On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact we speak with Dr. Preetha Ram, Managing Partner at Pier 70 Ventures; and Simon Lancaster is the Founding General Partner of Omni Ventures. Together, they share how they’re shaping the future of health and manufacturing while backing the next generation of groundbreaking founders.

Dr. Preetha Ram is an award-winning thought leader, entrepreneur, and investor recognized for driving innovation toward measurable outcomes in health, education, and technology. She is Managing Partner at Pier 70 Ventures, investing in startups shaping the future of health, where she oversees portfolio management, deal flow, and founder development.

As cofounder and CEO of OpenStudy, a peer-to-peer social learning platform, she raised multimillion-dollar funding from the National Science Foundation, NIH, Gates Foundation, Hewlett Packard Foundation, and Learn Capital. Under her leadership, OpenStudy scaled to 60M+ learners worldwide, became a multimillion-dollar business, earned recognition from Fast Company and TechCrunch, and led to a successful exit.

Her career spans academia and entrepreneurship. She served as Associate Dean at Emory University, Executive Dean at Alliant University, and Associate Provost at Harrisburg University, and has been honored with the Andrew Heiskell Award for Study Abroad, Emory’s Winship Award of Excellence for Teaching, and the Innovators Spotlight Award sponsored by Melinda Gates.

A committed supporter of #womeninSTEM and #femalefounders, Dr. Ram advises startups globally and serves on the boards of Emote, Hereafter.ai, and ASEI. She is a frequent international speaker, TEDx presenter, and mentor with the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

Her education includes a PhD in Chemistry from Yale University, an MBA from Emory’s Goizueta Business School, and an undergraduate degree from IIT India.

Simon Lancaster is the Founding General Partner of Omni Ventures — The Manufacturing Tech VC, a first-check fund backing founders reimagining the future of manufacturing. Omni invests $500K–$1M at pre-seed in companies building breakthroughs in Manufacturing AI, robotics, and automation to digitize trillion-dollar supply chains.

Before launching Omni, Simon spent 15+ years driving product innovation at Apple, Google, and BlackBerry, where he developed breakthrough materials, advanced automation processes, and award-winning designs. His work earned 54+ patents as well as Red Dot and Good Design Awards.

At Omni, Simon works shoulder-to-shoulder with founders from day one — helping refine product vision, build world-class teams, and unlock follow-on capital from leading firms including Khosla Ventures, Eclipse, and Kleiner Perkins.

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, like TheAgentic, and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://www.theagentic.ai/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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 Prof. PK Prasanna Kumar and Tallulah Le Merle about pioneering AI innovation, global investment, and the strategies shaping the next era of technology and business.

PK is a distinguished serial entrepreneur, investor, bestselling author, and C-level executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in scaling businesses, driving digital transformation, and securing strategic capital. A trusted board advisor and visionary leader, PK has pioneered AI- and cloud-driven innovations across multiple industries, including healthcare, insurance, capital markets, edtech, medico-legal, and energy.

Tallulah is both a technologist and a humanist. An AI advisor, investor, and Partner at Fifth Era, she has spent over a decade in artificial intelligence, beginning as a consultant for FTSE 100 companies before serving as a fractional COO for AI scale-ups. She speaks globally on AI, hosts Fresh AI—the world’s first fully AI-generated daily news podcast—and is passionate about the intersection of AI with human psychology, wellbeing, and human potential. A dual U.S./U.K. citizen, she splits her time between the Bay Area, London, and Paris.

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, like Stak Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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’re bringing you a full house of insights from leaders shaping capital markets, global ventures, AI, and founder tools.

🌟 Mohammad Hasham – Partner & West Region Leader for Capital Markets and IPO at CohnReznick. With 17+ years in financial leadership, capital markets, and IPO advisory, he’s guided domestic and international companies through complex public transactions. He also founded the American Founders & Leaders Community, best known for its exclusive FounderFuel dinners connecting top executives, founders, and VCs.

🌟 Naveen Kumar – CEO of Nityo Infotech and Founder of KFC Ventures. With 25+ years in IT services and venture building, Naveen has scaled Nityo into a global powerhouse spanning consulting, technology, and training. Through KFC Ventures, he’s backing early and growth-stage startups worldwide, with a vision of taking Nityo public in the near future.

🌟 William Reid – CEO of ShoeboxIQ, the first AI platform built to cut audit burdens by up to 85% while boosting accuracy and margins. His leadership journey includes roles at PayPal, Visa, American Express, and Protiviti Consulting, where he delivered transformative fintech solutions. He’s also been a founder and advisor to startups in BNPL, credit scoring, expense management, and fractional assets.

🌟 Abdul Mukati – Founder of Master Inbox, the AI-powered inbox designed for lead gen agencies and SaaS founders. Master Inbox unifies email and LinkedIn into a smart workspace that sorts by client, drafts replies, summarizes conversations, and tracks every follow-up — giving founders their unfair advantage in scaling.

🎧 This episode dives deep into IPO readiness, global scaling, AI transformation, and founder tools that remove chaos from growth.

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, like Stak Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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 give you the live recording from STEP San Francisco 2025, a two-day startup and technology conference held August 20–21 at The Midway in San Francisco. STEP SF brought together founders, investors, and tech leaders to explore the future of artificial intelligence, deep tech, and global scaling strategies.

Brian Sparkes moderates a powerhouse panel of four leading venture capitalists in a conversation titled: “Investing in Real AI, Not Just Hype: Agents, Models, and the Apps Built on Them.” The discussion dives into what separates breakthrough AI companies from the noise, and how investors are thinking about long-term value creation in one of the most transformative markets of our time.

The panel features:

• SC Moatti (Mighty Capital) – Founding Managing Partner at Mighty Capital, SC is a renowned product leader turned investor, celebrated for building products used by billions at Meta and Siebel Systems. Today, she backs companies shaping the enterprise future, including Amplitude and Groq, and is recognized as one of the top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.
• Jon Chu (Khosla Ventures) – Partner at Khosla Ventures, Jon leads the firm’s AI investments with a sharp focus on infrastructure, applications, and developer tools. His journey from Palantir engineer to founder (Koality, acquired by Docker) to investor gives him a rare operator-investor perspective on what it takes to scale the next generation of AI companies.
• Eric Anderson (Scale Venture Partners) – Partner at Scale, Eric specializes in early-stage investments in AI, cloud infrastructure, and security. A former Google Cloud and AWS product leader, he helped launch foundational data and ML products before turning to venture, where he now backs and advises some of the most innovative enterprise startups.
• Allen Taylor (Endeavor Catalyst) – Managing Partner of Endeavor Catalyst, Allen brings two decades of experience supporting high-growth companies in emerging markets. He has helped raise and deploy over $500M across 360+ investments globally, with a mission to empower founders building category-defining companies far beyond Silicon Valley.

Tune in for a rare inside look at how top venture capitalists are navigating the AI wave—and what it means for the future of startups worldwide.

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, like Stak Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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 have Part 3, of “Opal Spotlight” from San Francisco, California, at the Opal Group AI/Tech Investing Forum. Join us for the third and final part of "Opal Spotlight" as we share the stories from Opal speakers who are making an impact!

In order of appearance:

Olivier Viatour is the founder of TableCoin. Olivier created a Web TV before Youtube, published 20+ books and produced over 1000 shows with 300+ Michelin star chefs around the World. He made half a billion prime time TV viewers in China. He will now bring the TableCoin mainstream while making cooking become a sport all over the globe.

Hamlet Yousef is the Managing Partner at IronGate Capital Advisors. Investing in early stage technology that enhances the National Defense. With over 20 years of sales, business development, and strategic growth expertise, Hamlet has worked with companies ranging from early-stage ventures to Fortune 100 enterprises across disruptive and emerging technologies. His experience spans leading a 600+ person sales force, driving international business development across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, and conducting extensive operational and financial due diligence on behalf of investors and private stakeholders. He brings a proven track record in P&L management, cultivating global markets, and building long-term strategic growth opportunities across diverse industries.

Marty Sprinzen is the CEO of Vantiq Corporation (automate AI in real time), a platform for building real-time, AI-driven business applications. With a career spanning systems management, relational databases, and internet application development, I’ve focused on creating technologies that help organizations harness data while keeping people at the center of decision-making. At Vantiq, we integrate legacy systems, IoT, and AI to reduce inefficiencies and enable scalable, intelligent systems that respond instantly to events.

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

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, like Stak Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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 have Part 2, of “Opal Spotlight” from San Francisco, California, at the Opal Group AI/Tech Investing Forum. Joining us for the second of a 3-part series of "Opal Spotlight" as we share the stories from Opal speakers who are making an impact!

In order of appearance:

Matthew Houston – Mighty Capital Tech sales leader with 7+ years of quota-smashing success, ex-US Navy submariner, and global project manager. Now heads Early Engagement at Hawk Ridge Systems and invests actively while serving on the Students Rising Above board. When not closing deals, he’s racing superbikes or cooking for friends.

Deborah Magid – NextStar Co-Founder of NextStar Venture Partners, investing in early-stage AI-enabled startups. Former IBM Ventures Director of Strategy with global responsibility for VC relationships, sourcing acquisitions, and strategic alliances. Advisor on AI, climate, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurial ecosystems worldwide.

Lisa Carmen Wang – Bad Bitch Empire Hall of Fame gymnast turned 3x entrepreneur, best-selling author, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in VC. Founder of Bad Bitch Empire®, she’s helped women raise $50M+, spoken on 100+ global stages, and is redefining feminine leadership and wealth-building for the next generation.

Dan Goldin – Former NASA Administrator NASA’s longest-serving Administrator, appointed by President George H.W. Bush. Revitalized the agency post–Cold War, launched the “Faster, Better, Cheaper” initiative, fostered international space cooperation, and led the Mars Sojourner rover mission. Member of the National Academy of Engineering.

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies, like Stak Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go; everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent needs to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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 special edition of Silicon Valley Impact, we give you “Opal Spotlight” from San Francisco, California, at the Opal Group’s AI/Tech Investing Forum. Joining us on today's show for the first of a 3-part series, we have some incredibly talented and insightful guests.

In order of appearance, we have:

David Leibowitz, SVP of Investor Relations, who is responsible for initiating and cultivating relationships with both private wealth and institutional allocators; leads the production of some of the company's largest and most impactful events; and manages a high-performing sales team of six members and an audience development team of 10 members, fostering collaboration, ensuring engagement, and supporting the company’s growth.

Walid Mando, Founder of FORMA Development Design Management

Alan Smithson, Private Investor at 6ix Ventures, author, and Advisory Board Member at the Global Family Office Investment Summit

Kelli Richards – Director of Music & Entertainment Markets, developed and drove Apple's strategies in the music and entertainment markets. Trusted advisor to visionary founders, leaders & teams, creatives & innovators. Growth strategist, business development super-connector, music/media tech innovator & thought leader.

LeAnita Ragland-Brooks – Global Keynote Speaker | Advisory Board Member | Leader known for business development and revenue growth with purpose and passion | CHIEF | Enterprise Relationship Management | Sales | Community Advocate

Rikki Ragland at Rikki Ragland Media – Investor Communications | Healthcare AI | Public Speaker

This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact!

Follow us 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

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

Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is a proud global venture partner to great companies like Stak Ventures and 1900 Broadway Tower – Oakland. Check out https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the world’s largest full-stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work, Play, Go — everything innovators, investors, ecosystem influencers, institutional partners, and global talent need to gain a global advantage, access, alignment, and accelerate your venture.

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.