Tanya Menendez co-founded Snowball Wealth, a mobile-first community platform with tools for individuals to pay debt and build generational wealth, in 2019 with Pamela Martinez. This year the Latina-led startup announced $1.6 million in funding through venture capital, angel investments, and other sources. Menendez previously built two companies, and Snowball Wealth is her first fundraising experience with an all-female founder team. She has participated in the Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund.
Conceived initially as a student debt management app, Snowball Wealth focuses on helping people overcome shame and anxiety around debt and fear around investing, especially among first-generation college grads. Growing up working class, Menendez took inspiration from her rough journey to understanding money without guidance. At Snowball Wealth, she focuses on helping people manage their emotions around money to shift users from a scarcity mindset using learning tools and AI.
Menendez shared her insights on successfully pitching as a woman of color and why she values her identity in building her company.
DIGITALUNDIVIDED: What was your experience raising venture capital?
TANYA MENENDEZ: We are building in a very competitive market. Consumer fintech is extremely competitive. There’s a very high bar in general, but that’s especially so if you’re an all-female, all-women-of-color team. I think that’s the realization I came to–that there was an even higher bar for us. We ended up raising $1.6 million so far in two phases.
DIGITALUNDIVIDED: What have been your most significant challenges around fundraising for your company?
TANYA MENENDEZ: Only 2% of women receive VC funding. We walked into investor meetings knowing the bleak data but not speaking to it. The investors are aware of the data, as well, while also acting as though it doesn’t exist. Suppose I move through that world accepting that reality
when the bar is astronomically high. I was meeting with people who were processing my vision while asking themselves, “Is she in the top 1% of women?” Whether they are doing so consciously or not, there’s a level of pattern-matching in human beings. I decided to imagine a world where I was walking into an ecosystem where 98% of venture capital goes to women. The data already impacts the questions that people ask. You have to ask yourself, “Are they looking for reasons to say yes or reasons to say no?” I’ve reflected on this quite a bit, imagining the reverse. So I walk into each meeting having studied pitches and negotiation in the mantra of “98% of venture capital goes to women.”
DIGITALUNDIVIDED: What have your experiences as a WOC founder been like pre- and post- 2020?
TANYA MENENDEZ: I started my first tech company ten years ago, in 2012 when diversity wasn’t discussed. It didn’t even occur to me that I was being pattern- matched as a Latina founder, even as the only woman in the room. Now, I’m more often not the only woman in the room, but the data on funding equity being brought to light has been a critical first step to inclusion.
DIGITALUNDIVIDED: Are there any ways in which your identity has shaped your entrepreneurial or fundraising journey?
TANYA MENENDEZ: My perspective is my superpower. I’ve been thinking about this a lot; if I were given the choice of being born in a completely different body or from a more privileged background, I would not take it. It fuels my ability to see and connect with our users. So yes, being Latina has shaped my experience. But also, there is a class bias. I’ve seen very few people become funded who come from the working class or grew up in poverty. There are not too many first-generation college grads who become venture capitalists or founders.
DIGITALUNDIVIDED: Do you have advice for aspiring founders?
TANYA MENENDEZ: First, my experience has been that fundraising is similar to stand-up comedy. Comedians start with smaller venues, test their material, and see what sticks and doesn’t, where people’s eyes light up when you’re telling your story. Your first pitch will be challenging because you’re still putting together the narrative and the story. And each time you pitch, you get feedback that informs the story and updates it a little bit. You get closer to the truth. Talk to as many people as possible about your idea and get many different perspectives. Second, study pitching, negotiation, and frame control, and check your industry in and out because you have to be very prepared for these conversations. And third, your mental and physical health are essential parts of this process because if you aren’t feeling a hundred percent, it reflects in the pitch.
DIGITALUNDIVIDED: How do you define success?
TANYA MENENDEZ: I want to close the wealth gap. Success is being able to see that vision through without compromising our values. I would love to be one of the first billion-dollar Latina-founded businesses. Still, a more incredible view of success is that we can positively and materially impact people’s lives.
Check out Tanya’s story, and the story of other Project Diane founders at digitalundivided.com/projectdiane