How to Leverage Venture Capital to Grow, Whether as a Founder or Investor with Sergio Marrero of RBL1.com
In this episode we have a very special guest Sergio Marrero, Managing Partner of Rebel One Ventures, he is a serial entrepreneur, founder, investor, TEDx speaker, and coach who graduated from the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He previously worked at PepsiCo, Teach For America, and the Deloitte Consulting Strategy Operations group. While in graduate school he conducted his thesis on venture studios and accelerating impact innovation at the intersection of business and government. He set up operations for two funds each raising $100M, produces a VC and CEO LiveStream Series called RBL1 Live and is Managing Director of Rebel One - a double bottom line investing fund and investor network accelerating rebels innovating for a better world. We have a very real and candid conversation around his view of VC funding for both investors and founders of color, why he believes there’s a lack of diversity and low percentages of access to funding for POC founders, and how his VC funding online programs are helping change those numbers. He gives us some of his book recommendations to get 1% better and he shares the advice he would give a younger Sergio Marrero if he could go back to the future.
Smart Chickens A B2B SaaS Demand Gen Drives Innovation & Growth Podcast · Sergio Marrero, Gianni Quinana
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Show Notes
Sergio Marrero, is the Managing Partner for a double-line venture capital investment firm he founded over 2 years ago, called Rebel One Ventures, www.RBL1.com.
His goal is to educate via his online VC programs to both founders and investors, how to leverage VC monies to leverage their companies growth trajectory.
His comprehensive programs go through the nuts and bolts of creating a fundraising pitch deck, identifying the key metrics investors look for, and how to stand out among the crowd. His programs take from his decade-plus experiences with top notch venture firms he's worked at, his own experience as a start-up founder, and research from Harvard case studies and others to help create the winning formula which entrepreneurs can follow to secure funding.
In this episode, he candidly discussed his VC journey, both as founder and investor, one which took him to Chile for the launch of an HR educational startup, back-packing through South America during this experience, and the lessons he learned from the failed start-up.
Sergio Marrero has some interesting concepts of how founders of color and women should look at VC or not as a financial instrument to fund the growth of their businesses.
He describes his own experiences with two failed start-ups, what he learned with Deloitte's Innovation and Growth Group, and how his collective experience gave way to his current company, Rebel Fund Ventures, RBL1.com
We discuss the generational wealth gap and lack of access to VC funding for founders and investors of color, and how his programs can change this gap.
We wrap up the conversation with some of his favorite both business and fictional books that are helping to shape his mindset and his outlook of the VC community through and post C19.