Sofia Garrido Freyria
Senior Associate, General Atlantic
Alumni Profile:

Sofia Garrido is a Senior Associate at General Atlantic, a leading investment firm with a singular focus on global growth equity, and focuses on the firm’s investments in Latin America. Before joining General Atlantic in 2017, Sofia was a Principal at ALLVP, a Mexican venture capital fund, where she oversaw the healthcare portfolio. From 2011 to 2013, she was CFO at salaUno, a healthcare start-up. She started her career at Credit Suisse in Equity Research where she covered the construction and infrastructure sectors. She is a Kauffman Fellow at the Center for Venture Education in Palo Alto, California. Sofia is based in Mexico City.

How did VC Unlocked impact your confidence as an investor?
The program highly impacted my confidence as the network that I was able to build enabled me to see best-in-class practices from investors from all around the globe and made me realize both the things we were doing correctly and where we could improve in our fund going forward. Accessing a global network allowed me to compare what we were doing to global standards, not just local or regional standards.
What was the most important takeaway from the program that you implemented afterwards?
There is a lot to learn about how to become a better VC. You can learn how to make better investment decisions, improve your investment processes etc, but at the end of the day my most important takeaway is that venture capital it more of an art than a science. There is no booklet or pamphlet you can read on how to be the best VC in the world. There are however certain aspects of how you invest that you can get better at and I think I got those from the program.
Do you have any advice for aspiring early stage investors considering the program?

I highly recommend the program because it gives you the basis of what you need to know and understand to be a good investor. More than anything, it gives you a global perspective which is super valuable in this day and age. You never make an investment decision based on your understanding of just your local ecosystem. You need to understand global trends, both on the consumer side and on the investor side, so I would say the program is a great option for aspiring early stage investors who want to jump start their careers.

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How did VC Unlocked impact your confidence as an investor?
The program highly impacted my confidence as the network that I was able to build enabled me to see best-in-class practices from investors from all around the globe and made me realize both the things we were doing correctly and where we could improve in our fund going forward. Accessing a global network allowed me to compare what we were doing to global standards, not just local or regional standards.
What was the most important takeaway from the program that you implemented afterwards?
There is a lot to learn about how to become a better VC. You can learn how to make better investment decisions, improve your investment processes etc, but at the end of the day my most important takeaway is that venture capital it more of an art than a science. There is no booklet or pamphlet you can read on how to be the best VC in the world. There are however certain aspects of how you invest that you can get better at and I think I got those from the program.
Do you have any advice for aspiring early stage investors considering the program?

I highly recommend the program because it gives you the basis of what you need to know and understand to be a good investor. More than anything, it gives you a global perspective which is super valuable in this day and age. You never make an investment decision based on your understanding of just your local ecosystem. You need to understand global trends, both on the consumer side and on the investor side, so I would say the program is a great option for aspiring early stage investors who want to jump start their careers.

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