Tanya Soman is the Founding Partner of Southpaw Capital. She invests in unique solutions built by diverse founders. She spent the past decade working in Venture Capital to help bridge the gap between international founders and investors to Silicon Valley.

Prior to Southpaw she built the flagship accelerator program at 500 Startups, one of the most active seed stage venture capital firms in the world. She invested in over 300 companies across 20+ countries. Since then, she’s worked with institutions including the likes of Sephora, Mozilla, Facebook, and Tory Burch to build investment programs and fund the next generation of entrepreneurs.

During Covid, she and her fellow alumni investors launched an online pitch competition called “Silicon Valley Squares” where companies pitched to a panel of judges and received live feedback with an audience. On the side, she boxes and sings in a band that has performed at Holiday parties, weddings, and festivals. She has a BS in business management from Babson College and resides in sunny Los Angeles.