Year of the 8
“Yes,
You will rise from the ashes,
But the burning comes first.
For this part,
Darling,
You must be brave.”
-Kalen Dion
I recently saw an IG reel of a numerologist explaining the meanings of 2023 and 2024. She explained that in Chinese numerology 2023 is a “7-year”, (if you add the numerals together, they add up to 7) and a “7-year” means it was a year of spiritual reflection, of turning inward, a very interior time for us as individuals.
That resonated with me deeply.
For the better part of 2023, I have been working towards launching a VC firm…
Recently, in a candid moment with one of my Venture Partners, I confessed a nagging feeling that haunted me: despite the year’s efforts, my achievements felt insubstantial, as if I didn’t have enough to “show for it”. There were no noteworthy headlines about Dahlia VC’s launch, no milestones that shouted success. Frankly, I had envisioned myself further along in the journey than I was at this point.
In response, my Venture Partner scheduled an end-of-year reflection and goal-setting session that forced me to pause, to reflect, to turn inward.
Amid the quiet retrospection, I realized, I did succeed. The real success in this year was in the emotional journey that required me to transform how I see myself. From Veronica, who, a decade ago, was unfamiliar with the meaning of VC, to Veronica, the Founding Managing Partner of a VC firm, poised to successfully raise, close, and potentially generate multiple returns on the fund. The world cannot see this Veronica, if I could not. And for this transformation, I am incredibly grateful.
I never expected the journey to be easy, but every time someone told me that I couldn’t do it, or I shouldn’t do it, or I started to feel like I really didn’t know what I was doing, the path became harder to see. I would retreat into my turtle shell, and hide from the world because maybe they were right- maybe I shouldn’t try to reach such an audacious goal, and maybe I wouldn’t be able to do it.
Over the past year, I was asked by 5 different teams and firms to consider joining them as a Partner. Upon reflection, every time I realized it wasn’t the right fit because my inner self knew there was another path for me. For months last year, I worked with executive coach extraordinaire Jen Randle, and through our work together on intrinsic wayfinding, I began to fully accept that my purpose was in fact to bring what I wanted to bring into the world, at the helm, in a way only I could lead it, given my own life experiences, and on my own terms. Doing so required that I, despite my fear and reluctance, persistently continued to take the smallest steps forward toward a destination I yearned to envision.
Back to the IG reel of the numerologist, who then went on to explain the significance of the year 2024, that these numbers add up to 8 and that the significance of 8 is abundance, balance, prosperity, and financial success.
And I thought, yes, 2024, Year of the 8, here I come. Here we come.
After a year of building, overcoming the doubt, weathering the naysayers, and painstakingly putting one foot in front of the other, I am ready for some abundance — some prosperity, and some success.
This past year I have crawled, walked, retreated, walked again, retreated again, and finally today, I am running. I am running towards jumping off the cliff to fly… Trusting that the seeds that I planted and the foundation that I built for over the past year will carry me through.
I dedicated a year to planning, with a significant portion of it tinged with fear about what was next, and I can now confidently say that I am ready to leap off the cliff and the fear has transformed from “Maybe I can’t do it,” to the more exciting question of ‘What happens when I do?’
Allow me to re-introduce myself and my VC firm:
Hi Everyone, I am Veronica Juarez, the Managing Partner of Dahlia VC.
In 2022, Latinos made up nearly 1 in 5 of every American in the US, and by 2060, nearly 1 in 4 Americans will be Latino. Latino tech founders start companies at a higher rate than their white counterparts — and their business revenues outpace those of their white counterparts through the $1m ARR mark. So the issue is not that Latinos aren’t starting tech companies in mass- nor that those companies do not present the promise for a company at scale — the issue has been that Latinx founders encounter friction in accessing the capital needed to scale.
As a woman of color myself, who has achieved success in tech, in business, and in government — across the country, I’ve lived through how hard it can be to get “in the room” that gives you the access you need to continue to be successful.
And as a proud Latina- Mexican American from Houston Texas, I feel an unwavering calling to help bridge this gap, and today, I’m thrilled to unveil Dahlia VC, named after the dahlia flower’s resilience, versatility, and ability to withstand conditions that most flowers cannot. I hope that Dahlia VC will be a VC firm that is a beacon of opportunity and scale for Latinx tech trailblazers.
I walk into this Year of 8 with the resolve that I have prepared for this moment, and I have faith that this year will unfold exactly as it should.
I look forward to seeing you on the flight path.
Please follow Dahlia VC’s journey on Instagram @dahliavc_
