About me
Hi there - I am Maria Salamanca. I am a venture capital investor at Ulu Ventures, a Palo Alto based fund with 200M+ assets under management. Previous to Ulu, I was at Unshackled Ventures, a day 0 pre-seed fund based in the Bay Area. I joined the fund in 2015, the same year it was founded where I was involved in 65+ investments and see ~2K deals a year. I was also elected to Orange County School Board (8th largest district in the U.S) in 2022 where I represent district 2.
I also have spent time in the political world. I started my career at FWD.us a a bipartisan political organization focused on immigration and criminal justice reform. The group was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman and other tech leaders.
After the 2016 election I was founding COO at Swing Left (where I am now a Board Member) and supported Higher Ground Labs with the first ever political technology landscape.
some other biographical stuff
I was born in Bogota, Colombia and immigrated to the United States when I was 7 years old. I was raised in Orlando, Florida and attended a huge high school of 4k students. I wasn't an amazing student but I committed to the things I fell in love with early. I was Public Forum Debate Captain and Student Body President (I only mention this because these years were more formative than most). I then attended UC Berkeley where I studied Government and Legal Studies. I live in Orlando FL with my wife Alex Marshall.
Press stuff
- Business Insider: The Seed 40: The best women early-stage investors of 2024
- Orlando Sentinel: Salamanca, for Orange Country School Board
- Exclusive: Refugee Maria Salamanca Makes Partner At Unshackled Ventures, A Firm Investing In Immigrant Founders
- 2021 Here are 21 women in venture capital who made partner at major firms like Andreessen Horowitz and GV last year
- Fast Company’s second annual Queer 50 list
- Techcrunch: Unshackled Ventures has $20M to invest in immigrant entrepreneurs
- Forbes 400: Meet Unshackled, Where The Tech Elite Funds Immigrant Founders
- CB Insights: Latina VCs are optimistic about opportunities in the industry
- Forbes: Rising Star in Venture Capital leverages her unique background
- Business Insider: A grassroots movement aiming to help Democrats take back the House is going viral
- NYT: Trying to Flip the House, ZIP Code by ZIP Code
- How a New Generation of Activists is Leading the Trump Resistance
- Hillary Clinton's Next Project: Funding the Resistance
- Orlando Sentinel: Orange County College Graduates Share Experiences
Award stuff
- 2019 HBCUs 31 Under 31 in Venture Capital
- 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Venture Capital
- 2018 Business Insider’s 30 Rising Venture Capitalists
- 2017 California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Shark of Year