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
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