Silicon Valley Trust advises founders, executives, and boards on strategy, investor and board management, hiring, and the operating decisions which shape what your company becomes. Built by a four-time founder and a California and New York admitted attorney who has been in every seat, working with companies across the United States, Europe, Asia and MENA.
Most engagements begin between Series Seed and Series B. If you are earlier, say so when you write and you will get an honest view on whether it is worth starting yet.
Most advisors specialize. Founders don't get to. From your first board through the public markets, the work cuts across strategy, go-to-market, hiring, capital, cofounder dynamics, and the occasional crisis, and it is the layer in between most advisors can't go near. Silicon Valley Trust embeds with founders and boards across the full arc: operator judgment, lawyer's clarity, and a 4x founder's experience having sat in every chair.
The core of the practice is strategy, growth, and the operating decisions which move a company forward: go-to-market, investors, boards, cofounders, and hiring. For international founders, the practice is a bridge to Silicon Valley: US market practices, US investors, and US governance, from an operator who has raised and built here. A second practice covers growth and go-to-market, and a selective third brings policy, regulator, AI, and privacy depth where it is central to how a company grows. For teams not yet ready to hire a full-time executive, we also step in as Fractional General Counsel.
The full work of building a company from your first raise through the public markets: strategy, go-to-market, capital, board, hiring, and the moments which define what your company becomes.
The revenue side of strategy: who you sell to, what you charge, and how the motion scales. Built with the founder rather than handed off, and tested against what investors will ask at the next raise.
When a rule is being written or a regulator calls, the next ninety days decide how your company is understood for years. We set the policy strategy, shape the response, prepare your executives and board, and manage the relationships. The same selective practice covers AI and privacy where they are central to how a company grows.
The product decision nobody agrees on. The cofounder who has checked out. A board member undermining you in the room. An investor who has gone quiet. A raise you are not ready for. Pricing which is still guesswork. If it is strategic and it is keeping you awake, it is in scope. We coach one to one, advise boards, and for teams not yet ready to hire a full-time General Counsel or Chief Privacy Officer, we step into the seat as fractional executives until the right hire is ready.
One to one coaching for founders navigating the shift from building a product to running a company. Operator to operator conversations with someone who has raised the rounds, managed the board, and had the cofounder conversation which could not be postponed.
One to one coaching for executives stepping into greater scope: newly promoted leaders, first-time C-suite executives, and functional heads now expected to influence a board. The common thread is a leader whose technical judgment is already proven and whose next constraint is organizational.
Independent board and advisory roles for companies where AI governance, privacy, or data protection sit on the agenda, and where seasoned operator judgment helps leadership teams build durable, trustworthy businesses.
Strategic, board-level legal counsel for companies from pre-seed through Series C, without the cost of a full-time GC. We own the legal function end to end, covering commercial, corporate, employment, IP and regulatory, and build the playbooks, contracts, and processes that scale with the business.
Executive ownership of the privacy and AI governance program, taken on selectively, for companies where enterprise trust is the constraint on growth.
We meet the team where they are, and stay until the work runs without us.
Map the business across strategy, go-to-market, org, and capital. Identify the constraints which actually bind.
A right-sized plan with clear ownership, timelines, and the metrics to know it is working.
Executed with your team, in your operating cadence, rather than handed off in a binder.
Hand-off with confidence. We stay on as advisors as the business evolves.
Leila Golchehreh has spent more than fifteen years building startups and scaling them: strategy, go-to-market, hiring, capital, and the board and investor work which arrives with each stage. She has served as a strategic advisor to hundreds of companies globally, from pre-seed through the public markets.
She was General Motors Cruise's first cybersecurity, AI, and privacy lawyer; advised SaaS companies including Workday and Adaptive Insights, serving as counsel through the Adaptive Insights IPO and its acquisition by Workday; and practiced at major law firms including A&O Shearman, counseling clients across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and MENA. She has also advised international organizations including the OECD and the International Court of Arbitration, served at the U.S. Mission to the European Union and the French Trade Office, and authored Workday’s written evidence to the UK Parliament’s House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. She holds an LL.M. with distinction in French and European law from the Sorbonne, and works in English and French.
Today, through Silicon Valley Trust, Leila advises founders, executives, and boards across the full startup arc: strategy, growth and go-to-market, operations, hiring, capital strategy, and board and investor management, with international founders a particular focus: she advises founders and boards across Europe, Asia and MENA building and raising in the United States, US founders building at home, and US companies engaging European regulators. She also serves as Fractional General Counsel for early- and growth-stage companies, advises technology and AI companies on regulator strategy and engagement, and takes on AI and privacy governance work selectively. The throughline: operator judgment from someone who's actually built and led companies, with the lawyer's clarity to back it.
She is a sought-after speaker on founder strategy, board dynamics, and building companies which last, with recent talks including a roundtable in San Francisco with a French tech delegation, the IAPP Europe Closing Keynote (Brussels), the State Bar of Georgia, Plug and Play, and a Governing AI Agents panel with A&O Shearman and Google in Paris.
A frequent voice on founder strategy, board dynamics, go-to-market, and AI adoption, at conferences from San Francisco to Paris to Brussels.
A closed-door roundtable in San Francisco with a delegation of French tech CEOs and entrepreneurs. On what U.S. startup governance actually looks like in practice, covering board composition, investor dynamics, founder protections and capital strategy, and how AI adoption fits into the modern governance playbook.
A practitioner conversation with early-stage founders on the work that actually moves a company forward: how to read your investors, structure a healthy board, navigate the first GC hire, and adopt AI without breaking what's working.
With privacy and security leaders from Anthropic, Box, and Uber. A practitioner-focused session on moving AI governance from theory to deployed reality inside established organizations: AI safety in practice, architectural hurdles, change management, and data integrity at scale.
Annual Privacy & Technology Law Conference. On the legal profession's responsibility around AI governance and ethics, the impact of AI on critical thinking, and why using AI to govern AI is the only practical path forward at this scale.
On the necessary shift in how technology professionals approach AI governance, that trust is not a byproduct of innovation but its precondition, and the responsibility of the industry to govern what it builds, not from the sidelines but from inside the work.
Past venues span San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, and Brussels. Additional speaking history and references available on request.
Photos and videos from recent talks, panels, founder sessions, and ecosystem visits. Click any image to enlarge.
Additional speaking videos, photos, and references available on request.
Tell me what you are working through, in whatever detail suits you. If it is something I can help with, we will speak. If it is not, I will say so, and where I can I will point you to someone better placed.