Cheryl Campos
Capital, talent and opportunity still concentrate around the same networks, while the workforce, the customer base and the founder pool look nothing like that. Most diversity work has not changed who actually gets funded, hired or promoted. Organisations need people who can build the communities and pipelines that move resources, not run another sentiment programme.
Cheryl Campos is the co-founder and CEO of LaFamilia Foundation and a venture investor who helps organisations build communities that move capital and talent toward underrepresented founders and operators.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Cheryl Campos
- She has built the largest global community of Latine venture capitalists, VCFamilia, and has used it to channel more than $10M of LP funding to emerging Latine fund managers. That is an operating result inside venture capital, not a panel statement.
- She knows how to take a FinTech platform from early stage to unicorn. As employee #10 at Republic, she led venture growth and partnerships through the company’s run to a $1BN valuation.
- Her LaFamilia Foundation work is backed by J.P. Morgan, AWS, Comcast and Gunderson Dettmer, which gives corporate audiences a credible reference point for what serious inclusion investment looks like in practice.
- She holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Harvard economics degree, and pairs that with an investor’s view of where capital actually flows.
- Her speaking range covers FinTech, venture, identity and community building, which makes her usable for inclusion programming, leadership offsites and FinTech-sector events without changing speakers.
Biography highlights
- Co-founder and CEO, LaFamilia Foundation, backed by J.P. Morgan, AWS, Comcast and Gunderson Dettmer.
- Co-founder of VCFamilia, the largest global community of Latine venture capitalists, and FounderFamilia, a network of 500+ Latine venture-backed founders.
- Former Head of Venture Growth and Partnerships at Republic, employee #10, scaling the platform to a $1BN valuation.
- Scout for Lightspeed Venture Partners and investment partner at The Community Fund.
- Former Investment Banking Analyst at Barclays, Financial Institutions Group and Structured Finance.
- BA in Economics with honours, Harvard University. MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Named to HBCUvc’s 31 Under 31.
Biography
Latine founders raise less than 2 percent of venture capital, despite Latine consumers being one of the fastest-growing economic groups in the United States. Closing that gap is not a marketing problem. It needs operators who can build new pipelines of investors, founders and limited partners, and move real money through them.
LaFamilia Foundation was set up to do that work. As co-founder and CEO, Campos runs two communities under the foundation: VCFamilia, the largest global community of Latine venture capitalists, and FounderFamilia, a network of 500+ Latine venture-backed founders. VCFamilia has facilitated more than $10M of LP funding into emerging Latine fund managers. FounderFamilia has directed over $1M into early-stage startups through its national pitch competition. Corporate backers include J.P. Morgan, AWS, Comcast and Gunderson Dettmer.
The operating credibility comes from Republic. Campos joined the FinTech investment platform as employee #10 in 2018 and led venture growth and partnerships during its run to a $1BN valuation. She is also a scout for Lightspeed Venture Partners and an investment partner at The Community Fund, with prior experience as an investment banking analyst at Barclays in the Financial Institutions Group and Structured Finance team.
Her academic background sits on top of that operating record. Campos holds a BA in economics with honours from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She was named to HBCUvc’s 31 Under 31 list of emerging venture capital talent, and is a frequent voice in FinTech and venture programming on inclusion, community building and capital access.
Key speaking topics
- Community as a capital-access mechanism in venture and FinTech
- Latine representation in venture capital and entrepreneurship
- Inclusion in financial services and technology
- Building investor and founder pipelines from scratch
- FinTech growth and scale-up operating lessons
- Identity, career path and reinvention
Ideal for
- DEI, talent and ERG leaders inside banks, asset managers and FinTech firms looking for substance beyond sentiment programming.
- Venture capital firms, family offices and corporate venture teams building Latine or wider underrepresented founder pipelines.
- Heads of community, marketing and partnerships at FinTech and platform businesses scaling user and investor networks.
- Industry conferences on FinTech, entrepreneurship and capital markets that need a credible voice on inclusion as an operating discipline.
Audience outcomes
- A working view of how community structures inside venture and FinTech move capital and talent, not just sentiment.
- Specific reference points for what corporate-backed inclusion programmes look like when J.P. Morgan, AWS and Comcast are the partners.
- Practical lessons from inside a FinTech platform that scaled from employee 10 to unicorn status.
- A clearer read on how Latine founder and investor networks are forming and where corporates can plug in usefully.
Talks
A talk on building a career across venture capital, nonprofit leadership and creative work, drawing on Campos’s own path from Barclays to Republic to LaFamilia.
Key takeaways:
- How analytical and creative skills compound in unconventional careers.
- Where reinvention is a strategic asset rather than a risk.
- What it takes to move between finance, technology and the arts without losing credibility.
A working playbook for building durable communities that move resources, drawn from VCFamilia, FounderFamilia and the Venture Partner Program at Republic.
Key takeaways:
- How VCFamilia became the largest global community of Latine venture capitalists.
- What separates communities that facilitate real capital flow from networking groups.
- The operating mechanics behind a community that has channelled $10M+ of LP funding.
A talk on combining quantitative finance training with creative and identity-led work, useful for organisations rethinking talent and career paths.
Key takeaways:
- Why finance and creative careers are less separate than they look.
- What organisations miss when they hire only for narrow career templates.
- How identity, background and creative practice show up in investing and operating decisions.