On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we explore how tech founders can future-proof their finances with a strategic lens on tax, growth, and planning.

Now, I’ll be honest—I’ve never loved accounting. But as a founder building Silicon Valley Venture, I’ve realized how critical it is to understand the numbers. That’s why I brought in the tax guys—to learn what I didn’t know I needed to know.

Today we sit down with the team from Withum, a forward-thinking advisory and accounting firm known for its deep expertise in technology and emerging growth sectors. As innovation accelerates, founders and tech executives face complex tax, planning, and compliance challenges—both personally and professionally. Withum’s dynamic approach goes far beyond traditional accounting, offering strategic insight, personalized tax planning, and a powerful network to help tech leaders stay ahead of the curve.

The truth is, growth, fundability, and successful exits all depend on financial clarity. Whether you're raising your first round or planning your next move, knowing your numbers isn’t just helpful—it’s non-negotiable.

Joining us are:

• Tanner Ellis, Business Development Manager, who brings 15 years of leadership to help clients navigate today’s business complexity with confidence.
• Daniel Krolikowski, CPA and specialist in founder stock, equity compensation, and private client services, offering tailored income tax strategies for high-growth tech leaders.
• Tony Panico, Partner and leader of Withum’s Founder's Group, with 27+ years of experience in tax compliance and planning for founders, closely held businesses, and high-net-worth individuals.

We also dive into timely wealth and tax strategies tech leaders should be thinking about right now:

• Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS): How to unlock tax-free upside and protect founder gains
• New tax proposals + TCJA sunset: What founders and execs need to prepare for now
• Financial planning in volatile times: Why a strong plan—with stress testing—can keep you calm and on track
• Roth conversions & contributions: Down markets can be opportunity-rich—timing matters
• Tax return reviews: Using 2024 filings to uncover planning opportunities
• Wealth transfer strategies: GRATs, asset substitution, and gifting while values are low
• Refinancing insights: Rates hit lows recently—there could be real savings
• Equity comp planning: Why now might be a smart time to exercise options

📊 Whether you’re a founder navigating your first exit or a seasoned exec managing complex compensation, this episode is full of insights to help you anticipate what’s next—and act with clarity.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

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We’re grateful to our amazing partners — Withum (Accounting and Advisory professionals), Skidattl, and Salesbricks 🧱 — for their continued support and commitment to our shared vision. Your partnership helps fuel our growth and impact."

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.

On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we speak with Lu Zhang, Founder and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund, and Ben Kromnick, investor, ecosystem builder, venture partner, and Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Mercury.

Lu is a renowned Silicon Valley-based investor, serial entrepreneur, and Stanford Engineering alumna. With a strong technical background, she has extensive experience bringing a broad range of technologies to commercialization, with deep domain expertise in AI in healthcare, enterprise AI/networks, edge computing, and data privacy. Founded by Lu in 2015, Fusion Fund is dedicated to supporting early-stage entrepreneurs innovating in healthcare, enterprise AI, and industrial automation. With investments in over 90 companies across the U.S. and Canada, Fusion Fund has generated substantial exits over the years.

Prior to founding Fusion Fund, Lu was a serial entrepreneur and materials science researcher. Following the successful exit of her startup, she began investing in and supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, which eventually led her to create Fusion Fund. Since then, Lu has built a distinguished ecosystem and established her reputation in the venture capital industry. She has been honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (Davos), named one of Silicon Valley’s Women of Influence, recognized as a Top 25 Female Early-Stage Investor by Business Insider, featured as a VC honoree in Forbes 30 Under 30, and selected as a Town & Country 50 Modern Swans - Entrepreneurship Influencer.

Ben is a product and strategy leader with experience building at major organizations and scaling startups across the life sciences, healthtech, fintech, wearables, and AI industries. He loves working at the intersection of major social change and the application of big data and AI to positively impact our world.

At Mercury, Ben is building one of the most rich and diverse ecosystems and financial platforms focused on healthcare and life sciences, aiming to accelerate innovation, improve the efficacy of care, and enhance the efficiency of the U.S. healthcare market. He invites you: Tell me about your biggest challenge in healthcare—and let’s get to work!

Nothing is more exciting or fulfilling to Ben than enabling a founder with a mission to bring that mission to life and make a lasting impact on the world.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:

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🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823

📺 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact

"Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions."

On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact we speak with Carl Hinrichsen, Managing Partner, Executive Functions LLC; and Hans Sandhu, Chief Business Officer at TheAgentic. Today we’re talking about Go To Market Strategy from all over the world.

Carl is a global sales and partnerships leader with a track record of scaling businesses at Meta, Amazon, and Bertelsmann. He built Meta’s global reseller program from scratch, expanding its footprint to 40 new countries and creating a scalable playbook for international growth. As the founder of Exec Functions LLC, Carl advises high-growth companies on go-to-market strategy, sales execution, and international partnerships. He also scouts investment opportunities for VCs, acts as an operator and leads sales training programs, including at TechCrunch Disrupt. Carl holds an MBA from NYU Stern and ESADE and is based in San Francisco.

Hans is a true Silicon Valley insider, Hans is a startup veteran with a passion for scaling companies and driving record-breaking sales. Having led multiple startups to acquisition, he holds the highest ARR records at three different venture-backed companies. Now, as an LP in a VC fund, he guides founders through market entry, GTM strategy, and hyper-growth execution.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68L4RPfMizjxnKBsmcFb1J

🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823

📺 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact

"Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.”

On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we speak with Alicia Castillo Holley, PhD—an experienced investor, founder, and General Partner of the Wealthing VC Fund; Rachel Stern of GovTech Ventures; and Carl Brown, Global AI for Retail Leader at Supermicro, AI Infrastructure Executive, GTM Strategist, and speaker.

Alicia is an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and educator with a strong focus on venture capital and high-impact entrepreneurship. She has invested in over 90 companies and a dozen VC funds, specializing in life sciences, climate, and disruptive technologies. After three decades as an investor, she is developing a disruptive model for venture capital that allows accredited investors and family offices access to highly vetted deals—powered by her proprietary due diligence and post-investment processes.

She has lived in several countries, evolving from a biotech scholar to entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. Alicia holds a PhD in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Western Australia, an MBA from Babson College, and a Master of Science and Engineering degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. She has played a key role in fostering global entrepreneurial ecosystems and advancing financial literacy programs.

Rachel brings over a decade of experience in the GovTech industry, with a background in venture investing, lobbying, operations, fundraising, and strategy. She has worked with companies of all sizes—from Fortune 500s to pre-seed startups—helping them navigate and partner with state and local governments to drive innovation. She is currently raising a venture fund focused on investing in and supporting early-stage companies serving the public sector.

Carl is a dynamic sales and business development executive with over 20 years of experience driving growth at the intersection of innovation and scale. Currently serving as Supermicro’s Global AI for Retail Leader, he plays a pivotal role in helping some of the world’s largest enterprises navigate AI transformation with speed, power, and purpose.

Carl has led creative deal-making efforts that have generated over half a billion dollars in AI platform infrastructure sales, contributing to billions in market cap growth for Supermicro. His work spans AI Neocloud providers, global financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, next-gen 5G edge, and the media & entertainment sector—equipping organizations with the infrastructure and strategy to turn cutting-edge AI into real-world impact.

A passionate advocate for partnership-led growth, Carl has worked with some of the most innovative AI startups and strategic ecosystem players, driving LLM go-to-market strategies, hyperscale deployments, and industry-first AI use cases. He believes that technology alone isn’t enough—real transformation happens through people, purpose, and partnership. Known for his authentic, team-first leadership style, he brings clarity, creativity, and a touch of humor to every room he enters, whether guiding CxOs through complex AI planning or speaking on global stages.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68L4RPfMizjxnKBsmcFb1J

🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823

📺 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact

"Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.”

On this weeks episode of Silicon Valley Impact we’re speaking with Rohan Brown, Founder of Pitch Mayhem; and Bill Barry, CEO of IgniteGTM. This episode, and all new episodes, drop Tuesdays at 12pm. Be sure to follow for notifications about new and impactful interviews like this one!

Rohan is the founder of Pitch Mayhem, a dynamic pitch tournament fueling Nevada’s rise as a tech hub. Rohan is building global tech ecosystems that support early-stage startups and drive investor dealflow. He is a La Salle University alum, former collegiate athlete. After beginning his career at SEI Investments, he transitioned into tech and entrepreneurship, competing in high-profile startup showcases like the MIT Sports Analytics Conference, Silicon Dragon @ Nasdaq, and winning twice on Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch. Listen in as he describes how he took his experience competing at a national level and transitioned it into startup success.

Bill is a technology strategist and AI infrastructure expert with a proven track record in data center architecture, high-performance computing (HPC), and go-to-market (GTM) execution. With decades of experience driving innovation across Silicon Valley’s deep-tech ecosystem, he specializes in bridging cutting-edge technology with scalable business strategy.

Bill’s expertise spans AI/ML infrastructure, cloud and edge computing, and hardware-software integration, enabling organizations to optimize technical adoption and accelerate market penetration. As a trusted advisor, he works with enterprises to refine GTM strategies, streamline adoption cycles, and position next-gen technologies for impact.

Whether architecting next-gen AI infrastructure or driving deep-tech commercialization, Bill is passionate about helping businesses navigate complexity, scale effectively, and execute with clarity.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68L4RPfMizjxnKBsmcFb1J

🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823

📺 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact

"Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.”

On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we speak with Colin Behring, Founder & CEO of Behring Companies and Founder of Stak Ventures; Harbir Kaur Bhatia, CEO at the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce; and Wala Kasmi, CEO of ClassX.

Colin Behring is a visionary real estate developer, investor, and technologist redefining the intersection of property and innovation. As the Founder and CEO of Behring Companies, he has led over $3 billion in investments across real estate, private equity, and EB-5 financing. Through Stak Ventures, Colin is pioneering “Full Stack Real Estate”—a platform that integrates housing, office, mobility, and lifestyle into seamless, tech-enabled live-work-play-go ecosystems. The first prototype is located at 1900 Broadway in Downtown Oakland, above the 19th Street BART Station. With over two decades of international experience, including his start at Morgan Stanley Properties in Shanghai, Colin blends deep knowledge of capital markets, PropTech, and urban innovation. He frequently speaks on AI, automation, and the future of employer-provided housing, offering insights on how real estate can become a powerful tool for economic opportunity and talent strategy.

Harbir Kaur Bhatia is a civic entrepreneur and community leader, currently serving as CEO of the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce. With a background in electrical engineering and a Master’s in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University, Harbir brings experience in high tech, entrepreneurship, community development, and media. A passionate advocate for inclusive progress, she has led numerous initiatives in sustainability, public-private collaboration, and global crisis relief. Her leadership has earned her significant honors, including the civilian Medal of Honor from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and the Carle G Orne World Peace and Understanding Award. Before her CEO role, Harbir served on the Chamber’s board and has been active in multiple community organizations such as Sister Cities International and the Santa Clara Rotary. Her philosophy centers on creating bridges between communities and advancing collective impact—living her motto, “be a tide that raises all boats.”

Wala Kasmi is a multi-awarded tech entrepreneur committed to transforming education through innovation. As CEO and founder of ClassX, she’s developed a first-of-its-kind platform connecting instructors, venues, and learners to power local skill-building communities. With a background in computer science engineering and recognition from institutions like the French Presidency and Orange Telecom, Wala’s work bridges the worlds of technology and education. Through her previous venture, WeCode Startup, she trained thousands of students and professionals worldwide. Her collaborations include global organizations such as Google, the UN Migration Agency, and the International Labor Organization. Focused on creating scalable, tech-enabled learning ecosystems, Wala continues to drive impact through partnerships that expand access to education and economic opportunity.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68L4RPfMizjxnKBsmcFb1J

🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823

📺 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact

"Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.”

On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact we speak with David Hefner, AI Champion for Investments - Private and Public at Blackrock; Jessie Zaylia, Founder and CEO of twrk. Inc, and Sheryl Anjanette, Founder and CEO of Parsley360.

David is an AI enthusiast with over 20 years experience at BlackRock. His focus is on internal AI strategy across public and private markets investing, applying AI to make better investment decisions. David’s background includes studying AI at Columbia and building NLP solutions for investing over the past 5 years. He believes the best way to drive AI adoption is through engagement. As such, David put together a weekly AI newsletter for his firm that keeps them all informed on what’s happening in this amazingly fast moving space. To stay connected he regularly attends local AI events and meets with numerous startups. He believes this is an exciting journey and we are only at the beginning!

Jessie Zaylía is the Founder and CEO of twrk, inc., which is a startup in the job-search landscape that matches job seekers and recruiters through AI and swipe technology (think: Tinder for jobs). She is also an attorney, artist, and author.

As the CEO of twrk, she is most excited to lead the team toward giving the job-search landscape a much-needed technological kick in the pants. With a background in driving products, projects, and operations, Jessie’s been able to grow companies as well as create internal and external efficiencies. At Hanna Brophy, she doubled the Los Angeles office’s revenue during her first year managing it, headed a $5.2M proprietary SaaS-based IT overhaul that improved the firm’s productivity and client service, and completed multiple other projects to grow the business.

Sheryl Anjanette is a TEDx and keynote speaker, bestselling author, and the founder and CEO of Parsley360 (Parsley™), a human centered, AI-enabled performance optimization system for businesses with universal access to an emotionally intelligent, empathetic pocket coach. Parsley provides companies with a unified platform to understand the unique nuances of each organization and individual.

Sheryl’s professional journey spanning three decades of experience in leadership, marketing, and performance optimization led her to seek a holistic solution that could benefit all organizations and the stakeholders that empower their success.

In her TEDx, “How Empathetic AI Can Change the World,” she shares her vision of how we can reconnect to each other when we embed empathy into the very code of our creations. Her insights as the best-selling author of "The Imposter Lies Within," a roadmap to living an imposter-free life, reflect her ability to translate complex concepts into actionable strategies.

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us on and listen to all our episodes on:

🎙️Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/68L4RPfMizjxnKBsmcFb1J

🍎Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/silicon-valley-impact/id1776876823

📺 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@siliconvalleyimpact

"Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the host and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Listeners are encouraged to consult with a professional before making any financial or business decisions.”