The Silicon Valley Podcast

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/

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. . 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

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

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

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)

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

Kevin Gsell is the Managing Director, Company Solutions for Nasdaq Private Market, NPM is leading the way by bringing private companies, banks and brokers, stakeholders, and investors together to transact in one marketplace.   How have the private markets changed over the years? What is the history of the Nasdaq private market? How important is it for liquidity, or a way for people to sell their shares, for these companies that stay private for so long? For employee, investors? How are people for lack of a better word getting “screwed” on prices for shares of privately traded companies?   Connect with Kevin Gsell   (5) Kevin Gsell | LinkedIn Kevin.gsell@npm.com Trade Private Company Stock | Nasdaq Private Market

Show Notes Michael Brooks Life is a freelance paradise. How do I know? Thanks to my company's $150 million in freelance payouts. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐧-𝐒𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 As the CEO and Founder of GoLance, I have an insider's view of the POWER of the "gig-economy," and how lucrative and benefit packed it truly is to work remotely. For all parties involved! I've created one of the world's largest freelance platforms, where high-quality global talent is able to connect with, and work for, incredible companies all over the world.   We talk about          What is the future of outsourcing? How does risk impact one’s decision making? What's it like to run a company from Puerto Rico? How to stand up to a larger company that tries to bully your startup? How to use Quora and Podcast for all your marketing And much more     Connect with Michael Brooks Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelabrooks/ Company goLance.com Twitter MichaelBrooksPR

Show Notes Mike Evans Mike Evans I’m building a new company, Fixer. We’re a “right now” handyman service. Using our website, anyone in Chicago can book a fixer in minutes for whatever time is convenient for them. Our fixers are full time employees with benefits, as our company is committed to creating a career path alternative to the “gig” economy. Before Fixer, I went to MIT where I graduated with a pile of degrees and an equally impressive pile of debt. After that adventure, I co-founded GrubHub because I was frustrated with futilely searching for delivery restaurants and grumbling through inaccurate orders. I wrote version one of GrubHub.com in 2004 then armed with a “Sales for Dummies” book, I bootstrapped the business for two years. From there, I lead GrubHub through 5 financing rounds, a couple of acquisitions, a merger, and ultimately an IPO. Phew! Sign up to preorder my memoir, Hangry, at mikeevans.com.   We talk about          How is riding a bike cross country like building a company? How long should a Founder be out there selling a product? What are the terms on a term sheet that founders should be aware of?             What is the significance of a website that makes 1 dollar vs zero dollars? How does one go through life content or discontent?   Connect with Mike Evans https://www.linkedin.com/in/authormikeevans/ m_evans mikeevans.co 

Show Notes Rory Murphy Rory Murphy is the Vice President of Government Affairs at the US-China Business Council and is based out of Washington DC. Before joining USCBC, Murphy worked as an attorney at Squire Patton Boggs LLP. He previously worked in the policy office of the Export-Import Bank of the United States and as a professional staff member on the trade staff of the Senate Finance Committee under former Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). Murphy received an undergraduate degree from Seton Hall University and a law degree from the Catholic University of America. He is a native of Great Falls, Montana..   We talk about Tech companies in Silicon Valley and decisions around CFIUS. Outbound or reverse CFIUS, what is that?  Where is capital flowing? It is staying in Mainland China, flowing to Hong Kong, or is it going to other countries like Singapore? Publicly traded Chinese companies being delisted   Connect with Rory Murphy   https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-murphy-80047122/ rory.murphy@gmail.com https://www.uschina.org/