Archive for the ‘Chad Lynch’ tag
2011 Cleantech Opportunities and Outlook: The Investors’ Perspective
The law firm Orrick LLP puts on an outstanding free event series it calls Total Access. The events are organized by Chad Lynch, Orrick’s Director of Corporate Business Development. I met Chad around six years ago when I was working really hard on my startup gOffice.com, then the world’s only true online office suite. I haven’t seen Chad in years, but I reintroduced myself today, and he remembered meeting me and remembered the year. He knows thousands of people I’m certain, so he sure has a good memory for faces.
Chad Lynch used to have the comparable job at the law firm Pillsbury Wintrop, an Orrick competitor. That’s when I met him. I’ve stayed in touch via his emails, and today I went to my first Total Access event in years. They begin at 7:15am in Menlo Park, California, and I live in San Francisco, so I have to wake up really early to get down there on time, particularly since the direct route is Highway 101, which is particularly congested during rush hour compared to the other major North/South route, Interstate 280.
I’m glad I braved the traffic this morning, as the event was worth my while. The subect matter was ‘Cleantech Opportunities and Outlook: The Investors’ Perspective.’ There was a panel of four venture capitalists, including one I know from my days raising venture capital for my first Internet startup Hotpaper.com, which I later sold at a profit to Purple Communications (then GoAmerica, Inc. – NASDAQ GOAM).
The panel answered about three dozen questions over an hour. The consensus is that Cleantech is now past its baby steps, but still a toddler. The group was upbeat about the prospects for starting and funding cleantech companies in 2011. Interestingly, the panel did not see any new solar panel companies getting funded unless the panel efficiency is to be over 20% and the cost per watt is to be under a dollar! These requirements represent a very high bar, from the little I know about that industry. I sure wouldn’t want to be trying to get a solar panel company funded today.
What made the event so worthwhile is I gave my elevator pitch for the ‘green homes’ idea I’m kicking around in my head as a possible venture to work on. The VC panelist I know actually seemed interested and asked me to email him an executive summary. I wasn’t even planning on telling him about green homes, but he saw my new green homes business card and asked me about it, even though there was a line of people twenty minutes deep waiting to shake his hand. We had a nice chat about it, and he was familiar with California AB1866, the law that gives ‘green homes’ potential legs to stand on.
As soon as I finished talking with this VC, a cleantech attorney pitched his boutique cleantech law firm to me, and said he had experience with land use issues I would be sure to encounter. While I’m very loyal to Eric Jensen, my corporate attorney since the mid 1990s, I might schedule a lunch with this guy to hear what he has to say, since I don’t think Eric knows much about land use issues and real estate in general. Eric’s an amazing attorney though, and for high tech ventures it’s unlikely you could do better. I’ve known Eric since 1989 when he was a brand new associate at Cooley LLP. Now he heads their business department.
Orrick Cleantech Panel Dec 16, 2010 Menlo Park, California. Left to right: Erik Strasser, Ravi Viswanathan, Warren Hogarth, Don Wood, Jeffrey Adams, Mitch Zuklie
Orrick Cleantech Panel Dec 16, 2010 Menlo Park, California - Audience
As you can see from the above Apple iPhone 3GS photos (sorry for the low quality) I took at the event, there is a lot of interest in Cleantech. There were people standing in the aisle to my left out of camera view. Remember, this was early in the morning, so I found the turnout to be amazing. Chad told the audience that Orrick has signed up 90 new clients from these events, which, again, are free to attend, and all you need is an invitation which you can get by signing up online at Orrick’s website.
The panelists were from well known and well respected firms. Erik Strasser is General Partner at Mohr Davidaw Ventures. Ravi Viswanathan is General Partner at New Enterprise Associates. Warren Hogarth is Partner at Sequoia Capital. Don Wood is Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Jeffrey Adams is Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. The moderator was Mitch Zuklie, Partner at Orrick LLP. I introduced myself to all the panelists except Mitch, who ducked out before I had a chance to say hello.
Note that while Orrick is staging these events to market themselves, they soft pedal that aspect, and I think only about 60 seconds of the event was spent on asking for business.
The subject matter covered by these events is broad, and it’s certainly much broader than cleantech. I recommend Total Access events without reservation.
