Lolita Taub is a GP at Ganas Ventures where she invests in pre-seed and seed community-driven companies in the US and Latin America. With 15 years working within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, she has accomplished $70M+ in sales and made 90+ investments as an angel investor, Scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and VC at Backstage Capital and The Community Fund. Lolita is also a Co-Founder of proprietary matching tools the Startup-Investor Matching Tool, the GP-LP Matching Tool, and the LaaS community which brings along a community of over 4K+ founders, funders, and ecosystem friends. Forbes and Inc Magazine have featured her as a woman promoting investment in underestimated founders and funders. She has a BA from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the IE Business School. Lolita is currently in LatAm, hunting for unicorns, and most importantly, she is a dog mom to the cutest Dachshund mix, Choco.
Lolita’s Investing Style
How many years of investing experience do you have? 6 years
What is your investing risk tolerance? High
What is your portfolio size? 20+ stocks
What are your favorite investing sectors? Community-driven, future of work, future of money, LatAm (Latin America)
When did you get started in investing and why?
I started investing back in 2017, around the same time I joined K Fund. I was lucky that I had the opportunity to invest in community with the Portfolia Enterprise Fund as an investment partner.
As for why I started investing: to create generational wealth for my family and for our community by investing in it. Here’s the backstory.
Look, there’s a blue ocean opportunity to achieve alpha by investing in founders in underestimated communities and markets. And, to put my money where my mouth is, that’s exactly why I'm in LatAm now.
Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with money at an early age?
I grew up poor in south central Los Angeles and I often heard “money is evil,” so my relationship with money was terrible.
The thing is that money can be used for evil, but money is neither evil nor good. We need money to pay bills, get healthcare, [insert human bare necessities]. Money allows us to survive, thrive, and get the power/leverage we need to build the world and life we want. I’m about that (and I secretly dream of one day getting a weekly massage in my own home).
What has your journey been like as an investor, and what are some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Investing has been a little bit like riding a mechanical bull. Good thing I’ve always been one for a good challenge and have no shame in falling and getting back up.
My journey breaking in (and staying in) VC has been a roller coaster ride. I’ve volunteered in angel groups like Tech Coast Angels, interviewed with a ton of bad-fit funds (I won’t name them, but you know them), worked at funds such as Backstage Capital, became a Scout for Lightspeed, launched a fund (The Community Fund), , and recently I launched Ganas Ventures, where I invest in early-stage Web 2 and 3 community-driven companies in the US and LATAM.
We all know the biggest challenges underestimated people face in venture capital: being underestimated. The thing to remember is that persistence always overcomes resistance. So, if it’s your dream to be an investor, keep at it. Do not be deterred by the haters and instead focus your energy on people who believe in you and you actually enjoy.
You juggle so many tasks and wear so many hats. How do you manage the balance between your work life and your personal life and still manage to meet your investment goals?
There’s no secret in how I do it all. I work long hours, leverage my bot assistant, LaaS, a wonderful fractional team, use no-code tools, and most importantly have an incredible husband, Josh, who is always there for me and the community. He built the Startup-Investor Matching Tool, a platform that introduces underestimated founders to investors and also now leads finance and tech ops at Ganas Ventures.
What are three things that really excite you about the future of investing?
1. Community-driven US and LatAm unicorns.
2. More underrepresented GPs achieving alpha.
3. More underrepresented community members becoming founders, scouts, and investors.
What about three things that scare you about the future of investing?
1. SEC regulation of the maximum number of LPs a fund can have (because it keeps those who aren’t rich and don’t have rich friends out of VC).
2. SEC “accredited investor” definition (because it keeps people in our communities from an opportunity to create generational wealth).
3. Those who disagree with my No. 2 and don’t consider that while my mom, a maid, can go spend all her money on Lotto tickets, she can’t invest in a company that can become a unicorn and create generational wealth for her.
Anything else to add?
Say hello on Twitter, sign up for my newsletter for curated actionable insights and resources for underestimated founders, funders, and friends, and know you’re welcome to apply to invest in or get funding from me at ganas.vc!
