Bringing diversity to Silicon Valley through venture capitalism

Latinos in Tech
Miriam Rivera

Miriam Rivera has guided Ulu Ventures, the venture capital company she co-founded, to become a significant source of seed-stage capital for IT entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and beyond.

By Bill Sarno 

The Palo Alto firm launched in 2008 as an angel investor and now has a total of about 200 million dollars of assets under management. Their last fund raised $138 million, and the plan is to continue growing: "We hope to roughly double that with our next fund," Rivera said. Ulu Ventures also stands out as a champion of greater diversity in an industry where people of color remain rare.

Ulu Ventures looks for data-driven entrepreneurs but also values diverse leadership as part of its investment thesis. In other words, Ulu believes that investing in diverse and under-represented entrepreneurs is a driver of profit because diverse teams tend to have stronger results. " A quarter of the entrepreneurs we invest in are African American or Latinx, 20 times the industry average," Miriam said. Moreover, they have several diverse investors and analysts on the team. "We are deeply committed to opportunities for everyone," she emphasized, “and believe that diversity strengthens our own performance, too, in addition to adding much-needed diversity to the investment industry.” 

Due to her humble beginnings and life journey, Miriam Rivera can understand both the challenges and the opportunities that many Latinos and other under-represented minorities face. Her parents were farm and factory workers from Puerto Rico. They worked hard and had great respect for the power of education—values still relevant to Miriam, and which played a major role in her ability to expand her own horizons.

She did not have the kind of financial opportunities that often help students obtain an excellent education; but she did have the values surrounding the importance of education that her parents taught. She excelled in school and, thanks to the help of some teachers who recognized her promise, Miriam was able to receive scholarships to a private high school that offered computer courses – which was unusual at the time and which she credits for giving her a solid foundation in technology that would serve her well in her professional career.

Miriam attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, where she majored in sociology as an undergraduate. Although not related to her field of study, technology surrounded her at a time of rapid growth in the field. She remembers students transitioning from typewriters to MacIntosh computers.

She entered the workforce for a couple of years with her sociology degree. However, she always had a thirst for education, so she returned to Stanford to earn first a master’s degree in Caribbean literature, and then pursued a joint program in law and business leading to JD and MBA degrees. It was there that she met her Ulu co-founder (and husband) Clint Korver, in a negotiations class at the business school.

Finding the balance between professional endeavors and personal life always seemed like a distant dream to Miriam. But one summer was a particularly eye-opening experience, as she interned at a Chicago law firm. She met a mentor, a Latina corporate partner who had a family. "It was nice to see you can have both, and she was a role model for me," Miriam said.

After graduation from her JD/MBA program, Miriam spent a short time in legal practice followed by an entrepreneurial venture with her husband, Clint Korver, founding a software company together. A few years later, while considering the next steps on her professional path, Miriam met a Latino who would greatly influence her career, first-generation Mexican-American attorney Gabriel Sandoval. He was in his thirties and was a general counsel for a public company, which is an impressive accomplishment for anyone, much less an under-represented minority swimming against the tide. "It was inspiring to meet someone with a similar background being so successful."

"Over lunch, he offered me a job. I wasn’t expecting it, since it was an informational interview," Miriam said. Although she also had other job offers, Sandoval won her over. He told her, "'If you want to know the best way to learn, it would be to work for me. I can show you what I know, in the context in which I know it.'"

She went to work for Sandoval not only because his accomplishments and knowledge were so impressive but also "because he was the only Latino who extended a job offer." Someone who is trying to break into an unfamiliar area, she suggests, really needs mentors and people who are willing to let them learn by apprenticeship.

For a time, she thought the next step up from that position would be a general counsel role but decided she would have a "bigger learning curve somewhere else." Learning continued to be a guiding light in her life, and so, with Sandoval’s blessing, she accepted a job at a young tech startup called Google. Miriam joined the company as its second lawyer and her success accelerated along with the tech giant’s meteoric rise. In fact, the two were inextricably tied together: Rivera was responsible for streamlining the legal process of drafting and finalizing contracts so that most could be closed within three days, and many within one day. Her work to simplify contracts helped Google scale its revenue from $85m to $10b in 5 years.

Although she had a shot at the general counsel role at Google, Miriam left Google in 2006. She was exhausted and decided to take some time to re-energize and consider her next steps. She recognized that she had a lot of relevant experience, including being an entrepreneur, that she could bring to venture capitalism. 

Miriam and Clint launched Ulu Ventures in June 2008 as what she described as "a very small angel lender." When she started, she was unsure if this was something that they could do well enough to sustain them in careers that would be both personally and professionally satisfying. "It turned out it was satisfying in many ways, both because of the intellectual work and strategic challenges but also because I did not realize at the time how segregated financial services are,” she said, “or how under-inclusive VC investments could typically be. I quickly realized that Ulu could make a real difference by working to shift that balance for the better.”

Latinos are starting about 50 percent of new businesses in the country and are more willing to take risks and find opportunities in high tech than many other groups. "They want to start their businesses and to achieve economic prosperity," Miriam states. And that empowers more communities. After their businesses thrive, they can invest in the community because they hire other diverse people.

Growing businesses and, thus, communities is something that Miriam feels committed to and will continue to do. 

As for Ulu Ventures, Miriam Rivera said, "We are now at the point where we can think about being a legacy firm, with other generations of partners continuing Ulu's mission. We’re working hard to change the face of venture capital, both inside our firm and in terms of the companies we fund. It’s rewarding work that contributes to growth and diversity across the country. And that matters a lot to me." 

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Courtesy of Ulu Ventures

Editors: Latinos are starting about 50 percent of new businesses in the country and are more willing to take risks and find opportunities in high tech than many other groups.