The Agenda

March 31, 2023

8:00 AM - 8:45 AM

Breakfast

8:50 AM - 9:00 AM

Opening Remarks

9:00 AM - 9:25 AM

Presentation

A Technical Breakdown of Venture Debt Underwriting Models

  • Underwriting models – Sponsor-driven vs. company fundamentals-driven vs. structured deals
  • Similarities and differences / Pros and cons
  • The benefits of properly structured venture debt to companies, management teams, investors, and lenders
  • Use cases of different venture debt models for win/win/win results

speaker-1

Dan Devorsetz

Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer
Horizon Technology Finance

Speaker

9:25 AM - 9:50 AM

Presentation

The State of the Venture Debt Market

  • Current trends including what recent bank failures mean for the venture debt market
  • Discussion of sector-by-sector loan performance
  • Understanding the headwinds in the industry for both lenders and borrowers
  • Sizing up current market sentiment, especially among equity investors
  • How are things different today than they were only one year ago?

speaker-1

John Markell

Managing Partner
Armentum Partners

Speaker

9:50 AM - 10:25 AM

Panel

Exploring Revenue-Based Funding From a Company’s Perspective

  • Overview of how Revenue-Based Funding works
  • How RBF compares to other venture debt approaches for funding your company
  • What to look for in a Revenue-Based Funding partner?
  • Insights from company founders who have used RBF to scale their businesses

speaker-1

John Borchers

Managing Director
Decathlon Capital

Moderator

speaker-2

Dr. Jacques Jospitre

Founding Partner
SohoMD

Panelist

speaker-3

Francis Gallic

Co-Founder and COO
Helix Wireless

Panelist

speaker-4

Brian Schiff

Founder and CEO
Flip

Panelist

speaker-5

Spencer Barrett

Co-Founder and Co-CEO
Ragnarok

Panelist

10:25 AM - 11:00 AM

Networking Break

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Fireside

Exploring the Latest Trends and Opportunities in Venture Debt Financing

  • Are we now in a lender friendly market?
  • Are FinTech’s a threat?
  • Post SVB landscape?
  • Early stage vs late stage?
  • Are big platforms like Black Stone, KKR, etc. serious about participating?
  • Impact on fund raising?
  • Is ESG is a factor?

speaker-1

David Spreng

Chairman, Founder, CEO, and CIO
Runway Growth Capital

Speaker

speaker-2

Troy Zander

Partner
Barnes & Thornburg

Speaker

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Fireside

Highlighting the Differences Between Venture Debt Use in Banks vs. Funds

  • Banks may have lower cost of capital
  • Funds may not be as constrained by banks in the amount they can invest
  • Who is typically more supportive – banks or funds?
  • Understanding financial covenants
  • Due diligence: just as important for investors as companies

speaker-1

Catherine Jhung

Senior Managing Director
Hercules Capital

Speaker

speaker-2

David Lapter

CFO
Dashlane

Speaker

12:00 PM - 12:35 PM

Panel

Fundraising For Venture Debt Funds

  • Explaining the value of your strategy to prospective investors
  • Working with pension fund managers
  • Promoting private credit venture debt funds as an attractive but separate asset class
  • Focusing the fund on a specific market sector to attract savvy investors
  • Partnering with VC firms: pros and cons
  • Biggest concerns that equity investors and companies have when raising venture debt

speaker-1

Brian Henley

Managing Partner
Recurring Capital Partners

Moderator

speaker-2

David Teten

Founder
Versatile Venture Capital

Panelist

speaker-3

Kai Tse

Managing Partner
Structural Capital

Panelist

speaker-4

Steve Brotman

Founder and Managing Partner
Alpha Partners

Panelist

12:35 PM - 1:35 PM

Lunch

1:35 PM - 2:10 PM

Panel

How the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank will Impact Venture Debt Moving Forward

  • Strategies SVB used to dominate the VC ecosystem for venture loans
  • Sizing up the competitive landscape of non-bank lenders aiming to fill the void
  • How venture debt investments will change in the wake of SVB’s failure
  • Discussion of the logical buyers of SVB’s venture loan portfolio
  • Analysis of why the current banking crisis will likely drive down private valuations

speaker-1

Brent Bertino

Principal
Trilogy/ESW Capital

Moderator

speaker-2

Mark Solovy

Co-Head, Technology Finance Group
Monroe Capital

Panelist

speaker-3

Zack Ellison

Founder, Managing General Partner & Chief Investment Officer
Applied Real Intelligence

Panelist

speaker-4

Mike Ryan

Co-Founder and CEO
Bullet Point Network

Panelist

2:10 PM - 2:40 PM

Fireside

Venture Debt From the Borrower’s Perspective: Winning a Deal

  • Discuss borrower considerations for selecting a venture debt partner
  • Important elements in deal negotiation and execution

speaker-1

Dolph Hellman

Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Banking & Finance
Orrick

Speaker

speaker-2

Katya Baron

VP of Capital
Wisetack

Speaker

2:40 PM - 3:10 PM

Fireside

Alternative Financing for Venture Debt

  • Overview: Slowdown in VC capital opens path to alternative financing
  • Best practices and capital strategies for financing venture debt businesses
  • Operating and institutional capital perspectives on obstacles & opportunities
  • Why lending decisions should be data-driven to increase speed to funding
  • Managing rising risk in a rising rate environment

speaker-1

Melissa Widner

CEO
Lighter Capital

Speaker

speaker-2

Peter Frank

Managing Director
i80 Group

Speaker

3:10 PM - 3:45 PM

Networking Break

3:45 PM - 4:05 PM

Presentation

How to Avoid Big Venture Debt Financing Mistakes

  • Planning for a successful close in advance of a venture debt deal
  • What’s different about venture debt diligence vs. venture capital diligence
  • When and how to set up your data room

speaker-1

Alidad Vakili

Of Counsel
Foley & Lardner LLP

Speaker

4:05 PM - 4:30 PM

Presentation

Lender Landscape: The Current State of Small Business Lending by FinTechs

  • Why FinTechs are typically faster to fund
  • How your company builds credit when other scoring models are taken into account
  • Streamlined operating structure removes many pain points for SMBs
  • Blockchain systems and other tech enhancing security
  • How FinTechs offer greater flexibility and customization to the small business customer

speaker-1

Thomas Ritchie

Senior VP of Capital Markets Exec. of Investor Relations
Biz2Credit

Speaker

4:30 PM - 4:55 PM

Presentation

Understanding the Targeted Marketing of Business Credit Cards to VC-Backed Startups

  • How to define the addressable market for targeting business credit cards to startups
  • What’s the best channel strategy to reach the target
  • What are the key differentiators in the value proposition to attract this unique segment
  • How to develop brand advocates to support social media marketing
  • How to make credit decisions when your target market customers are pre-revenue

speaker-1

Dawn Zappetti

Chief Marketing Officer
Zap Advisory

Speaker

4:55 PM - 5:05 PM

Closing Remarks

5:05 PM - 6:05 PM

Cocktail Reception (Sponsored by Barnes & Thornburg)

Conference Topics

It’s been our philosophy since we started hosting conferences in 2003: “The program always comes first.” When we develop an event program, you can bet that it’s on the cutting-edge. Here are just a few of the unique presentations and panel discussions we’re developing for The Activist Investor Conference 2024. If you would like to suggest a speaker for this event, send an email to stacey@dealflowevents.com

Value Investing: Another Way of Saying Activist Investing

  • Proposing operational cost reductions, strategies to increase revenue
  • Pushing for the sale of underperforming divisions or split a company into separate business units
  • Advocating capital allocation and structure, including share repurchases and changes to a company’s capital structure.
  • Demanding changes to the size and composition of a company’s board of directors

Trending Legal Issues Facing Shareholder Activism

  • Proxy solicitations and exemptions
  • Universal proxy and SEC rules
  • Do universal proxies increase or decrease board accountability?
  • Advance notice bylaws
  • Excise tax has chilling effect on promoting share buybacks
  • How private placements can undercut an activist strategy

How the Lone Dissident can Prevail

  • Challenges a lone dissident board member will face
  • Strategies for overcoming resistance and making your case
  • Transparency and communicating your intentions to add value

Impact of corporate relations with shareholders on an activist campaign

  • Good relations with large shareholders build powerful allies
  • Communication strategies for keeping shareholders content
  • Corporate transparency: activists cannot attack what is easily disproven

Identifying Targets, Planning Strategy for an Activist Campaign

  • Importance of accumulating a significant stake quickly
  • Industries that are more (or less) attractive as targets
  • Vulnerabilities activists look for
  • Importance of the company’s shareholder profile
  • Timelines to consider when selecting a target
  • What’s the best approach? Control slates vs. short slates? Settlement vs. proxy contest?
  • Gauging the likelihood of negotiating a settlement

The Opposing View: How Corporations Resist the Activist Investor

  • Consistent financial performance is ultimately the best defense
  • A corporate board in solidarity cannot be divided
  • Working with outside advisors to combat activist demands
  • Don’t overpromise and under-deliver when announcing growth plans
  • Defensive weapons – staggered boards & poison pills
  • High altitude vision: Keeping what’s best for all shareholders top of mind
  • Run the company for shareholders who are going to stay, not hit-and-run investors

Shifting Activist Campaign Focuses

  • Pursuing change at ESG companies
  • “Woke” vs. “Anti-woke” agendas
  • Large-cap companies no longer off-limits
  • Targets more likely to implement counter-measures

International Investor Activism: Considering Opportunities Abroad

  • Why activist hedge funds look for international targets
  • Hurdles activists face when targeting a company oversees
  • Meeting the challenge of attracting larger European institutional investor support

Activist Hedge Funds: Creating Value for Themselves and Fellow Shareholders

  • Why institutional investors will often follow the activist investor’s strategy
  • Short-term stock gains vs. long-term value creation
  • Promoting stock buybacks, encouraging debt to return cash to shareholders
  • Pushing for divestiture of non-core business lines

A Look at Operational, Boardroom, Governance and Takeover Activism

  • Planning the best strategy for the activist campaign
  • Operational activism and how it works
  • The new paradigm of shareholder-board engagement
  • Importance of developing a strong public relations program for the activist campaign

…Plus real-world case studies, detailed how-to information, Q&A sessions and much more.

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