Dahlia VC - Planting ‘Seeds’ For A Brighter Tomorrow Transcript

More Elephant Intro

[00:00:38] Jason Rudman: Welcome to the latest edition of the More Elephant podcast. In 2023, we talked with Alphonso David from the Global Black Economic Forum. And one of the things that we learned is the small amount of money that is going to black entrepreneurs in the venture space. It's about 1% of venture fund money.

And so continuing on that theme of listening and learning from the best and hearing about the work that they're doing, I'm delighted to welcome Veronica Juarez to the More Elephant podcast. Veronica most recently started Dahlia VC. It's an early stage venture capital fund, investing in seed stage tech companies, leveraging the Latino market, and looking specifically at B2B enterprise software, marketplace, and FinTech solutions. And she is actively building a potential investment pipeline.

So, Veronica, thrilled that you're here. Can't wait to hear your story and all the things that you've been up to.

[00:01:31] Veronica Juarez: Thank you so much for having me, Jason. And I'm thrilled to be in conversation with you and part of the podcast series.

[00:01:38] Jason Rudman: Excellent. I always like to start with the origin story. So before we get into all of the great work that you're doing, could you take us as back far as you would like to go and give us a brief history of what got you to investing and building a venture capital firm that's focused also on early-stage.

[00:01:58] Veronica Juarez: For sure, well, let's see how far back do I want to go? I am from Houston, Texas where I do live now, but I was born and raised here. I was recruited at an early age to attend a boarding school in the Northeast, Phillips Exeter Academy, and that really changed the trajectory of my life and what happened after.

From there I went to Stanford University in California, fell in love with California. And then I started my career and I spent the first 10 years of my career in politics, and working in the public sector, because I come from a family that still believes in politics as a form of progress and justice.

And so, I always knew I'd work in politics out of college and I worked both in Texas and California on behalf of different elected officials at each level, the federal level, state level, city level. I worked on behalf of their commitments to immigration and the criminal justice system and the arts. And I learned a great deal about how policy works for our communities, particularly our low income and vulnerable communities.

So, after about a decade in the public sector, I really wanted to move to the private sector, but it was important for me to work for a company whose mission. vision, and values I could really align with. I was living in Houston at the time, but at the same time, I really wanted to get back to Northern California because I fell in love with the area.

I had a dream to live, work, and make it in San Francisco one day and I started applying for roles. And I found this job description that just spoke to me and it said, be a pioneer, build something new, change the world.

And I thought, Oh, great, that's me. I want to do this, but what is Lyft? This is L Y F T. And I called a friend of mine in San Francisco and she said, Oh, Lyft is amazing - you can call a car with your phone using an app and you sit in the front seat. And you fist bump the driver, and there's a pink mustache on the vehicle. You should totally go work there. Oh my gosh.

[00:04:06] Jason Rudman: We should ground everybody, right? Anybody that's listening that's a little younger than us would go, hang on a minute, you're describing Lyft. You're talking about 2012, 2013, something around that time? So for anybody listening that you're like, hold on a minute, she's describing Lyft. We know what Lyft is. You have to put yourself back kind of twelve (12) years where that was revolutionary on some level.

[00:04:27] Veronica Juarez: Absolutely. Because we were changing behavior, right? The idea that you'd get into a stranger's vehicle and sit in the front seat and let them give you a ride with that was not something we did twelve (12) years ago.

So I joined Lyft as our first government relations hire, and I helped them build that team. And then I went on to build and help build 2 other business lines: our enterprise business, we built that into a billion dollar business in 3 years; and then I built our social enterprise business and that was our business for government and nonprofit organizations. I was really focused on how we provide rides for communities who could have a huge impact on their quality of life.

Now, when I got to Lyft, I couldn't have told you what VC stood for. I had no idea what those initials meant, even having been a graduate of Stanford in the heart of Silicon Valley. And that's really because I didn't see that there was a place for me in tech, especially given that I didn't have a technical background.

So I was like, well, what would I do in tech? And when I got to the company, and I was hired as an early exec, from the very beginning, I was paired with different investors on our cap table who would help me build teams, close deals, and work through strategy.

And it was then that I started to map the ecosystem of investors and tech companies inside and okay, this is what investors do and this is the impact they have. I just had the realization that if we, as one company, could have the impact that we had one problem, transportation, then if I were to become an investor one day, I could have an impact across problem sets and across communities.

And this was about five or six years ago. I just set my North Star and I'm going to be an investor one day and no idea how I’d get there and no idea what it would take to become an investor. But it was like I planted a flag in the sand. I want to work towards it.

Fast forward a bit. I started angel investing with some buddies of mine and then worked alongside other venture capital funds as a venture partner and advisor. Then, I was accepted as a scout with Lightspeed Venture Partners, which was an amazing opportunity and learning. And it was then that I realized, okay, I really do enjoy investing. I do enjoy the business of investing.

I never set out to start my own firm. I think the hubris one needs to start their own firm. But when I looked around at the market, I was looking for something specific and I was not seeing it in droves and that was this - as a woman, as a person of color, who has worked twenty (20) years in politics and business and tech and has succeeded in those areas, that has not come without its challenges. And as an American, I believe in America as a corporate culture, we have standardized a certain culture, corporate culture. Hey, it needs to fit in this box and you need to fit in this box. And here's the thing, us being asked to fit in this box does everyone a disservice.

And so, I feel like as many of us had to manage a number of challenges of what that meant. Now, let me look forward and see and decide what needs to be true and what rules do I want to rewrite for the future? And for me, what I wanted to do is really build a safe place for Latino founders, in particular, where they could come with their whole selves, they could fail and they could flourish and they could do that in a place where they were truly supported.

And I realized that if I wanted to see that in the world, I had to be willing to bring that into the world. And so that's how I decided to work on building Dahlia VC and unveiled the firm last quarter of this year.

[00:08:30] Jason Rudman: That's awesome. So much to unpack. So I'm gonna go backwards a little just for the uninitiated. You smile. For those of you who are listening to this, we actually do record this in video, except we don't put video full form out on the podcast.

You lit up when you said, hey, a part of my career. I became a scout for Lightspeed Ventures. For the uninitiated, what does being of a scout mean? And where did that take you particularly connected to where you said, Hey, I was at Stanford. I was in the heart of Silicon Valley, but I actually didn't know what the term VC meant and whether that would be something that I could even aspire to, notwithstanding all of the other powerful challenges that come with being a Latina?

[00:09:15] Veronica Juarez: So as a scout, programs are different for different firms, but typically a scout means that you are searching for and looking for potential investment opportunities for that firm, and then you bring those investment opportunities to the firm for consideration. Lightspeed’s scout program included an allocation of two-hundred-and-fifty thousand (250,000) dollars that could be recommended for investments and twenty-five thousand (25,000) dollar increments.

So you could bring a recommendation to the firm for a preseed or a seed stage company investment. And if that investment was approved by their investment team for the relevant verticals, then they would approve an investment amount. And so, it allowed me to look at deals and have additional capital attached to those deals. It allowed me to learn more about what metrics and what is really considered in considering an investment. I was able to meet with other partners at the firm and get an appreciation for their own expertise and said verticals and what to look out for.

And then I got to know one of their founders, Barry Eggers. He founded Lightspeed 27 years ago and he became an incredible mentor. And so the whole experience just really opened up my eyes to actually what is required for being an early-stage investor and the work that you do. And it solidified for me that I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the work. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I was like, okay, this is fun. I could do this.

[00:11:01] Jason Rudman: You had mentioned before, right - two things, sustainable social change for most vulnerable communities and then, your words, moving our world steps closer to justice. Is that how you went about the portfolio? Or did that take you into different spaces and places that were not necessarily tied to the commitments that you started out at the beginning?

[00:11:26] Veronica Juarez: Yeah, I would say, I definitely used it as a time to explore different kinds of investments and to explore what would be interesting to different investors and partners at the firm. I certainly did invest in founders and a number of founders of color, but across verticals that gave me that kind of exposure.

Now look, it's an angel portfolio, right? So you really get that exposure over years. I mean, that's the one thing I love about the idea of being an investor in that it's very difficult to be an expert in any one field because tech inherently, by design, is consistently evolving. So it's like you can almost never know everything that is happening in one field because people are innovating through and past it. Always. And so, I love that. I started to really get a material peek into that world when I was scouting.

[00:12:21] Jason Rudman: So, late last year you started Dahlia VC. Does that bring you closer to the remit that we talked about vulnerable communities and justice? How does that show up in tech solutions or people within your portfolio that you're building or just people within your network? What are they solving for?

[00:12:40] Veronica Juarez: So I was counseled via partners at Lightspeed that you don't make money. He said, Rocky, (Veronica’s nickname) you don't make money going where everyone else has gone or where everyone else is going, you make money going where no one else is going, or no one else is willing to go.

And so, through the past five years, I had been looking at the data and looking at the amount of investments that were being made, particularly with Latino founders, and I'm like, wow, it's really not moving over 5 years. It's not changing.

So, then the question I asked myself, which is a question I get a lot is, well, are there even enough Latino tech founders? So is there enough scale to be able to have the market to invest in?

And the data shows that actually, in fact, Latino tech founders are starting companies at the same rate as their white peers and their business revenues are outpacing those of their white peers through the one million ($1,000,000) dollar Annual recurring revenue mark. And that's a very important mark because that's what a lot of us use to look at from strong seed stage investing. Are you at the one million ($1,000,000) dollar mark or are you on track? What's the path to get there?

And so it was clear to me, the issue is not that there are not enough Latino founders and the issue is not that they're not building strong companies. They clearly are building strong companies. They have these very early indication marks that as investors we think are extremely important. So then what is the issue? Well, the issue has been that historically, like many other people who are othered, Latino tech founders have encountered friction and resistance and accessing capital needed to scale, like equity financing.

So typically they have been able to access debt financing, taking out a loan. But what happens when you have two companies who are at the same place and one gets VC money, and gets equity financing and they get to reinvest all their profits back into the business. And they get advisors and they get a board and they get all these other people around them to champion them. And then you have another company that takes on a loan. So every time they make money, they have to pay back a loan. They don't get any advisors. They don't get any help. They don't get the luxury of being able to reinvest back into their business.

Well, there's going to be a major trajectory shift between what happens with those companies. And so for me, when I saw this market opportunity, and at the same time, we also looked at the population growth of Latinos in this country. At present 1 in 5 Americans are Latino; by 2060, we estimate that 1 in 4 Americans will be Latino.

We also have a massive population that I would argue as commerce, we have not leveraged this population for growth. We have not leveraged them against products at scale. We have not sold to them specifically. We have not said, hey, we're here to solve your problems and do it in a way that meets your needs. And so, there's a massive opportunity for us to make money, both to leverage this population that's been overlooked and also to invest in people who have the lived experience of being a part of that population. Who best to sell and leverage a community than somebody who is part and has lived being a part of that community their entire life?

[00:16:20] Jason Rudman: It's stunningly obvious on some level. And yet to your point, the resources and the thinking doesn't flow that way. So to your mentors point to you that said, go to the spaces and the places where people are not willing to go, or they've not gone yet. Don't do more of the same.

And yet, as you described, when you go to those places, there's not an abundance of support or, indeed, experience that's actually supporting those. It's very much like where I opened up the podcast. That was where Alphonso David was talking about in the Black community, and there's tremendous parallels.

So how do we change that? Is it as straightforward as more people like you, Veronica, creating VC funds? Or is there more institutional support that needs to be delivered? How do we right the ship given your notes on population and the changing population here in the United States?

[00:17:16] Veronica Juarez: I think that the reason that this population as a market has been overlooked and I think the reason that many founders of color and female founders, for that matter, have been overlooked is because people carry inherent bias, and they don't even realize they do it.

I'll share with you of all the VC fund managers in the world, only 5% of them are women. We're talking about moving capital markets, and so you think about that, like, wow, that's major. I think in large part, people do not realize that they have this bias and so much of business is about relationships and who's in the room.

And what struck me over the past few years, I've been contacted by so many different Latino tech founders, and I would tell them, I'm not writing checks right now. I'm figuring out what I'm doing and they would say to me, I don't care, you helped take a company public. I just want access to your experience. I want to know what you think. Will you please look at this with me?

And I was looking at their work and their incredible products and they're working so hard and the team is impressive. And they would tell me, well, no one else…no, we cannot get a meeting with the VC. They will not take a meeting with us.

And it made me realize, okay, and I don't know, this is not the answer, but it made me realize, okay, I'm in the room, so, if I just worked a little bit harder, I can open the door and let more people in the room in this arena because it's all about who you know and that somebody will make a warm introduction.

And this is my whole life right now that I'm working on fund one. I'm now leaning on my entire network to make introductions for me. And so that realization, that possibly I could have an impact like that with people, was a major light bulb moment for me.

Now, what I grossly underestimated is I'm like, oh, with a little more work I can add a check to the work I'm already doing. If I had a check, then the impact is going to be even greater. I mean, this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. So it's not a little more work. It is a lot more work.

[00:19:31] Jason Rudman: Well, it is on some level akin to entrepreneurship I feel in terms of you've got to turn over a lot of different stones. It's not a lay up.

[00:19:40] Veronica Juarez: Yeah.

[00:19:41] Jason Rudman: To your point. When we were talking, it's a yearning. I'm going to use the word yearning. Your words were a catalyst for impact at scale. And you mentioned a little bit there what more can I do? And I also know that you're a Libra Leaders ambassador.

Would you talk a little bit about Libra Leaders beyond just being a platform dedicated to supporting and educating women in their journey from seed to IPO, right? That would be the billboard. But beyond that because I think it's very purposeful that you're connected to it. I think it serves something for you, obviously, as you described, 5 percent of global VC money goes to women. So what's Libra Leaders? What does it mean to be a Libra Leader ambassador? And how does that program connect to the work that Dahlia VC is also trying to do?

[00:20:25] Veronica Juarez: So Libra Leaders was founded by a woman that I just love and respect so much, Laura Lucas, and she is at Latitude Ventures. Latitude Ventures is deploying out of its fund too. They reached one hundred million (100,000,000) dollars to invest in Latino founders, so it's incredibly impressive what they have been able to accomplish.

And Laura developed and put this group together with a number of different female capital allocators to support other female founders on their journey from seed to IPO. Meaning at every stage of that company's growth, so whether that's capital, that's connection and support mentorship introductions. So, as you just mentioned, turning over all the stones. How can we, as a group of women who are allocating capital and are working in these spaces, how can we catalyze the growth of female founders that we are selecting to really focus on?

So Laura is leading the group through the selection of potential companies for us to consider and then starting that process of really learning a lot more about said companies and then working to support them in different ways.

[00:21:44] Jason Rudman: Excellent. So if you connect that to Dahlia, you're pretty specific in terms of your focus, I believe. So B2B SaaS, Marketplace, FinTech solutions, although one could argue FinTech solutions could take you wherever you want to go.

What are the types of solutions that interest you? And or that you're seeing that you believe deserve their moment in the sun. Are there particular things within the authentic lived experience of the Latino population that you want to support and serve that we as a general audience should be aware of as you build the fund?

[00:22:17] Veronica Juarez: So, an easy place to start is really wealth creation, wealth management. How are we better at building tools and doing this so that our communities can create that well? So you see a number of founders of color creating fintech solutions because we know that founders create solutions for the problems that they know personally. So, if they have seen that, then they will build towards it.

So, I am super open to looking at those solutions and seeing where there's possibilities for scale. My background and building two enterprise businesses at Lyft really leads me to B2B software solutions, which in large part can sometimes be very monotonous and boring. They could be back-office solutions. It could be looking at different risks in how infrastructure is built and managed and it's like, oh, this is not so glossy or glamorous, but they're the solutions that every business needs to be able to grow, protect themselves, etc.

So, when you're filling a need, then you can sell and then you can grow and so there's very interesting revenue generation that comes out of these more boring tech solutions in the back.

One thing that I am thinking about a lot is data and data management. Federal laws are changing around how our legacy tech companies can store and manage our data. So, I think the way that we are looking at and storing and managing our own data is going to be very interesting. And you're seeing a number of solutions that are being created so that somebody will manage their own data.

Now, I think that's very interesting when you think about the Latino population.  If you are investing in a number of companies, let's say are selling in large part to the Latino market, and they are collating that data together. Now, we could have data on an entire segment of the population that we have maybe not had previously, or have not thought about leveraging in a certain way, to be able to better sell and meet the needs of said population. So, I think that gets really interesting to think about - Latinos at scale and how we're serving that community.

I was going to mention one other area that a number of founders also innovate around is really small business owners. And the number of Latinos who are starting their own business, or have a small team, how are they managing those businesses? What do they need? What kind of services do they need? Are they being sold with a bilingual capability? And so I've met and I'm looking at a number of companies that are servicing that market, which is enormous when we think about helping people to create more wealth.

[00:25:09] Jason Rudman: I think it's fascinating. I could go back to some of the podcasts that we've done in the recent past. One of the most recent was with Mical Jeanlys White, who founded a minority-focused question advisory firm around financial advice. And she says ‘not on my watch’ that she was going to have the right level of financial advice to me and others around me who have a very, very different lived experience and that's connected to this generational wealth unlock that you talked about.

We live in the United States, at least right now, the two of real, I would say achievable paths to true lasting generational wealth is buying a home and starting a business. You're not going to get it with a three percent annual pay rise doing your job. 

There are the specifics that you talk about as it relates to the Latino community and then the universal truths for very often underrepresented and marginalized communities, whether that be by gender, whether that be by sexual identity, whether that be by race, and we come back frequently to generational wealth and the system has not worked in a way that has provided the unlock for those communities in the same way in this country.

So, those universal truths, it's just fascinating to me that we keep coming back to those. And that the work is being done by Latino community on behalf of the Latino community because to wait means it won't get solved. That's how I feel to wait as it won't get solved.

[00:26:43] Veronica Juarez: So many people ask me, why are you doing this? Why don't you just do a generalist fund? And I have a number of friends who are investors and a number of them even said, we'll send you deals. You don't need to do all this. Like we'll send you our deals. You'll make a bunch of money.

And I came to exactly the same conclusion that you just did because I didn't see any of the data moving, said, okay, it's one of these areas where unless we decide to work on it specifically, we're going to work on this issue, it's not going to change. Because it wasn't changing on its own in the last 5 years that I was just on the sidelines, taking notes. So that's precisely why I decided, okay. I have to work on this and be focused on it.

And there's so many different ways that you can be distracted. And so like really understanding my own soul's calling to this purpose is hugely grounding for me and makes now making decisions around how I'm spending my time and my resources very easy.

[00:27:54] Jason Rudman: How do you connect then the soul's purpose, which, wouldn't be me if I didn't say that's a More Elephant moment? More Elephant being we've got one mouth and two ears and we should be using our ears a little bit more than our mouth to understand opportunity and what's going on out there and we have the power within ourselves to be idea makers and change agents. You're a walking example of that.

Could you talk a little bit more about the connection to the soul moment that you just mentioned? Could you personify that more for the audience? Is it simply that you can stand with the Latino community and say, Hey, we built this, we did this and I was part of that?

I feel like it's something bigger than that. And I think it's tied to your comment around justice and social change for vulnerable communities. So I'm going to pull that thread and let you take it wherever you would like to go in terms of the connection to the soul.

[00:28:44] Veronica Juarez: For sure. I was at Lyft for ten (10) years and I closed the largest selling opportunity in the history of the company that was our agreement with the federal government. Federal government's the largest employer in the world. I went on sabbatical, I started scouting and I had the luxury of being able to decide what I want to do next and not have to make that decision anytime soon.

And so there were so many things I could have done and like a few things happened. One I walked through, like, a number of founders were seeking me out and for my own experience. And having also taken the time to reflect on the first twenty (20) years of my career and decide and look at what went well, and what didn't go so well, and what would I like to be true for the next twenty (20) years?

I was able to sit with that and decide and see what was in alignment for me and how it was important for me to show up. And that's what I mean about realizing that I was already in the room. So it's like, okay, Veronica, you're in the room, you are connected to other very influential and powerful people and you're in their rooms.

So, when you think about how life works, and I've used this kind of description a few times, like there are billions of people, right? How many people get to sit in that room that you're sitting in with those twenty (20) executives? I mean, it's a sliver of a happenstance that I'm there and somebody else is not there.

And so I use this example, like, when I was building teams at Lyft and advocating for different nonprofit organizations and different social impact programs and building the social enterprise business. I was trying to create this business that would serve really low income people. And I had one person on my team but the partnerships I needed required 20-plus people.

So how do you convince somebody who doesn't report to you, who doesn't have any kind of OKRs or KPIs attached to what you're doing, who absolutely like their paycheck is not going to change based on whether or not they help you. And so typically I get a lot of no's. No, I'm not going to help you with that project over there as it says nothing to do with what I actually have to do, with what my job is.

And I just convinced myself, I'm like, Veronica, you're not sitting in that room for yourself, you're sitting there as a representative of all the thousands of people whose lives can be changed as a result of you getting a yes.

And so it became less about me and less about my ego being attached to getting a yes or a no, or if they're saying yes or no to me, Veronica, instead of, hey, I am just a representative and I am here because all those people whose lives can be affected by me pulling this program together cannot be here. They cannot sit in this room. So I have to sit in this room and advocate on their behalf. And taking that a step forward, I had the same realization, you're in these rooms, you have the potential to really create more opportunity.

And, I mean like capital market opportunity, really celebrating and investing in all of these incredible founders that have been overlooked for one reason, and that's bias, or because they didn't know the right person, or they didn't go to the right school, or they weren't connected with this they didn't grow up on the, like myself, but the country club playing golf with their parents and their friends that do business deals at the dinner table. I didn't grow up that way. So, if you don't grow up in those circles, how do you know how to access that kind of capital from your network?

[00:32:35] Jason Rudman: Yeah, so when I was asked, why did I start More Elephant, I love that on some level, because grew up in a lower middle income household. And I wanted to read the news and be a reporter for the BBC. Both of my parents never went to college, so your point around access and if you're not in a place where access is afforded, you've got to work really, really hard to figure out what access looks like.

And I think your point around the impact and power of collaboration because that's really what you're talking about. You're in a space right now to be able to collaborate and create access for others to be able to live their dream and be able to elevate, not only on behalf of themselves but also on behalf of the larger community, and create solutions that are more efficient, less costly and serve a greater good.

And I think sometimes we don't talk enough about the challenges of not having access and again, a preponderance of it falling on low to middle income households. Forget race. Lower middle-income households typically don't have access. If you didn't go to college, that's another access point that's been denied. Again, another universal truth that I think bears more conversation about.

What gets you excited about what you're seeing particularly within the Latino community that you've got this unique seat? What keeps you energized? You're like, my goodness, we're really starting to pick up speed here, both within what you're trying to do and within the broader context of supporting Latino entrepreneurs.

[00:34:04] Veronica Juarez: I think what gets me most excited is probably what gets most investors excited and that's really looking at the incredible amount of investment opportunity and what founders are building.

And so I'm really looking at seed stage companies and in that area, you have a product, you've likely early product market fit, so people are buying your product. You have some revenue, you have a line of sight on a business strategy that has already started to perform.

So it's like, you get the front row seat to the early excitement of, oh, my gosh this thing is starting to run. And it's incredible to see what people are building, the traction they have, the partnerships they're building, the people on their board.

I mean, it's so funny because now raising my first fund, I meet with founders and I tell them, I have a much better appreciation for the founder's journey now that I have started my own firm. And it's a very bespoke experience when you start something from scratch versus joining a firm.

Starting it from scratch is really akin to a founder starting their company from scratch and bootstrapping it and getting it off the ground and paying for it. So I really meet with founders and, I'm like, I am blown away at what they are creating and already the traction and the progress. And so it is really fun for me to be able to build a pipeline of these high value opportunities and what excites me is the idea of writing my first check.

So the fund is looking, once we're capitalized, looking at writing an average of two-hundred-and-fifty K ($250,000) for seed stage investments. And the day that I get to write the first check out of the firm in that amount is going to be a great day because one, it will have mean that the firm is somewhat capitalized, two, it will also mean that I'm going to be over the moon on that first and second company that we're investing in, because I will have looked at hundreds. And that means that, like, wow, these are pretty incredibly special.

And I'm really looking forward to doing that alongside my peers and bringing peers in who will co-invest. So one thing that I've realized is it's not just about you writing a check into a great company. It's about who else is writing checks into that company. Who else is on the cap table? How are you all working together to ensure that that company is going to get from where it is today to its next race?

And for me, that'll mostly mean okay, so what does it look like to get to Series A and what are we doing? And how are we all working together to ensure that that founder in that company can get there? And it's what people have done in these markets for decades but in large part, founders of color have been left out of that equation.

And so how do we ensure that hey, no, you've got a great company and these are incredible metrics and the revenue traction is strong and people want to buy it. So how do we ensure when you have met all of those basic requirements for a future unicorn or multi decacorn that we can get you there? And so the idea of growing a company with my friends who are raising and building their own firms is so exciting to me.

[00:37:29] Jason Rudman: Awesome. How do people find out more about Dahlia VC and Veronica Juarez?

[00:37:37] Veronica Juarez: So I love Instagram. So we have an Instagram that's run by an awesome team I have and it's @DahliaVC_ but it comes up immediately. And we're doing a pretty good job of talking about what we're doing there and our team.

We also have a website www.dahlia.vc. You can sign up for our newsletter. The office where the firm setting on a newsletter about once every 2 months. And you can certainly contact us via there. And then I'm on LinkedIn and we'll post certain things or content or things I'm writing or thinking about. So the three channels are working together pretty well. I think.

[00:38:17] Jason Rudman: Excellent.

[00:38:18] Veronica Juarez: That's the idea.

[00:38:20] Jason Rudman: Excellent. Well, hey, thank you for taking the time out to give the audience a pointed view of a community that they may interact with in a very, very different way, and learn about not only the challenges and the past challenges but also the opportunity that's in front of the community and how people can actually get involved.

And dare I say, just the great work that you're doing, the soul work that ultimately I think is feeding you and will turn into value. And I'm not just talking about monetary value. I just think value for the people that are involved. So really, really, truly appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us.

[00:39:02] Veronica Juarez: Oh, thank you, Jason. It's an honor to be part of the group that you have selected to really interview and learn from and learn with. I'm honored.

[00:39:08] Jason Rudman: Oh, thank you. The honor's mine. ​

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