G Solso

G. Bradford “Brad” Solso is the founder and managing partner of Ashwood Management Partners, LLC, a Burlingame, California-based management consulting firm focused on private-company liquidity, M&A consulting, interim executive management, and valuation services. The firm says it specializes in helping stockholders of private companies obtain liquidity through a sale, merger, or other business combination.

Solso began his career at KPMG, LLP, where his clients included financial services companies and investment funds. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from San Francisco State University and is a certified public accountant licensed in California, according to Ashwood’s firm biography.

After KPMG, Solso served as Senior Vice President, Treasury at Visa International. In that role, he was responsible for Visa’s capital markets activities, including the company’s first ratings from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s and its first commercial paper and medium-term note issuances in European and U.S. markets. Ashwood also states that he established Visa’s foreign exchange operation, which set exchange rates for the Visa clearing system and traded more than $30 billion annually.

After Visa, Solso managed more than $1 billion in transactions, including the initial public offering of Preview Systems and sell-side merger transactions. Ashwood says he also advised venture funds on investment transactions in the technology and financial services industries and assisted boards of directors with business strategy, financing strategy, exit strategy, and stock-option pricing.

• Ashwood’s stated focus is not presented as a conventional angel or seed investing platform; its public materials describe advisory work for private-company liquidity, M&A, interim executive management, and valuation.
• The firm says it helps private-company stockholders obtain liquidity through “a sale, merger or other business combination.”
• Ashwood’s methodology emphasizes valuation, risk identification, buyer positioning, due diligence management, negotiation, and closing support.
• For companies preparing for exit, Ashwood evaluates financial performance, industry dynamics, competitive position, technology developments, the M&A environment, and market timing.
• Solso has advised venture funds on investment transactions in technology and financial services, but no public source reviewed verified a personal check size, seed-stage mandate, or current angel-investing thesis.