Maria Salamanca is a partner at Ulu Ventures, where she has been since 2022, and in her role invests in seed stage technology companies in the United States. Ulu Ventures is the largest Latina-led and -owned venture capital firm in the US.
Prior to joining Ulu Ventures, Salamanca was a partner at Unshackled Ventures, where she funded teams with immigrant founders at the earliest stage of pre-see and seed. In 2018, she was the first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars. In 2017, she earned California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Shark of the Year.
Salamanca is the president and founding member of LatinxVC and sites on the board of directors for SwingLeft, where she was inaugural chief operating officer in 2016. She is also the youngest and first LGBTQ+ elected school board member at the eighth-largest US school district in Florida, which she won in 2022. In that role, she recently focused the board’s efforts to ban cellphones after the research of its impact on students’ brains and behaviors.
How does your Latino heritage influence you as a leader?
It influences my work every day. There are less than twenty-five Latinas in venture capital at funds over $100M in the US, so I am aware of how rare my position is and the responsibility that comes with it to invest in the areas that impact our community and might be overlooked.
Outside of work, what are you passionate about and why?
I am incredibly passionate about education, healthcare, and local politics.
The Alumni Society’s theme of this year is Leadership for a Changing World. What does it mean to you to lead in a changing world?
It means showing up with the values that our community holds dear and making the future generation have a better world to be in. It means ensuring you’re developing the leadership skills for rapid change, pivots, and constant movement that requires us to be adaptable.
What major changes have you observed in your industry over the past year?
Massive shift towards AI impact on the future as well as a move towards America’s economy of industrialization, manufacturing, and other industries that have been in the heartland.
What are you doing to ensure you remain a nimble and adaptable leader during these changing times?
Always listening to those not just in my industry but people who experience our economy and world differently.
