Chicago!

Impressed with All Raise's data-rich annual report. Excellent insights into the state of parity in venture, and an intimate look at what women and nonbinary VCs need to be successful. The industry is headed in the right direction - and there's more work to do! 

Join Nestment this Wednesday 7/17 at their Buying a Multi-Family Home Workshop in LA! If you're interested in learning more about investing in a multi-family home or co-buying with friends & family, you don't want to miss this. Register + learn more below ⬇