Programs
Santi Subotovsky is a General Partner at Emergence Capital, where he has been a driving force behind investments including Chorus, Openpath, and Zoom—joining its board when it was a little-known startup and helping it grow into a $24B company. He also serves on the boards of Crunchbase, Logik.io, Zipline, Tundra, and Class, and works with High Alpha and Quasar Ventures to support entrepreneurs. Originally from Argentina, Santi co-founded SaaS e-learning platform AXG Tecnonexo and later Puente Labs to help Latin American founders scale globally. A Kauffman Fellow, Endeavor Entrepreneur, and three-time Midas List honoree, he is also a father of four, an opera and classical music enthusiast, and a devoted soccer fan.
Rami is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at NextEquity Partners. Previously, Rami was a Principal and prior to that a Senior Associate at Elevation Partners, where he participated in all aspects of the investment process, with a focus on investment analysis, due diligence, transaction execution and business analytics. He has broad consumer and enterprise technology investing experience, including working on investments in Facebook, MarketShare, Sonos, Airbnb, Uber, The RealReal, Business Talent Group, Lyft, MasterClass, Ring, Medsphere, Venafi, CircleCI, SentinelOne, and Arctic Wolf. Rami graduated with a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Dean's Award for Excellence, the school's top graduation award. Rami previously served on the board of directors of Medsphere and as an observer on the board of directors of MarketShare (acquired by Neustar) and Business Talent Group (acquired by Heidrick & Struggles). He currently serves as an observer on the board of directors of Kore.ai. Rami co-founded SomosVC and the Leadership Council for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity's San Francisco Scholars Program.
Before Homebrew, Hunter led consumer product management at YouTube, starting when it was acquired by Google. He originally joined Google in 2003, working on product and sales efforts for AdSense, Google‘s contextual advertising business (where he met Satya Patel, his eventual Homebrew cofounder). Hunter's first job in Silicon Valley was as the founding product and marketing guy at Linden Lab. Before graduate school, he was a management consultant and also spent a year at Late Night with Conan O‘ Brien. His parents are proud of my BA in History from Vassar and MBA from Stanford University.
Samara Mejía Hernández is the Founding Partner of Chingona Ventures, an institutionally backed early-stage venture capital fund with $60M AUM and a portfolio of 40+ investments across financial, education, and healthcare technology and future of work. She launched the fund in 2019 with a clear thesis: to back exceptional founders building technology and tech-enabled solutions for the fastest-growing, most underserved markets in the U.S.
Mario is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Infinity Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on B2B fintech and commerce enablement. Mario started his first company in middle school, an online sneaker reselling business (before StockX and GOAT), and sold over 1K pairs of sneakers in 7 years, paying for his entire college education from the profits. He learned a lot about the antiquated commerce process through this experience, including payments, fulfillment/logistics, and customer support. His entrepreneurial mindset makes him an ideal investor, helping founders navigate challenges and develop their businesses.Previously, Mario was a venture investor at PayPal Ventures and Dorm Room Fund and a Fintech growth equity investor at Napier Park Global Capital (now Ten Coves Capital). Mario started his career as an investment banking Analyst and Associate at Barclays in New York. Mario is also a graduate of Class 27 of the Kauffman Fellows program.Alongside his investment work, Mario is a vocal supporter and proponent of diversity, equity & inclusion within venture capital and entrepreneurship. While at PayPal, he led PayPal's fund investments into 19 underrepresented fund managers and co-founded Dorm Room Fund's Blueprint Track to support aspiring BIPOC founders and investors.Born and raised in the Bronx, NY, Mario received his BBA from Baruch College and his MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Adrianna Samaniego is a Partner at Cherryrock Capital, a venture firm leading Series A and B rounds in underinvested founders. She previously served as Partner at Female Founders Fund and spent eight years at Google, where she built its Global Supplier Diversity Program and co-founded Emporium in Area 120. A Kauffman Fellow and Fast Company Queer50 honoree, Adrianna earned her MBA from Columbia and BBA in Finance from UGA.
After spending two decades at the intersections of community development and banking, Kimberli understands the urgent need of stewarding capital toward systems that uplift a society in which humanity, dignity and respect are valued. Prior to her role at Candide, she managed a $300M investment portfolio spanning asset classes primarily driven to benefit low-wealth communities. Today, she continues to allocate investment dollars on behalf of justice-oriented investors.
Jessie joined Next Legacy in 2014 and is an Investment Partner investing across the Flagship and Emerging Leaders strategies. She is an engaged member of the exclusive Society of Kauffman Fellows, the premier leadership organization for the venture capital industry. She is also on the permanent board of Bridge Funding Global, a platform and community to support women and underserved emerging managers.
Katie Duval (Kelly) is a Vice President at Top Tier Capital Partners, LLC (TTCP), where she focuses on primary venture capital fund investments. Headquartered in San Francisco, TTCP is a global venture capital specialist with more than two decades of experience managing niche-focused funds of funds. The Firm invests in primary and secondary venture funds as well as strategic co-investments alongside leading managers. At TTCP, Katie is responsible for manager research, due diligence, and portfolio monitoring. She earned her B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Valeria is a Principal at VamosVentures, an LA-based venture capital fund investing in diverse teams building disruptive, tech-driven solutions to some of today’s most pressing challenges. She began her career at Deloitte Consulting, specializing at the intersection of human capital and technology. After six years in consulting, she transitioned into investing, gaining experience at investment firms like Harlem Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Stanford’s Impact Fund.Beyond her work at VamosVentures, Valeria is dedicated to increasing representation in the venture space. She serves as a board member of SomosVC, an organization focused on accelerating and elevating Latinx investors and is a steering committee member for PledgeLA, a venture effort to increase diverse participation in the Southern California ecosystem. Valeria holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a Robert Toigo Foundation Fellow, and a B.S. from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. As the daughter of Mexican immigrant entrepreneurs, she is passionate about uplifting founders from underrepresented backgrounds and investing in the communities she comes from.
Will Gaviria Rojas is the Co-Founder and Field CTO of Coactive AI, a Silicon Valley startup that allows enterprises to harness multimodal AI to search, organize, and analyze images, video, and audio. Founded in 2021, Coactive AI most recently raised a Series B and has raised a total of $44M to date from investors such as a16z, Bessemer Venture Partners, Cherryrock Capital, Greycroft, and Emerson Collective.A former Data Scientist at eBay, Will previously held various roles as a visiting researcher. His academic work spans from IoT electronics to design and performance benchmarking of deep learning in neuromorphic systems. In his more recent AI research work, Will was a co-founder of the Data-centric AI movement and co-creator of its benchmarks (DataPerf), and was the creator of the Dollar Street benchmark, a benchmark for socioeconomic bias widely adopted by the field and used in the development of foundation models such as Google Gemini, SigLIP and Open CLIP. Will holds a PhD from Northwestern University and a BS from MIT.
Juan Abundes is the managing partner of Aito Capital an early stage venture capital firm investing in AI native companies across Fintech, B2B SaaS and Healthcare. Juan has spent the last few years investing at top funds including A16Z (scout), Soma Capital, and Better Tomorrow Ventures with portfolio companies like Deel, Unit, Ramp, Jeeves, Tennr, Revv, Maisa, Rutter, and more.
Nico is a Co-founder and CPO of Fundamental Research Labs and the CEO of Shortcut, a cutting-edge AI tool designed to supercharge Excel. Before raising $33M as a founder, Nico Christie first made his mark in Miami as a professional dunker.
Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Foundation, a private foundation at the intersection of technology and justice, providing research and thought leadership, operating programs, supporting strategic partnerships and investments to increase diversity across the tech ecosystem--from K-12 education through entrepreneurship and venture capital. Lili co-leads the Kapor Center’s Equitable Tech Policy Initiative with a focus on inclusive technology policy advocating for responsible emerging technology such as AI as well as providing foundational support across civic engagement issues and tech enablement of civic organizations. Lili's tech fellowships include Omidyar Network's Digital Luminaries, New America CA, and served on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Before coming to the Kapor Center, Lili was an Associate Principal at Accenture Technology Labs, Sr. Associate at Booz Allen, Sr Multi-Disciplined Software Engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. Lili holds an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
