How To: Close Your Financing Deal

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The second event in this series, How To: Close Your Financing Deal, will present three complementary perspectives on how to close a successful equity financing: that of the venture capitalist, the entrepreneur and the corporate securities lawyer. 
 

Join Venture Lab speakers Greg Gottesman, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, Glenn Kelman, CEO at Redfin, and Sonya Erickson, Partner at Heller Ehrman, as they share their knowledge, experience and perspective surrounding this exciting topic. 

Issues discussed will include:

-- Prospecting the angel and vc pipeline

-- Essentials in the presentation and pitch

-- Due diligence

-- Understanding the term sheet

-- How to close your deal

Speakers:

Greg Gottesman, Managing Director, Madrona

Greg Gottesman joined Madrona in 1997 and currently serves on the boards of AdReady, Bocada, Intrepid Learning Solutions, SchemaLogic, SourceLabs, ThinkFire, and WildTangent.

Mr. Gottesman managed the firm's investments in Dantz Development Corporation (prior to its acquisition by EMC), Rendition Networks (prior to its acquisition by Opsware), Singingfish.com (prior to its acquisition by Thomson Consumer Electronics), LiveBid.com (prior to its acquisition by Amazon.com), and AdRelevance (prior to its acquisition by Media Metrix). Before joining Madrona, he worked as an Associate of the Boston Consulting Group.

Mr. Gottesman is a board member of the Evergreen Venture Capital Association and Mercer Island Schools Foundation. He is an Advisory Board member of the University of Washington Technology Transfer Office, Boeing Technology Alliance, and Treasurer of the national board of NPower, a not-for-profit that provides technology services to other not-for-profits. Mr. Gottesman is a current Advisory Board member and former Chair of the Trustees Committee of the Seattle Repertory Theatre. He is the author of three books. Mr. Gottesman also is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Washington Business School, teaching a class on venture finance.

Mr. Gottesman graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors and distinction from Stanford University, with honors and distinction from Harvard Business School, and with honors from Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Greg has five great loves in his life: his wife Shannon, his three children, Zack, Ellie, and Gabe, and his BlackBerry.

Sonya Erickson, Shareholder, Heller Ehrman

Sonya Erickson joined Heller Ehrman in 2003 and is a member of Heller Ehrman's Venture Law Group.  Ms. Erickson's practice encompasses the representation of emerging growth companies, established technology businesses and venture capital funds.  Ms. Erickson has represented issuers and underwriters in numerous public offerings including IDEC Pharmaceuticals, SanDisk Corporation, HomeGrocer.com, Seattle Genetics, Inc., Xcyte Therapies, Inc., Celebrate Express, Inc., Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank Securities.  She also has substantial experience in venture capital and other private financing transactions and has worked on technology-based strategic partnerships, collaborations and mergers and acquisitions, including the sale of companies to Amdocs Limited, Baxter International, 3M, Siemens and Microsoft.

In addition, Ms. Erickson is corporate counsel for numerous private and public companies including Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Archus Orthopedics, Inc., Celebrate Express, Inc. (BDAY), EndoGastric Solutions, Inc., Ikaria, Inc., MedManage Systems, Inc., NanoString Technologies, Inc., Par3 Communications, Inc., Qpass, Inc., Seattle Genetics, Inc. (SGEN), and Vertafore, Inc.

Prior to joining Heller Ehrman, Ms. Erickson was a director, and one of the founding members of the Kirkland, WA office of Venture Law Group.  Ms. Erickson was also an associate at a large international law firm and in the Palo Alto office of a prominent technology firm.  Ms. Erickson received a B.S. in Business and Economics with honors from Pepperdine University and her law degree from University of Washington School of Law.

Glenn Kelman, CEO, Redfin

Prior to joining Redfin, he was a co-founder of Plumtree Software, a Sequoia-backed, publicly traded company that created the enterprise portal software market. In his seven years at Plumtree, Mr. Kelman at different times led engineering, marketing, product management and business development; he also was responsible for financing and general operations in Plumtree's first two years. Prior to starting Plumtree, Mr. Kelman worked as one of the first employees at Stanford Technology Group, a Sequoia-backed start-up acquired by IBM. Mr. Kelman is a member of the Board of Directors for Naviance, a hosted service for schools and colleges.

Mr. Kelman was raised in Seattle and was graduated summa cum laude from U.C. Berkeley