Founders+ Operators, Turned Investors

Laura spent nearly nine years with Facebook in various roles supporting overall growth strategies. Laura led the Growth, Mobile & Partnerships team for Latin America, spearheading the Internet.org and connectivity initiatives from Silicon Valley and later Miami. Before Facebook, Laura held management roles at eBay, Siemens and Ogilvy Group.

Managing partner for Guggenheim Partners Latin America/LJ Partnerships, a leading independent, privately-held multi-family office with assets under management of $5 billion dollars. Guggenheim has branches in Miami.

Santiago has a broad experience leading international teams in different areas as strategic planning, marketing and sales, Production, HR, logistics, IT, R&D, Finance & administration. Before joining TheVentureCity, Santiago held top management and business development roles in leading companies in the food industry both in Europe and America.

Passionate about helping to build ambitious companies capable of changing industries. MBA holder from IE Business School. As a serial entrepreneur (iAhorro in 2008 and SofiaSquare 2016), Andrés is a real founder, over +10 years leading teams from 1 to more than 120 people.

Álvaro has spent over 8 years as an investor and operator. He started as a venture capitalist and then founded his own startup, Cropti. He worked at Cabify during the last 3 years, where he led the Rider Growth team. He holds a double degree in Law and Business Administration from ICADE.

Elena has over 6 years experience in investment banking, investing and as a start-up operator across Europe. She holds a degree in Business Administration from ESADE.

Launched operations for Facebook and Pinterest in Latin America and helped to establish the mobile ecosystem in Brazil as an executive at Claro and Vivo. Also an entrepreneur on the hospitality and food&drink industries.

Garoe is a Product Data Analyst that has been crunching data for the past 10 years. Expert in deriving insights from data to support startups with their business decisions. He has a PhD in Particle Physics and has supported the development of new products and services in the aviation industry.

Juan Pablo previously worked at Arca Continental analyzing Machine Learning models and deploying Business Intelligence solutions. He also has entrepreneurship experience, being a part of the founding team of an e-commerce company.

Ana has a +12 years experience in international automotive companies working in different areas as marketing & sales, operations and pricing. MBA holder from IE Business School. Speaks Spanish, English and German.

Carlos is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in the tech and industrial sectors. He has previously worked with well-known companies such as Siemens and IBM. Carlos is driven by his passion for assisting founders in building and nurturing their teams. He firmly believes in the power of talent and strives to guide businesses towards success by helping them take care of their most valuable asset - their people.

Juan was born in El Salvador and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration at IE University. He is currently supporting the Series A team at TheVentureCity.

Marie is a 2x founder and angel investor, having built Kara and Beats by Dre, which was acquired by a leading out-of-home adtech company in early 2021. This marks her second martech exit. She is also an active angel investor and startup mentor, founding member of Dreamers & Doers - a community for entrepreneurial women, and a member of several networks.

David combines data science experience at Teva Pharmaceuticals with a prior career in consulting, software, and entrepreneurship. He has an MBA from Wharton and a BS in engineering from Rice, and organizes the Miami Data Science Meetup.

Passionate about Entrepreneurship and building the Future. With an MBA from INSEAD, where he focused on Venture Capital and Data Science, he is a 2x founder and has worked in management consulting/finance in Europe and Asia.

Multilingual Senior Executive with significant experience in strategy development, strategic investments, structured deals, sales and marketing, debt and equity capital markets, securities trading, hedging, risk management, and finance.

Ekaterina was singlehandedly responsible for growing Facebook penetration in Russia. She then joined the Instagram team on their internationalization and then later on WhatsApp’s integration and growth.

Computer Science Engineer with 18+ years experience developing Internet and Mobile products in emerging markets across LATAM, including Mobile Apps currently in use by millions of monthly active users and also pioneered Mobile Operator partnership Initiatives with Facebook (internet.org), Google, Deezer, and many others.

As the mascot of TheVentureCity, Iguanacorn reminds us all to work hard and chase our dreams. Resilient and relentless, Iguanacorns are always ready to surprise us with something new. Next time you’re in Miami, Madrid, SF or Sao Paulo, stop in and say hello to one!