Depth over breadth: how Jomayra Herrera built a career in VC
Tools for LPs and investors, a room built for emerging managers, and the community's latest moves.
In this issue:
Emerging Manager Showcase: Applications close March 23
Unconventional wisdom from Jomayra Herrera, Partner at Reach Capital
Q1 Community Wins and Spotlights
10+ Open roles across VC (from internships to principal roles)
Read time: 5 minutes
This is the official newsletter of SomosVC, the premier non-profit organization accelerating and elevating Latinos, Latinas, and allies in VC. This space surfaces the ideas, wins, and questions circulating across our community — and to give them room to travel.
📥: Readers can ask questions anonymously, and community members will write back. Something you’ve been sitting with but haven’t found the answer? Ask it here.
The stage is ready: Applications are open for the 4th Annual Emerging Manager Showcase
The Emerging Manager Showcase application window closes March 23rd at 11:59PM PT. If you’re an emerging manager, this is the room. Bring your thesis, your asks, your value prop and showcase in front of LPs actively reviewing applications: Screendoor, S-Cubed Capital, Colibri Equity Ventures, and Candide Group.
Coming up: Eleva, the program for operators and seasoned professionals who want to formalize their approach to angel investing and venture. This year’s cohort will be led by Enzo Cavalie — founder of the Startupable podcast and Principal at Reach Capital. More details soon.
Unconventional Wisdom
Honest, hard-won lessons from investors in the community.
Jomayra Herrera has spent her career backing companies that expand what’s possible for people who’ve historically been shut out of it: healthcare careers, flexible work, scientific discovery. She’s a Partner at Reach Capital and a former SomosVC board President who led both the Fellowship and Eleva programs. She invests early-stage across health, learning, and work.
SomosVC: What’s one thing you do that goes against conventional advice, but has made a difference in your career?
Jomayra Herrera: Venture is fundamentally a relationship-driven business—whether with founders, investors, customers, or LPs. The conventional advice is to cast a wide net and build as large a network as possible. As an introvert, I knew early on that approach wouldn’t play to my strengths.
Instead, I’ve focused on depth over breadth. I’ve intentionally built strong, trusted relationships with people aligned to the sectors I care most about. That focus has made a meaningful difference in my career. It’s given me a deep bench of collaborators who I trust—and who trust me—which leads to better co-investment opportunities, stronger support for portfolio companies, and more authentic founder relationships.
Why are you in venture, and why is this career meaningful to you?
My North Star is to make the world a better place for the girl I once was. Venture allows me to pursue that at a scale I never imagined. I get to champion companies like Stepful, which expands access to meaningful healthcare careers; Workwhile, which gives hourly workers both flexibility and benefits; and Manifold, which is accelerating scientific discovery.
If someone comes to mind that has been doing something exceptional, nominate them to be featured to our thousands of readers.
Adriana Saman made Partner at Clocktower Ventures, where she’s spent seven years building the firm’s presence across the US and Latin America.
Elias Mufarech (Fall 2022 Fellow) joined Collide Capital as an MBA intern. He just became Principal.
Laura Ramirez Jaramillo (Fall 2024 Fellow) is now an investor at Revenge Capital!
Conlon Garcia (Spring 2024 Fellow) is now an investor at the Caltech Investment Office!
At SXSW, Lili Gangas and José Piñero, our SomosVC Executive Director, joined a gathering of venture organizations, ecosystem partners, and non-profits for a conversation on who’s funding the future — and who’s getting left out — alongside Govind Shivkumar of Omidyar Network and Jay Lundy of NAACP Capital. See the full thread.
Had a recent win? Share with us, we’d love to celebrate you!
Research & data
The Colibrí Institute published their first white paper, Why Emerging Venture Capital Managers Matter: Rethinking Institutional Portfolio Construction. They looked at 2,471 U.S. VC funds. What they found: emerging managers outperform by 7.2% IRR; funds with women GPs add a +1.6% IRR advantage; and institutional screening criteria, as currently designed, tend to filter out performance rather than risk.
They also released two free diagnostic tools alongside it (one for LPs, one for emerging managers) to help assess whether a program is built to capture venture alpha.
Colibrí is a nonprofit co-founded by Dr. Mariela Sala and Itzel Moncada. This is their first publication, with quarterly work ahead.
On the radar
On March 19: A 45-minute tactical session co-hosted by Latinx MBA Association and HBS Latino Alumni Association, led by David Perez-Hernandez (Roble Ventures), Samara Mejia Hernandez (Chingona Ventures), and Francisca Gilmore-Yulee (Perplexity Fund). Details here.
On March 25: The Latino Business Action Network (LBAN) will be hosting the 2026 State of Latino Entrepreneurship (SOLE) Summit. SomosVC Executive Director José Piñero will be on the panel "From Seed to Scale: The Reality of Venture Funding," exploring what it takes to raise capital in today's venture landscape.
The Latino Business Action Network is launching the third cohort of the Stanford GSB Startup Accelerator. Learn more.
Have an announcement or ask for the community? Let us know.
Chicago Ventures is hiring an Associate in Chicago
Cerity Partners Ventures is hiring an Associate in Los Angeles
Balderton is hiring an Investment Associate in London
Energize Capital Ventures team is hiring a Principal and Senior Associate in Chicago
Equal Ventures is hiring Analysts / Associates (1-2 roles) and an Events Ops Lead in NYC
Fine Structure Ventures is hiring a DeepTech Fellow and Deep Science VC Summer Intern in Boston
Heartland Ventures is hiring a Venture Investor (Associate or Sr. Associate) in Chicago or NYC
Novo Holdings is hiring a Venture Intern in Boston
UMich Venture and Private Equity investment team is hiring an Analyst
Route 66 Ventures is hiring a Chief of Staff in NYC
Samvid Ventures is hiring a Summer Associate in NYC
Telescope Partners is hiring an Associate in San Francisco
Job listings courtesy of Nicole DeTommaso + LinkedIn tags. If you’re hiring and want to be featured, let us know.
Let’s amplify good news
Have exciting news, updates, or announcements you’d like to share with the SomosVC community? We invite you to contribute to the SomosVC newsletter here.
Questions or comments? Email us at hello@somos.vc
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