
Jesse Kobernick
Associate, Miller Nash(Feb 2020 - Till Now)
Jesse Kobernick represents clients throughout the Pacific Northwest on a wide range of complex business transactional matters, including mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, stock and asset purchase agreements, and restructurings. He also advises clients with respect to corporate governance, commercial agreements, securities law compliance, and debt and equity offerings. Jesse’s clients include private and public companies in a variety of industries, including consumer products & services, alcoholic beverages, energy, technology, construction, manufacturing, banking, and professional services.
Sessions by this speaker
May 3, 2023
05:00 PM
Essentials of Startup Formation
Virtual
Learn about the when, what and how of setting up your company, hiring employees and allotting equity. Understand the pros and cons of an S-Corp, LLC and C Corp. Prevent expensive mistakes that can sink your company even as you are on the path to success.

Madhu Singh
Chief Legal Officer, Foundry Law Group(Feb 2014 - Till Now)
Seattle, United States
Madhu K. Singh is the founder and chief legal officer at Foundry Law Group. Madhu and the President at TiE Seattle. Madhu and her team enjoy serving as trusted counsel to startups and emerging companies, support corporate governance and acquisitions, and advise on protecting and leverage their proprietary assets. Madhu believes in building strong relationships with her clients as a resource and active within the local business community. She volunteers regularly with Wayfind Legal by speaking at CLEs, providing pro bono legal support, and supervising a cohort of attorneys new to advising nonprofits. She received the 2018 Volunteer of the year award by this prestigious organization. In 2014 she was named the Woman Business Owner of the year by the Small Business Administration and has been named a 'rising star' by Super lawyers for the past five years. In addition to her practice, she is in her eighth year as an Adjunct Faculty at the Community Development and Entrepreneurship Clinic at Seattle University School of Law. She holds a JD and MBA from the University of Kansas.
Sessions by this speaker
May 3, 2023
05:00 PM
Essentials of Startup Formation
Virtual
Learn about the when, what and how of setting up your company, hiring employees and allotting equity. Understand the pros and cons of an S-Corp, LLC and C Corp. Prevent expensive mistakes that can sink your company even as you are on the path to success.

Brenton Twitchell
Partner, Miller Nash(May 2019 - Till Now)
Brenton Twitchell partners with growing technology and services businesses to proactively and thoughtfully guide them through the legal aspects of achieving their business objectives. A partner of Miller Nash LLP, Brenton routinely assists owners and management in: (i) navigating complex mergers and acquisitions; (ii) creating and structuring legal entities and businesses.; (ii) raising capital through private securities offerings; (iii) forming strategic alliances; (iv) managing vendor, supplier, and contractor relationships; (v) complying with fiduciary and governance obligations; and (vi) planning around incentivizing employees and issues related to succession. Before private practice, Brenton served as a law clerk to Justice James M. Johnson of the Washington State Supreme Court and was a project supervisor at a class action administrator. Brenton received his J.D. from the University of Arizona, summa cum laude.
Sessions by this speaker
May 3, 2023
05:00 PM
Essentials of Startup Formation
Virtual
Learn about the when, what and how of setting up your company, hiring employees and allotting equity. Understand the pros and cons of an S-Corp, LLC and C Corp. Prevent expensive mistakes that can sink your company even as you are on the path to success.

Henry Huang
Partner, Miller Nash(Sept 2009 - Till Now) Partner, Madrona Venture Labs(March 2019 - Till Now)
Henry is a Partner at Seattle startup studio Madrona Venture Labs where he focuses on creating enterprise B2B startups. A few of the Madrona-backed companies he has launched over the past four years include Strike Graph, Stratify, Pendulum, and Magnify. Prior to incubating and investing, Henry was an executive product leader, startup veteran, and founder with six successful early-stage companies under his belt.
Sessions by this speaker
May 10, 2023
05:00 PM
How to vet a startup Idea
Virtual
At the core of every successful business or product initiative is a solution that solves a real and meaningful customer problem. Whether you want to build your own startup, or have a new idea within an established company, it’s crucial to vet these concepts before investing time and money into their creation. In this session, learn battle-tested processes and frameworks to validate (or not) an idea, common mistakes to avoid, and insights from a leading venture studio.

Pradnya Desh
CEO
Seattle, United States
Pradnya Desh is the CEO of AdvocatAI, a legal intake, research and drafting platform that makes corporate contracting faster. She is driven by the belief that technology can make legal services efficient and affordable. AdvocatAI completed a $1.3M seed round in March 2021, and won the San Diego Angel Conference.
She is an attorney and was Managing Partner of Desh International and Business Law, an award-winning ten-attorney law firm where she managed the attorneys, staff and operations. She also negotiated deals and advised on commercial law matters including contracts, licensing, and international trade.
Formerly, Ms. Desh was a US diplomat in the State Department, and a U.S. trade negotiator with USTR in Geneva. She represented the United States in international organizations, including the WTO and the UN Committee on Trade and Development. Ms. Desh joined Governor Christine Gregoire's trade delegation to India and Korea in October 2012, and Governor Inslee’s trade delegation to Korea and Japan in 2016.
Sessions by this speaker
May 10, 2023
05:00 PM
How to vet a startup Idea
Virtual
At the core of every successful business or product initiative is a solution that solves a real and meaningful customer problem. Whether you want to build your own startup, or have a new idea within an established company, it’s crucial to vet these concepts before investing time and money into their creation. In this session, learn battle-tested processes and frameworks to validate (or not) an idea, common mistakes to avoid, and insights from a leading venture studio.

Craig Sherman
Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Craig Sherman is a partner in the Seattle office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he focuses on corporate and securities laws, representing companies, venture capital firms, and investment banks in private placements and public offerings. He also has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing, and domestic and international joint ventures. Craig earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989. He received M.A. and B.A. degrees from Stanford University in 1985.
Sessions by this speaker
May 17, 2023
05:00 PM
Fundraising Fundamentals
Virtual
Understand the how and when of raising funds for your startup. Learn about the funding stages, mechanisms (equity, convertible notes, etc.) and the various options available in the region for each stage. Understand valuation and the various clauses in term sheets and funding documents and what they mean.

Sudip Chakrabarti
Partner, Madrona Venture Group
Sudip joined Madrona in 2018. Sudip is particularly interested in companies that are transforming the enterprise, cloud and infrastructure markets. He especially enjoys working with technical founders – sharing his own experiences as a technical founder and helping them to build successful teams and businesses.
Past Lives
Prior to joining Madrona, Sudip was a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners where he led or co-led investments in Streamlio, Serverless, Rainnet, Exabeam and, a Madrona portfolio company, Heptio. He started his investing career at Osage University Partners and subsequently was an enterprise investor at Andreessen Horowitz where he was involved with companies such as Actifio, Databricks, Digital Ocean, Forward Networks, Mesosphere and Samsara.
Before venturing into early-stage investing, Sudip was an entrepreneur and an engineer. He started his first company when he was at Georgia Tech, and his second while in business school. In between, he spent a few years as an engineer building complex software systems at Synopsys.
This experience of founding enterprise technology-oriented businesses led Sudip to the venture side and he has been investing in enterprise and open source software companies since that time. His founder experience gives him direct insight into the challenges of startups which involve ups and downs and persistence. He strives to be a trusted partner to every entrepreneur he works with.
Education
Sudip received his PhD in Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech, an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B. Tech from IIT Kharagpur.
Sessions by this speaker
May 24, 2023
05:00 PM
How to build a compelling Investor pitch
Virtual
Learn how to build a pitch that resonates with investors. What do investors care about at various stages of your startup journey? What are the mistakes to avoid that can sink your pitch? How do you engage and build credibility with investors over the long term?

Andrew Klein
President , Zccounting.com(Jan 2015 - Till Now)
Seattle
Andrew Klein has been working with startups and emerging growth companies for over 12 years as a founder and as an outside advisor for both the entrepreneurial team and their investors. In this capacity he has managed the strategic operations, company exits, and funding of companies in a variety of industries with specific expertise in SaaS, Healthcare, Hospitality & Consumer Products, and Energy/Construction. Companies with Andrew's direct involvement have raised almost $70 million in debt and equity. He also has a strong passion for entrepreneurship and connecting people together as shown in his involvement as a TechStars Alumni, mentor at 9Mile Labs Accelerator, a teacher at General Assembly, and in running the meetup group Cigars & Startups. He holds a BS in accounting and an MBA focused on entrepreneurial finance both from Seattle University.
Sessions by this speaker
May 31, 2023
05:00 PM
Fundamentals of Business Modeling
Virtual
Learn how to build a financial model for your business and how to use it for planning. What assumptions and variables drive your business? How do you build up your revenue and cost forecasts? How much runway do you have left based on your forecast? How much capital do you need to raise? Understand how to answer all of these questions and put your startup on a sound footing.