Join us! Betts Recruiting is partnering with City National Bank to bring the experts to you.

In the startup world, equity is often a large piece of an offer. We know that we want it, but do we really understand what it means for us right now? What about in the long run? How do you know what the equity offer you're getting is really worth? We've pooled a team of prominent individuals who not only get it, but are ready to explain it. Come for a night of equity enlightenment, excellent networking and drinks. 

Speakers will be discussing:

- What equity really means

- The right questions to ask to fully understand your equity offer

- How to negotiate equity in your offer letter

- When your equity will become money in your pocket

- How much equity companies should offer their team

Guest speakers will include:

Paul Singh, 500 Startups Partner

Paul Singh, 500 Startups Partner and Mentor, will be moderating our discussion. Paul's firsthand knowledge of Analytics, Customer Acquisition, Customer Analytics, Engineering, Infrastructure, Operations, and SMBs will help facilitate an intruiging discussion. Paul is also currently serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and DHS/USCIS.

Justin Fishner-Wolfson, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 137 Ventures

Justin is the managing partner of 137 Ventures. He previously worked at Founders Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm, where he was responsible for all aspects of the investment process and led the firm’s financial and operations functions. While there, he guided the investment in SpaceX, the first private company to develop a liquid fueled rocket to achieve Earth orbit. He also served on the boards of Inigral, Prior Knowledge and Social Gaming Network (SGN). Prior to that, Justin was the CEO of SSE, a conglomerate of businesses at Stanford University. He led SSE to the largest expansion of revenue and profitability in the organization’s history. 

Michael Barker, Shae & Company Managing Director

Mr. Barker is a Managing Director at Shea & Company. Prior to joining Shea & Company, Mr. Barker was a Managing Director at Morgan Keegan Technology Group and Head of the San Francisco Office. Prior to joining Morgan Keegan Technology Group, Mr. Barker was at IBM as a result of its $200 million acquisition of Trigo Technologies, the product information management company that he helped build to profitability, 150 employees and a $40MM+ run-rate. Mr. Barker was formerly in the Mergers & Acquisitions practice of the CSFB Technology Group and has experience in virtually all IT sectors. Mr. Barker has executed numerous mergers and acquisitions in the technology industry during his career for clients such as Appirio, Apple, Ascend, ELT, Informix, Involver, Intuit, KLA-Tencor, LookSmart, Netscape, Nortel, PLATINUM, Plaxo, PureAtria, Stratify, Surgient, Symyx, TopTier, Trapeze, VLSI, Wavelink, Webify and Welocalize including the $3.4 billion sale of PLATINUM to Computer Associates, the largest software acquisition in history at the time. Mr. Barker was formerly with Bluevector’s software practice where he led Bluevector's investment into TopTier and subsequent sale to SAP for $400 million. Bluevector was the venture investing arm of marchFIRST. Mr. Barker was formerly with the Technology Mergers and Acquisitions practices of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (DMG) and Morgan Stanley. Mr. Barker received a BA in Political Economy and a BS in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley.

Brian C. Patterson, Partner at Gunderson Dettmer LLP 

Brian's practice is focused on the representation of emerging growth companies throughout their lifecycles and in the representation of venture capital and private equity investment funds. Brian is broadly experienced with business and corporate formation and governance matters, deal structuring, equity and debt financing transactions, public offerings, a variety of M&A, strategic and commercial transactions and fundamental intellectual property, employment and stock and option matters.

Sonny Singh, VP of Sales and Business Development at Jumio

Sonny is a seasoned sales and business development executive with 15 years experience in helping grow technology companies. He has been a member of three founding sales teams and specializes in helping to take new products to market. He has closed several million dollar deals and several large partnerships. He also helped create three reseller channels. 
Sonny is currently the Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Jumio. Sonny is also the co-founder of Pinta Bay Partners which is a next generation advisory firm that specializes in helping startups raise venture capital.

Mary Russell, Stock Option Counsel to Individual Employees & Executives

As Stock Option Counsel to employees and executives, Mary Russell evaluates her clients’ stock options, employee equity and employment offers from the insider perspective of her work as corporate counsel to VC-backed companies at every stage of development, from initial incorporations to IPOs and billion dollar exits. This service transforms America’s top tech talent into Silicon Valley’s savviest recruits and empowers them to negotiate and evaluate their compensation with the knowledge and perspective of sophisticated investors. Russell brings to our panel Stock Option Counsel’s employee-centered approach to compensation negotiation and her experience from her prior role as an attorney in corporate and securities law at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC.

We look forward to seeing you there!