Chingona Ventures

In Episode 6 of the New Light Ventures podcast, I had an inspiring conversation with Samara Mejia Hernandez, Founding Partner of Chingona Ventures. An institutionally backed pre-seed fund with $60M AUM and over 40 investments in tech startups across the U.S., Chingona is fueling the next generation of badass founders. 🌟 3 Key Takeaways: 1. Leveraging Experience to Build a Firm - Samara applied learnings from her time at Goldman Sachs and MATH Venture Partners to intentionally structure Chingona Ventures for the long-term. 2. Owning Your Authentic Strategy - Samara emphasizes the importance of fund managers developing a thesis that makes sense for them and confidently communicating how it will work. 3. Implementing Processes for Scale - As a solo GP, Samara has put frameworks in place around sourcing, diligence, and portfolio support to enable her small team to operate effectively. "From the beginning, as I've mentioned before, I consider myself a fiduciary of people's money. I raise money from others to invest, and I feel there is a huge responsibility that comes with that." Whether you're an emerging manager, aspiring VC, or founder, Samara offers valuable perspectives on building an institutionally-backed firm while staying true to your unique approach. 🎧 Listen to Samara's full story now - link in comments!

We are thrilled to share that we have been selected by Sonder Hospice to offer comprehensive grief and loss services to its patients and families. This partnership will provide Sonder’s community with access to an innovative digital platform featuring support groups, grief content, loss logistics, and more. "Betterleave’s expertise aligns perfectly with our mission to provide compassionate, comprehensive care," said Lloyd Wilson, president and CEO of Sonder Hospice. Read the press release: https://lnkd.in/e5EWnr4S

This summer has been busy over here at Lirvana Labs, Maker of Yeti Confetti Kids! We are proud to share new data showing significant learning gains in English and Math 📈 , as well as the release of new features that further our mission of providing accessible and inclusive learning opportunities for children and families around the world. 👏 As we grow, we remain committed to rigorous research and partnerships with experts. Our current data indicates that playing the Yeti Confetti Kids app for 15 minutes a week can increase children’s English and Math skills by half a grade level in only 10 weeks. Soon, we will launch a multi-year research study with Dr. Alice Siu, Director of Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab. We can’t wait to see what this research tells us about the efficacy of Yeti Confetti’s personalized AI modules in English Literacy, Math Reasoning, and Critical Thinking! Additionally, we are expanding our offerings to include exciting new features: LLM-powered Critical Thinking Simulator, Multilingual Learning Companion, and Custom Spelling Games. These features empower children in responsible-decision making, allow for expert bilingual learning, and provide customized spelling instruction. Thank you to all of our supporters, partners, experts and advisors who continuously drive our mission forward: Dr. Alexandra Chen, Dr. Alice Siu, Michael H. Levine, Claire Galdun, Mohammed Estaiteyeh, PhD, Dr. Richard Shell, Amy Chang, Christine Ma-Lau and Michael Hsu. Your guidance and collaboration help us stay true to our core values of merging generative AI capabilities with best practices in early childhood education. We are so thankful for the dedicated team at Lirvana Labs! Led by Christie Pang and Clement Pang, the small-but-mighty team puts in the daily work and collaboration to make all of this possible:  Tim Schmidt, Rachel Palangie, Shreyas Narayanan, Roma Dave, Paul Clenahan, Dan L., Aggie Cheung, Sarah Sung, Ryan Parajas, Brian Mak, Queenie Kung, Abigail Dye and Courtney Fone. Learn more about our learning gains and new summer rollouts in our press release: https://lnkd.in/gCwPcSTx #edtech #personalizedlearning #digitallearning #learningthroughplay #educationequity #ailearningcompanion

Last month, two Chingona Ventures portfolio companies shared some exciting fundraising news! We invested in both companies' pre-seed rounds in 2021. 💳 Kudos, an AI smart wallet that picks the best credit card for purchases, recently announced its $10M Series A round, led by QED Investors. Read more about why we invested here 👉 https://lnkd.in/grdW4Rvn 🏡 Honey Homes, a membership service delivering complete home upkeep and maintenance, announced $9.25M in additional funding, led by Era Ventures. Learn more about why we invested here 👉 https://lnkd.in/g46dP-QV P.S. If you’re a founder raising a pre-seed or seed round in the FinTech or Future of Work space, we’d love to connect. 🚀 Submit your business here: https://lnkd.in/gaCFYmSf

We, at Chingona Ventures, have launched an introductory series on InsurTech! ⭐ While the sector may come off as “boring”, especially compared to the buzz around AI's business use cases, a look under the hood will show that insurance was born as an innovative solution to high risk activities and has continuously evolved since its inception to shape how we view insurance today — as a broader financial safety net. Read our introductory post below to learn about what London coffee shops and roller skates have to do with insurance innovation and subscribe to our Medium blog to be notified about our next installment in the series! ⛸ ☕ 👇 https://lnkd.in/gJZZTv_x