PROPULSION CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
Wealth planning for life's biggest
financial
transitions.
Propulsion Capital Management is a fiduciary, registered investment adviser in the heart of Silicon Valley, building disciplined, tax-efficient portfolios for tech executives, entrepreneurs, athletes, and retirees through liquidity events, peak earning years, and retirement.
For Tech Executives
For Entrepreneurs
For Athletes
For Retirees
Meet Our Firm
A partner for every step. A strategy for the long term.
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Who We Serve
Asset management built around where you are.
FOR TECH EXECUTIVES
Turn equity compensation into lasting wealth.
RSUs, stock options, ESPP shares, and concentrated company stock create high-stakes tax and diversification decisions. Propulsion helps tech executives and equity-compensated professionals turn equity into a durable long-term plan.
Explore Tech Executive Planning →
FOR ENTREPRENEURS
You built the business. Now plan what comes next.
Whether you're scaling, preparing for a sale, managing a liquidity event, or trying to separate your personal wealth from your business risk, Propulsion helps entrepreneurs create a coordinated plan for taxes, investments, cash flow, and long-term wealth.
Explore Entrepreneur Planning →
FOR ATHLETES
Maximize a short earning window. Protect a long future.
Athletes face unique financial decisions around contracts, endorsements, NIL income, taxes, family support, investment risk, and life after sports. Propulsion helps athletes turn high-earning years into long-term financial stability
Explore Athlete Planning →
FOR RETIREES
Turn your savings into a retirement income plan.
Retirement brings new questions around income, withdrawals, taxes, market risk, healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, and legacy planning. Propulsion helps retirees organize their wealth into a clear, sustainable plan.
Explore Retirement Planning →
For Tech Executives
Turn equity compensation into lasting wealth.
RSUs, stock options, ESPP shares, and concentrated company stock create high-stakes tax and diversification decisions. Propulsion helps tech executives and equity-compensated professionals turn equity into a durable, diversified portfolio.
For Entrepreneurs
You built the business. Now plan what comes next.
Whether you're scaling, preparing for a sale, managing a liquidity event, or trying to separate your personal wealth from your business risk, Propulsion helps entrepreneurs invest business income and sale proceeds into diversified, tax-efficient portfolios built for long-term wealth.
For Athletes
Maximize a short earning window. Protect a long future.
Athletes face unique financial decisions around contracts, endorsements, NIL income, taxes, family support, investment risk, and life after sports. Propulsion helps athletes turn high-earning years into long-term financial stability.
For Retirees
Turn your savings into a retirement income plan.
Retirement brings new questions around income, withdrawals, taxes, market risk, healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, and legacy planning. Propulsion helps retirees invest their savings into a clear, sustainable income portfolio.
Don't see yourself in one of these paths? You're still in the right place.
These are the clients we know best, but complexity comes in many forms. If you're navigating an inheritance, a windfall, a growing family's finances, a career change, or you simply want a fiduciary partner for a complex financial life, we'd be glad to help.
What we do
Asset management first. Everything else in support of it.
Propulsion is, first and foremost, an asset management firm. We build and manage diversified portfolios designed for strong risk-adjusted returns. Our founder brings an uncommon combination to that work: a CFA charter, a tax background, and years of top-level executive experience growing businesses, both organically and through M&A. He has also spent years as an investor and served on investment committees. That blend shapes our investment analysis; we evaluate opportunities with the discipline of an allocator and the practical judgment of someone who has actually built and scaled companies, not just watched them as tickers on a screen. It also means portfolios are built with an eye for the vehicles that hold them, from solo 401(k)s and SEP IRAs to the entity structures entrepreneurs rely on. And because good portfolios don't exist in a vacuum, we bring practical planning fluency to the decisions around them: cash flow, retirement income, estate considerations, and risk. We don't prepare tax returns or replace your CPA and estate attorney. Instead, we coordinate with them, so your investments and everything around them work together.
Investment Management
Cash Flow Strategy
Tax-Efficient Investing
Estate & Legacy Coordination
Retirement Income Portfolios
Real Estate & Alternative Investments
Business & Liquidity Events
Risk Management
Why Propulsion
Every investment decision, weighed from three angles: return, risk, and taxes.
Propulsion Capital Management is led by founder Michael Germain, a CFA charterholder and licensed CPA who holds a Master of Federal Taxation and spent roughly eight years in senior executive roles. Few advisors pair that depth in investing with equal depth in tax and accounting, and the difference shows up in the details: portfolios managed to keep tax drag low, asset location treated as seriously as asset allocation, and account structures chosen with an understanding of how entrepreneurs actually hold their wealth. The result is a portfolio that is not just well built, but well placed in the rest of your financial life.
Returns, risk, and taxes. Every investment analyzed from all three angles
Disciplined model portfolios engineered for risk-adjusted returns
Tech-industry fluency to position portfolios across the technology life cycle
CFA charterholder and licensed CPA, with a Master of Federal Taxation and MBA
Tax-efficient strategies: backdoor Roth, solo 401(k), SEP IRA, and low-turnover investing
Commercial real estate expertise applied to real estate and alternative investments
Start with a Wealth Transition Review
Every client starts in a different place. Some are turning equity compensation into a plan. Some are preparing for a business exit. Some are managing peak earning years. Others are planning retirement income. We begin by understanding where you are, what is changing, and what decisions need to be made next.
What is Propulsion Capital Management?
Helvetica Light is an easy-to-read font, with tall and narrow letters, that works well on almost every site.Propulsion Capital Management is a CFA-led, fiduciary registered investment adviser (RIA) headquartered in downtown San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The firm provides institutional-grade investment management and financial planning, personally delivered, and is registered with the State of California.
Who does Propulsion serve?
We specialize in four groups navigating major financial transitions: Silicon Valley tech executives with equity compensation, entrepreneurs preparing for growth or a business exit, professional athletes managing peak earning years, and retirees turning savings into income. Clients outside these groups are welcome too — the common thread is a complex financial life, not a category.
Is Propulsion a fiduciary?
Yes. Propulsion Capital Management is a registered investment adviser held to a fiduciary standard, which means we are legally and ethically obligated to act in your best interest at all times.
Where is Propulsion located?
Our office is at 99 S. Almaden Blvd, Suite 600, San Jose, CA. We serve clients across Silicon Valley and the greater San Francisco Bay Area, with virtual meetings available.
What services do you offer?
Investment management, tax-efficient portfolio strategy, equity compensation and concentrated stock management (RSUs, ISOs, ESPP, 10b5-1 plans), retirement income portfolios, liquidity event investing, distribution and cash flow strategy, estate asset positioning, alternatives and real estate analysis, and portfolio risk management.
Where are client assets held?
Client accounts are custodied at Charles Schwab, one of the largest custodians in the country. Propulsion never takes possession of your assets — Schwab holds them in accounts in your name, you keep 24/7 online access, and you receive statements directly from Schwab in addition to any reporting from Propulsion. Schwab is independent of and not affiliated with Propulsion Capital Management.
Is Propulsion a CPA firm? Do you prepare tax returns?
No. While founder Michael Germain is a licensed CPA with a Master of Federal Taxation, Propulsion is an investment management firm — not a tax preparation or accounting firm. We use that tax knowledge to design tax-efficient investment strategies, such as tax-advantaged account structures and low-turnover portfolios, and we collaborate directly with your CPA so your investment plan and tax plan work together.
How do I get started?
Every engagement starts with a Wealth Transition Review — a conversation about where you are, what is changing, and what decisions need to be made next. Schedule an intro call to begin.
Wealth management built for life's biggest financial transitions — a fiduciary, CFA-led registered investment adviser in San Jose serving tech executives, entrepreneurs, athletes, and retirees across Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.
WEALTH MANAGEMENT PATHS
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Schedule a Wealth Transition Review
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Phone Number: 408 290 2990
99 S. Almaden Blvd Suite 600 | San Jose, CA 95113