Julian Zegelman

Partner | Chief Legal Officer | Chief Compliance Officer

2024 - Current

General Counsel | Chief Compliance Officer

2022 - 2024

Sfermion is an investment firm focused on the non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem. Our goal is to accelerate the emergence of the metaverse by investing in the founders, companies, and entities creating the infrastructure and environments that will form the foundations of our digital future.

General Partner

2020

Step Ahead Capital is a next-generation venture capital firm investing in growth stage and pre-IPO tech companies. We support our portfolio companies by providing growth capital and creating liquidity opportunities for early shareholders. Our prior investments include Robinhood, Carta, Hive, GrubMarket, and others.

General Counsel | Shareholder

2016 - 2022

Joined a team of successful serial entrepreneurs with multiple exits as a founding shareholder and outside General Counsel. As GC, I advise the executive team on legal matters, manage outside counsel, draft and negotiate strategic partnerships, structure the overall business model from a legal compliance viewpoint. FlashGrid makes database high availability simple, robust, and infrastructure-agnostic. FlashGrid software allows large and small enterprises to run mission-critical databases on a commodity compute, storage, and network infrastructure of their choice – in the public cloud or in data center.

Partner | General Counsel

2018 - 2021

Jaguar Capital Advisors is a venture capital firm investing in growth stage and pre-IPO tech companies. We focus on Enterprise Software, SaaS, Fintech, and Digital Assets Infrastructure (the "picks and shovels" for blockchain revolution). To date, Jaguar Capital Advisors and predecessor funds made over 60 investments with strong returns. Some of our recent portfolio companies (including partner's personal investments) include Robinhood, Carta, Thoughtspot, GitLab, Protocol Labs (Filecoin), Chainalysis, OpenWeb, Bitso and others.

General Counsel | Executive VP Corporate Development

2016 - 2021

InnovaSonic is commercializing disruptive self-cleaning technology based on transparent ultrasonic micro-transducer arrays integrated with glass or plastic. Products under development: - wiperless windshield, self-cleanable LIDAR domes, rear view cameras, solar panels, windows. - haptic displays, fingerprint-ID and biometrics, wireless charging - high yield & throughput micro-LED displays assembly. www.innovasonic.com IP portfolio: 5 patents Company is backed by Orbita Capital Partners, Jaguar Capital Advisors, and select angel investors. 2019 resident at EvoNexus, leading deep tech incubator in California.

Corporate Attorney | Managing Partner

2019 - 2021

Managed a boutique corporate and securities law firm with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The firm was a successor to Velton Zegelman PC, originally established in 2011. My practice focused on entity formation, venture capital fund formation, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, venture capital transactions, private securities offerings, reverse mergers and alternative public offerings, equity and debt financing, corporate governance and compliance. Firm was ultimately merged with another mid-size corporate law boutique.

General Counsel | Venture Partner

2017 - 2020

TMT Investments PLC (LON: TMT) is a Series A focused venture capital fund investing in SaaS, enterprise software, AI / ML, digital health, and direct-to-consumer e-commerce. We are based in London, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Consistent performance in top 5% of funds in our vintage. My focus : deal sourcing, due diligence and legal deal structure, building partnerships with co-investors and key ecosystem players, work with portfolio companies as board member, serve as general counsel for the fund. Notable Portfolio Companies: Wrike ($800M exit to Vista Equity Partners), One Page Company (ASX IPO), Bolt (fka Taxify), Friendly Data (exit to ServiceNow), Pipedrive ($1.5B exit to Vista Equity Partners), BackBlaze (IPO: BLZE), and Scentbird.

FundersClub Investor Panel

2015 - 2020

Member of an advisory panel responsible for sourcing and evaluating potential investments for FundersClub, the world's first online venture capital platform. FundersClub is backed by Y Combinator, First Round Capital, Spark Capital, Intel Capital, Draper, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, and others. Since its launch in 2012, FundersClub invested over $86М in portfolio companies. In turn its portfolio companies raised over $1.7B of follow-on capital and reached an estimated combined valuation of over $7.6 billion, while creating at least 4200 new jobs. The unrealized Net IRR for 2013 vintage was 49%, calculated as of 03/31/2017.

Corporate Attorney | Partner

2011 - 2018

My practice focused on assisting clients with their diverse business needs, including entity formation, venture capital fund formation, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, venture capital transactions, private securities offerings, reverse mergers and alternative public offerings, equity and debt financing, corporate governance and compliance, intellectual property protection and transfer, licensing, and tax-exempt entities formation, restructuring, and regulatory compliance. I also represented a number of venture funds and angel investors in their investments into portfolio companies. Cryptocurrency Practice: my typical clients were cryptocurrency miners, cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain software developers, crypto investment funds, and issuers of digital assets (tokens). Representing clients in a variety of securities law matters and corporate transactions related to cryptocurrencies.

General Counsel | VP Corporate Development

2011 - 2016

Rolith, Inc. was developing advanced nanostructured products for consumer electronics, solar and green building markets using a proprietary nanolithography technology. Rolith was formed by Dr. Boris Kobrin, Prof. Mark Brongersma (Stanford) and Julian Zegelman in 2008. We were backed by DFJ VTB Capital Aurora (DFJ affiliate fund) and AGC America, Inc. (venture arm of Asahi Glass Group). I served on the Board of Directors and as General Counsel/VP Corporate Development managed the company's legal and business affairs. Together with Rolith CEO, I co-led M&A negotiations with multiple interested parties culminating in a successful exit to Metamaterial Technologies Inc. (MTI) in May 2016.

General Counsel

2008 - 2011

Advanced nanostructured products (NanoWeb™) development based on proprietary technology for large surface area, high-throughput and low cost nanolithography: RML™. • Solid IP portfolio: 18 issued patents Worldwide. • “MothEye” anti-reflective glass technology is licensed to the World largest glass manufacturer - Asahi Glass Company - for display market. Rolith demonstrated World's best anti-reflective performance (R<0.1% at 0+/-30 deg view @ 400-700 nm) • Disruptive technology development: submicron invisible transparent metal mesh conductors (ITO-alternative technology) – NanoWeb™ - for touch screen sensors, transparent antennas, heaters, “smart glass”, EMI shielding, solar panels and LED/OLED lighting. Rolith’s NanoWeb™ technology is the only truly-invisible and Moire-free metal mesh touch sensor on the market; it has been recognized as The Best Manufacturing Technology by Printed Electronics Industry Show in 2013. • Demonstration of nanostructured 1 meter long glass plates and PET films • Proprietary nanostructured cylindrical mask (mold) development. World’s first “seamless” mask for continuous printing of nanostructures