VC Unlocked: SIlicon Valley

Sofia Garrido is a Senior Associate at General Atlantic, a leading investment firm with a singular focus on global growth equity, and focuses on the firm’s investments in Latin America. Before joining General Atlantic in 2017, Sofia was a Principal at ALLVP, a Mexican venture capital fund, where she oversaw the healthcare portfolio. From 2011 to 2013, she was CFO at salaUno, a healthcare start-up. She started her career at Credit Suisse in Equity Research where she covered the construction and infrastructure sectors. She is a Kauffman Fellow at the Center for Venture Education in Palo Alto, California. Sofia is based in Mexico City.

How did VC Unlocked impact your confidence as an investor?

The program highly impacted my confidence as the network that I was able to build enabled me to see best-in-class practices from investors from all around the globe and made me realize both the things we were doing correctly and where we could improve in our fund going forward. Accessing a global network allowed me to compare what we were doing to global standards, not just local or regional standards.

What was the most important takeaway from the program that you implemented afterwards?

There is a lot to learn about how to become a better VC. You can learn how to make better investment decisions, improve your investment processes etc, but at the end of the day my most important takeaway is that venture capital it more of an art than a science. There is no booklet or pamphlet you can read on how to be the best VC in the world. There are however certain aspects of how you invest that you can get better at and I think I got those from the program.

Do you have any advice for aspiring early stage investors considering the program?

I highly recommend the program because it gives you the basis of what you need to know and understand to be a good investor. More than anything, it gives you a global perspective which is super valuable in this day and age. You never make an investment decision based on your understanding of just your local ecosystem. You need to understand global trends, both on the consumer side and on the investor side, so I would say the program is a great option for aspiring early stage investors who want to jump start their careers.

Mariano has over twenty years of experience leading growth strategy initiatives for Fortune 500 companies and Private Equity/Venture Capital firms. His career includes a decade of strategy and operations consulting with Booz & Company and several years’ industry experience in information technology. As a Founder, he has launched several startups in professional services, retail, technology, and gaming. As an Investor, he focuses on early-stage technology companies.

Mariano holds an MBA with Distinction (Finance, Strategy, Marketing) from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems Engineering from Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, and Private Equity and Venture Capital Certifications from Stanford University, Harvard Business School and EGADE Business School.

Mariano’s global perspective is based on engagements in the U.S., U.K., Mexico, Germany, Peru, Colombia, and South Korea. He has authored multiple publications on M&A, technology, and gaming and has won the Booz Allen Hamilton Professional Excellence Award, the EKI Leadership Award, and others.

How did VC Unlocked impact your confidence as a VC?

Tremendously. All of a sudden I had a peer group of extremely talented emerging fund managers with whom to compare notes, strategize and even go to market, as well as a magnificent set of world-renowned mentors, with the knowledge, experience and desire to help me grow as a VC.

What was the most important takeaway from the program that you implemented afterwards?

The validation and refinement of our core strategy and Investment thesis, and how best to communicate It to Investors. Learning to model and ultimately create a portfolio construction strategy that not only aligns with our skillset, but also maximizes our chances of success, has been Incredibly helpful In our ability to execute.

What advice do you have for Corporate VCs who are considering the program?

First of all, to apply as soon as possible. This is a fantastic program, and as such, it fills up quickly.  Once in the program, It Is very Important to put In the time, so that you can make the most of It.  It Is a demanding program, but extremely rewarding.

Hema is an engineer, turned entrepreneur, turned investor. She is the founding GP at Five35 Ventures, a $30m Pan-African female-focused VC fund that will invest in early-stage (Seed & Series A) tech start-ups solving the most meaningful challenges in Africa. She is also the co-founder & CEO of WomHub, a boutique pan-African incubator and the first co-working space for female-founders in STEM in Africa. WomHub is a spin-out of her global, award-winning non-profit WomEng which provides interventions for girls and women at every stage of the engineering skills pipeline.

How did VC Unlocked impact your confidence as a VC?

As a first-time fund-manager, really just getting my feet wet into the world of VC, the programme was an incredible springboard. Everything from the content and learning, the practical application of principles in designing and affirming my fund thesis and structures, exposure to world-class experts and leaders in the industry, and arguably most importantly the network of peer VC’s in the cohort has really set such a strong foundation and grounding for me to build up from here. I felt like the programme significantly catalyzed my “readiness” – confidence and otherwise – to establish myself as a trailblazing VC, in the gender-focused Africa landscape in particular.

What was the most important takeaway from the program that you implemented afterwards?

Other than the excellent core content learnings, the community the programme provided. Subsequent to the program, I have collaborated with a number of cohort members in various ways ranging from sharing and assessing pipeline, to comparing best-practices, to hosting live social media sessions on Instagram and Clubhouse focused on providing advisory, thought-leadership and overall spotlighting gender-lens investing in particular.

What advice do you have for Corporate VCs who are considering the program?

Don’t second guess it – just go for it!! I will always look back to VC Unlocked as one of the key milestones in kick-starting my VC journey. It’s a unique opportunity to be exposed to such incredible experts who are genuinely passionate and committed to developing the next generation of leading VCs. But most importantly, be ready to commit, put in the time and be present for the program. Like anything in life, what you put in is what you get out.

How did VC Unlocked help you break into the industry?

By the time I was admitted into the VC Unlocked program I had already built an asset manager and launched our first consumer-focused fund called Domo Ventures and was selected by the National Development Bank to run Brazil’s angel fund, the idea was to launch a new B2B fund (later called Domo Enterprise). But, like many things in venture, I’d never formally learned how to build a fund – I just did it and figured it out along the way. VC Unlocked really helped me deeply develop my knowledge and helped add structure to my ideas. VC Unlocked helped me develop my own personal thesis and helped me paint a clear picture of who I wanted to be as an investor.

What was the most important takeaway from the program that you implemented afterwards?

There were two things that really helped me understand my role as an investor. First was the understanding I gained of the history of the American venture market. It really helped me to see how venture grew into its own asset class, with its own identity and rules, and how venture fits into the overall market. Second was that I walked away with a strong investment thesis that I was confident in. You develop your own personal strategy and thesis and you must be faithful to it. That requires a high level of conviction and confidence – I gained that confidence in VC Unlocked.

How did VC Unlocked impact your confidence as an investor?

VC Unlocked had a big impact on my confidence. I ended the program far stronger than I entered and that had an immediate and lasting impact on my level of confidence. The program was amazing, lasting connections made, lots of learning.