diversity-in-vc
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Antonio Key
Antonio Key is Co-Founder and General Partner of Sunset Ventures, a pre-seed fund based in Los Angeles and San Francisco that has backed more than 70 early-stage companies, including Ready Player Me, Yuga Labs, Wonder Dynamics, BlocPower, and Flow Carbon. Before Sunset, he was Director of Investments at Samsung Next and an M&A banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch who worked on roughly $26B in deals. He's a Kauffman Fellow (Class 28), Wharton MBA, and Stanford grad.
Michael Fanfant
Michael Fanfant is a General Partner at Runa Capital, a $200M+ early-stage VC firm, where he backs B2B SaaS and regulated-industry startups in fintech, edtech, and digital health. Before turning investor, he co-founded Octane Lending — a point-of-sale financing platform for powersports vehicles that hit a $900M+ valuation in 2021. A Stanford economics graduate, Kauffman Fellow (Class 27), and Events & Community Chair at BLCK VC, Fanfant brings the operational credibility of a builder and the pattern-recognition of an investor to every check he writes.
Maria Salamanca
Maria Salamanca is a General Partner at Ulu Ventures, the largest Latina-led venture capital firm in the United States with over $400M AUM. Born in Bogotá, Colombia and raised in Orlando, Florida, she became the first Latina named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital in 2018. She co-founded SomosVC to increase Latinx representation in VC and was elected as the youngest and first LGBTQ+ school board member of Orange County Public Schools (Florida's 8th-largest district) in 2022. Her investing approach is rooted in data-driven decision-making, and she champions diverse founder teams at the seed stage.
Lauren Roberts
Lauren Roberts is an Associate at Forum Ventures in New York, where she evaluates hundreds of pre-seed B2B SaaS startups each year and coaches founders on market positioning, storytelling, and early traction. A University of Oklahoma alumna who co-founded her school's first student-run venture fund, she came to VC through a transformative summer in Tulsa during the centennial of the Greenwood Race Massacre - an experience that turned a pre-law finance student into one of the more distinctive voices on inclusive investing in early-stage tech.
Satya Patel
Satya Patel is the co-founder and Partner at Homebrew VC, the San Francisco-based seed fund he launched in 2013 alongside Hunter Walk. A dual-degree Wharton graduate, Satya spent formative years building AdSense at Google (2003) and then leading product at Twitter as VP of Product before pivoting to investing. Homebrew has backed some of the most consequential startups of the past decade - Plaid, Chime, Cruise, Anchor, Mercury - and Satya has developed a reputation as a founder-first investor who takes a hands-on, process-driven approach to helping portfolio companies nail their first hire, first product, and first fundraise. In 2021, he co-launched Screendoor, a $50M+ initiative to back underrepresented emerging fund managers. He is known for his blunt, practical writing on venture-generated content and his deep belief that great companies are built by founders who learn to say no.