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MoFo Pitch Day Boston

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Morrison Foerster’s Life Sciences and Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practices are excited to host an in-person Pitch Day...

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Morrison Foerster’s Life Sciences and Emerging Companies and Venture Capital practices are excited to host an in-person Pitch Day at the Cambridge Innovation Center in Cambridge, MA on October 23, 2025. During the session, a group of selected companies will pitch to a panel of industry investors and attorneys in front of a live audience. Come hear about innovative startups while networking with emerging companies and VCs in the Boston area.<h4>Event Schedule (subject to change):</h4><ul><li>4:30 p.m. – Registration and Networking</li><li>5:00 p.m. – Pitch Day Begins</li><li>6:30 p.m. – Pitch Day Ends and Cocktail Hour Begins</li><li>7:30 p.m. – Event Ends</li></ul>Please RSVP if you plan to attend.We hope you can join us!<hr>

MoFo Pitch Day Boston

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Matt Karlyn has 25 years of experience in working with companies in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, medical device, and technology industries on a wide range of commercial life sciences, licensing, and technology transactions. His clients range from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups, and he regularly advises companies on matters involving IP commercialization, complex collaboration transactions, licensing initiatives, subscription-based economics, and business transactions related to the procurement, development, commercialization, and use of technology and life sciences products. He has also worked with a number of clients on corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, as well as private equity and venture capital financing.Matt is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA for Intellectual Property: Licensing in Massachusetts. Clients in Chambers describe Matt as: “accessible and engaged, and he is really focused on getting the right answer for us."<h4>Life Sciences</h4>Life sciences clients, including pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare companies, rely on Matt for his breadth of knowledge in licensing, collaboration, and commercialization strategies across a wide range of transactions designed to strengthen operations and maximize value. Matt’s clients come from sectors across the global economy and include emerging companies, privately held companies, and many of the world’s biggest brands.Matt has broad experience with commercial transactions and agreements in the life sciences space, including:<ul><li>Intellectual property and technology licenses</li><li>Collaboration and development transactions</li><li>Commercialization agreements</li><li>Supply and manufacturing transactions</li></ul><h4>Technology</h4>Matt regularly advises on the use of technology in business, pricing strategies, and market terms across a wide variety of technology transactions that benefit clients both large and small. He has extensive experience negotiating a wide range of transactions, including:<ul><li>Enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management licensing and implementation transactions</li><li>Cloud-based transactions including software-as-a-services, platform-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service.</li><li>Software licensing</li><li>Supply chain and procurement deals</li></ul>Additionally, Matt has worked on many of the largest outsourcing transactions in the United States, representing numerous Fortune 100 companies on information technology, business process, finance and accounting, facilities services, and other outsourcing transactions.Matt is a frequent author and speaker on topics pertaining to drafting and negotiating commercial technology, outsourcing, and licensing transactions. He has published over 25 articles (including chapters in two books), given over 175 presentations on licensing, technology, outsourcing, and data security, and is the co-author of A Guide to IT Contracting: Checklists, Tools, and Techniques.Matt is currently co-chair of the Legal and Regulatory policy group at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. He served as chair of the New England Chapter of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, and served for five years on the board of directors of Julie’s Family Learning Program, a wellness program for mothers and children in South Boston. Matt has also been elected as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Matt Karlyn

Partner

Jesse Nevarez is a partner in the New York office and is a member of the Emerging Companies + Venture Capital practice group.Jesse advises startups, growth-stage, and later-stage companies primarily in the technology, healthcare, and life sciences industries, including those in the artificial intelligence, fintech, ad-tech, clean energy, digital media, software, consumer, digital health, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics spaces, and related fields. As part of his practice, he counsels companies on a range of matters, such as entity formation, seed and venture capital financings, growth equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, SEC compliance, IPOs, and other capital markets transactions. Additionally, he regularly represents venture capital firms and investment banks on a variety of investor-side deals.Jesse has been named to the Lawyers of Color “Hot List” and named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer “Rising Star.”He has previously served as a member of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association and the Boston College Law School Black Alumni Network, while also serving as a mentor for the MIT $100K Launch Competition.<h4>Selected Venture Financings</h4><ul><li>Scope3, PBC in its Series A and Series B financings</li><li>Firsthand Labs, Inc. in its Series Seed financing</li><li>Cockroach Labs, Inc. in its Series F financing and secondary transactions</li><li>Freshly Inc. in its Series B, Series C, and Series C-1 financings</li><li>CMDTY Inc. in its Series A financing</li><li>Podium Data, Inc. in its Series Seed and Series A financings</li><li>Yumanity Therapeutics in its Series A, Series B, and Series C financings</li><li>Enspire DBS Therapy in its Series A financing</li></ul><h4>Selected Mergers + Acquisitions</h4><ul><li>Open Lending, LLC in its business combination with Nebula Acquisition Corporation, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company</li><li>TripAdvisor in its acquisition of Viator</li><li>TAG Manufacturing in its acquisition by Center Rock Capital Partners</li><li>Neon Therapeutics, Inc. in its acquisition by BioNTech</li><li>Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. in its exclusive option agreement with Allergan plc</li></ul><h4>Selected Public Offerings</h4><ul><li>Sage Therapeutics, Inc. in its $103.5 million initial public offering and several follow-on public offerings raising an aggregate of $2.07 billion</li><li>Neon Therapeutics, Inc. in its $100 million initial public offering</li><li>Magenta Therapeutics, Inc. in its $100 million initial public offering</li><li>Ascentage Pharma Group International in its $61 million initial public offering</li><li>TPI Composites, Inc. in its $79 million initial public offering</li><li>Plug Power Inc. in follow-on offerings raising an aggregate of $146.8 million</li></ul>

Jesse Nevarez

Nathan Vogler is a Partner in the firm’s Patent Group and heads the patent group’s Materials Science and Energy Storage practice. His practice concentrates on domestic and international patent prosecution, IP due diligence, IP counseling, IP portfolio management, and IP litigation support including patent infringement and validity determinations. Nathan has handled matters in all stages of patent prosecution, including new application drafting, office action responses, patent appeals, and continuation and divisional filings. He has drafted and prosecuted patents in various technology areas, including polymer chemistry, composite materials, industrial processing, nanotechnology, catalysts, batteries, magnets, consumer electronics, and software. In addition, Nathan has experience handling reexaminations, reissue applications, and supplemental examinations before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.In addition to his patent prosecution experience, Nathan also has considerable experience in adversarial proceedings before the USPTO including inter partes review proceedings instituted by the America Invents Act. He has experience representing both Petitioners and Patent Owners, and has represented clients in all stages of the proceedings, such as drafting petitions, patent owner responses, expert depositions, and oral hearings before the PTAB.Representative completed post-grant matters include the following:<ul><li>IPR2021-00210, -00211, -00213: Successfully defended patent owner Malvern against three inter partes reviews, resulting in petition denials.</li><li>IPR2017-01312: Successfully defended patent owner HML. The USPTO found all claims patentable in a final written decision.</li><li>IPR2014-01266, -01313: Defended patent owner HML against two inter partes reviews by different parties, resulting in claim survival or petition denial.</li></ul>Nathan received his J.D. with high honors from The George Washington University Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of the George Washington Law Review. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering, with a minor in chemistry, summa cum laude from Purdue University. While in law school, Mr. Vogler was a summer associate at Morrison Foerster.Nathan is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, Virginia and District of Columbia and is registered to practice before the USPTO.

Nathan Vogler

Michael (Mike) Ward is co-chair of the firm's Life Sciences + Healthcare Group, Patent Group, Intellectual Property Group, and Food + Agriculture Group.As co-chair of the Patent Group, Mike manages a team that includes 80+ Ph.D.s and 100+ attorneys and others with advanced scientific degrees in life sciences and related engineering disciplines. From small molecules and antibodies to gene editing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, MoFo has deep experience protecting some of the most important innovations in the life sciences and food and agriculture sectors.Life SciencesFor his work across the life sciences sector, Mike was named San Francisco Biotechnology Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America in 2020 and is recommended for his patent strategy and prosecution practice in LMG Life Sciences. He also led the team that was named 2022 Patent Management and Strategy Firm of the Year at the 2022 LMG Life Sciences Americas Awards.Food + AgricultureRecognized as “one of the world’s foremost plant and agriculture IP lawyers,” Mike manages a wide range of intellectual property issues related to plants and plant products. He and his team advise clients on plant and plant utility patents; licensing agreements for plant IP; litigation in U.S. state and federal court and before the International Trade Commission; and regulatory approvals from the USDA, FDA, and EPA for gene edited and genetically engineered plants.Patent Strategy + ProsecutionMike is a Legal 500 US Hall of Fame lawyer for patent prosecution and is consistently named one of the leading IP lawyers by Managing Intellectual Property, Chambers USA and Chambers Global, and IAM Patent 1000.Mike works closely with many clients to develop and manage their patent portfolios. He helps clients identify, monitor, and assess the infringement risks of third-party patents. He also assists clients in preparing both offensive and defensive patent portfolios, with a particular emphasis on drafting patent applications that will be utilized in licensing and in litigation efforts.IP Due DiligenceFor venture capitalists seeking to invest in early- and mid-stage companies, underwriters involved in IPOs, and companies seeking to acquire or merge with other companies, Mike has managed extensive IP diligence. His work includes assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of patent portfolios, evaluation of freedom to operate issues, and strategic recommendations for maximizing the value of patent portfolios going forward.Mike also works closely with the IP Litigation Group on various litigation matters including patent interferences to determine the first-to-invent and patent re-examination work and actively participates in both mediation and arbitration proceedings on behalf of clients in the life sciences and food and agriculture areas.He is a frequent lecturer and speaker. Among numerous speaking engagements, Mike is the IP instructor at the UC Davis Licensing Academy and founded Morrison Foerster’s annual Harvard Biotechnology Club Fall Patent Law Course.Mike holds a Ph.D. in plant physiology (biochemistry) and an M.S. in agronomy from the University of California, Davis; a B.S. in biology from the University of California, Berkeley; and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law. He was a post-doctoral fellow in plant molecular biology at the Harvard Medical School and the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he worked on the Arabidopsis genome project.

Michael Ward

Life Sciences + Healthcare

Emerging Companies + Venture Capital

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MoFo Pitch Day Boston

23 Oct 2025 4:30 PM - 7:30 PM EDT

Event Schedule (subject to change):