Introduction: 0:00

• Introducing Vanessa Wu, General Counsel at Rippling and former General Counsel at LiveRamp.
• Starting her career in litigation at Latham & Watkins.

Becoming a top dealmaker at LiveRamp: 1:33

• Closing two major deals shortly after transitioning into corporate law from litigation.
• Realizing that any legal training can prepare you to handle deals and M&A.
• Working under a CEO with a history of making acquisitions.
• Enlisting outside counsel that work through the night to finish a deal.

Moving quickly to close deals: 7:06

• Developing a deep reserve of cash for acquisitions after selling off your parent company.
• Losing a major deal after an exclusivity period lapsed over a holiday weekend.
• Understanding that the goal from a legal perspective should be to close deals as quickly as possible.

Offering operational solutions to small and medium businesses at Rippling: 10:08

• Providing an all-in-one platform for HR, IT, and finance, including onboarding, expense management, and equipment solutions.
• Joining as the first lawyer in a company that has grown to more than 3000 employees.
• Acquiring series B financing during the pandemic-related market crash.
• Executing deals quickly by preparing disclosures in advance of sharing the term sheet.
• Working under a CEO who understands the value of disclosure in order to maintain speed without sacrificing diligence.
• Setting yourself up for an easy process when going public.
• Exposing your own risk factors so you can address them in the future.

Surviving the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank: 23:14

• Feeling like the world was ending overnight.
• Recounting the experience and the immediate decisions that needed to be made to protect Rippling and its clients’ paychecks.
• Paying the paychecks of over 10,000 workers with your company’s emergency reserve funds.
• Making enormous changes over the course of a weekend without sacrificing diligence.
• Benefiting from a reputational bump because of how effectively they operated during a crisis.

Collaborating with finance as a legal team: 36:21

• Maintaining an approach to financing that is equal parts conservative and aggressive.
• Letting finance drive the narrative that brings you to the term sheet.
• Eliciting investor interest with solid metrics.
• Sending out diligence checklists and other documents to investors so there’s no need for follow-up.

Tips for a fast and low-fee financing deal making process: 40:54

• Being mindful about the fees you say you will cover on your term sheets.
• Focusing on risk by having parties bear their own costs.

Favorite parts of day-to-day work: 41:54

• Being involved in the development of regulated products.
• Divulging your biggest professional pet peeves.

Book recommendations: 44:22

• Matt Levine’s Money Stuff newsletter from Bloomberg.

What you wish you’d known as a young lawyer: 45:28

• Flipping your mentality to open yourself to unexpected career paths.