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- VC Mx: Erin Winslow, Partner Nazca Ventures
VC Mx: Erin Winslow, Partner Nazca Ventures
Erin Winslow is a Nazca Ventures partner who blends operator grit and data-driven judgment to back early-stage founders across Spanish-speaking Latin America.
Mack Meyer
January 12, 2026
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Erin Winslow’s path runs through Austin soccer fields, Capitol hallways, San Francisco sales floors, Bogotá client meetings, an MIT accelerator, a robotics warehouse, and now partner meetings at Nazca Ventures in Mexico City. The common thread is energy aimed at hard problems, with a bias for preparation, empathy for operators, and a deep respect for how business really gets done in Latin America.
What shaped her edge growing up in Texas?
Erin grew up in Austin as the youngest of three girls, a straight-A competitor who split her time between basketball courts and Spanish homework. Curiosity and drive showed up early. She was the kid who begged her parents to quiz her on Spanish on the way to soccer games, and the student who thrived under demanding teachers. A family loss at 15 and the guidance of a remarkable therapist widened her perspective, softening the sharpness of pure type A into something more durable. The result was a mix of intensity and empathy that would carry into every stage of her career.
Pressure turned into preparation. Being competitive was part of my nature, but mentors helped me turn it into something healthier and more useful. I learned to show up better prepared than anyone in the room.
At Westlake High School she studied with Dr. Gloria Garza, a teacher whose classes routinely graduated fluent speakers, and at UT Austin she joined Plan II, a small honors program that gave her big-school resources with seminar-room intimacy. Those environments normalized high standards and opened the door to a world beyond Texas through language, politics, and Latin American studies.
Spanish felt like unlocking another world. It was academic and cultural at the same time, and it made me want a career that connected me to life outside the U.S.
How did she choose UT and what did she learn from politics?
UT was both pragmatic and perfect. Plan II delivered the small liberal arts feel she initially wanted from the Northeast, but within a public university she could afford after her father passed away. During college she tested a different path with a U.S. Senate internship in 2007, working in Senator John Cornyn’s office. It demystified legislation and clarified what she did and did not want.
The internship was a process of elimination. I learned how nuanced and complex policy work is, and I realized I wanted to build on the operating side, not the public sector.
The summer on the Hill still mattered. It sharpened her respect for systems, showed how many variables sit behind a single vote, and gave her a baseline for civic complexity. But she left Washington knowing she was drawn to environments where accountability sits closer to outcomes.
I wanted to own results. I wanted the kind of work where you see the customer, make a decision, and live with it the next day.
What did Salesforce and Google teach her about selling into Latam?
In 2010 she pointed herself at San Francisco, fudged a local address to get in the door, landed an internship at Salesforce, and hunted for a full-time role that used her Spanish daily. She found it on a team selling into Latin America from HQ, then jumped to Google to join a launch group for Google Enterprise in the region. It was trial by fire in language, travel, and responsibility.
You do not have to be the expert on day one. You learn fast by doing the work, standing on a stage before you feel ready, and listening hard to partners who live the market every day.
Those years taught two enduring rules of Latin sales. First, relationships come before transactions. Time together, genuine curiosity, and personal context are not small talk, they are the basis for trust. Second, a polite maybe can mean no. Forecasts require cultural fluency, local partners, and a realistic read on intent.
Begin with the person, not the pitch. And learn to hear a soft no. Politeness is not pipeline. The best operators in the region build rapport first and read between the lines.
Why move to Bogotá and what changed by switching into ads?
Google gave her the chance to live the market, so she transferred to Bogotá for three years and crossed over from enterprise software to the advertising business. It was a deliberate plunge into a new discipline and a way to turn global context into muscle memory. She spoke at events, met clients across countries, and learned digital ads from the ground up.
Living in the region changes your instincts. You stop guessing and start understanding the cadence of each country, the language beneath the language, and the patience great relationships require.
Bogotá also clarified the next chapter. She wanted to be closer to product and operations, to own outcomes end to end, and to learn from world-class technologists. That set up an MBA at MIT and a hands-on pre-MBA role in the university’s Delta V accelerator, working with a student startup and nearly joining full time.
I chased proximity to builders. Being around great engineers and entrepreneurs rewired how I think about product, speed, and accountability.
What did Saturday Robotics prove about building with discipline?
After MIT she joined Saturday Robotics as the first non-founder executive hire, running operations alongside a founding team of former Nest product leaders. The company was tackling fully automated robotic warehouses for a direct-to-consumer laundry service, a blend of hard tech and brand that demanded rigor.
Product leaders taught me how to think about R and D gates, when to ship, and when to keep hands off so the work matures. The other lesson was extreme frugality. Spend where it matters, and make everything else utilitarian.
There was a human lesson too. The founders were parents. They ate dinner with their kids, tucked them in, and signed back on later. It was a model for ambition that respected life outside the office, a rhythm Erin carried forward.
You can build something serious without sacrificing everything. Protect the non-negotiables, then deliver so well the results justify your boundaries.
Why venture, why Mexico City, and why Nazca?
Her husband’s career brought the family to Mexico City. Erin wanted to apply operator empathy, sales depth, and a cross-border lens at scale. Venture was the lever, and Nazca Ventures fit. It is one of the region’s longest-running early-stage firms focused on Spanish-speaking Latin America, with a special knack for helping founders succeed in Mexico, the region’s largest market.
Venture is a way to plant seeds that become job creators, efficiency engines, and new category leaders. It lets me help operators solve real problems across the region, not just one company at a time.
Nazca had already backed Bridge Latam as an emerging manager. When Bridge joined forces with Nazca, the combined platform brought two powerful additions. A deep venture partner network rooted in founders who contribute to decisions, and a data-empowered approach to sourcing and evaluation that reduces bias and sharpens conviction.
We are bringing founder voices and data into the center of how we decide. It does not replace judgment. It makes the conversation more objective, specific, and repeatable.
What is Nazca’s focus today?
Nazca invests early across Spanish-speaking Latin America, writing initial checks from about 500 thousand up to three to five million, and reserving meaningful capital for follow-ons. Beyond capital, the team leans in on market entry and expansion, especially into Mexico, and on connecting founders to the partners, resellers, and leaders who shorten learning curves.
We focus where our networks and experience move the needle for founders. Early capital plus practical help in Mexico can change the slope of a company’s growth.
The firm is also modernizing its own operating system. From smarter sourcing and internal single sources of truth to automated reporting, the goal is to run with the same speed and leverage Nazca expects from portfolio companies.
If we expect our founders to adopt new tools, we should hold ourselves to the same standard. Efficiency inside the firm lets us spend more time where we add the most value.
Which companies capture her excitement and why?
Two examples illustrate what Erin looks for. First, Bombay, which she sees as a clear leapfrog moment for AI in Latin America. The team began with a no-code conversational agent tied directly to transactions, then expanded into a broader suite that helps midsize and enterprise customers automate sales, prove marketing ROI, and close the loop across customer success.
Bombay shows how AI can skip a generation of heavy software. Make it accessible, tie it to revenue, then grow into the suite customers actually need.
Second, Somos Internet in Colombia, an ISP using vertical integration and AI to strip out legacy operational bloat. By rebuilding the stack, they deliver a differentiated product with strong margin profiles, serving both households and businesses.
Remove the burden of yesterday’s systems and you unlock better service and better economics. It is an old category with new room for real operators.
What founder qualities stand out to her now that she is an investor?
Coming from sales and operations, she watches for discipline. Responsiveness, organization, and clear thinking in early interactions often foreshadow execution quality later. She also probes go-to-market realism. Zero to ten customers is different from ten to one hundred, and founders need to own founder-led sales until the recipe is proven. Blaming growth on “sales” when the product is not ready is a red flag.
Understand the complexity of getting to market. Own the early sales yourself. When the product is right and the motion is understood, then you earn the right to scale the team.
She looks for speed in learning, not performative urgency. The best teams react to demand, productize what works, and close the loop with measurable outcomes. They do the unglamorous work in weeks, not quarters.
Move fast toward truth. Ship, listen, tighten the system, and let customers’ results guide what you build next.
What personal rules keep her anchored?
Erin protects mornings for school drop off and evenings for bedtime with her two and a half year old daughter. Work happens around those anchors with full intensity. She also invests time in relationships, reconnecting with past partners, resellers, and mentors who can help the next generation of portfolio founders.
I try to keep the non-negotiables intact at home and be fully present at work. The quality goes up in both places when the boundaries are clear.
If she could give her earlier self one piece of advice before starting in venture, it would be simple. Keep the curiosity high and the network warm. Nearly every hard problem gets easier when the right three people are one message away.
Maintain relationships and keep learning. The most valuable answers in this ecosystem live in other people’s experience, and they are usually willing to share if you ask well.
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