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Pitch Day San Francisco

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Morrison Foerster was pleased to host a Pitch Day event in its San Francisco office on May 29, 2024. The program featured a select group of companies who pitched to a panel of venture capitalists in front of a live audience.

Morrison Foerster was pleased to host a Pitch Day event in its San Francisco office on May 29, 2024. The program featured a select group of companies who pitched to a panel of venture capitalists in front of a live audience.We were pleased to showcase the following companies as part of our program:<ul><li>MisTee Wants to Know, manufacturer of the MisTee PRO Handheld Steaming Tool for detangling hair.</li><li>Ogre.run, a company that automates the generation of dependency files necessary to run code anywhere.</li><li>OVE Touch & Go, developer of a fingerprint payment system that integrates with existing POS platforms.</li><li>Rehydrate, a company building water recovery technologies to enhance water access across the world.</li><li>Rely, a peer-to-peer marketplace for renters and small landlords to search, connect, and apply for long-term rentals.</li><li>Verve Market, a hyper-personalized nutrition platform for planning, finding, and shopping safe and healthy.</li></ul>Thank you to everyone who joined us for this program. We look forward to hosting another session soon.If you are interested in joining us for future programming, you may email <a href="mailto:ECVCevents@mofo.com">ECVCevents@mofo.com</a> for more information and to be added to our mailing list.<hr>

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Michael Glaser is a partner in the San Francisco office of Morrison Foerster and is co-chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Group.Described as “one of the finest venture capital lawyers I have ever worked with” by a client in Chambers USA, Michael offers more than two decades of experience advising innovative startup and investor clients. Michael represents startups from formation through exit in multiple industries, including consumer e-commerce, interactive entertainment, digital media, consumer products, sharing economy, cloud services, on-prem software, fintech, and digital health sectors.Michael has represented startups in hundreds of venture capital transactions, with pre-money valuations ranging from millions to billions of dollars. Michael’s clients have been funded by top tier venture capital firms, such as Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Benchmark, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, and Khosla Ventures. Michael also represents his startup clients in M&A deals, and has advised companies in numerous high-value exit transactions with leading serial acquirers.Michael is an industry thought-leader and has served on the Model Document Working Group for the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), the Corporate Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California, and the ABA Working Group on Legal Opinions. Michael also has significant business management experience. Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, he co-chaired another international law firm’s largest practice group, with ten subgroups, over 300 lawyers, and a P&L in the hundreds of millions.<h4>Selected Exit Transactions</h4><ul><li>Represented AddLive in its sale to Snap (NYSE: SNAP).</li><li>Represented Applifier in its sale to Unity Technologies (NYSE: U).</li><li>Represented Candywriter in its sale to Stillfront Group.</li><li>Represented Cloudup in its sale to Automattic.</li><li>Represented CourseRank in a merger with Chegg (NYSE: CHGG).</li><li>Represented Freeverse Inc. in its sale to ngmco.</li><li>Represented GlobalMotion Media Inc. (publisher of EveryTrail.com) in its sale to Trip Advisor (Nasdaq: TRIP).</li><li>Represented Hackpad in its sale to Dropbox (Nasdaq: DBX).</li><li>Represented Jambool in a merger transaction with Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG).</li><li>Represented Liquid Audio (Nasdaq:LQID) in its sale of technology assets to Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT).</li><li>Represented PullString in its sale to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL).</li><li>Represented Rupture.com in an acquisition by Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS).</li><li>Represented Snapcentric in its sale to Verisign (Nasdaq:VRSN).</li><li>Represented TenMarks in its sale to Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).</li><li>Represented Wondery in its sale to Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN).</li></ul>

Michael Glaser

Co-Chair of Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Practice

Murray Indick is a corporate partner in the Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Group.Murray represents fast-growing innovative businesses, catering to a diverse range of clients that span from visionary entrepreneurs to well‑established companies in later stages of development. With almost forty years of experience in corporate law, investment funds, and related fields, Murray has garnered extensive expertise through private practice as well as his roles as partner and general counsel to Blum Capital Partners (1997 – 2004) and partner and general counsel to Prides Capital Partners (2004 – 2010). Throughout his tenure with these firms, which collectively raised and deployed approximately $6 billion, Murray successfully made strategic investments across the globe.In recognition of his exceptional client service, Murray was honored as one of only twelve attorneys from the Bay Area named to BTI Consulting Group’s prestigious list of “Client Service All-Stars” in 2015. Notably, he has also been consistently recognized by Chambers USA and Legal 500 as a leading national lawyer in the field of Startups and Emerging Companies. Legal 500 US has also acknowledged Murray’s exceptional capabilities in M&A/Corporate work since 2017.Murray’s transactional experience encompasses a broad spectrum of corporate matters, including venture financings, acquisitions, mergers, fund formation, PIPE investments, corporate restructurings, corporate governance, and compliance programs. His clients, regardless of their size, rely on his ability to provide practical, innovative, and insightful advice to navigate legal challenges and pivotal transactions successfully.A substantial portion of Murray’s practice is dedicated to the formation of investment funds, with a particular focus on venture capital funds. He consistently provides transactional and advisory services to these funds, often serving as their trusted outside general counsel.Murray routinely collaborates closely with senior management teams and board of directors of various businesses. He brings valuable expertise to the table, having previously served on corporate boards of esteemed public companies. He also actively contributes his insights as a board member to start-up companies and private businesses, leveraging his extensive experience in this capacity.In 2014, Murray took on the role of outside counsel for the Los Angeles Clippers, supporting the team during the transitional period after the NBA suspended their owner, Donald Sterling. His expertise played a crucial role in facilitating the smooth transition to new ownership. Murray attained his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree with honors, magna cum laude, in 1984 from Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree in 1981 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied history and English and graduated magna cum laude. Following law school, Murray clerked for Judge Walter E. Black, Jr., in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Maryland.

Murray Indick

Partner

Jim Krenn is a corporate partner and co-chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Group. Jim has extensive experience representing private and public companies and investors in significant business transactions from formation through liquidity. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and emerging company counseling. His clients span a broad range of industries, with a concentration in life science and technology companies.Jim advises clients on private and public acquisitions on both the buy-side and sell-side across numerous transaction structures, including equity purchases, asset purchases, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, cross-border transactions, and auctions. He has represented buyers and sellers in acquisitions and divestitures ranging from the low millions to over $1 billion.Jim counsels emerging and established life sciences and technology companies in equity financings and general corporate matters, and angel, corporate, and venture capital investors in investments in such companies. He has represented clients in hundreds of venture capital financings ranging from seed rounds to $100 million-plus later-stage rounds.In addition, Jim represents public companies in public offerings, other capital markets transactions, and SEC reporting and compliance matters, and advises boards of directors on corporate governance issues.Jim is member of the firm’s Life Sciences + Healthcare Group leadership team and Artificial Intelligence steering committee and serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange.<h4 dir="ltr">Mergers and Acquisitions</h4><ul dir="ltr"><li dir="ltr">ACEA Biosciences, a medical instruments company, in its sale to Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) for $250 million.</li><li>Adicet Bio (Nasdaq: ACET), a biopharmaceutical company, in its merger with a wholly owned subsidiary of resTORbio (Nasdaq: TORC) to create a combined publicly traded biotechnology company.</li><li>Alaska Energy & Resources Company, a parent company of a regulated electric utility in Alaska, in its $170 million sale to Avista (NYSE: AVA).</li><li>Astute Medical, a medical diagnostic company, in its $90 million sale to bioMérieux (EPA: BIM).</li><li>B. Riley Financial (Nasdaq: RILY), a diversified financial services company, in its $53 million private placement and merger with investment banking firm B. Riley & Co.</li><li>Biotix, a private equity-backed developer and manufacturer of laboratory consumables and liquid handling solutions, in its sale to Mettler-Toledo (NYSE: MTD).</li><li>California Cryobank, a private equity-backed leader in reproductive tissue donor services and stem cell banking, in multiple acquisitions.</li><li>Clean Energy Fuels (Nasdaq: CLNE), a provider of natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicle fleets, in its sale for up to $180 million of components of its renewable natural gas business to BP (NYSE: BP).</li><li>Cogent (Nasdaq: COGT), a biometric identification solutions provider, in its $943 million sale to 3M (NYSE: MMM).</li><li>Deere & Company (NYSE: DE), an agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery corporation, in its planned acquisition of the precision planting unit of Monsanto (NYSE: MON).</li><li>Dosatron International, a distributor of water-powered dosing pumps and systems, in connection with its sale to Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR).</li><li>Gillco, a leading specialty ingredient provider, in its sale to Azelis (BR: AZE).</li><li>Mentor (NYSE: MNT), a leading supplier of medical products for the global aesthetic market, in its $1.12 billion sale to Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).</li><li>Mitchell International, a developer of smart technology solutions, in its acquisition of Cogent Works.</li><li>MyChem, a provider of ultra-pure nucleotides, in connection with its sale to Maravai (NASDAQ: MRVI) for $240 million at closing with potential additional consideration.</li><li>Protomer Technologies, a biotechnology company, in its sale to Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) with a potential value of over $1 billion with successful achievement of future development and commercial milestones.</li><li>Rakuten Medical, a biotechnology and medical device company, in its acquisition of Medlight SA and its acquisition of key assets and manufacturing technology from Li-Cor Biosciences.</li><li>Safebuilt Insurance Services, a managing general agent and insurance technology company, in its sale to Integrated Specialty Coverages.</li><li>Sequlite Genomics, a DNA sequencing firm, in connection with its sale to Fapon Biotech, a diagnostic technology company.</li><li>Tendo, a digital health software company, in its acquisition of MDsave, a healthcare marketplace company.</li><li>Wavestream, a provider of high-power solid-state amplifiers, in its $137 million sale to Spacenet, a subsidiary of Gilat Satellite Networks (Nasdaq: GILT).</li></ul><h4 dir="ltr">﻿Venture Financings</h4><ul><li dir="ltr">9amHealth, a provider of virtual diabetes care, in its $4 million Series Seed financing and $16 million Series A financing.</li><li>ACEA Biosciences, a developer of cell analysis instrumentation technologies, in its $30 million Series E Preferred Stock financing.</li><li>Adicet Bio, a biopharmaceutical company, in its Series A financing of up to $51 million, and $80 million Series B financing.</li><li>Astute Medical, a medical diagnostic company focused on high-risk medical conditions and diseases, in over $200 million of equity and debt financings.</li><li>Bidra as an investor in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Biolumic, an agtech company, in its $13.5 million Series B financing.</li><li>California Cryobank, a private equity-backed leader in reproductive tissue donor services and stem cell banking, in multiple equity and debt financings.</li><li>Carlsmed, a medical device and artificial intelligence company, in its $10 million Series A financing, $30 million Series B financing and $52.5 million Series C financing.</li><li>Crinetics as a strategic investor in Radionetics Oncology’s $52.5 million Series A financing.</li><li>Forward Ventures as an investor in multiple equity financings, convertible debt financings, and M&A transactions.</li><li>Foxen, a provider of financial technology solutions for the real estate industry, in its $44 million Series A financing.</li><li>Greenoaks Capital Partners and its affiliates as investors in multiple equity financings, debt financings, and secondary transactions.</li><li>GroupSolver, an artificial intelligence market research platform, in multiple preferred stock financings.</li><li>Hume.ai, an artificial intelligence company, in multiple preferred stock financings.</li><li>Oak Investment Partners as an investor in multiple preferred stock financings.</li><li>OrbiMed as an investor in multiple equity financings, debt financings, and M&A transactions.</li><li>Petuum, an artificial intelligence and machine learning software infrastructure provider, in its $93 million Series B financing.</li><li>Pi Health, an AI-enabled health technology and clinical research company, in its spin-out from BeiGene, Ltd. and $35 million Series A financing.</li><li>RA Capital as an investor in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Rakuten Medical, a biotechnology and medical device company, in over $730 million of debt and equity financings.</li><li>Softbank affiliates as investors in multiple equity financings.</li><li>Solarflare Communications, a software and hardware company, in over $200 million of equity and debt financings.</li><li>VoloAgri, an agriculture technology company focused on seed genetics, in over $150 million of equity financings.</li><li>Western Digital Capital as an investor in multiple preferred stock financings.</li></ul>

Jim Krenn

Chris represents emerging companies, venture capital investors and private equity firms in corporate and securities matters, including startup counseling, investments, mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and investment fund transactions.For entrepreneurs, he advises fast-growing, emerging companies throughout their life cycle, ranging from formation, capital raising, corporate structuring and governance through exit. For fund sponsors and other investors, he advises on financial and strategic investments and buyouts as well as portfolio company management.Prior to rejoining Morrison Foerster, Chris was Associate General Counsel and Legal Director at a leading global investment firm, where he oversaw domestic and cross-border transactions in the technology sector, including venture, growth and private equity investments for minority and controlling positions, joint ventures, portfolio company sales and divestitures, restructurings, the formation of investment funds, high-value strategic projects and special situations. Chris is an active member of the ABA Business Law Section’s Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee and frequent author and speaker on investment and M&A related topics. While at New York University School of Law, Chris was a Lederman Fellow in Law & Economics and on the Executive Board of the NYU Journal of Law & Business. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Christopher McKinnon

Jim Ryan is a partner in Morrison Foerster's Transactions Department. His practice focuses on domestic and cross-border corporate and securities matters, including venture capital and private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, securities compliance, and corporate governance.Jim represents entrepreneurs, startups and emerging companies as outside general counsel, venture capital and private equity investors, and financial and strategic acquirers across the technology, media, telecommunications, and life sciences industries. His clients operate in a variety of sectors including machine learning and artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, data analytics, fintech, e-commerce, gaming, life sciences, and medical devices.Jim earned his J.D. from the Santa Clara University School of Law, where he was a comments editor for the Santa Clara Law Review and was published on the topic of cloud computing regulation. He received his B.A. in Economics with a minor in Information Systems and Technology Management from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Jim Ryan

Alfredo Silva is a partner in the Transactions Department, co-chair of the firm's Social Enterprise and Impact Investing Group, and a member of the ESG Strategy Committee. Alfredo represents companies and investors in a broad range of corporate and securities law matters, with a focus on businesses in the life sciences, agtech and fintech sectors. Alfredo’s practice includes capital markets transactions, venture capital, growth equity and corporate venture financings, tender offers and other secondary offerings, digital token matters, and mergers and acquisitions. Alfredo also helps clients leverage environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors to evaluate risk and opportunities and to invest responsibly in businesses seeking sustainable growth and impact.In his private company practice, Alfredo has served as company or investor counsel in early- and late-stage financings, minority strategic investments and impact investments in dozens of private companies, including representation of SoftBank and SoftBank Vision Fund in financings with a combined value of over $2 billion, Temasek in its $800 million minority investment in Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet company, and Visa Ventures in strategic fintech investments around the world.In his public company practice, Alfredo counsels issuers on strategic transactions, such as the stock-for-stock merger of Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. with Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp, as well as corporate governance and compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and stock exchange listing standards, including advising on cutting-edge issues with respect to ESG disclosures and materiality assessments.In addition, Alfredo works extensively with nonprofit organizations, providing advice on fiduciary issues, entity formation, structuring and other corporate matters, and assists small businesses pro bono. He incorporated and continues to advise Illuminate, the nonprofit producer of The Bay Lights, a 25,000 LED sculpture on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, in structuring, corporate governance, and project management matters. Alfredo currently chairs the audit committees of the boards of directors of Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, a charity founded by four-time NBA champion Stephen Curry and The New York Times bestselling author Ayesha Curry to unleash the potential of every child, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, an international leader in innovative theater whose shows have won eight Tony Awards, nine Obie Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, among many other honors.Alfredo is recognized by The Recorder as a 2013 Lawyer on the Fast Track, in 2014 was the inaugural recipient of the firm’s Kathi Pugh Award for Pro Bono Service, is a 2017 Lawyers Committee for Legal Diversity Fellow, and was the recipient of the American Bar Association’s 2023 National Public Service Award. Alfredo received his B.S. degree, cum laude with distinction, in Engineering Sciences (Chemical) from Yale College in 2004 and received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 2008. Alfredo speaks conversational Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, and spent a year at China’s Tsinghua University researching issues in intellectual property protection on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Pitch Day San Francisco

29 May 2024 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM PDT