Be a Badass Founder

Samara Hernandez, founding partner at Chingona Ventures, talks about investing in underrepresented and overlooked badass founders from different backgrounds. Samara explains her 5Ps framework of evaluating startups and gives her thoughts on how access to capital for underrepresented founders has changed. She also gives her advice to founders as they maneuver the current market downturn. In this episode, you’ll learn: [5:34] Underrepresented founders don't need more advice. They need capital. [7:45] Is it now easier for founders of overlooked backgrounds to get venture dollars? [12:44] 5Ps of evaluating whether a company is investible or not [21:20] Downturns are a reality check for startups. The non-profit organization that Samara is passionate about: Latinx VC About Guest Speaker Samara Hernandez is a founding partner at Chingona Ventures. Prior to founding Chingona, Samara was an early stage investor at MATH Venture Partners, where she led new investment review, diligence and execution. Samara previously worked at Goldman Sachs in sales as well as advising on portfolio construction and consulting on business practices. Samara is actively involved in the Chicago tech community and is passionate about helping underrepresented groups get into STEM education, venture capital and entrepreneurship. She co-founded the Latinx Founders Collective organization to bring together Latinx founders, investors, and community leaders to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition, she is an active member of Latinx VCs, a San-Francisco based group of experienced venture investors coming together to connect, engage, and foster the Latinx VC ecosystem.About Chingona Ventures Chingona Ventures is a Chicago-based venture capital firm that invests in badass founders at the earliest stages of technology and technology-enabled companies all over the U.S. Chingona Ventures focuses on industries that are massively changing and founders whose backgrounds uniquely position them to create businesses in growth markets that are often overlooked. Companies in its portfolio include: Certiverse, Elevate, Tiny Organics, SUMA Wealth, Innovare, Olivex, Paerpay, Scout, She Matters, Cartwheel among others. Subscribe to our podcast and stay tuned for our next episode.  Follow Us:  Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram | Facebook