HRM: Convertible Notes , SAFE Agreements, & Traditional Equity

This seminar is scheduled to be a Zoom Webinar, the password will be sent out after you register. For those who cannot attend in person, we will record the seminar and send a link to the recording after to all registered attendees.

This educational seminar explores the differences between convertible notes, SAFE Agreements, and traditional equity. It will touch on differences on conversion, dilution, discount rates, valuation caps, and other considerations. The content will include discussion on how this might impact the entrepreneur as well as investors.

This will be presented by an experienced panel that will discuss key considerations and factors you should be thinking about. Following their discussion, they will respond to your specific questions and to questions from other members of the audience.

Moderator: Tara Spalding (Hen House Ventures)

Panel: Sam Gardiner (Stoel Rives) | Seda Goff (PENFED) | Nathan McBride (Tamarak Capital) | Jerry Vance (Preferred CFO)

Expert Panel Bio’s:

Moderator: Tara Spalding (Hen House Ventures): Tara is the president and founder of Hen House Ventures. Hen House creates, implements and validates successful go-to-market programs for technology companies that need to rapidly scale new products when entering massive emerging technology markets. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Hen House Ventures has been instrumental in raising over $17M in seed and Series A funding for for more than 30 startups throughout the US.

Tara began her high-tech career in Silicon Valley when she taught herself to code software and became the first employee, and eventually VP of Marketing at industry leader, SugarCRM. Her Silicon Valley experience included roles as CMO at GroundWork Open Source and co-founder and CPO at BenchPick. Available to guide startups and corporations in the US and abroad, Hen House Ventures’ innovative, impactful programs are tailored to meet each clients’ specific development and funding needs. Clients include Applitools, ApolloGraphQL, Commtrex, eTeam Sponsor, Sequent Software, Inc., Ten Digit Communications and X2CRM.

Panel of Experts:

Sam Gardiner (Stoel Rives):Sam advises clients in mergers and acquisitions as well as financing and other corporate transactions. He also regularly counsels companies on corporate governance, securities regulation, executive compensation and other compliance and commercial issues. His corporate clients range from startups and other emerging private companies to mature public corporations. He also represents boards of directors, institutional and individual investors, entrepreneurs, investment banks and other financial institutions. Sam’s experience in mergers and acquisitions includes counseling either buyers or sellers in financial or strategic transactions involving public or private companies across various industries. Over the last decade, he has assisted clients in more than 100 mergers and acquisitions, financings or similar transactions. He also advises companies and investors in venture capital and other private equity financings, registered public equity financings, debt financings, PIPEs, recapitalizations, restructurings and strategic partnering transactions.

Seda Goff (PENFED): Prior to joining the PenFed Foundation, Seda served as Managing Director at Capitol Post, helping military veterans and their spouses think and act like entrepreneurs. Seda also served as the DC City Leader for Bunker Labs and continues to advise at Bunker Labs. Before that, she founded Lighthouse Global Business to guide international entrepreneurs and US-based start-ups looking to build or expand their businesses to new markets. Seda is an Adjunct Professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business, where she teaches Intro to Entrepreneurship and Business 1.0. She brings all of this experience to her leadership of VEIP, as well as the perspective of a female entrepreneur.

Nathan McBride (Tamarak Capital): Nate is Partner & CFO at Tamarak Capital, a venture-focused family office based in Springville, UT.
Nate is experienced in managing high-growth companies and most recently served as VP Finance & Strategy at Profire Energy (NASDAQ: PFIE) where he led the company’s uplisting to NASDAQ, as well as other key strategic initiatives. He has broad experience in growth-capital strategy, having raised over $75M in public offerings, private offerings, debt- and venture financings. He also has unique experience managing strategic, finance, and legal activities of both public and private companies, including acquisitions, owner buy-outs, and creative partnerships. He finds significant purpose in helping companies develop and grow.
Nate graduated from BYU, where he studied both Business Strategy and Economics. He and his hippie wife Rachel have two awesome children and love fishing, hiking, and traveling together.

Jerry Vance (Preferred CFO): Jerry is the founder and managing partner of Preferred CFO. He has provided CFO consulting services for over 300 businesses in various industries over the last 16 years. He has prepared hundreds of forecasts and has assisted hundreds of companies through the fundraising process. He specializes in management consulting, acquisition, fundraising, forecasting, valuation, equity, debt and other accounting services. Jerry has been instrumental in securing and accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and or equity transactions. Prior to providing consulting services, Jerry served multiple public and private companies as a CFO and/or controller, some with international subsidiaries. He is a graduate of the University of Utah and currently serves as CFO of the VentureCapital.Org. He enjoys serving as a mentor to many early stage companies and is an active angel investor.