Patty’s deep Silicon Valley expertise and networks plus her engineering/industrial experience combine with her pragmatic worldview to provide a unique investing angle. A long-term, common-sense, thesis-driven approach led to an early pivot away from over-hyped SaaS towards the opportunity created by the confluence of seismic technology shifts, sustainable growth demands, and a new world order.

She leaned early into the sectors overlooked by venture: foundational (“boring”) industries, “hardtech”, and humanity’s biggest opportunities. As a result, she became an early member of the burgeoning ecosystem around these foundational companies and has developed a reputation and track record to unearth and support breakout companies and deliver top-tier returns.

​Born and raised in Venezuela, she graduated #1 in her class with a B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering from Universidad Simon Bolivar. She began her career at CEMEX, then management consulting  at BCG and investment banking at DLJ, She obtained her MBA with High Distinction (Baker Scholar, top 5% of class) from Harvard Business School in 2002.

​After several years in Strategic Planning at The Walt Disney Company, she began investing in 2005, first at $1.9B private equity fund Elevation Partners (Facebook, Yelp, etc.), where she rose from associate to partner. Afterwards she managed Tembo Capital (McNamee family office), where she invested in multiple early and growth-stage consumer companies. In 2017 she co-founded Starlight Ventures, where she led multiple successful investments and raised a $50M fund.

She currently serves on Activate’s Leadership Advisory Council and mentors at Unreasonable Group, GreentownLabs, Third Derivative, Endeavor, among others.

• Focused heavily on clean energy advancement and grid modernization as essential infrastructure goals. An emphasis is placed on pragmatic solutions like using datacenter development to finance American energy upgrades, alongside excitement for fusion energy partnerships involving CFS Energy and Realta Fusion to build a future of limitless power.
• Interested in the revitalization of physical manufacturing and hardtech development, specifically advocating for South Florida to become a prominent hardware innovation hub rivaling the West Coast. Real world applications are a priority, demonstrated by backing companies like Magrathea Metals for domestic magnesium production and Superlight for electric aerospace design in middle mile logistics.
• Seeking practical artificial intelligence tools that solve tedious administrative friction rather than waiting for generalized intelligence. There is a strong personal willingness to pay for software that handles the final nuanced steps of daily logistics or payments, noting that current AI still struggles with complex real world coordination like managing an urban family schedule.
• Prioritizing rapid execution speed and deep operational understanding from startup teams. There is a firm belief that expectations for building and shipping products have accelerated dramatically, drawing inspiration from classic management frameworks about process flows and adapting them to be competitive today.