Changing The Face Of Investing

I never intended to be an investor. Truth be told, I am a founder at heart. In that vein, for my next challenge I have started Rebel One to support founders creating a better world and to create a pipeline of emerging investors.

What began with creating LEGO villages as a child, has become an obsession with imagining and bringing ideas to life. During college and continuing until today, I have facilitated rapid prototyping sessions and coached entrepreneurs around the world from the Harvard Innovation Lab in Cambridge, to Start-up Chile in Santiago, to UNLEASH in Singapore, to the Department of Energy and so on. Among the projects, we designed a ‘sustainable wallet’ as an alternative to leather, prototyped a smart watch application for emergency medical professionals, and launched a digital assistant for continuing education.

In 2017, I was recruited to launch a different type of startup — Venture University (VU). At VU (aka VU Venture Partners) we built an in-person training program in Silicon Valley for aspiring venture capitalists and an investor syndicate. I led the day-to-day management of the 20+ person investment team and the program that resulted in reviewing 3000+ startups, training 60+ investors, and syndicating over $1M into 15 investments during my time with the firm.

We built an immersive in-person program, but it was too expensive and time intensive for many aspiring investors I was approached by — several of whom identified as underrepresented. In an effort to move them forward, I launched LTX.VC (more on LTX.VC here). What began as a labor of love on nights and weekends, turned into a calling.

I learned, the representation of women, black, and latinx investors in the angel and venture capital community is low — and unacceptable. While 45% of the venture capital workforce is women, only 11% of investment partners are women. African Americans make up 3% and Latinos 4% of the venture capital workforce. At the partner level, the numbers look even more dismal. Of course gender and race are not the only measures of diversity — but it highlights the inequity in the space.

At that time, I was approached by long time friend who asked me,

“If you launched a fund, what would you do?”

I shared a vision of investing in tech startups solving some of the world’s greatest challenges while bringing together a community of emerging investors to back these startups. The aim was to democratize access to investing by enabling the community to invest with our fund, build wealth, and vote with their dollars. Also by delivering training accumulated and curated from the world class institutions and communities I had been apart of so they can continue to support game changing founders. After countless hours — operating at a speed I did not know was possible — I presented my vision at a conference in San Fransisco in June.

My Presentation at the Tulip Conference in San Fransisco in June of 2019

After the conference, I developed the vision that is now the Rebel One Angel & Venture Capital (VC) Training Program and began laying the foundation for the fund. Rebel One Ventures would invest in startups aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The role would push me to leverage every component of my experience — as a founder, venture capitalist, engineer, facilitator, trainer, researcher, and a student of public policy. So — I took the leap.

Do we have it all figured out? No.

Is there still more work to do? You have no idea.

But — Do we have what it takes? Absolutely.

Will we need guidance and support along the way? You bet.

Can we do this alone? Not a chance.

And that is where you come in. We will do our utmost to share our progress as well as our challenges along the way, but every action will be aligned with the ultimate vision of making the world a better place and daring greatly to “build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance.” As you see and hear from us, please share your wisdom.

I look forward to building wealth for and with the game changing founders we back and the community investors that join us for the journey. I also look forward to sharing more of the journey as it unfolds. I know that we are only worthy of this challenge because of those that have supported us to this place. Thank you. We are just getting started.

Best,

Sergio Marrero

P.S. A special thank you to Henri and the Harlem Capital crew for the inspiration and support.