Career Bio

Cheryl is passionate about the intersection of finance, technology, and social impact. She is the Head of Venture Growth and Partnerships at Republic, an investment platform for founders to raise capital from both accredited and non-accredited investors. She joined as full-time employee #10 in 2018 and has been instrumental in its growth to unicorn status ($1BN valuation). In other direct investing roles, she is a scout for Lightspeed and an investment partner at The Community Fund, writing checks to 20+ companies in community centric startups, particularly healthcare and web3. Cheryl is also co-founder of VCFamilia, a community of 340+ Latinx investors supporting peers and founders through collaboration.

Previously she worked as an analyst in a Connecticut-based private debt & equity firm with an emphasis on minority and women entrepreneurs. She started her career in Investment Banking at Barclays, working in the Financial Institutions Group and Structured Finance. She holds a BA in Economics with honors from Harvard University and is a MBA candidate at Stanford Graduate School of Business Class of 2024.

Investment Thesis

Read my Femtech & AI analysis when I was a fellow for The Yard Ventures (Harvard arm of Alumni Venture Group)

Read my Femtech & AI analysis when I was a fellow for The Yard Ventures (Harvard arm of Alumni Venture Group)

I’m focused on investing in companies that improve people’s lives and wellbeing, broadly serving overlooked communities, and specifically interested in femtech (improving the lives of women through digital health) & silvertech (improving the quality of life of the elderly, because we’ll get there).

In femtech, I am interested in the following areas:

  • Post-partum treatment and care

  • Sexual health & wellness

  • Menopause solutions and services

For silvertech, I am bullish on:

  • Aging in place services

  • Deathtech

For web3, I’m investing in defi & infrastructure only.

VCFamilia

It has been the honor of a lifetime to have created the largest Latine venture ecosystem, normalizing our experiences and supporting those that come after us. We are supporting our 340+ members with connections, intersectionality chats, LP introductions, deal sourcing, activist opportunities, or simply new friends.

  • 40 events / year around community and culture

  • $12M raised for Latinx emerging fund managers

  • 60k+ slack messages (most of them DMs!)

  • 1M impressions on Twitter + Linkedin

  • Statements co-signed by USHCC, Angeles Investors & others

  • First national Latinx pitch competition led by Latinx investors

  • Hispanic Heritage Month done right

  • Partnerships include SVB, Techstars Accelerate Equity, Comcast

We are coming out with more exciting news soon. Stay tuned.

Go to VCFamilia.com

Supporting Founders

I’ve met thousands of founders during my time in tech and VC, learning about a myriad of industries and admiring their strength in a process filled with “no”s. Despite my limited bandwidth, I’ve made sure to assist in the following ways:

  • Republic RePost: Recurring email filled with grants, pitch opportunities, and other resources

  • Events: I’ve conducted 100s of events specifically for founders through Republic, VCFamilia, and accelerators to coach through angel rounds (see here for WeWork Labs), alternatives to VC and more. Follow me on twitter for the latest public events.

  • Pitch competitions: Through VCFamilia and other initiatives, I’ve been a host and judge of pitch competitions that support founders at the pre-seed and seed level.

More to come through new initiatives in the works.

Wall of Appreciation

 

 
 
HBCUvc 31 under 31

HBCUvc 31 under 31

I appear in places

Some examples:

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