A Trailblazer for VC in LatAm

After graduating from the University of Miami with a degree in Electrical Engineering, Consuelo Valverde returned to her native Mexico and tried to find a job. But in the late 1980s, no one in Mexico City was interested in hiring a female electrical engineer — much less one who just turned 21.

“I got a couple of interviews, but I never got a job,” says Valverde. Resisting entreaties to go into something more “gender-appropriate,” like sales, she followed the only path available to her: she started her own company.

Computer Access, the PC manufacturing business she founded, became a success. So did her next venture: an IT training center that granted two-year technology degrees to working students. Demand for its services was so great, Valverde had to add a new floor of classrooms every year, just to keep up.

Not bad for a woman who was the first one in her family to attend college.

Valverde’s life has been all about breaking barriers and defying expectations

Valverde’s life has been all about breaking barriers and defying expectations. As Founder and Managing Partner of SVLC, Valverde has been unlocking investment opportunities in Latin America for nearly a decade, proving that a Latina without a sheepskin from Stanford can succeed in the venture capital ecosystem of Silicon Valley while promoting endeavors that benefit people and the planet.

Valverde never saw any examples of women succeeding in science while growing up in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City. Her mother, Chey, was a homemaker, while her Cuban-born father, Humberto, was sent to Mexico at 14 to work for his uncle’s distribution business. He didn’t have a place to live at first, so he would sleep under the office’s front counter at night, eventually earning enough to start his own distribution business. He went on to launch a rice mill, then expanded to a chain of bakeries, restaurants, cattle and real estate, earning the nickname “Midas” for his golden touch.

“Definitely, my father was a big influence on me,” recalls his daughter. “He was very much an innovator and serial entrepreneur — even though I didn’t know that back then.”

Valverde excelled at academics, graduating high school at age 16. Returning to Mexico after college, she encountered more than just sexism in the job market. “When I started my business I faced corruption,” she says. “It was a daily thing. If you wanted to expedite any process for your business, you had to give a bribe.”

Refusing to succumb, Valverde decided to change the system, instead. While still operating her businesses, she began attending civil resistance meetings, then helped on a friend’s underdog campaign for mayor of Cuernavaca. After winning by just 400 votes, he invited her to take a job managing information systems for the city. Although Valverde had always resisted politics, this seemed different. “For me, it wasn’t politics, it was more social justice. I really wanted to see Mexico change.”

In 1994, the Mexican government's sudden devaluation of the peso precipitated a financial crisis for Mexico, sending interest rates spiraling. Valverde was forced to sell her IT training center, receiving a sobering lesson about the perils of government control in emerging markets.

When the mayor she worked for was elected governor, she followed, establishing a science museum, innovation center, magazine, podcasts and TV programs, all designed to educate people about science.

Valverde became the first Mexican woman to found an early-stage venture capital firm in both Mexico and Silicon Valley

For all this talk of science, few in Mexico were patenting their innovations. One exception was Alejandro Alagon Cano, a biochemist and medical doctor whom Valverde met at the Biotechnology Institute of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Alagon shared the story of his scientific breakthrough, with a $26 billion market opportunity that failed to commercialize due to lack of investment. This story inspired Valverde to become a venture capitalist. She moved to San Francisco in 2006 to work for a startup, then went on her own and founded a software development company, providing software engineers to startups in Silicon Valley. In 2013, she became the first Mexican woman to found an early-stage venture capital firm, in both Mexico and Silicon Valley. Her approach wasn't always easy to sell. "I was investing in companies that were building creative solutions to global problems using science and technology," she says. "It wasn't about apps or services that other VC firms in Mexico were focused on."

Then there was the fact that she was Latina. “I was told I would never be able to raise a fund by myself — that I needed a man and that he had to be white,” she recounts, a tinge of disbelief still coloring her voice.

She didn’t get a white male partner. But she did land a unicorn, Clip, which became a cornerstone of SVLC’s first fund. By the time she launched her second fund, she had a proven track record and was able to attract investors inside the US.

“I love being able to work with entrepreneurs and supporting newer generations to make our world better. I wouldn’t change it for anything”

Although the rest of the VC world has discovered Mexico since Valverde founded SVLC, she will continue to keep Latin America her focus. “I like emerging markets, in general, more than developed markets, because of the impact,” she says. “You can have financial success, but the impact of those solutions is really big.”

While it’s always about making money, she points out, it’s not only about making money. “The point is not just to be successful financially,” she says. “The way I create financial value has to have meaning.”

Valverde regrets that her father, who died in 2000, never got to see her reach this level of success. But she suspects he would be happy to see her carry on the Midas legacy. “I love what I do,” she says. “I love being able to work with entrepreneurs and supporting newer generations to make our world better. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”