Speaker Spotlight: William Schulz at the Silicon Valley Economic Forum 2026
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The venture studio model is quietly rewriting the odds of startup success. Traditional venture-backed startups take an average of 36 months from inception to seed round. Venture studios cut that to under 11 months. Studios achieve a 62% higher exit rate than accelerators and a 53% average internal rate of return, compared to 21% for traditional VC-backed companies. William Schulz is building one of the most ambitious studios operating at the intersection of AI and Web3.
Schulz is the Founder and CEO of AW3 Technology (Andromeda Web3), a San Francisco-based venture studio, and a Co-Host of the Silicon Valley Economic Forum. He will be speaking at SVEF on May 15-16 in San Jose.
AW3 was founded in 2020 with a thesis that the next generation of transformative companies will emerge from the convergence of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and distributed computing. Rather than investing in external startups at arm’s length, AW3 builds ventures internally, sharing infrastructure, software subscriptions, legal, accounting, and investor relationships across its portfolio. The result is a model that eliminates the redundant overhead that kills most early-stage companies before they ever reach product-market fit. Founders within the studio receive salary and equity. If a project does not gain traction, team members transition seamlessly to other ventures. Products are not spun out into independent companies until they reach $1 million in annual revenue.
The portfolio currently includes 10 wholly-owned startups and equity stakes in 6 others. AW3 generates revenue through three channels: B2B software development and consulting for blockchain and AI startups, its own internal product development, and equity-based partnerships. Clients have included Bitwage, Blocksee, Merrill’s Packaging, and Carnomaly, companies AW3 has helped with everything from securing funding to building their first applications. In 2025, AW3 made a strategic acquisition of Deepwaters, a decentralized finance platform that had raised $6.78 million in an initial coin offering and developed partnerships with Avalanche and Wormhole. Deepwaters’ confidential trading technology and cross-chain infrastructure are being integrated into AW3’s Silicon Valley Stock Exchange (SVSE) project.
Schulz’s path to building AW3 reflects a multidisciplinary background. He studied Computer Science with an emphasis in Computational Economics at UC Santa Barbara, where he participated in the New Venture Competition. After graduating, he worked as a Business Intelligence Consultant and Software Engineer at Saama Technologies, then as a Software Engineer at Gap. He went on to co-found We Stand Up, a philanthropic initiative, and Learna Inc., an education-focused startup. He completed the VC Lab program and was a Venture Fellow at Newchip Accelerator before founding AW3. He also serves as Technology Partner and Advisor at Baird Augustine and as a Venture Partner at Deelz, a used car marketplace being incubated within AW3’s studio.
The long-term vision for AW3 is ambitious: to become what Schulz describes as the “AWS of Web3,” a decentralized cloud layer powering the next internet. The name Andromeda Web3 itself is a metaphor for convergence, referencing the Andromeda galaxy’s eventual collision with the Milky Way, symbolizing the merging of code and capital, creativity and execution.
For SVEF attendees, Schulz brings a perspective that sits at the center of several converging themes: the venture studio model as a structural alternative to traditional VC, the practical applications of blockchain and AI in enterprise software, and the emerging DeFi infrastructure that could underpin machine-to-machine transactions as AI agents proliferate. His dual role as both a speaker and Co-Host of SVEF means he has been involved in shaping the event itself, giving him a unique vantage point on the conversations that will define the forum.
The Silicon Valley Economic Forum takes place May 15-16, 2026 in San Jose, California. For more information, visit www.svef.host.