Investor

Samara Meija Hernandez

Founding Partner, Chingona Ventures

With over a decade in sales, operations and technology at Goldman Sachs. Samara went on to become an early-stage investor with MATH Venture Partners and in 2019 launched Chingona Ventures investing in overlooked badass founders at the earliest stages who are “chingón” enough to just maybe do something that matters, and are not well understood by traditional investors.

Funded Founder

Ablorde Ashigbi

Co-Founder & CEO, 4Degrees

Former Investor -- who cut his teeth during his time at Pritzker Group -- turned startup founder, Ablorde knows what it's like on both sides of the table.  He started 4Degrees with a focus on bridging the networking gap, a Chicago-based technology company, applying machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven industries manage their most important source of opportunity - their professional networks.  When he's not doing that, you can usually find him lifting weights, reading books or eating BBQ.

Funded Founder

Kristen Sonday

Co-Founder & COO, Paladin

As a first-gen college Latina passionate about social justice, Kristen started her career working on international criminal matters with the U.S. Department of Justice straight out of Princeton and went on to Co-Found Paladin whose mission is to increase access to justice by helping legal teams run more efficient pro bono programs.  Paladin's investment backing includes big names like Mark Cuban who is quoted sharing “What impressed me about Paladin's team is that they're applying a business framework to an important social problem. With Paladin, lawyers can work on issues they're passionate about and teams can leverage pro bono to build their businesses. It's an important mission that I'm proud to be part of.”

VentureFWD 9/24/20

Virtual Panel Discussion: The in's and outs of VC funding, engaging with investors, the fundraising journey, and connecting with and investing in underrepresented founders.

WorkFWD 10/22/20

Virtual Panel Discussion:  Hiring, culture, building and growing teams, meaningful diversity initiatives in the workplace, the journey to inclusion, and finding the right fit/your dream job!

BuildFWD 11/19/20

Virtual Panel Discussion: Marketing, sales, growth, innovation, and engagement. Plus a special focus on #BlackLivesMatter and how to meaningfully engage to support the movement and creating real change.