L’ATTITUDE VENTURES bets on the founders money missed

In September 2022, a founder selling Mexican botanical bath products stood on a stage surrounded by people from some of America’s financial institutions. Sandra Velasquez’s company, Nopalera, had won L’ATTITUDE’s Startup of the Year. Cactus soap had made it into a room full of capital. That small collision tells you quite a lot about L’ATTITUDE Ventures.

The firm’s premise is that promising founders can be overlooked before an investor ever evaluates their business. A missing introduction becomes a missing meeting. A missing meeting becomes a company that grows more slowly than it might. L’ATTITUDE Ventures has organized a fund around changing who gets through that first door.

01 A different guest list

Founded in 2019 by Sol Trujillo, Gary Acosta and Kennie Blanco, the firm backs early-stage businesses led and owned by U.S. Latinos. Its focus is domestic: founders building companies in the United States, with technology that can help them grow. That distinction matters. A Latino-founder strategy and a Latin America strategy describe different markets.

The underlying problem was already measurable. In its March 2022 investment announcement, JPMorgan cited research finding that Latino-owned companies received just a 1% share of investments from the top 25 venture capital and private equity firms. The statistic covered a particular group of investors. It supplied a reason to question how capital was being distributed.

Match-Up gives that question a physical setting. At the L’ATTITUDE conference, selected entrepreneurs present to investors and strategic partners. The 2022 competition drew more than 500 submissions; 23 companies were invited to showcase, and four reached the final contest. Nopalera won. The mechanism is straightforward: make the founder visible to people who can do something useful.

02 Follow the dollars carefully

JPMorgan committed $20 million as an anchor investor. By August 2022, Fund II had closed with $101 million in commitments, according to the firm’s impact report. Bank of America, Cisco Investments and other institutional backers joined the investor group. For a founder, that meant a pool of capital connected to organizations with customers, expertise and distribution of their own.

These are investment commitments, not the management company’s revenue. L’ATTITUDE operates as a venture investor: limited partners supply capital, the fund takes stakes in companies, and successful outcomes can return money to investors. For founders, equity capital means sharing ownership. Whether that exchange makes sense depends on the terms and the growth the money can support.

The website advertises checks of $1 million to $3 million, from pre-seed through Series A. There is a timing wrinkle: the firm’s February 2026 recap said its deployment period ended in Q3 2025, with attention shifting to portfolio growth and investor liquidity. A founder preparing a pitch should ask about the current investment window.

03 Soap, software, same question

Look at Nopalera and the strategy becomes tangible. The brand uses Mexican cultural identity in a premium beauty business. In March 2026, it announced a $4 million financing led by Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund and co-led by L’ATTITUDE Ventures. That figure covers the entire round. The stated purpose was to expand retail presence and products.

Now put that beside InOrbit. In September 2025, L’ATTITUDE and Globant Ventures co-led its Series A. InOrbit makes software for coordinating robots, vehicles and equipment in physical operations. The company names Colgate-Palmolive and Genentech among its enterprise customers. Its problem is fragmentation: automation is less useful when the machines and systems cannot work together.

For potential investors, the proposition also has two parts: a defined pool of founders and an operating network meant to help their companies. The distinction from a broad early-stage fund lies in where L’ATTITUDE looks and the relationships it brings. Neither feature substitutes for judging the individual business.

The two investments share no obvious shopping aisle. Their connection is a founder thesis that crosses sectors. Flow, another portfolio company, digitizes fund-management workflows. GroWrk helps businesses procure and deploy technology equipment for employees. Each offers a different answer to the question of where a business can grow.

“If you want to go where the growth is, you should be investing in these founders.”

Sol Trujillo / February 2026

04 The work after the handshake

Many funds promise help. L’ATTITUDE describes some fairly concrete forms: strategic planning, quarterly reviews, introductions and operating advice. Its team includes Trujillo, a former telecom chief executive, and Laura Moreno Lucas, a former Nasdaq managing director. Oscar Munoz, formerly United Airlines’ CEO, is listed on the current team page as a senior advisor and limited partner.

Its advertised operating support reaches into production, distribution, technology and reporting. Here is a useful inference for founders: turn the promise of a network into a precise request. Name the customer you need to reach, the process holding up delivery, or the milestone the next financing requires. Specific needs give experienced operators something to work on.

A quarterly review gives that conversation a recurring place on the calendar. The firm says it discusses priorities, milestones and founders’ requests with its portfolio. For a young business, the useful test is whether those conversations lead to decisions: a clearer sales plan, better reporting, or a well-matched introduction.

There are other doors, including VamosVentures, LEAP Global Partners and sector specialists. Fit matters more than a shared slogan. L’ATTITUDE’s published criteria favor scalable, technology-enabled U.S. businesses. A local service company seeking modest, steady growth may need a different kind of financing. A founder seeking a grant needs a different conversation.

Nopalera’s return to the firm for a later round adds something useful to the opening scene. A stage can deliver attention. A continuing investor relationship can help a business pursue its next expansion. For a founder choosing capital, the question is practical: who will still have something useful to contribute after the applause?