Silicon Valley AI & Big Data Meetup

Foreign Investment/Hiring Foreign Nationals Could Kill Your Next Round or Exit

Thu, Mar 5 · 6:00 PM PST

Snell & Wilmer Palo Alto Office, 5 Palo Alto Square, Suite 650, Palo Alto, CA, US

SEATING IS LIMITED - REGISTER HERE

For many startups, foreign capital and global talent are essential to growth. But what most founders don’t realize is that one early decision - made long before your Series A or exit - can quietly poison your cap table, stall a deal, or dramatically reduce valuation years later. Accepting funds from a foreign investor (individual or fund), granting a board seat/observer rights or information rights, or hiring foreign national developers in the U.S. can trigger CFIUS review, export control violations, and national security concerns, often without any warning at the time. These issues rarely surface until a major financing, acquisition, or IPO, when they become expensive, time-consuming, and sometimes impossible to fix.

This must-attend workshop is designed specifically for startup founders and early-stage operators in tech, AI, biotech, fintech, robotics, and other innovation-driven sectors who want to grow globally without unknowingly creating deal-killing risk.

In this highly practical session, Snell & Wilmer attorneys Brett Johnson and Troy Galan will break down the regulatory landmines that routinely derail otherwise successful startups—and explain what founders need to do early to avoid them.

What we’ll cover

• Foreign Investment Pitfalls: How taking money from foreign individuals or funds can trigger scrutiny years later - and why “standard” early-stage terms can create unexpected national security issues.
• Export Controls - Even Before You Have Revenue: Why export control laws apply to early-stage startups, including software, AI models, data access, and technical know-how - and how founders unintentionally violate them.
• Foreign Nationals on Your U.S. Team: What founders must understand when hiring or working with foreign national engineers or developers in the U.S., including “deemed export” risks that many companies don’t discover until investors or acquirers raise red flags.
• Due Diligence Deal-Killers: What sophisticated investors and buyers are actually looking for and how failure to address these issues early can delay, restructure, or collapse a transaction entirely.

Why this workshop is critical
Most founders assume these issues can be “cleaned up later.” In reality, CFIUS and export control problems often cannot be fixed retroactively. By the time they surface, the damage may already be done - slowing a financing, forcing deal concessions, or killing an exit outright.
This workshop gives founders the foresight to design their company correctly from the start, rather than scrambling under pressure when stakes are highest.

What you’ll walk away with

• A clear understanding of how foreign investment and export controls intersect with startup growth
• A founder-friendly checklist to evaluate risks before taking foreign money or hiring foreign nationals (in the U.S. or abroad)
• Practical steps you can implement immediately to reduce regulatory and diligence risk
• A framework for asking the right questions early - before investors, acquirors, or regulators do

If your startup plans to raise capital, hire globally, or build technology with international reach, this workshop isn’t optional—it’s preventative medicine.

6:00-7:00PM | Dinner and Networking
7:00-8:30PM | Workshop and Q&A
8:30-9:00PM | Networking

SEATING IS LIMITED - REGISTER HERE

Startup Fundamentals 2: Developing a Funding Strategy

Thu, Mar 19 · 5:00 PM PDT

Snell & Wilmer Palo Alto Office, 5 Palo Alto Square, Suite 650, Palo Alto, CA, US

REGISTER HERE!

Unlock Your Startup’s Potential: Join Our Essential Workshop!
Are you an entrepreneur ready to transform your vision into a successful, fundable startup? Access Silicon Valley invites you to join us for an invaluable 3-hour workshop designed to equip you with the legal and business tools and insights necessary to build a fundable and scalable startup and thrive in the startup ecosystem!

This is the second of three workshops in the Access Silicon Valley Startup Fundamental Series for startup founders, startup executives, entrepreneurs, innovators, and developers. While advantageous to have attended all 3 workshops, this is stand-alone content. You can still attend this program if you missed the first.

Thank you to our event sponsor, Snell & Wilmer.

In this second workshop of the Startup Fundamentals series, Roger Rappoport, a former entrepreneur, founder of Access Silicon Valley, a partner at Snell & Wilmer and co-leader of its Emerging Growth and Venture Capital practice group, will conduct an interactive, informative session with in depth content on how successful Silicon Valley startups develop and implement successful funding strategies, securing funding from angel, seed and VC investors. Learn the best way to raise the money you need to successfully launch and scale your startup!

This session will cover:

• How to develop a funding strategy appropriate for your startup
• When to raise funds, how much to raise, and from who
• The danger of taking too much or too little from investors
• Identifying the valuation inflection points of your company
• The differences between seed, angel and venture capital funding
• Alternative funding sources
• Appropriate funding instruments for each round of funding, including convertible notes, SAFE's, common stock and preferred stock
• The pros and cons of selling equity, convertible instruments, and venture debt
• Selecting and gaining access to the right investor
• What to do to increase the pre-money valuation of your company

Materials:
A comprehensive 50-page digital workbook with an actionable step-by-step guide will be distributed to all registered event attendees on the day of the event.

Agenda:
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Dinner and networking
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Speaker and sponsor introductions
6:15 PM - 7:30 PM - Startup workshop Part A
7:30 PM - 7:45 PM - Intermission
7:45 PM - 8:45 PM - Startup workshop Part B
8:45 PM - 9:00 PM - Q & A

Seating is extremely limited, so reserve your seat now.

About the Speaker:
Snell & Wilmer Partner Roger Rappoport, Co-Leader of the Emerging Growth and Venture Capital Practice Group, is a seasoned advisor to startups and emerging growth companies and the investors who finance them, guiding clients from inception through exit. With over two decades of experience in the startup ecosystem, Roger focuses on venture capital and angel investor financings, including convertible notes, SAFEs, and other debt financings. His knowledge extends to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, distribution, development, manufacturing, and licensing transactions, as well as executive compensation and the establishment of equity incentive plans.

Roger is a frequent speaker and panelist on topics and issues related to the development and implementation of a company's formation and funding strategy.

Before attending law school, he was the founder of a technology company with $10 million in revenue.

Roger is very connected with investors in Silicon Valley and beyond and is an active angel investor. As an attorney, he has been involved in hundreds of transactions such as merger and acquisition transactions, private equity and venture capital financing transactions, and complex restructuring transactions.

Questions? Email Alex Levine at alevine@swlaw.com

Up Next
Part 3: Understanding the "Terms" In Term Sheets | Thursday, April 16

Startup Fundamentals 3: Understanding the "Terms" in Term Sheets

Thu, Apr 16 · 5:00 PM PDT

Snell & Wilmer Palo Alto Office, 5 Palo Alto Square, Suite 650, Palo Alto, CA, US

REGISTER HERE!

Unlock Your Startup’s Potential: Join Our Essential Workshop!
Are you an entrepreneur ready to transform your vision into a successful, fundable startup? Access Silicon Valley invites you to join us for an invaluable 3-hour workshop designed to equip you with the legal and business tools and insights necessary to build a fundable and scalable startup and thrive in the startup ecosystem!

This is the last of three workshops in the Access Silicon Valley Startup Fundamental Series for startup founders, startup executives, entrepreneurs, innovators, and developers. While advantageous to have attended all 3 workshops, this is stand-alone content. You can still attend this program if you missed the first.

Thank you to our event sponsor, Snell & Wilmer.

In this third workshop of the Startup Fundamentals series, Roger Rappoport, a former entrepreneur, founder of Access Silicon Valley, a partner at Snell & Wilmer and co-leader of its Emerging Growth and Venture Capital practice group, will conduct an interactive, informative session with in depth content on the terms and term sheets for a seed, angel, convertible debt, Safe (pre-money and post-money) and Series A round.

This session will cover:

• When and from whom to take money
• When is an amount raised too much or too little, and the perils of both
• The anatomy of a term sheet
• Understanding the structure of, and the provisions that will most likely be included in, a convertible debt, Safe, angel and venture financing term sheet
• How to arrive at a realistic pre-money valuation
• The impact of term sheets on existing shareholders
• The provisions that will impact control of major and day-to-day decisions at your startup
• The most recent trends relating to: liquidation preferences, participation rights, anti-dilution provisions, pay-to-play provisions, redemption rights, registration rights, rights of first refusal, drag along rights, co-sale rights, among others

Materials:
A comprehensive 50-page digital workbook with an actionable step-by-step guide will be distributed to all registered event attendees on the day of the event.

Agenda:
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Dinner and networking
6:00 PM - 6:15 PM - Speaker and sponsor introductions
6:15 PM - 7:30 PM - Startup workshop Part A
7:30 PM - 7:45 PM - Intermission
7:45 PM - 8:45 PM - Startup workshop Part B
8:45 PM - 9:00 PM - Q & A

Seating is extremely limited, so reserve your seat now.

About the Speaker:
Snell & Wilmer Partner Roger Rappoport, Co-Leader of the Emerging Growth and Venture Capital Practice Group, is a seasoned advisor to startups and emerging growth companies and the investors who finance them, guiding clients from inception through exit. With over two decades of experience in the startup ecosystem, Roger focuses on venture capital and angel investor financings, including convertible notes, SAFEs, and other debt financings. His knowledge extends to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, distribution, development, manufacturing, and licensing transactions, as well as executive compensation and the establishment of equity incentive plans.

Roger is a frequent speaker and panelist on topics and issues related to the development and implementation of a company's formation and funding strategy.

Before attending law school, he was the founder of a technology company with $10 million in revenue.

Roger is very connected with investors in Silicon Valley and beyond and is an active angel investor. As an attorney, he has been involved in hundreds of transactions such as merger and acquisition transactions, private equity and venture capital financing transactions, and complex restructuring transactions.

Questions? Email Alex Levine at alevine@swlaw.com.