Oct. 16, 2014
Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP
See more on Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLPRedwood City, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston | Emerging technology companies and venture capital firms
"We were doubling down on the emerging growth and tech sector," said name partner Scott C. Dettmer . "Like any focused firm, we knew there were some risks because you don't have as diversified a practice area."
Nineteen years later, the firm's relentless commitment to the entrepreneurs and investors that make up the "innovation economy" remains a gamble, Dettmer said, but considering the firm's established reputation as a premier player in the startup world, it's one that appears to be paying off in spades.
"When we're at board meetings for our companies, you hear the experienced investors and directors saying, 'S tay focused in your core competency. Don't try to be everything to everyone.' It's the notion of being best-in-breed," Dettmer said.
For a law firm, though, that philosophy stands in stark contrast to the prevailing notion that relying on a broad set of practices helps gird against bruising economic downturns, and it's one that was put to the test in the wake of the burst of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s.
But rather than suffering a drought of legal work as companies tightened their budgets or buckled altogether, the firm successfully pivoted to handling troubled company financing, corporate restructuring and workouts, Dettmer said.
Recently the firm represented [x + 1] Inc. in its $230 million sale to Rocket Fuel Inc., and in the spring it counseled venture capital firm Accel Partners as it raised two new funds for a combined $1.5 billion.
In a national survey of venture investment activity during the first quarter of 2014, PitchBook found that Gunderson Dettmer advised on the most early-stage venture financings deals nationwide.
The firm's reputation played a role in winning over Jonathan M. Kaplan , the vice president of legal affairs at ChargePoint Inc. , a Campbell-based maker of electric vehicle charging stations.
"Our investors all knew Scott," Kaplan said. Several had already worked with the firm in the past on other ventures, as had ChargePoint's incoming CEO, Pasquale Romano.
"When you're in-house counsel and you're recommending corporate counsel, especially one that's going to be board-facing, you want to make sure that your choice is unassailable," Kaplan said.
"It was quite clear that Scott and his team had done their homework and they knew us backwards and forwards."
In today's ultra-competitive legal environment, "it's become incredibly critical to have a differentiated value proposition, and that your firm stands for something besides the names on the door," said partner Ivan A. Gaviria.
Cultivating a recognizable, specialized brand, Gaviria said, allows the firm to be something more than just the sum of its parts.
"Gunderson Dettmer is not just [founding partner Robert V. Gunderson Jr. ] or Scott or a few senior partners and their Rolodexes. It's a brand associated with a particular space, and one that has an expertise in that space. That creates a market power and longevity for the firm that's on a different order of magnitude."
- Dominic Fracassa
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