The Silicon Valley Podcast

Ep 169 A Silicon Valley Deep Dive with Mike Trigg

Mike Trigg
Experienced Silicon Valley executive and entrepreneur. Deep domain expertise in marketing, sales, customer service, business development and revenue-generating functions. Aspiring fiction author. UC-Berkeley MBA.
 
We talk about
What were some of the highs and lows of Silicon Valley?
How did the 1996 communication decency act section 230 change the world?
What is a venture fundable company?
How is everyone in a Venture Capital deal incentive?
Bit Flip the latest Novel by Mike Trigg,
And much more.
 
Connect with Mike Trigg
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/triggmike/
mtrigg254@gmail.com
Websites
miketrigg.com (Personal)
miketrigg.com/blog (Blog)

Ep 168 Assistive/Disability Tech with Moaz Hamid

Moaz Hamid
Mission-driven technologist, and strategist. Solving for the future of jobs, accessibility, and medicine, as well as the role of robotics and artificial intelligence. Previously a general manager and partner with Google, Microsoft, HTC, Dangaard (Nordic Capital) and Palm.
 
Currently mvmt ventures (accessible first venture studio & fund). Advisor, Simplifyber, and EnlitenAI. Mentor/ advisor for early stage founders, Yellow by Snap Inc. (accelerator), Fast Track by First Round Capital, leAD Sports & Health Tech, Founder Institute, and mentor/chair-advisory board, Startup Boost LA (pre-accelerator). Advisor, SoftBank (Robotics). And a member/robotics, Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and Martin Luther King Jr. Community Healthcare Foundation (MLK-CHF) dream council.
 
Previously, served as an advisor and executive partner for Kasparov Chess Foundation, Samsung Mobile, Sony Ericsson Xperia, Brightpoint, Emirates, HP, as well as leading investment and strategy on Skype, BullGuard, Sonim, Neo, RemeAi, Sygic, and SouthWing, as well as advising numerous other leading consumer technology, telecom, startup, financial, software, and hardware companies.
 
Areas of expertise; business strategy, roadmap & product strategy, go-to-market & marketing strategy, product design & management, brand building & strategy, due diligence, and technical expertise in systems analysis & design. Speaking engagement; entrepreneurial journey, hiring and building a team, global market, technology, robotics, ai, culture and leadership...
 
 
We talk about
The venture studio model
What is Disability tech?
Organizing and Running a corporate accelerator program
Strategies in raising a fund
 
And much more
 
Connect with Moaz Hamid
 
https://twitter.com/moaz
https://angel.co/moaz

Ep 167 A One-Woman Army with Luba Lesiva

 
Shownotes for Luba Lesiva
 
Luba Lesiva
I lead palumni.vc - the Palantir alumni syndicate and fund. Come join us at https://palumni.vc.
I also help tech companies get out of the weeds of fundraising and investor management, and back to building great products, via my work at L4C.
 
We talk about
Syndicate vs. Fund what are the benefits and negative for each as an investor?
How can a syndicate be used for a VC fund to screen deals?
What are the steps to take a fund from zero to 1?
How does one tap into an existing network?
What’s the Cold start problem?
 
 
Connect with Luba Lesiva
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lubalesiva/
https://palumni.vc
luba@l4cadvisory.com

Ep 166 Industry Disruptor with Andrew Berman

 
Andrew Berman
My inspiration is to apply new technology to build new products that can touch millions of people in ways that were impossible before.
 
- Founder of Nanit, the first camera to track human behavior (the leading baby monitor)
- Experienced investor from seed to LBO stages, Silicon Valley, NY and other markets
- Active and experienced angel investor (SaaS, Security, Healthcare, Consumer and CV/AI)
 
***If you're pinging me cold and you want a meeting, you need to be a annual Vowel business plan customer***
 
 
We talk about
How different is the role of a CEO from a COO?
How important is timing to the success of a company?
Why is a hardware company so hard?
Why is it about taking a company from zero to one that you enjoy?
How does one know when it’s time to move on from one company to another?
 
Connect with Andrew Berman
(4) Andrew Berman | LinkedIn
Promo Code for three months free:  siliconvalley

Ep 165 Expanding into New Markets with Klaus Wehage and Aaron McDaniel

Shownotes for Aaron McDaniel and Klaus Wehage...Chief Executive Officer
Global Class is a #2 Walll Street Journal BestSeller
Global Class is a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm that works with companies expanding globally to implement best practices of the most successful global scale businesses. As we emerge from the COVID-19 Pandemic, companies have the opportunity to revisit their operation models and look to international markets for both target customers and talent - once that decision is made, the question become HOW.
The Global Class team (the same team that founded 10X Innovation Lab, a global accelerator located in Silicon Valley) has worked with over 2,500 corporate executives and more than 1,700 entrepreneurs across 5 continents. We serve as trusted advisors for market-leading global corporations, fast-growing companies and multi-billion dollar government agencies through delivering virtual, home country-based, and Silicon Valley-based programs with the aim of helping these businesses grow globally.
Through previous partnerships, the Global Class team has been involved in several company expansion and soft-landing programs for government agencies in Asia and LATAM. In fact, it’s our core expertise and we have successfully developed frameworks that provide training, mentorship, and interconnectivity to client organizations.
 
We talk about
What is a “company-market fit”?
What research should be done before expanding into a new market?
How important is localizing processes when a company enters a new market?
When a company expands globally how does it values expand into markets with it?
 
Connect with for Aaron McDaniel and Klaus Wehage...
Aaron McDaniel
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrbiz/
https://www.globalclassbook.com/
Klaus Wehage
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mr10x/

Ep 164 Business and Emotions with Tony Quingtong

Shownotes for Tony Quingtong
Chief Executive Officer
Securieon Group is a hybrid of management and acquisition advisory for low mid-market privately held companies who need an outside looking in review of their company’s growth strategy. Founders and executives may be at a pivotal point of deciding how best to efficiently scale for additional revenue, capital, investors or M&A.
 
As the global internet economy evolves, market trends change as does consumer buying habits. Unrecognized, a domino effect occurs which can derail the best intentions of founders who built their organizations on gut reaction, hard work and timing.
 
Securieon provides extensive financial and market analysis to validate founder initiatives, identify systemic management and operational issues preventing the achievement of higher performance, while creating and implementing innovative strategies to mitigate risks for all stakeholders. Executed properly, a founder attains the leverage required to secure growth capital, improve profitability and eventually exit at a higher valuation.
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We talk about
When is a company past the point of saving?
When should a company bring in outside consultants?
What are some of the first things one analyzes in a company to make an assessment?
When looking for a turnaround expert what questions should someone ask the person or team they are interviewing?
 
 
 
Connect with Tony Quingtong
(4) Tony Quintong Jr | LinkedIn
tony@securieon.com
securieongroup.com 
TonySecurieon

Ep 163 Investing in Syndicates and Deep Tech with Swati Chaturvedi

Swati Chaturvedi​
Co-Founder and CEO
Swati has been a management consultant, an investment professional and is now an entrepreneur. Prior to starting Propel(x), Swati was an investment professional at Exigen Capital, where she worked on IT Telecom, Travel, and BPO deals. Before that, she was a management consultant working across a variety of industries. Swati is the co-founder of the MIT Alumni Angel Investors group. She founded and led the group 2013 – 2015 and continues to be on the screening committee. She has an MBA from the Sloan School of Management, an M.S. from MIT, an M.S. from UC Berkeley, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Outside of work, Swati loves to spend time with family, watch movies and read.
We talk about
 
What is a schedule K-1 for SPVs?
What are some terms or some vocabulary that people seem confused about when looking at early-stage and syndicates?
What about angel groups and Venture Capitalists? How do they use, and work with syndicates?
In general, have you seen any changes in the Silicon Valley Investment landscape that occurred over the pandemic?
How should a company line up milestones with their funding strategy?
 
 
Connect with Swati Chaturvedi
Linkedin (1) Swati Chaturvedi | LinkedIn
Twitter Swati_Propelx
Website https://www.propelx.com
Company Linkedin (1) Propel(x): About | LinkedIn

Ep 162 African Startup Ecosystem with Gavin Reardon

Show Notes Gavin Reardon
Gavin is a founder, investor and entrepreneur specialist. Before founding Kingson, Gavin provided financial leadership to a fintech that grew revenues to more than USD 50 million before being acquired. Gavin understands the nuances and challenges that face entrepreneurs and how the right investment can unlock accelerated growth. In Kingson, Gavin provides strategic leadership to the development of the Kingson funds and portfolio construction of the underlying businesses. He focuses on capital raising and deal making and loves the people aspect of seeing strategy and execution combined into operational excellence.
 
As a VC, Gavin focuses on mobile, data and IoT across financial, insurance and health tech investing in emerging startups that have both reach and scale to solve real-world problems.
 
 
We talk about         
What are some of the biggest surprises for the startup founders when they arrive in Silicon Valley from Africa?
What is the current VC landscape in South Africa?
What is the background of many of the Investors in Africa?
What areas of Tech are African companies excelling in?
What is the biggest misconception about the African startup ecosystem?
 
 
 
Connect with Gavin Reardon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavreardon/
gavin@kingsoncapital.com
https://kingsoncapital.com/
Gav Reardon (@GavReardon) / Twitter

Ep161 Leading with Heart with John Baird

Show Notes John Baird
John is Founder of Velocity Coaching and coauthor (with Edward Sullivan) of the recently published book, Leading with Heart (Harper Collins).
John is considered to be one of the premier executive coaches in Silicon Valley, having coached CEOs and Founders for over 25 years. John built his career working with the top leaders at companies ranging from early stage start-ups to Fortune 500 firms like Apple and Nike. His first company ExecutivEdge (with Michele Bolton) in many ways set the standard for executive coaching in Silicon Valley over 20 years ago. He considers his 25 years of coaching work at Apple, from their fast growth period to the present, to be among his most significant achievements.
John’s passion for bringing strong leadership and culture building skills to early stage ventures resulted in the founding of the Velocity Group in 2015 (with Ben Tauber). John is currently the Senior Partner and Board Chair at Velocity. He and Managing Partner Edward Sullivan have positioned Velocity as the “go to” coaching firm for early stage companies beginning to scale. They have worked with companies at various stages of growth including Marketo, Krux, AirTable, Clover Health, CultureAmp, Doordash, Grail, MasterClass, Remitly, and many others. Most recently, John serves as a Fellow at Sapphire Ventures.
John brings a strong business perspective to his work, helping leaders leverage their natural talents and expand their skill sets to the next level. John is passionate about innovation and change and helps leaders scale and transform their teams and organizations while building cultures of inclusion and diversity. CEOs have found his advice, counsel and practical tools critical to scaling their companies and avoiding many of the pitfalls along the way.
John holds a PhD in Organizational Communication and Leadership from Purdue University. He spent 17 years on the faculty at San Jose State University in the College of Business and was named Outstanding Professor of the entire University during his time there.
 
We talk about         
What questions should someone ask when looking for an executive coach?
Heart led companies’ vs fear led companies?
Is it different coaching Fortune 500 CEOs vs CEO from Early startups?
What do you need to see or hear to be able to say someone is a leader?
 
Connect with John Baird
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbaird2191/
http://www.velocitycoaching.com
Leading with Heart (leadingwithheartbook.com)

Ep 160 The Next Wave of AI with Christopher Nguyen

Show Notes Christopher Nguyen
CEO and Co-Founder of Aitomatic
Hacker, Professor, Builder/Founder w/ successful exits, Leader, Knowledge-First ML Creator @h1st_ai, ex-GoogleApps, http://bit.ly/scholar-ctn
 
‣ Strategic executive leadership [Google, Panasonic]
‣ CEO/CTO/VP Eng, successful startup+corp experience [Agenda-Asia, Arimo, Aitomatic]
‣ Hands-on software engineering management - built & led teams of '00s
‣ Machine Learning/AI, Extreme Internet-scale, highly available, low-latency service architectures
‣ Quantitative finance, applied statistics
 
We talk about         
What’s it like to successful start and exit several companies?
What is a Knowledge-First App Engine?
How do you train a cyber-security system against something that has not happened yet?
What is open-source project Human-First AI.
What are some of the top strategic technology trends you are seeing now and believe will be there in 2023 and 2024?
 
 
Connect with Christopher Nguyen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctnguyen/
https://www.aitomatic.com/
ctn@alumni.stanford.org