Silicon Valley Impact

Silicon Valley Impact

Welcome to Silicon Valley Impact, where insight meets innovation in the world of business. Join hosts Brian Sparkes and Brian Bernasconi as they delve into the stories of local and global businesses that are making a real impact. Whether you’re a startup founder, a small business owner, or someone looking to navigate the dynamic business ecosystem, this show is your guide to success. Tune in to gain valuable insights, discover new strategies, and stay ahead of the curve in today’s ever-evolving business landscape. Get ready to be inspired and informed on Silicon Valley Impact!

  1. 4d ago

    From Fashion to Robotics: Building the Future Through Innovation - S3 E16

    On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we sit down with three remarkable innovators shaping the future of fashion, entrepreneurship, accessibility, and technology: Azadeh Riaz, Founder and CEO of House of Azadeh; Ella Shukho, a venture ecosystem leader and startup growth strategist; and Zain Samdani, co-founder of Exoheal and Please Touch This Art. Azadeh is an internationally recognized fashion designer, entrepreneur, and creative visionary with more than 35 years of experience in luxury fashion. After beginning her career designing couture for the Saudi Royal Family, she became the original designer behind Bebe's signature aesthetic, helping transform the company into a nationally recognized public brand. Today, she leads House of Azadeh, a modern luxury retail concept with boutiques in San Francisco and Los Altos, and is the creator of CLOH, an AI-powered platform designed to help people build intentional wardrobes and reconnect with the art of dressing. Ella is a venture ecosystem leader and partnership strategist who specializes in connecting founders, investors, and enterprise organizations to create growth opportunities. Her experience includes leading partnership initiatives at Alma and managing 500 Global's flagship accelerator program, where she worked with high-growth startups across AI, enterprise software, healthtech, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies. She is passionate about helping innovative companies scale through strategic relationships and ecosystem development. Zain is an entrepreneur, innovator, and advocate for accessible technology. He is the co-founder of Please Touch This Art, a startup making visual art more accessible for blind and visually impaired individuals through tactile experiences and inclusive design. He is also the co-founder of Exoheal, an assistive robotics company developing AI-powered wearable technology to help stroke survivors and individuals with hand paralysis regain mobility and independence. His work has earned international recognition, including a Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship, The Diana Award, and the Gold Award at the World Government Summit in Dubai. Join us as we explore entrepreneurship, innovation, accessibility, venture capital, AI, fashion, and the power of building products that create meaningful impact. 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, MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the worlds 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. Event Partnerships: Join us in San Francisco on August 27th, 2026 for STEP. Use promo code SVV20 and get your tickets here: https://luma.com/StepSF26?tk=yMvcCv   Join us in San Francisco on October 28th, 2026 for One Way Summit 2026. Go to Luma to learn more and get on the waitlist before tickets are released: https://luma.com/onewaysummit2026   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.

    1h 9m

  2. Jun 16

    Saving Lives, Funding Innovation, and Reinventing Health - S3 E15

    On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we sit down with Darnell Adler, Founder and CEO of Lifeline AI and Red Bull Basement World Champion 2026; Felipe Gurgel, Principal at Actions Capital; and Ziv Lautman, PhD, a researcher, entrepreneur, and educator working at the intersection of human physiology, wearable technology, and artificial intelligence. Darnell Adler is the Founder and CEO of Lifeline AI and the Red Bull Basement World Champion 2026. His mission is bold but simple: to become the global standard for how people call for help. Through Lifeline AI, Darnell is reimagining emergency reporting infrastructure from the ground up—building technology that is discreet by design, immediate by nature, and focused on making the world safer for everyone. Raised in San Francisco and educated at the University of Southern California, Darnell developed a passion for solving real-world problems through innovation. Surrounded by builders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries, he embraced the challenges of entrepreneurship and learned the resilience required to turn ambitious ideas into reality. Today, he is combining technology, purpose, and perseverance to build solutions that have the potential to save lives on a global scale. Felipe Levi Gurgel is an investor, operator, and startup enthusiast with a passion for helping founders build and scale transformative companies. He is currently a Principal at Actions Capital, where he invests in startups across AI, healthcare, and fintech. Before transitioning into venture investing, Felipe spent more than a decade building and growing startups, including serving as one of the earliest employees at Wellhub (formerly Gympass), one of the world's leading corporate wellness platforms. Originally from Brazil and now based in the Bay Area, he brings a unique perspective shaped by both operating and investing, with a strong focus on connecting founders, investors, and opportunities that drive innovation. Ziv Lautman, PhD, is a researcher, entrepreneur, and educator working at the intersection of human physiology, wearable technology, and artificial intelligence. He completed his doctoral training in the lab of Michael Snyder at Stanford University, where he developed personalized, interpretable AI models that leverage continuous biometric data for early disease detection and dynamic health monitoring. Ziv currently teaches Stanford's popular Engineering Wellness course (CHPR 267) and is a recipient of both the Stanford Human-Centered AI Fellowship and the Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science and Engineering. Prior to Stanford, he co-founded an environmental health technology company focused on large-scale air quality prediction. Following its acquisition by Google, the company became a global leader in air pollution modeling, building partnerships with Fortune 500 organizations and helping bring air quality insights to billions of devices worldwide. 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 Silicon Valley Venture, LLC, the parent company of Silicon Valley Impact, is proud to partner with MoralesHR, STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower Oakland. Visit https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to one of the world's largest full-stack venture ecosystems. With more than 1.2 million square feet dedicated to Live, Work, Play, and Go, the platform provides innovators, investors, senior executives, institutional partners, and global talent with the access, alignment, resources, and relationships needed to accelerate growth and gain a competitive advantage. 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 qualified professionals before making any financial, investment, or business decisions.

    1h 9m

  3. Jun 9

    The New Growth Playbook: AI, Partnerships, and Executive Performance - S3 E14

    On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we bring together three exceptional leaders at the forefront of sales, partnerships, growth, AI, and executive performance. Nicole Ward is Senior Vice President of Sales at Aon, founder of the Executive Athlete platform, author of Biohacking for the Sales Athlete, and host of both the Aon at the Top and Executive Athlete podcasts. Nicole helps executives, board members, and C-suite leaders optimize their performance by exploring the intersection of leadership, physiology, and resilience. Her work challenges traditional thinking by positioning the body as a critical component of strategy, decision-making, and sustained executive success. Gayathri Padmanabhan leads North America Partnerships at ElevenLabs, one of the world's fastest-growing AI companies. With more than a decade of experience building and scaling strategic partner ecosystems at organizations including Freshworks and Intercom, Gayathri has consistently transformed partnerships into powerful growth engines, helping companies accelerate adoption, revenue, and market expansion. Danilo Campisi is an investor, growth strategist, and Senior Strategic Enterprise Partnerships leader at Uber, where he works with some of the world's largest Fortune 500 companies. With more than 15 years of experience spanning technology, AI, marketing, and business growth, Danilo has helped scale organizations from startup to global enterprise. A member of the founding team at AirHelp, he later held leadership roles at Kiwi.com and Meta, where he advised major brands on digital transformation and AI-powered growth strategies. He also serves on the advisory board of the University of San Francisco's Strategic AI Program. Join us for a dynamic conversation covering leadership, artificial intelligence, strategic partnerships, performance optimization, innovation, and what it takes to build and scale organizations in today's rapidly evolving business environment. And don't miss our spontaneous exercise: "Launch the Water Company." Tune in as Nicole, Gayathri, Danilo and Brian Sparkes take on the challenge of going to market from three completely different perspectives—Sales, Partnerships, and Go-to-Market Strategy—revealing how world-class operators think about turning a simple product into a scalable business. 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, MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the worlds largest full stack venture ecosystem. It's over 1.2 million square feet of Live, Work,

    1h 7m

  4. May 19

    Why Founder Wellness Is the Next Competitive Advantage - S3 E13

    On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we sit down with Tess Robinson, Managing Partner at FTB Capital Group, where she leads the Longevity Fund — investing in startups at the intersection of innovation, inclusion, impact, and human wellbeing. Tess believes the best companies are built by founders who prioritize longevity over burnout. Based in the Bay Area, Tess creates spaces for honest conversations around entrepreneurship and sustainable company building. Through HER Connections, she provides fractional COO and CMO support to founders seeking scalable operational systems without the overhead of full-time executives. Her work focuses on helping startups build sustainable infrastructure while protecting founder wellness — because growth should never come at the expense of health. As the founder of Pacific Standard Co., Tess is also launching Silicon Valley’s first Founder Total Performance Accelerator, built on the belief that elite performance and long-term wellbeing can coexist. She also co-hosts Answering AI with Joe Vazquez — a podcast designed to help everyday listeners better understand AI without needing to be deeply embedded in the tech world. This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact. Follow and listen here: 🎙️ 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 proud to partner globally with MoralesHR, STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower Oakland. Learn more: 🔗 https://moraleshr.com/ 🔗 https://stakspace.com/ Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by hosts and guests on Silicon Valley Impact are for entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a solicitation. Please consult a qualified professional before making financial or business decisions.

    1 hr

  5. May 12

    AI, Grit & Global Talent: Two VCs Shaping Silicon Valley’s Future - S3 E12

    On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact we have Mala Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner of Progressive Ventures; and Manan Mehta, Co-Founder and General Partner of Unshackled Ventures. Mala is a founder, venture capitalist, and product executive focused on AI, enterprise SaaS, and emerging technologies. As Founder and Managing Partner of Progressive Ventures, she invests in high-growth startups across ecosystems including YC, StartX, and SkyDeck, with portfolio companies such as Anthropic, xAI, and Perplexity AI. A multi-exit entrepreneur and operator, Mala has spent more than two decades building and scaling products and companies from 0-to-1 and 1-to-100. She has held leadership roles at Meta, Cloudera, Oracle, Veeva Systems, and Ethyca, while also co-founding and exiting multiple ventures deployed at Fortune 500 scale. In addition to investing and operating, Mala is the founder of Founders Creative, a Silicon Valley AI community of 18,000+ builders, a contributor to Forbes Business Council, and a member of Stanford Women on Boards. She is known for her operator-first mindset, strategic product leadership, and passion for helping founders scale transformative technologies. Manan is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Unshackled Ventures, a pioneering venture fund built to support immigrant founders navigating the complexities of building startups in the United States. A former founder and CEO whose social media company was acquired by Smule, Manan co-founded Unshackled Ventures to remove immigration barriers for entrepreneurs by providing visa, legal, and employment infrastructure that enables founders to start companies from day one. Known for investing at the earliest stages—often pre-product, pre-revenue, and even pre-incorporation—Manan backs founders based on execution ability, resilience, and personal connection to the problems they are solving rather than traditional traction metrics. He is widely respected for his unwavering support of immigrant entrepreneurs and for viewing global talent as one of America’s greatest competitive advantages. Beyond capital, Manan emphasizes the human side of entrepreneurship, positioning Unshackled as both an investment partner and a support system for founders navigating the emotional realities of building a company. He is also deeply committed to authentic community building, founder trust, and cultivating diverse, high-performing teams across the venture ecosystem. 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, MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the worlds 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.

    1h 5m

  6. Apr 21

    Building, Backing, and Becoming: What It Really Takes to Win! S3 E11

    On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we sit down with Naeem Zafar, CEO Coach, Board Advisor, entrepreneur, professor, an angel investor; Ryan Green, Principle at Antler; and Stephanie El-Chakieh, Pharm.D., M.Sc., Founder/CEO of WellVerve, and Author, for a conversation at the intersection of venture, innovation, and human performance. Naeem is a seasoned CEO advisor and board leader with deep experience building, scaling, and exiting high-tech companies. He has led five ventures as CEO and supported dozens more as a board member and strategic advisor, including TeleSense. He is also a dedicated educator, teaching entrepreneurship at University of California, Berkeley since 2005 and at Northeastern University since 2017, where he serves as Faculty Director and Professor of the Practice. Naeem is the author of five books on entrepreneurship and is committed to sharing Silicon Valley insights with founders around the world. He has served on multiple boards, including as Chair of OPEN Silicon Valley and AspirePK, and is the Founding President of the Brown University Club of Silicon Valley. Ryan is a Principal at Antler, where he focuses on pre-seed investing and bringing exceptional founders into Antler’s San Francisco residency. His background spans deep-tech and AI investing, as well as go-to-market, product, and deployment leadership at early-stage startups. He began his career at Deloitte in industrial cybersecurity and holds a degree in Computer Engineering from University of Notre Dame. Stephanie is a scientist, holistic health expert, and Founder & CEO of WellVerve. Her work bridges pharmaceutical science with integrative wellness, focusing on whole-person health, emotional intelligence, and human relationships. She holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy and a Master’s in Advanced Pharmacotherapy from the University of Montreal and practiced as a pharmacist for 14 years. Certified in functional medicine, herbal medicine, yoga, and reiki, Stephanie combines clinical expertise with holistic approaches to advance health, mental well-being, and personal transformation. 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   About Silicon Valley Impact Silicon Valley Impact, produced by Silicon Valley Venture LLC, connects listeners to the people, ideas, and strategies shaping innovation. In partnership with MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, the platform brings access to a global network of founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders.

    1h 7m

  7. Apr 14

    The Playbook for Scaling Innovation Across Industries and Borders S3 E10

    On this week's episode of Silicon Valley Impact we speak with Sobhan Khani, President and Partner at Plug and Play Tech Center, and one of the earliest team members who helped scale the company from a 20-person Bay Area startup into a global innovation platform with over 800 employees worldwide. Over the past decade, Sobhan has played a key role in expanding Plug and Play across multiple industries, including mobility, energy, fintech, and real estate. He has launched new verticals, opened international hubs, and partnered with some of the world’s largest corporations to help them adopt and integrate emerging technologies. His journey has taken him from building early mobility programs in Stuttgart alongside Mercedes-Benz to scaling Plug and Play’s Smart Cities platform across four global markets—driving 20x revenue growth in his first year as VP. Today, Sobhan oversees a broad portfolio of U.S. and international operations, working closely with Fortune 500 companies, governments, and investors to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world enterprise adoption. He is particularly focused on the future of corporate innovation—where meaningful partnerships outperform hype—and on the growing movement around health optimization, where technology empowers individuals to take ownership of their well-being. A global operator at heart, Sobhan spends much of his time connecting with founders, investors, and policymakers across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, staying close to where the next wave of innovation is emerging. 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, MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the worlds 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.   Event Partnerships: Join us in Long Beach, April 22-25th for the IIT 2026 Conference. Get your tickets register here: https://www.iit2026.org/register   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.

    1 hr

  8. Apr 7

    AI Agents Are the New Employees — Are We Ready? S3 E9

    On this week’s episode of Silicon Valley Impact, we sit down with three leaders shaping the future of AI, security, and venture: Eugene Malobrodsky (General Partner, One Way Ventures), Anna Kovaleva (Omnissa), and Irina Tagintseva (AI Architect, Apple). Eugene Malobrodsky is a General Partner at One Way Ventures and a serial founder behind AnchorFree, the company behind Hotspot Shield with over 650M downloads. He later co-founded Pango, scaling consumer cybersecurity products globally and incubating Twingate, a zero-trust enterprise security company that has raised over $40M. Today, Eugene brings a founder-first lens to investing and has helped build One Way’s Pathfinder Collective—an advisory network that includes founders behind companies like Slack and LinkedIn. Anna Kovaleva is a product leader at Omnissa (formerly VMware’s End User Computing business, backed by KKR), where she builds AI agents and identity platforms used by Fortune 500 companies and millions of users worldwide. Her work sits at the intersection of agentic AI, identity, and Zero Trust security—exploring how autonomous systems operate safely at enterprise scale. A Stanford MBA and former BCG consultant, Anna brings 15+ years of experience across AI, enterprise SaaS, and marketplaces, with a strong focus on the future of AI agents as a new class of identity. Irina Tagintseva is an AI architect, enterprise systems leader, and cloud strategist with 14+ years of experience across infrastructure, DevSecOps, and AI platforms. At Apple, she has led the development of MLOps systems powering GenAI-driven sales, and previously drove global-scale automation initiatives at Gap. She began her career in business development at an AI startup later acquired by Google, working alongside Tristan Harris. Irina holds a degree from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. We cover: → The rise of agentic AI and what it means for enterprise systems → AI as identity: how agents will interact, operate, and be governed → The future of cybersecurity in a world of autonomous systems → Founder-led venture, immigrant-driven innovation, and building at global scale This and much more on Silicon Valley Impact — where business insight meets startup innovation. 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, MoralesHR and STAK Ventures, and 1900 Broadway Tower - Oakland. Check out https://moraleshr.com/ and https://stakspace.com/ to gain access to the worlds 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.   Event Partnerships: Join us in Long Beach, April 22-25th for the IIT 2026 Conference. Get your tickets register here: https://www.iit2026.org/register

    1h 9m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Welcome to Silicon Valley Impact, where insight meets innovation in the world of business. Join hosts Brian Sparkes and Brian Bernasconi as they delve into the stories of local and global businesses that are making a real impact. Whether you’re a startup founder, a small business owner, or someone looking to navigate the dynamic business ecosystem, this show is your guide to success. Tune in to gain valuable insights, discover new strategies, and stay ahead of the curve in today’s ever-evolving business landscape. Get ready to be inspired and informed on Silicon Valley Impact!

Information

  • Creator
    Silicon Valley Impact
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    97
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Silicon Valley Impact
  • Show Website
    Silicon Valley Impact

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