Fenwick & West: Do’s & Don’ts for Cleantech Ventures

The Do's and Don'ts for Cleantech Ventures is a three-part series designed to provide a in-depth review of the tools and process required to making a cleantech venture fundable, presentable and defensible.

Sessions
April 21: Secure Financing
June 22: Preparing for Due Diligence
October 26: Strategic IP: Building a Portfolio & Managing Exposure

Sharpen the Tools to Secure Financing

Agenda
8:30-9:00: Networking & Registration
9:00-10:30: Presentation & Q&A

Getting seed and Series-A funding in a downturn economy is tough … so a young company needs to know how to best pitch and market their viability long BEFORE they go before their judges.

Investors want to back the best …
- Teams with domain expertise in their target market space.
- Companies with a clearly articulated & believable growth path.
- Products (and services) with some level of defensibility … built on technology or processes that are not easily replicable once the market starts growing alongs its”S” curve.
- Business models that scale to generate interesting valuation multiples over time.

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to gear up for your first investor encounter and position your company for “capital” achievements.

Speakers
Darrell Kong , Director of Venture Capital Services, Fenwick & West LLP
Sayre Stevick , Partner Corporate Group, Fenwick & West LLP

Preparing for Due Diligence

Agenda
8:30-9:00: Networking & Registration
9:00-10:30: Presentation & Q&A

You've secured a meeting with a potential investor or strategic partner and now it's time for collective due diligence. What can you do today to ensure your company is prepared for potential partners to look under the hood of your company? Join experts from Fenwick & West to learn the do's and don'ts of due diligence and how to avoid the pitfalls of the unfundable cleantech venture. You leave this session with a clear understanding of what to expect during due diligence talks, what documents to have at the ready, how to position your company for success and much more.

Speakers
Richard Dickson, Partner Corporate Group , & Chair, Start-ups and Venture Capital Group, Fenwick & West LLP

Strategic IP: Building a Portfolio & Managing Exposure

Agenda
8:30-9:00: Networking & Registration
9:00-10:30: Presentation & Q&A


Investor want to make sure your patents, copyrights, trade secrets & trademarks are secure so that the value of their investment will increase, not diminish, over time. One little omission in your company’s key pending patent application could lead to your “giving away the farm” downstream. Sharing IP ownership could lead to the loss of your “crown jewels” to a future spinoff.  Hiring an employee from a competitor without the proper safeguards could land you in court.

In this workshop, you’ll learn what to do – and not to do – as you build the IP protfolio of your cleantech start-up and protect it from the claims of others.

Speakers
Stuart Meyer , Partner, Intellectual Property Group, Litigation Group , Fenwick & West LLP

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