The Value of IP: Raising Capital With Patents As Collateral
The Importance of Intellectual Property
Intangible assets make up over 80% of the S&P 500 today. In today’s market, intellectual property holdings have become core aspects in a growing number of businesses in a multitude of sectors from biotech to cyber security. As a result, asset-based lenders have turned to IP portfolios as another form of collateral to secure their loans. This creates new pathways for companies to raise capital using their IP. If lenders deem the value of physical assets inadequate to serve as insurance, patents could offer an alternative source of collateral that can often surpass the value of physical assets. Join us to discuss how to harness the value of a robust IP portfolio and learn the necessary requirements to utilize these intangible assets as a tool to secure funding.
Event Overview
Our panelists discuss:
– IP backed debt capital financing and its advantages
– Raising capital without highly dilutive round
– No equity or minimal warrant ownership
– Leveraging IP value to reduce cost of capital
– Ability to raise more capital for longer runway
– First hand experiences with the process from companies
– Basic Requirements
– Balancing this option with traditional debt and equity raises
Recap Interviews
About the Speakers
Moderator – Keegan Caldwell
Dr. Keegan Caldwell has an extensive and diverse experience with advising clients from innovation conception to 9-figure monetization events. Keegan works with start-ups and established entities to develop patent portfolios with as many options as possible for an ROI. Keegan has assisted clients with a broad spectrum of patent issues in tech and in life sciences and takes pride in curating high value patent portfolios. Keegan is particularly knowledgeable with respect to Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) procedures. His experience working at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in the Central Reexam Unit coupled with his deep patent prosecution experience uniquely positions him to provide valuable insights during a PTAB procedure to help clients win.
Geoff Pope
Geoff Pope is a risk professional with extensive experience providing insurance, risk management, and human capital services and solutions for middle-market, large private, and publicly-traded companies in various industries. He’s responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with prospective and current clients, as well as overseeing the delivery of excellent service. Former NFL player with the unique experience of leading teams and accomplishing goals. MBA from Columbia Business School with a concentration in macroeconomics, corporate finance, and strategy. Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Aon’s 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.
Arran Stewart
Arran Stewart is the co-founder and CVO of blockchain recruitment platform Job.com. Relying on a decade worth of experience in the recruitment industry, Arran has consistently sought to bring recruitment to the cutting edge of technology. Arran helped develop one of the world’s first multi-post to media buy talent attraction portals, and also helped reinvent the way job content found candidates through utilizing matching technology against job aggregation. Arran is currently launching the first blockchain recruitment platform with Job.com – which aims to be the most secure, efficient, and transparent hiring process ever. As a first-mover in online recruitment technology with a decade of experience in recruitment, Arran’s expertise has been featured in Forbes, Reuters, Wired, and Hacker Noon, among other publications.
Chad Willardson
Chad Willardson is the President and Founder of Pacific Capital and is a Certified Financial Fiduciary, Accredited Wealth Management Advisor and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor. He is the Author of two best-selling books, “Stress Free Money” and “Smart Not Spoiled” and Co-Founder of GravyStack, a new banking app that helps kids manage money. Before founding Pacific Capital, he spent 9 years at Merrill Lynch, where he ranked in the top 2% of over 16,000 Financial Advisors nationally. Chad is passionate about financial education and believes that with the right tools and resources, people can be empowered to make smart money decisions. He loves to help people organize their financial life, clarify their goals, and make decisions that lead them to a successful and fulfilling life.
He’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Yahoo Finance, Investment News, NASDAQ, U.S. News & World Report, Entrepreneur Magazine, etc.
Christian Wentz
Christian Wentz is the founder and CEO of Gradient, a secure data infrastructure company developing a solution for protecting computing and sensor infrastructure from silicon up to software, across edge to cloud devices. Gradient serves the enterprise market broadly, with a focus on critical infrastructure, fintech and defense intelligence applications.
Previously, Christian was founder and CEO of Kendall Research Systems, a neural interface company acquired by Kernel.co in 2017. He was a member of the founding team at Misfit, Inc., acquired by Fossil Group (NASDAQ: FOSL) in 2015 for $270MM.
Wentz received the inaugural Forbes’s 30 Under 30 award in Science & Innovation and was awarded the Hertz Foundation Myhrvold Family Fellowship to pursue a PhD at MIT. He earned an M.Eng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science under Profs. Ed Boyden and Rahul Sarpeshkar, and an S.B. in Electrical Science and Engineering, both from MIT.
About The eForum
The eForum is a member of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship that helps early-stage entrepreneurs.