4thly

Zach Magnan, a Canadian energy guy, met his co-founder at the London School of Economics and now their new startup, Solfium , is bringing solar power to families and small businesses across Mexico. On this episode he talks about their mission, their capital-raising journey, and bringing home solar to the rest of the world. 

This is the time of year when all the pundits begin to issue their predictions for the new year, so on this episode I give you mine. Except that mine aren't really predictions for 2023, per se. Instead, I give you ten big trends that I think are worth paying attention to. Some of these will play out in 2023, and some of them play out over the next several years. But all of them are salient vectors...

On this episode I talk with Caitlin Landesberg. She went from being a Silicon Valley product marketing exec, to founding a branded beverage company which she sold to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, to founding a venture capital fund named for a line in a David Foster Wallace speech ( This is Water ). She believes in B-Corps, triple-bottom-line ventures, and the notion that startup entrepreneurs...

On this episode, my guest is Diana Gamzina, PhD - she's the Founder & CEO of Elve, a new startup developing the next generation of wireless data. In today’s hyper-connected society, broadband access is no longer a luxury, but, for many, those kinds of speeds are still unavailable. Providing the needed infrastructure in rural and remote areas is often difficult and expensive. Elve’s millimeter-...

On this episode we’ll talk with an entrepreneur who is designing and building new, sustainable cities. Alberto Scherb is co-founder and CEO of 100 Thousand Million, a startup focused on building new cities that are human-centered, nature-focused, and sustainable at the core. Alberto spent a decade at Apple, then followed Tony Fadell to Nest, and now is taking on the biggest challenge of all - savi...

Typically, Venture Capital financings are structured as equity. But recent years have seen the emergence of Venture Debt - sometimes used standalone and sometimes used alongside an equity financing. How does this work? What are the pros and cons? Joining me on this episode are expert attorneys Lisa Conmy and Alidad Vakili from Foley & Lardner, along with Pete Petitt, a managing director with A...

On this episode I discuss privacy regulations with two expert attorneys, Stephanie Webb and Steve Millendorf, both of Foley & Lardner. For startups today, there is a labyrinth of privacy regulations to comply with – and the consequences of being out of compliance can be expensive. If your product will be used in the EU, you’ll need to be GDPR-compliant. In California, it’s CCPA. And, if c...

Many startup founders will want to create a stock option plan in order to recruit and retain top talent. How do you create and manage an effective stock option plan? What are the legal considerations, and how do startups use stock option plans to align the interests of founders, employees, and investors? On this episode I discuss all this with two expert attorneys from Foley & Lardner, Casey K...

All startup ventures begin with high expectations, but things don’t always go to plan, especially during challenging economic environments. So how do you navigate venture capital term sheets that may contain down-round valuations, pay-to-play, management carveouts, or the dreaded full-ratchet? On this episode I discuss these topics with venture capitalist Danielle D’Agostaro and startup attorney L...

As a startup founder grows a venture, there are complex employment law issues to comply with. On this episode I discuss this with two expert lawyers from Foley and Lardner - Krista Cabrera and Louis Lehot. Adding employees is a crucial step for startup founders and you want to make sure you do it right. What are the correct employment documents? How do you make sure that confidentiality and IP are...

I've lived in Silicon Valley my entire life. On this episode I discuss how the sleepy valley I grew up in became a global hub of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship with an economic output larger than most countries in the world - and why it happened. 

My introduction to this podcast. I've been in Silicon Valley my entire life. I’ve been a startup founder several times, I’ve been a tech CEO, an investor, and an academic. Today my main focus is helping other entrepreneurs to thrive and succeed  - I teach entrepreneurship at Stanford University, I coach startup CEO’s at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and I run the 4thly Startup Ac...