Pete Szymanski

JD-MBA, Founder: Silicon Valley Counsel

San Francisco Bay Area | Law Practice

Current Silicon Valley Counsel, The Kosciuszko Foundation

Previous DripDrop, www.cuil.com, Full Circle Fund

Education JD from Duke Law

Background

Summary

www.siliconvalleygc.com (2011-):

  • General Counsel for start-ups and growth companies
  • Financing and commercial transactions
  • Support for in-house BD, Sales, IP, operations, marketing, and HR matters
  • Angels and entrepreneurs advice
  • Special projects

Special projects: CEO of DripDrop

  • Requested by Founder and Chairman to turnaround-fix consumer medical company
  • Raised restructured Series A financing
  • Managed operations and sales teams
  • Built Board approved operating, marketing and strategic plan
  • Beat sales projections in main channels: Walgreens and Amazon
  • Ensured graceful transition for new CEO
  • Company has since raised $8.5+M more, expanded to national distribution in Walgreens

Past Silicon Valley Experience:
VP, Corporate and Business Development, & General Counsel at www.cuil.com (2007-2009)

  • Presented on key legal and business strategy matters at Board meetings
  • Prepared pitch decks, closed $25M in equity & $10M in debt funding
  • Sourced, negotiated and implemented platform agreements with Hulu and MapQuest
  • Drafted, filed eight patents (seven of which were later acquired by Google), multiple trademarks
  • Company’s IP and engineering team acquired by Google

Board Member at Full Circle Fund (2006-2009)

  • Membership grew from 60 to 200, secured Al Gore as keynote of annual SF City Hall event

Senior Attorney at Cooley LLP (2000-2007)

  • 10+ IPOs, hundreds of financings, long-time clients including Khosla Ventures, Siebel Systems

Experience

Founder

Silicon Valley Counsel
February 2011 - Present (3 years 9 months) San Francisco Bay Area

Silicon Valley Counsel (www.siliconvalleygc.com) provides business advice and legal counsel for top start-ups and growth companies, successful investors and entrepreneurs.

Donor

The Kosciuszko Foundation
January 2010 – Present (4 years 10 months)

The Kosciuszko Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City created to fund programs that promote Polish-American intellectual and artistic exchange.

Turnaround CEO

DripDrop
July 2012 – February 2013 (8 months) Presidio

DripDrop is a medical company that has developed a new formula that is less expensive than IV hydration treatments and tastes better than other oral solutions. It also works as a hangover cure and energy booster.

General Counsel, VP Corporate and Business Development

www.cuil.com
October 2007 – December 2009 (2 years 3 months) San Francisco Bay Area

Cuil was a web-search start-up (www.cuil.com) founded by former Googlers that raised $30+M, achieved a $200M valuation, produced alternative web search results, and whose patents and engineering team was acquired by Google.

Board Member

Full Circle Fund
October 2006 – September 2009 (3 years) San Francisco Bay Area

Full Circle Fund is an engaged philanthropy organization comprised of an active network of professionals who leverage their time, talent and connections to help nonprofit organizations launch new initiatives, make a greater impact, and accelerate positive change in the community.

Senior Attorney

Cooley LLP
October 2000 – October 2007 (7 years 1 month) San Francisco Bay Area

Cooley is a top Silicon Valley based law firm for entrepreneurs, investors, financial institutions and established companies with deep experience in representing venture capital and technology clients.

Education

JD from Duke Law

Banking, Corporate, Finance, and Securities Law

Top 10 Law School - US News & World Report
-- Kosciuszko Merit Scholarship
-- Staff Editor of Journal of Comparative and International Law

MBA & BS from Rensselaer

BS & MBA, Entrepreneurship

#11 Most Entrepreneurial University - Forbes
#5 Top Academic Quality for Business Schools - Bloomberg
-- TA for senior level-course on business strategy
-- Writer for The Poly, Rensselaer’s student newspaper
-- International Program in Hong Kong, China