Daria Gonzalez

What started as an angel syndicate among friends evolved into a full-fledged VC fund backing pre-seed B2B startups transforming the U.S./Mexico corridor. Ana Carolina Mexia Ponce and Maria Gutierrez Peñaloza took an unconventional path to launch Nido Ventures. The journey wasn’t easy (turns out, fundraising *never* stops 😅), but their engineering backgrounds gave them a competitive edge—handling their own technical due diligence, building internal automation tools, and moving faster than most funds their size. We sat down with Caro and Maria to talk about: 🔥 The challenges of raising a first-time fund 💻 Why technical VCs have a secret superpower 🇲🇽 How they’re bridging innovation across borders Oh, and did we mention Maria has been to *72 countries*? 🌍✈️ Full story on the Carta blog! #VentureCapital #Startups #WomenInVC #CrossBorderTech

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Mike Shebat, founder and CEO of Traba, doesn't believe humanoid robots are good enough to be staffed in facilities without human supervision just yet. He explains why:

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Founders, are you raising capital for your startup? It’s Time to Level Up: Raising Capital from Family Offices & UHNW Investors - Global Family Office Investment Summit - MIAMI EDITION! The smartest founders know that venture capital isn’t the only way to fund high-growth startups. Family offices and ultra-high-net-worth investors control trillions in capital and are actively seeking the right opportunities to invest in. Why Family Offices? Unlike traditional VCs chasing fast exits, family offices take a long-term approach. They invest in sustainable, profitable, and generational businesses. They seek alignment with founders who are mission-driven, scalable, and capital efficient. What They Look For: - Strong business fundamentals and a clear path to profitability - Visionary founders with a long-term mindset - Defensible technology, unique intellectual property, or a scalable market position - Measurable impact, sustainability, or industry disruption - Strategic synergies with existing portfolio companies - How to Attract UHNW Investors: Speak their language – Focus on execution, growth, and sustainability instead of hype - Showcase resilience – They invest in people as much as ideas. Can you navigate challenges? - Leverage warm introductions – Family offices trust referrals over cold outreach (come to the Miami Summit!) - Offer co-investment opportunities – Many prefer investing alongside their network If you are building a scalable company and looking for capital beyond venture funding, now is the time to connect with the right investors. The best capital comes with strategic partnerships that create lasting impact. Anthony Ritossa's Global Family Office Investment Summit in Miami is the place to meet legendary families and investors. Comment below or reach out directly if you are actively raising. Let’s make it happen. #Startups #Fundraising #FamilyOffices #UHNW #VentureCapital #Investment #ScaleUp #Entrepreneurship #MiamiSummit

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If you want some facts and arguments on why Mexico should - and probably will - avoid the brunt of US tariffs, I recommend this presentation from Pedro Casas Alatriste L of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico. (Attached some highlights; the full presentation is much more nuanced and detailed.) 🔹 U.S. Companies Drive Mexican Manufactured Exports In 2023, of $560 billion in exports from Mexico to the U.S., $220 billion came from manufacturing, maquila, and export services. 80% of that amount ($176B) originated from U.S. companies operating in Mexico. Despite a $152B U.S. trade deficit with Mexico, the reality is that much of this trade is intra-company—a co-production model, not a true deficit. 🔹 Co-Production: The U.S.-Mexico Manufacturing Engine For every $1 the U.S. imports from Mexico, 12.9 cents is U.S. value-added (vs. 4.8 cents for the rest of the world and just 1.4 cents for China). 🔹 Mexico is the #1 Buyer of U.S. Small Business Exports Mexico purchased over $110 billion in U.S. small business goods in 2022—more than China, Japan, Korea, and Germany combined. 🔹 Demographics and Culture: A Perfect Complement Mexico’s young population is via exports - not migration - a natural workforce pipeline for an aging U.S. labor market. Mexico hosts the most Americans abroad, while the U.S. hosts the most Mexicans abroad. Over 20% of the U.S. population is Hispanic, and 70% of those has Mexican origins. 📢 The Takeaway? Mexico and the U.S. don’t just trade—they build together, export together, and grow together. Tariffs that hurt Mexico also hurt U.S. companies, workers, and supply chains.

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When a brand understands its purpose, everything else becomes clearer. In this episode of Cultural Fluency Makers, my good friend and visionary executive Alvaro Luque, CEO of Avocados From Mexico, shares how his team built one of the most beloved food brands in America—not by taking sides, but by bringing people together, grounded in cultural insights. Their strategy is rooted in a simple idea: make people healthier and happier, across cultures and communities. That clarity of purpose drives both relevance and results. Full conversation in the comments.

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Miami has done a great job attracting tech companies and investment over the past few years. The city’s energy, ambition, and momentum are undeniable. Miami’s path to becoming a global tech hub depends on continuing to attract tech companies, which will require 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞, the people who will power those companies (and create new, “homegrown” ones). The way to do that is by embedding access locally, in the community colleges, state schools, and universities that anchor the region and already serve the majority of the students. This kind of place-based work is how true systems change happens. When given the right support, these schools become engines of opportunity. They’re where the next generation of engineers will be trained, which makes it the area where we can make the greatest impact. CodePath has already seen what’s possible in Miami. We’re now serving about 16% of all computer science students in South Florida and we’re on track toward our goal of 700% growth in the region over the next five years. Not only that, our graduates who pursue software engineering careers are leaving with job offers averaging $92,000 in first-year salaries. Miami is proving the power of aligning higher education, philanthropy, and employers around talent. It’s a blueprint for how regions everywhere can unlock talent at scale. We know that if opportunity is confined to a handful of elite universities, we’re leaving talent on the table AND holding back entire regions from shaping the industries of the future. Grateful to Opportunity Miami and Rodrick Miller, Suzette Laboy, and team for spotlighting this work and for leading the conversation on how cities and regions can transform their economies through education. Check out our conversation here https://lnkd.in/gN4MUp-r

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It's the first time the motorcycle industry supports cyclists. But maybe it's for the wrong reasons... We're in the midst of a heavily contested debate in #Bogotacycling (and Colombia) because of a law that was just approved by Congress - but not yet signed by the President. The context is the following: - Today, vehicles allowed on bikeways are regular bicycles and pedelecs: 350-watt, 25 km/h speed-limited, pedal assist bicycles. Everything else is basically a motorbike and needs registration, license plate, insurance and driver license. - Until the last minute, the new law had made definitions clearer and allowed up to 500 watts and throttle electric bicycles on bikeways. In that scenario, we were disgruntled but generally ok. HOWEVER, at the very last minute when the law was being discussed, a congressman issued two major changes: - The new category of "small electric two wheelers" allowed on bikeways would be 1000 watts and 40 km/h speed-limited. Crucially, those won't need registration, license plate, insurance or a driver license. - These were all allowed on bikeways, but would have to ride at 25 km/h (this is probably the most convenient, commercially-viable vehicle ever, especially when compared to motorcycles). This opened a can of worms, essentially because cyclists will be at greater risk with those higher speed vehicles riding alongside them in our current bikeway network (which is not wide and doesn't allow for safe overtaking at high speeds). Cyclists, local governments and road safety specialists have said "do not sign the law". Riders of powered-ebikes are also angry: "we'll be unsafe outside of bikeways" But the problem is indeed a wicked one, because (according to the industry) if that new vehicle category is NOT allowed, people who wanted to purchase those electric vehicles at 40 km/h would rather buy a motorcycle. So we're between two potential results: - Scenario A: The law is not signed, and we're back to the 350 watt, 25 km/h vehicles and everything else is a motorcycle. Bicycle riders are safer, but regulation for all other two wheelers is at a disadvantage and difficult to market. Those desiring a powered 2-wheeler will be prone to buying a motorcycle, which will be more dangerous for themselves and others than their electric, slower counterparts.  - Scenario B: the law is signed, and it's a free-for-all on bikeways. Thousands of people buy 1000-watt 2-wheelers and disregard the 25 km/h rule, making cyclists ride at great risk. However, motorcycles sales plummet, and probably deaths in roads are reduced (but serious injuries in bikeways become the norm). What is more sustainable? What is safer? You can't find a more beautiful - and wicked - problem than this one. Such an incredible slippery-slope... What scenario would you choose? But wait, are you a cyclist, or do you sell power-ebikes? Motorcycles? (the image comes from an article on the Bogotá Post that I'm linking in the first comment)

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Brex founder Pedro Franceschi on the one question CEOs should constantly ask themselves Pedro urges founders to ask themselves, “What’s the one thing that’s limiting your rate of growth right now?” He explains why this is so important: “People typically say, ‘There’s many things,” but there’s not. By definition, there is one thing in any system that limits the rate of progress for the whole system — it’s called the ‘bottleneck’ — and once you find the bottleneck, the highest leverage thing you can do is increase the throughput of the bottleneck.” Pedro recommends reading “Toyota Production System” by Taiichi Ohno to understand this concept more deeply. And he gives Brex as an example: “In 2021, our bottleneck was that we didn’t have an enterprise product so we were limited in the kinds of customers we could serve. The reality was that as customers matured and got to a certain scale, the Brex product we had back then didn’t scale for them anymore.” When Pedro asked himself, “What’s the one thing that could change the trajectory of the business?” he realized it was building an enterprise product: “You can have the best sales team. You can have the best marketing. But if the product is not truly great, you can’t unlock the next growth phase of the company.” So that’s where he focused nearly all of his time and energy: “I said, ‘I’m going to spend 70% of my time building that product.’ And I just delegated everything else… It took us a year to build something that worked, and that’s how we ultimately closed customers like DoorDash, Coinbase, and Robinhood that would not have traditionally come to Brex.” Pedro continues: “The highest leverage use of my time as the founder and CEO is to spend my time making that one thing go faster. And a lot of anxiety in building a company comes from [not being able to decide] what truly matters… When you don’t hedge with 4 or 5 different priorities and instead just focus on that one thing that will truly move the needle, there’s an almost zen-like state that’s very liberating where you can just focus entirely on one thing.” Video source: 20VC (2024)

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