About
A research firm that ships software.
Colibrí Strategies exists to do something with the research rather than only publish it. Two platforms, an advisory practice, and a companion institute that holds the research independent of anything sold here.
Founders
Both platforms are built on their own doctoral research.
Dr. Mariela SalasCo-foundermariela@colibristrategies.com
Mariela leads the qualitative and policy research behind both platforms, and the translation of findings into product logic. She holds a postdoctoral fellowship at Pepperdine University researching leadership, identity, and venture capital performance.
Her background spans two decades across venture capital, finance, infrastructure, and technology, with prior positions at JPMorgan, Verizon, and Ascendus, and leadership roles at SomosVC and the ALMA Fund.
Dr. Itzel MoncadaCo-founderitzel@colibristrategies.com
Itzel leads the quantitative research behind both platforms. Her doctoral research at Pepperdine University examined venture capital fund configuration and the structural drivers of fund performance, which is the evidence base Blueprint and Architecture are built on.
She previously worked in fund investing, portfolio analysis, and institutional capital strategy as an investor at Reinventure Capital and a Private Equity Associate at Cebron Group.
Why this firm
Four things that are difficult to assemble anywhere else.
Venture-first, not adapted from private equity
Most institutional advisory frameworks were built for buyout and credit and then stretched to cover venture. Ours was built on venture data from the start, which is why it models power-law outcomes and tail dependence rather than assuming a distribution that venture does not have.
Doctoral research, published openly
The framework underneath the platforms and the advisory comes from peer-reviewed doctoral work on fund configuration and performance, not from a consulting deck. It is published through Colibrí Institute where anyone can check the methods and the limits.
Both sides of the table
We have evaluated funds as investors and prepared funds to be evaluated. That is why the readiness work anticipates the question an allocator will actually ask, and why the allocation work knows what a manager can realistically change.
Independent by structure, not by promise
No assets under management, no placement, no success fees, no OCIO mandate, no capital under our control. Nothing we recommend earns us a transaction fee, and the research is held in a separate entity that is never a party to an engagement.
The work behind it
Operating figures only. Engagement outcomes and quantitative findings are shared under NDA, with methods and limits attached.
The two entities
Why there are two names.
Colibrí Institute publishes research and holds an independence policy that keeps commercial interests out of the findings. Colibrí Strategies builds and sells the tools that apply them. Keeping the two separate is what allows the research to be cited as evidence, and it is why the two sites share a typeface but not a color.
Colibrí Institute
Publishes the research and holds the independence policy. Never a party to a client engagement.
Colibrí Strategies
Builds the platforms and runs the advisory practice. Client data never crosses back into the research.
Blueprint and Architecture
The two platforms that apply the framework. Both open with a free tier.