About this Event
Mark your calendar November 4th, at 5:30 PM (PDT) to hear Matt Ferry, Fredo Silva and Meghan Poon, Partners at Morrison Foerster, speak about evaluating commercial agreements, developing commercial relationships with strategic partners, manufacturers and other commercialization partners.
Bonus: Following the commercial agreements session, MoFo will offer 1:1 office hours with ECVC Partner Fredo Silva and Food+Ag Patent Co-head Meghan Poon to cover your financing, structuring and IP questions.
Who Should Attend
Founders, CEOs and senior executives of Food + Ag startups that are entering, negotiating or scaling commercial relationships with strategic partners, manufacturers and other commercialization partners.
For Food + Ag startups, the fastest path to scale often runs through established manufacturers, suppliers, toll manufacturers, distributors, retailers and strategic partners. But the agreement that unlocks growth today can also restrict financing, future partnerships or an eventual exit if it isn't structured with the next stage of the company in mind.
What the Session will Cover
- Pilot → Partnership: Structuring pilots with a clear path to commercial agreements and scaled relationships
- Tolling & Manufacturing Agreements: Structuring tolling and contract manufacturing relationships around capacity, pricing, quality, supply, performance and ownership of process improvements—without giving up unnecessary control over technology or future production
- Strategic Collaboration: Joint development, co-development and other corporate partnership structures
- Supply & Distribution: Building agreements that can support growth as volumes, customers and markets expand
- Technology & IP: Licensing technology while protecting IP, data, know-how and future value
- Exclusivity: Navigating exclusivity, minimum commitments, rights of first refusal and similar strategic rights
- Negotiating Leverage: How startups can negotiate effectively when the corporate partner has substantially more leverage
- Planning for the Next Round: Avoiding provisions that can complicate future financing, strategic partnerships or M&A
What Founders Will Leave With
A practical framework for evaluating commercial agreements not just based on what they unlock today, but on what they could enable—or constrain—tomorrow.
About Our Speakers
, Partner, Morrison Foerster
Matt Ferry is a partner in the San Diego office and a member of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group, advising innovative and mission-driven life sciences and frontier technology companies. Matt has more than a decade of experience in structuring, drafting, negotiating, and executing strategic transactions where intellectual property (IP), technology, data, and information assets drive the deal. Matt is passionate about advising innovative companies—from startups to large enterprises and nonprofits—that are developing technologies and solutions to improve peoples’ lives and address global challenges. His practice primarily focuses on clients across the life sciences and technology sectors, including Food+Agriculture (plants and crop sciences, agriculture and farming, alternative proteins, animal and plant production, food products and consumer goods, consumer packaged goods, and vitamins and supplements).
, Partner, Morrison Foerster
A key member of the firm’s Social Enterprise + Impact Investing Group and the Emerging Companies + Venture Capital practice, he advises companies and investors—particularly in life sciences, agtech, and fintech—on a wide range of corporate and securities matters, with a strong focus on venture capital, growth equity and corporate venture capital financings. Alfredo brings particular expertise in complex restructuring and recapitalization transactions. He also advises both impact-first and return-first investors on building mission lock into their strategies, works with clients to form Delaware public benefit corporations and structure for-profit/non-profit “hybrid” entities that can attract both philanthropic and traditional capital, and on a pro bono basis advises nonprofits and small businesses on formation, structuring and governance matters.
, Partner, Morrison Foerster
As chair of the biotechnology group and the Co-Head of the Food+Ag patent group, Dr. Meghan Poon counsels clients on patent preparation and prosecution, portfolio strategy, and IP due diligence in the areas of life science and agriculture. Meghan is passionate about working with cutting edge technologies at the frontier or science that impacts human health and global food security. She has significant experience in diverse technologies including antibodies, cell and gene therapies, diagnostics, and gene edited plants. Meghan manages a cross-technology team to service clients developing technology at the interface of life science and AI.
More about ’s Food+Ag Group:
We are the leading food and agriculture law firm, from seed to scale and field to plate. Ranked Band 1 in Chambers Global Agribusiness, our Food + Agriculture practice includes more than 150 lawyers and patent agents around the globe. MoFo has helped shape the industry for two decades, representing leaders and innovators across the value chain, from disruptive new startups to Fortune 50 companies, to the lenders and investors that finance the industry. We provide our clients with holistic, innovative strategies in the areas of debt and equity financing, IP strategy, commercial transactions, FDA regulatory compliance, private equity, M&A, and more.
Learn from a Leader
Learn from a Leader is an ongoing speaker series hosted by AgStart, a non-profit organization supporting entrepreneurs advancing innovation in agriculture and food technology (AgriFoodTech). AgStart hosts experts from the AgriFoodTech sector to speak on topics relevant to our entrepreneurial ecosystem. We aim to provide a space to connect with local individuals and learn from leaders in the AgriFoodTech sector on topics relevant to our AgStart community. In-person events take place in our AgStart Event Center: 1100 Main St., Suite 170, Woodland, CA 95695.
Learn more at www.agstart.org
Event venue & nearby stays
AgStart, 1100 Main Street, Woodland, United States
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