Stephen Venuto, co-head of Orrick's Emerging Companies Group, focuses on the representation of high growth technology and media companies, their founders and investors. He is also a member of Orrick's Leadership Team as the firmwide head of on-campus attorney recruiting, and is a managing member of Orrick's venture fund.
His practice includes the formation, financing and general corporate counseling of emerging growth private and public companies; representation of venture capital firms and investment banks in private and public offerings; and other complex transactions. Most of Mr. Venuto's clients are in fast growth fields related to biotechnology, clean technology, information technology, media and/or entertainment.
Mr. Venuto has completed hundreds of venture capital financings and numerous public offerings, mergers, acquisitions and licensing transactions.
Some of Mr. Venuto's clients have included the following.
Information Technology, Internet and Digital Media
- Asana – collaborative information technology; founded by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein; funded by Benchmark Capital and Andressen-Horowitz
- Attributor – Internet content monitoring; founded by Jim Brock and Jim Pitkow; funded by Selby Venture Partners, Sigma Partners and JAFCO Ventures
- Bleacher Report – sports digital media; founded by Dave Finocchio, Bryan Goldberg, and Dave Nemetz; funded by Hillsven Capital
- ENDFORCE / SmartPipes – networking security; founded by Ray Bell; funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; sold to Sophos
- Facebook – social network; founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and others; funded by Founders Fund and others
- Geni – genealogy; founded by David Sacks; funded by Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund
- Gowalla – mobile location based social networking – founded by Josh Williams; funded by Alsop-Louie Partners, Founders Fund and Greylock Partners
- Grind Networks – digital enthusiast media publisher; founded by Eric Hawkins and Greg Morrow; funded by Softbank Capital and Rustic Canyon
- Handmark – mobile applications; funded by Apax Partners, Borealis Ventures and Hanna Ventures
- Hooked Media Group – casual social gaming; founded by Prita Uppal; funded by Altos Ventures and US Venture Partners
- Iridigm Display – mobile display and semiconductor; sold to Qualcomm
- Modelinia – digital media and fashion; founded by Desiree Gruber; funded by Polaris Ventures
- Ohai – massively multiplayer gaming; founded by Susan Wu and Don Neufeld; funded by August Capital and Rustic Canyon
- Ooma – consumer electronics and VOIP; funded by Worldview Technology Partners
- Outspark – multiplayer gaming; founded by Susan Choe; funded by Altos Ventures, DCM, Syncom Venture Partners and Tencent
- Plancast – social event planning; founded by Mark Hendrickson; funded by SoftTechVC, True Ventures and Founders Fund Angel.
- Powerset – Internet search; funded by Foundation Capital and Founders Fund; sold to Microsoft
- Quora – questions & answers; founded by Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever
- VideoEgg – Internet advertising engagement network; founded by Matt Sanchez and David Lerman; funded by August Capital and others
- Xobni – contacts and e-mail management; founded by Matt Breznia and Adam Smith; funded by BlackBerry Partners Fund, First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, and others
- Yammer – enterprise communication; founded by David Sacks; funded by Charles River Ventures, Founders Fund and Emergence Capital
Life Sciences
- AcroMetrix – molecular biology, funded by Telegraph Hill Partners; sold to Life Technologies
- BenefitPoint – medical insurance benefits management; funded by HarbourVest, IVP, Sequoia Capital, and Trident Capital; sold to Vertafore
- Halycon Molecular – DNA sequencing technology; founded by William and Michael Andregg; funded by Founders Fund
- Laserscope – medical laser systems; sold to American Medical Systems
- PharmaSurveyor – personalized drug safety; founded by Linda and Erick Von Schweber
Mr. Venuto also has represented top-tier venture capital funds and investment banks in numerous public offerings and investments in technology companies.
Further, Mr. Venuto has programming experience. He has created and runs his own Web site focused on wine (using PHP and PERL), was an HTML programmer and editor of one of the earliest legal-oriented Web sites on the Internet and was the systems operator of several bulletin board systems in the mid '80s.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Venuto was an attorney at Venture Law Group.
Print-friendly
web-friendly