On April 1, WilmerHale's Emerging Company Practice hosted its second QuickLaunch University, which drew more than 40 QuickLaunch clients and attendees from the startup community to the firm's Boston office.

The event featured an afternoon of practical and business-focused presentations on critical issues facing early-stage companies. Cybersecurity, Privacy and Communications Practice Co-Chair Reed Freeman and Partner Heather Zachary discussed how to avoid key privacy, data security and advertising mistakes; representatives from fama PR, Convertiv, Triton Digital and Mavrck discussed public relations and marketing strategies for startups; Corporate Practice Co-Chair Mick Bain and Aaron Lapat of Park Square Executive Search discussed founder's equity and startup company compensation; and Partner Ed Pease, Techstars Director Ty Danko, NextView Ventures Partner and Co-Founder Rob Go, Silicon Valley Bank Relationship Partner Pete McDonald, and Dip Patel, CEO of firm client ecoVent, addressed early-stage financing strategies.

Building off the success of and feedback from last year's inaugural QuickLaunch University, this year's program included a laptop station where attendees could check out WilmerHale Launch and a networking happy hour following the presentations. In addition, logos and descriptions of the companies in attendance were included in the program materials and rotated on a screen during the various presentations, in order to further encourage networking.

Among the companies featured were Admetsys, AK|Advisors, Cast, embr labs, Idrysion, Just Add Cooking, Lengio, LuminaCare Solutions, Mokha Origin, Recon Therapeutics, Salubris Analytics, Sonic Bloom, Spatter, Supply and TREK Therapeutics.

The success of the QuickLaunch University series marks an important step in the evolution of the firm's QuickLaunch Program from a fee-deferral arrangement into a competitive differentiator that stakes out the firm's position as a leader in the delivery of legal services to startups.

"This event serves as a value add for our existing QuickLaunch clients," says Emerging Company Practice Co-Chair David Gammell who, along with Pease, Bain and Partner Glenn Luinenburg, was instrumental in getting the program up and running. "We do also invite potential clients to this event, as it is an attractive way to entice them to choose WilmerHale over other firms offering fee-deferral programs."

(Attendees listen to practical and business-focused presentations during WilmerHale's QuickLaunch University event.)