Connect & Learn with the LA Small Business Community on March 30, 2023

Shivani Honwad, Esq. is an attorney, professor at NYU's LA campus, entrepreneur and passionate human rights advocate. As a student at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Shivani spent the Summer of 2005 interning in Bollywood in Mumbai, India, where she witnessed first-hand the massive destruction of property and extreme devastation caused by the July 26, 2005 monsoon floods. Since then, Shivani has dedicated her education and career to helping those in need obtain the services they deserve. She founded The Law Firm of Shivani Honwad, LLC in 2014 after working in the public and private sectors and clerking for the Chief Judge of the Family Court of Delaware upon graduating from law school. She focuses primarily on immigration and business law for creative individuals and companies in the fashion, tech,  wellness and entertainment realms. She has negotiated contracts for her clients working with Nike, Amazon, Disney, Netflix, HBO, AppleTV+ and many more. She successfully lobbied to amend Delaware’s state laws to provide better protections to juvenile victims of prostitution and is actively advocating for improved transparency in the modeling industry in NYC. Her work has been highlighted by the Spotlight Team in The Boston Globe and she has been featured in Business Insider, Brit + Co, VoyageLA and The American Fashion Podcast among many others. Shivani has consulted on the legal process for a TV show script for ABC, guest lectured at UCLA, NYU and Berklee, and spoken at numerous conferences, events and panels around the world. In addition to her business and legal background, as the founder of a few companies and ventures herself, Shivani understands what it takes for entrepreneurs and companies to be successful and thus blends her passion and expertise to help people achieve their dreams.

Successfully assisted upwards of twenty startups, consulted over thirty-five other clients throughout the U.S.

Mario Holten is the Vice President of Social Impact for Wells Fargo based out of Los Angeles, California. He helps oversee the companies philanthropical efforts as well as the community relations/public affairs duties as well. He was honored by The City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles NAACP for his work in the community, and has partnered up with many of the community organizations in Los Angeles, Watts, Compton, Orange County and Long Beach to help serve LMI communities and ensure that underserved communities have access to the resources that they need.

In his previous role with Wells Fargo he was a Senior Growth and Strategy Consultant, and his job was to work with the District Managers and the Regional Bank Presidents in a consultant capacity to help them maximize the efficiency of the territories that they were responsible for.

Boltran Hu, Vice President and Business Banking Sales Manager with U.S. Bank. Manages a team of Business Banking Relationship Managers focused on bringing the full suite of services U.S. Bank offers to businesses with annual sales between $2.5M to $25M. Boltran is a career banker, starting in 2003 as a teller. Working with business owners is something Boltran is passionate about because he enjoys partnering with visionaries and being able to help make a difference in their journey. When not at work, Boltran enjoys spending time with his three kids and wife, Lila.

Shiloh Johnson, MST, CPA is the CEO and founder of ComplYant, a technology platform offering small business owners and entrepreneurs a simple way to manage their business taxes. Rooted in the understanding that taxes can cause small business owners a lot of stress and anxiety and create barriers for small or underrepresented entrepreneurs, ComplYant’s mission is to ensure that small businesses of all colors, shapes, and backgrounds have access to effective tax support. Shiloh has raised $12.8M in VC funding for her digital tax assistant tool, making her one of only a few Black women to raise of $10m+ in funding.

Marsha began her career at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she helped manage a portfolio of grants focused on changing the way the world talks about Global Health and Development issues. She has implemented giving programs in the start-up space at Thrive Market, and she helped build out a division of business focused solely on social impact for Wolf Kasteler Public Relations. Marsha joined the Wurwand Foundation as Director of Community Partnerships and Programs in June of 2018 and has since helped the foundation to reach more than 17,000 local entrepreneurs with access to funding, education and community. 

Chaz Pringle is a Los Angeles-based creative consultant who helps organizations implement strategies to bring their ideas for growth to reality. Specializing in the fashion & beauty industry, Pringle utilizes his years of experience to expand digital presence, hone aesthetic, assess supply chain needs, revamp operations and boost Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion initiatives. In an economic climate where visionary thinking and business goals appear at-odds, Pringle is a branding unicorn who leverages creativity and common sense to implement changes that drive revenue. With over a decade of experience, Pringle has honed his management and operations skills at well-known brands, including TOMS, where he worked with C-level executives to implement policies that helped drive over $1.5 million in sales. He also liaised with store managers to evaluate their needs and develop replicable strategies to increase store revenue by analyzing opportunities on Profit and Loss statements.

Miki Reynolds is CEO & Co-founder of Grid110, an LA-based early stage startup accelerator and community development non-profit. Since 2014, Miki has focused on activating the startup ecosystem in Los Angeles through her work with Grid110, building community, and connecting the dots for entrepreneurs through access to mentoring and critical resources. Prior to co-founding Grid110, Miki spent 10 years building digital products for clients like MGM Studios, 20th Century Fox, Dreamworks, Angry Birds, SpaceX and LiveNation before transitioning to community focused work by leading expansion in Southern California for tech education company General Assembly.

Elianne Rodriguez is a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience working with small businesses, education and tech. Elianne believes entrepreneurship and technology are great disruptors to build accessible and equitable ecosystems. Elianne fosters community and designs culturally competent programming to connect diverse talent to opportunities that reflect the intersectionality of Los Angeles across racial, socioeconomic, gender, education, sexuality, and immigration status.

Elianne is currently LEEAF's Director at CalStateLA, a Managing Partner at LIST Ventures and a Strategic Advisor for the LA SBDC Network where she supports tech startups, small businesses and community projects at large. Her collaborative work and commitment to recruit teams of diverse advisors and operators, has led to a successful launch of 20+ initiatives to serve communities of color. Through these initiatives she has served 5,000+ clients, launched 100+ businesses, and supported 12,000+ jobs. In her work, 200+ entrepreneurs have accessed over $40,000,000 in capital while growing program diversity 10% year over year, 80% referral rate, and 70% programmatic retention rate. Elianne serves on several advisory boards of grassroots organizations, small business collaboratives, educational institutions and tech advocacy groups.

Calvin Selth (he/him) is the Program Manager for AnnenbergTech at the Annenberg Foundation. AnnenbergTech is an initiative with a specific focus on accelerating access and opportunity for all Angelenos to participate in the tech and innovation sectors. As part of this work, he manages programs and operations for PledgeLA, a collective of 215+ LA-based venture firms and tech companies working to measurably advance equity and inclusion. Since 2019, these efforts have: provided $875k to 35 Black & Latinx-led companies - helping them raise more than $20 million in follow-on funding, placed more than 60 interns in paid venture capital roles in LA, and matched more than 100 first-gen college students with tech sector mentors.

Calvin is a native of Southern California, the descendant of migrants from the American South and Australia, and was privileged to grow up in a bilingual (Spanish/English) environment. At 15, he founded his high school’s first-ever Gay Straight Alliance, still going strong nearly 22 years later! At Cornell University, he was a Mellon-Mays Fellow and studied social mobility and race in colonial Latin America. Calvin has diverse experiences in K-8 education, talent recruitment, nonprofit management, development, and philanthropy and studied leadership and management at the Wharton School.

Lori Shao is the CEO and Founder of Finli, a simple, secure, and cost-effective digital platform that financially lifts service-based small businesses. Finli is inspired by Lori’s unique perspective as an immigrant and her desire to create a premium, yet accessible solution that allows all entrepreneurs to easily receive, manage, and grow their finances. For over two decades, Lori has built financial tech for small businesses at Wells Fargo, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), MUFG, and JPMorgan Chase. Lori received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of Florida, is a licensed Certified Treasury Professional (CTP), and resides in Los Angeles with her husband, parents, two children, and almost a dozen pets. 

Entrepreneur, innovator, and founder April Showers is the creator of Afro Unicorn®, a fully licensed character amplifying representation for women and children of color to celebrate how magical, unique, and divine they truly are. When Afro Unicorn creator April Showers realized that her favorite emoji—the unicorn!—was only available in white, she was inspired to create a more inclusive, conscious brand. 

Shattering the glass ceiling, trailblazer Ms. Showers is the first Black woman to own a fully licensed character brand with a presence in seven major retailers across the United States and Canada with 25 categories, from apparel and accessories to toys, puzzles, books, bedding, backpacks, collectibles, and an original Afro Unicorn Holiday EP.

Children will soon be able to live and play in a world of Afro Unicorn with plushies, collectibles, games, puzzles, books, playsets, ride-ons, outdoor play, and live animation in the works. A new line of six original Afro Unicorn® books under the Random House Books for Young Readers imprint will be released widely in Fall 2023, featuring three Afro Unicorn characters by name across all Afro Unicorn® products. 

Ms. Showers is a prolific public speaker, and ABC News Good Morning America 3: What You Need To Know and CBS Mornings created segments on Afro Unicorn®. Oprah Daily, Viola Davis, Sherri Shepherd, Alicia Keys, and Tina Knowles are all early believers. Ms. Showers hopes her success is the "blueprint" to empower and inspire fellow entrepreneurs to enter the licensing space with 45 + licensee partners worldwide.

Ro Williams is the Tax Technology Manager at ComplYant, a cloud-based software company that helps small business owners manage  their business taxes. At ComplYant, she she manages the integrity of federal and state tax data, hosts webinars, and authors blogs that translate the tax code into easy-to-understand tax information for business owners. Prior to ComplYant, she worked in public accounting in International Tax, industry, and a law firm where she focused on tax resolution. She is also a private consultant to public accounting firms focusing on tax resolution and advises on accounting technology integrations for small businesses and startups. Ro received her BA from Purdue University, MBA from Baker College, JD from Cooley Law School and is working toward completion of her MST at DePaul University.