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!

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🎙️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.

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.

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.

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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.