Hola Familia!

Every two weeks, we connect you—alongside 4,000+ subscribers and 17,400+ social media followers—to the latest inside scoop on the Latine venture scene.

Follow us on LinkedIn (VCFamilia + FounderFamilia + AngelFamilia) and Instagram. Join our Whatsapp community, which we won’t put the link because bots, but reply to this email with the subject line [WHATSAPP].

Major Updates

¡DALE! IS BACK!

​After an incredibly successful pilot at the height of LA Tech Week last year, ¡DALE! has emerged as THE premier Latine startup conference!

​We are kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month on September 15th in New York City, and we’re building an even bigger gathering of founder excellence. We will be bringing together VCs, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the globe to create culture, community, and wealth together. Like/comment/repost here!

​Speakers and judges will be announced soon! All folks that make it to the finals will receive complementary admission. Grab your early bird tickets now given space is limited & security is tight.

VCFamilia Award Nominations

You're invited to nominate a friend or colleague for the 2025 VCFamilia Catalyst and Rising Star Awards!

During the VCFamilia Awards, we'll be honoring:
- The VCFamilia Catalyst Award: Granted to an incredible General Partner leading a Fund I-III who has had a positive influence on the Latine community throughout their career. We are looking for experienced senior fund managers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, investment acumen, and meaningful contributions to advancing opportunities for the Latine community in VC.
- The VCFamilia Rising Star Award: Granted to an exceptional junior investor (non-GP) within the VCFamilia community who has demonstrated remarkable promise over their career. We are looking for junior investment professionals who are working full-time in VC and have achieved significant milestones (such as a promotion, acceptance into a fellowship or mentorship program, or the successful sourcing and execution of a significant deal) in the last 12 months.

We are accepting nominations for the Catalyst and Rising Star Awards. The winners of these awards must be (or become) a VCFamilia member and able to receive their award in-person at the awards reception. Our goal is to recognize and celebrate the leaders in our community who are making substantial contributions to the field of venture capital. Please take a moment to complete this form and nominate a friend or colleague for the VCFamilia Catalyst and Rising Star Award by June 2 11:59PM PT.

On another note, keep buying early bird tickets! We’re going to start our referral competition for it shortly 🙂 

Celebrating Familia Wins🎉

• Shoutout to NYC Chapter Leads Mercedes Zhang and Ed Cravo for putting on an incredible NYC kickoff at Maxwell Social, as well as Amora Miller from RemoFirst for sponsoring (founders, special perk with them here!)

• LaFamilia was in full force at the Milken Conference this year in LA! See more here.

• We are halfway in our signature FounderFamilia program Stronger Together Groups, and here’s what we learned.

• Thank you so much for the love of our Newsletter Referral Program! Keep climbing up and claim some swag, access and more (scroll to the end to refer!)

🗓️ Eventos

FYI – as we’re getting bigger as a community, we will prioritize event entry to members that have been active in building community. This includes being active in the Slack/Whatsapp, volunteering as a city lead/supporter (sign up here) etc. We can only continue to provide resources if we have the community support along the way. La unión hace la fuerza!

• Boston

  • May 27 - Join us for the LaFamilia Boston Chapter Launch, our very first gathering this year! This special evening is all about reconnecting, reigniting our local Latine community, and setting the stage for an exciting year ahead—including our signature Hispanic Heritage Month event this fall. RSVP here as spots are limited!

• New York City Tech Week

  • June 5 - Kick off the day with Breakfast Club—a vibrant morning meetup curated for early-stage founders, active investors, and ecosystem champions. Hosted at Arlo! RSVP here.

  • June 5 - Yep same day. Join us, Comcast Lift Labs, Gaingels, Vamos and Lazo for VC Backyard- VC & Founder speed-dating! RSVP here.

• Los Angeles

  • June 10 - Venture & Comunidad will bring together those in the South Bay for good vibes and a dynamic mini-panel featuring a powerhouse trio: a trailblazing founder, a visionary VC, and a purpose-driven angel investor. RSVP here.

• Texas

  • May 21 - Our Houston LP/ GP Luncheon is now closed. We are excited to announce that the Mayor of Houston will be joining us.

  • May 28 - Eddy Hernández (Austin Chapter Lead) will be representing us at the Texas Venture Gala! We’re hosting a giveaway for free tickets on our social media shortly so stay tuned! If you want to secure your ticket, use this link or the code FAMILIA for 50% off.

FYI Hubspot has graciously offered LaFamilia FIVE FREE tickets to their HUGE INBOUND Conference in September ($1300 value right now). If you are interested, please email us at [email protected] with reason for attending this week and we'll pick folks!

Make sure to subscribe to LaFamilia Luma to stay up to date with not just our latest events and programming, but also opportunities to engage with the broader comunidad!

Now a word from our newsletter sponsor (Feel free to support LaFam by clicking and checking it out! 📝)

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Meet the Co-Founder - Eddy Mejia 🇨🇴

One of our ¡DALE! Pitch Competition Finalists! This is a sneak peek on tomorrow’s profile on FounderFamilia Linkedin!

Eddy Mejia is a military veteran, computer engineer, and second-time founder reshaping how we think about soil. After years spent in tech and launching a product startup, Eddy was searching for something deeper, work with real impact. That search led him to the University of Illinois, where he met his co-founder, a prairie-loving microbiologist with a vision to bring ancient bacteria back into farming.

Together, they built Earnest Agriculture, a company using nature’s original toolkit, microbes, to help farmers grow more with less. Eddy leads with a product-first mindset rooted in trust, field testing, and a deep respect for the pace of biology.

After two years of trials, their first product is now live in the Midwest!

About Earnest Agriculture

• Earnest Agriculture develops probiotic seed coatings using native microbes to boost yields, cut chemical use, and build healthier soil.

• Launched Prairie Power, a microbial seed coating that showed a 6% soybean yield increase after two years of field trials.

• Scaled from 5 to 1,000 acres in one year through direct-to-farmer sales and relationship-first distribution.

• Lesson Learned: Discovery, trust, and resilience are everything when biology and farming are involved.

Community Ask:

• Earnest is raising its current seed funding round and seeking aligned investors.(Reach out: [email protected])

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Funding & Resources for Early-Stage Founders and VCs 🫰🏽

• The Cartier Women's Initiative is an annual international entrepreneurship program that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs. Submission period ends on June 24 - apply here.

• Latinas in Tech is hosting their annual 3-Day Summit May 28-30th - for la familia, please use VCF-AA-UL for 50% off tickets - buy tickets here.

• Slauson is hosting a 1-Day Summer School July 15th - apply by May 30th here.

• AWS, NVIDIA, and Microsoft for Startups: 3 programs to join - learn more here from our FounderFamilia member Santiago Carvajal.

• We (LaFam’s Kim Hernandez) found a full list of funding opportunities here.

Open Positions in VCs 💼

• Maryland Pension is hiring an Investment Associate (MD)

• Hitachi Ventures is hiring an Analyst (Boston)

• Techstars is hiring a Founder Catalyst Operations Associate (Remote) and an Investment Manager (DC)

• Illinois DOC is hiring an Venture Capital Program Coordinator (IL)

• Top Tier Capital Partners is hiring two Investment Analysts (SF)

• Point72 Ventures is hiring a Platform Associate (Seattle)

• Rock Health is hiring a part-time Advisory Fellow (Remote)

• Rosehill Investors is hiring an Investment Analyst (NYC)

• Team8 is hiring an Analyst (NYC)

• Deep Tech Fund is hiring Summer Interns (NYC)

• 3M Ventures is hiring an Investment Manager (MN)

• Ship2B Ventures is hiring an Associate (Barcelona)

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🔗 Useful Links

• VCFamilia Public Directory

• FounderFamilia Public Directory