Explore how you can use these federal grants to scale your operation and open up your business to both public and private customers.
About this Event
Investing in early stage companies is inherently a risky endeavor. For high-risk startups in the R&D phase, the federal government may be your most promising investor. Federal SBIR/STTR programs award $3.2 billion in high-risk R&D funding annually to qualified small businesses developing game-changing technologies.

Join Rockridge Venture Law® attorneys Kevin Christopher and Shayn Fernandez to explore how you can use these federal grants to scale your operation and open up your business to both public and private customers. From the perspective of an SBIR application reviewer and attorney, you’ll learn more about how federal contracting can help transition your innovative idea from R&D into commercialization and impact.

Who should attend:

Anyone planning to submit an SBIR/STTR proposal in the next year
Small businesses, entrepreneurs, researchers, students
Companies that are seeking or have recently obtained SBIR funding

Presenters:

Kevin Christopher, Founder of Rockridge Venture Law®. Kevin is a registered patent attorney, entrepreneur, county and state commissioner, National Institutes of Health (NIH) RadX faculty member, and National Science Foundation (NSF) program evaluator. Kevin has co-founded or acted as key advisor for a broad range of startups, including those with algal protein production, biomass energy conversion, men’s toiletries, microbiome editing skincare, and hepatocellular carcinoma diagnostic technologies. Most relevant to this conversation, Kevin has served as an NSF Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) application review panelist, an NIH SBIR consultant, and was part of the inaugural SBA Innovation Corps.

Shayn Fernandez, Corporate Lead at Rockridge Venture Law®. Shayn is general corporate counsel for public and private companies, entrepreneurs, and investors. He advises clients in various stages of an organizational life-cycle on formation and governance, fundraising, securities offerings, and employee equity incentives, joint ventures and contracting vehicles, and mergers and acquisitions. Shayn also represents government contractors with teaming strategies, contract negotiation, regulatory compliance, and protests in various state, local, and federal forums.