ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Moneda Moves is back in 2026 for Latino Heritage Month: September 15 to October 15.
In this era, Moneda Moves is talking about the intersection of capital and trust. Who has it, who's asked to give it, and how it gets built inside the big ecosystems that decide where money goes.
Latino entrepreneurs start businesses at some of the highest rates in the country. The capital rarely follows at the same pace. So we asked a simple question across every conversation: what does it take to build trust on purpose, and how do we use it to create a more equitable ecosystem for Latinos and other underfunded entrepreneurs doing great work?
Most people enter venture without a roadmap. Lolita Taub has sat in every chair: founder, angel, LP, GP and ecosystem builder.
She's the General Partner at Ganas Ventures, where she writes $100K checks into pre-seed and seed community-driven software companies. Over nearly 20 years across big tech, startups and venture, she's invested in more than 100 companies, including Brex and AngelList. She co-founded The Community Fund and has built a community of more than 100,000 founders, funders and friends.
Forbes named her to its Culture 50. ¡HOLA! counted her among its 100 Latina Powerhouses. She received the Stella Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and has spoken at SXSW, Stanford, Harvard, TEDx and Cannes Lions.
She's a dual US-Mexico citizen raised in South Central Los Angeles. Today she lives in San Diego.
We talked about her book, What Actually Matters: Startups, Capital, and the Rules Nobody Taught Us, out September 15. It's a practical guide to venture for people who didn't inherit a seat at the table.
We started with why she got into investing and what a good investor owes the wider ecosystem. From there, we walked through the chairs she covers in the book and how ecosystem builders create infrastructure that outlasts a single cycle.
Then we got into the thing that shapes everything: most venture deals still move through warm introductions.
That makes trust the real currency. It works like a distribution system. Lolita's argument is that you can build it on purpose instead of waiting to be let in. For her, community is capital, and she explained what a real one is built on.
Tune in to hear how you can build credibility in venture and what’s next for Lolita.
Follow Lolita on Instagram: @lolitataub
Follow Moneda Moves on Instagram: @MonedaMoves
Follow your host Lyanne Alfaro on Instagram: @LyanneAlfaro
Main podcast theme song from Premium Beat.
