Introduction: 0:00
- Introducing Vanessa Wu, General Counsel at Rippling and former General Counsel at LiveRamp.
- Starting her career in litigation at Latham & Watkins.
Becoming a top dealmaker at LiveRamp: 1:33
- Closing two major deals shortly after transitioning into corporate law from litigation.
- Realizing that any legal training can prepare you to handle deals and M&A.
- Working under a CEO with a history of making acquisitions.
- Enlisting outside counsel that work through the night to finish a deal.
Moving quickly to close deals: 7:06
- Developing a deep reserve of cash for acquisitions after selling off your parent company.
- Losing a major deal after an exclusivity period lapsed over a holiday weekend.
- Understanding that the goal from a legal perspective should be to close deals as quickly as possible.
Offering operational solutions to small and medium businesses at Rippling: 10:08
- Providing an all-in-one platform for HR, IT, and finance, including onboarding, expense management, and equipment solutions.
- Joining as the first lawyer in a company that has grown to more than 3000 employees.
- Acquiring series B financing during the pandemic-related market crash.
- Executing deals quickly by preparing disclosures in advance of sharing the term sheet.
- Working under a CEO who understands the value of disclosure in order to maintain speed without sacrificing diligence.
- Setting yourself up for an easy process when going public.
- Exposing your own risk factors so you can address them in the future.
Surviving the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank: 23:14
- Feeling like the world was ending overnight.
- Recounting the experience and the immediate decisions that needed to be made to protect Rippling and its clients’ paychecks.
- Paying the paychecks of over 10,000 workers with your company’s emergency reserve funds.
- Making enormous changes over the course of a weekend without sacrificing diligence.
- Benefiting from a reputational bump because of how effectively they operated during a crisis.
Collaborating with finance as a legal team: 36:21
- Maintaining an approach to financing that is equal parts conservative and aggressive.
- Letting finance drive the narrative that brings you to the term sheet.
- Eliciting investor interest with solid metrics.
- Sending out diligence checklists and other documents to investors so there’s no need for follow-up.
Tips for a fast and low-fee financing deal making process: 40:54
- Being mindful about the fees you say you will cover on your term sheets.
- Focusing on risk by having parties bear their own costs.
Favorite parts of day-to-day work: 41:54
- Being involved in the development of regulated products.
- Divulging your biggest professional pet peeves.
Book recommendations: 44:22
- Matt Levine’s Money Stuff newsletter from Bloomberg.
What you wish you’d known as a young lawyer: 45:28
- Flipping your mentality to open yourself to unexpected career paths.
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