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Silicon Valley Spring 2013
Applications: Mar 17, '13
Sessions: Apr 01, '13 - Jul 09, '13
Vision
Our vision is to Globalize Silicon Valley by creating and fostering local startup ecosystems in promising markets across the globe. We aim to help launch 1,000 technology companies per year in over 50 cities worldwide.
Sponsors
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is the premier legal advisor to technology and growth enterprises worldwide, as well as the investment banks and venture capital firms that finance them. Over the past four decades, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has established its reputation by having an unmatched knowledge of its clients' industries and deep and long-standing contacts throughout the technology sector. The firm's legal expertise serves clients at all stages of growth, from venture-backed start-up companies to multibillion-dollar global enterprises. The firm's clients include some of the most recognized names in the technology, retail, life sciences, venture capital, and finance sectors. The firm has offices in Austin, Palo Alto, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C.
First Republic Bank and its subsidiaries provide private banking, private business banking and the full range of wealth management services with an emphasis on exceptional relationship-based service and a solid commitment to responsiveness and action.
Ravix Group - Ravix Group Inc.provides seasoned consulting expertise to outsource the finance, human resources, and facilities functions of early-stage and middle market companies so that management can focus on their priorities to increase the value of their company.
Purplepatch Services is a strategy consulting firm offering technology firms Marketing Communications and User Experience Design solutions.
Founder Institute’s Convertible Equity Featured on Forbes, Fortune & more
Legally cheap and easy, convertible debt has been the primary vehicle to finance early-stage startups for years, but it unnecessarily saddles these startups with debt. Last week the Founder Institute, TheFunded.com, and WSGR introduced convertible equity as an alternative to convertible debt.
The news was covered across several prominent business channels.
According to J.J Callao, of Forbes, "Ressi argues that convertible equity is 'convertible debt without the debt. Everything works more or less the same as in a convertible debt deal – investors get a discount for purchased shares that’s realized upon conversion at a capped (or uncapped) valuation – with the more onerous provisions left out. Investors don’t get the ‘gun’, as Ressi calls it, and companies don’t artificially carry debt on their books, a potential liability when seeking a line of credit from a supplier or closing a deal with a large corporation.”
According to Dan Primack, Editor of Fortune, convertible debt has mistakenly been used in one of the most prevalent startup hubs in the world: “One of the secrets of Silicon Valley is that a large number of start-ups raise their first round of funding in the form of debt, rather than as equity.”
Christina Farr, of VentureBeat, says it “remains to be seen whether venture capitalists, critical of convertible rounds, will adopt this new model.”
You can read the full stories as well as TechCrunch’s piece here:
- Forbes - http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2012/08/31/adeo-ressi-introduces-convertible-equity-convertible-debt-without-debt/
- Fortune - http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/31/killing-convertible-debt/
- VentureBeat - http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/31/convertible-equity/
- TechCrunch - http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/31/thefunded-founder-institute-and-wilson-sonsini-debut-startup-friendly-seed-financing-vehicle-convertible-equity/
