Lolita Taub

I've sat in every seat over nearly 20 years in tech and venture: founder, angel, GP, LP, and ecosystem builder. I'm a Latina venture capitalist and General Partner at Ganas Ventures, where I write $100K pre-seed and seed checks into community-driven startups across the US and Latin America. 100+ investments so far, with real focus on underestimated founders: women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ. 23K+ founders and funders read my newsletter. Before venture: IBM and Cisco, where I sold $70M+ in enterprise tech. Then Lightspeed, Backstage Capital, K Fund, Indie.vc, and Portfolia. I grew up in South Central LA, first-generation Mexican American. Nobody in my family had ever met a venture capitalist. I learned the rules by getting them wrong first, which is why I wrote them down in What Actually Matters: Startups, Capital, and the Rules Nobody Taught Us. Book a call if you're working on: Whether to raise at all, and what it actually costs you if you do Building an investor list that isn't 200 names of people who will never write the check Reading what a "no" really meant, and whether it was fit or timing Raising without warm intros Community as a growth channel, not a line on a slide Non-dilutive options most founders never hear about I'll tell you what I actually think. If VC is the wrong path for your company, I'll say that too.

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  Advice on funding

  I've raised funds and watched 100+ founders raise theirs. On a call we'll work out whether you should be raising at all, who is actually likely to write your check, and what your list is missing. If the answer is that you shouldn't raise, I'll say that.

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  Community building

  Community is capital, not a marketing channel. I built one of 100,000+ founders and funders, and a free matching tool that's made 10,000+ intros. We'll work out what your users would organize around, and how that becomes distribution you don't have to buy.

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  Personal branding

  Vague is invisible. Specific is findable. One sentence about you, your company, or your fund is either doing work or it isn't. We'll fix the sentence.

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  Venture Capital

  I work inside this industry, not next to it. GP at Ganas Ventures, writing $100K pre-seed and seed checks into community-driven startups across the US and Latin America. 100+ investments so far. Before Ganas: Lightspeed, Backstage Capital, K Fund, Indie.vc, and Portfolia. I've also been the founder raising, the angel writing a first check, and the LP evaluating a fund. If you're trying to understand how a decision actually gets made on the other side of the table, I've sat in that chair.

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  Information Technology

  Nearly 20 years in tech. I sold $70M+ in enterprise software and hardware at IBM and Cisco Systems before I moved into venture, so I've carried a quota, and I know what it takes to close a real enterprise deal. Since then, I've backed 100+ software startups, mostly B2B and community-driven, at pre-seed and seed. If you're building software and working out early customers, pricing, or whether the market is actually there, that's the work I do most.