John Casnocha is a partner in the firm’s Technology group where he advises founders, emerging growth companies, and venture capital, private equity and other investment funds on corporate and transactional matters, including formations, financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and structuring and executing secondary sales and other private liquidity programs for private companies and their investors. He has guided companies and investors through hundreds of financing and M&A transactions in a wide variety of industries including software, digital media and health, life sciences, fintech, PropTech, climate tech, EdTech, crypto and web3, consumer products, entertainment, and sports. He is the hiring partner of Goodwin’s San Francisco office.
John spends his free time chasing after his three young daughters and exploring the outdoors. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Lone Mountain Children’s Center.
Experience
John’s representation of start-up and late-stage companies spans the entire corporate life-cycle, including pre-incorporation planning, general corporate representation and counseling, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, secondary sales and private liquidity programs, public offerings, corporate governance, and public company representation. He is also a trusted advisor to venture capital funds investing in seed stage through pre-IPO emerging growth companies. John has particular expertise in cross-border transactions and representing non-US companies re-incorporating in the US to take on funding.
John’s representative company clients include: ApeWorX, Archy, Balsa, Bloomreach, Calyptia, ChillPill, Clayful, Clearbit, Constrafor, Doximity, Dynaboard, Foondamate, Evolve Vacation Rental, Exabeam, Gather, Gridware, Holey Grail Donuts, Jam, Jaris, Lightbeam, LiquiDonate, Meesho, Miro, Neuro-ID, OpenLoop, Picslo, Pixaera, Poshmark, Premier Lacrosse League, Provus, PubNub, Qualtrics, Rescription, Scopely, Tekion, TrueNorth, Ubiquitous Influencer, and Zendesk.
Representative Matters
- Has represented numerous companies and venture capital firms in early stage seed financings through late stage growth equity financings. Such firms include 8VC, a16z, Alkeon Capital, Anthos Capital, APX, August Capital, B Capital, Base 10, Cardinal Partners, DivcoWest, GSV Ventures, Heavybit, Lightspeed, Lobby Capital, Nava Ventures, Navitas Capital, Neuberger Berman, OEL Ventures, Outpost Ventures, True Ventures, Uncork Capital, Westbridge Capital, World Innovation Labs, and Y Combinator.
- StorageOS, Inc. in its sale to Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM)
- Represented Hello Digit, Inc. in its sale to Oportun, Inc. (Nasdaq: OPRT)
- Represented Deliverr in its sale to Shopify (NYSE:SHOP)
- Represented Portworx, Inc. in its sale to Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE: PSTG)
- Represented Qualtrics International Inc. in its sale to SAP SE (NYSE: SAP)
- Represented Xoom, Inc. (Nasdaq: XOOM) in its sale to Paypal, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYPL)
- Represented Authy, Inc. in its sale to Twilio, Inc. (NYSE: TWLO)
- Represented Codenomicon, Inc. in its sale to Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS)
- Represented BEEcube, Inc. in its sale to NI (Nasdaq: NATI)
- Represented Quick Left, Inc. in its asset sale to Cognizant, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTSH)
- Represented Specialty’s Café & Bakery, Inc. in its sale to FEMSA Comercio, S.A. de C.V.
- Represented Curse, Inc. in its sale to Twitch, Inc.
- Represented Qualtrics International, Inc. in its acquisition of Statwing, Inc.
- Represented Amobee, Inc. (SingTel) in its acquisition of assets of Videology, Inc.
- Represented 1020 Inc. (Placecast) in its sale to Ericsson, Inc.
- Represented Friendly Finances, Inc. in its sale to Credit Karma, Inc.
- Represented Ocera Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCRX) in its sale to Mallinckrodt (NYSE: MKN)
- Represented Trooly, Inc. in its sale to Airbnb, Inc.
- Represented Doximity, Inc. (NYSE: DOCS) in its initial public offering
- Represented Poshmark, Inc. (NYSE: POSH) in its initial public offering
- Represented underwriters in the Qualtrics International, Inc. (Nasdaq: XM) initial public offering
- Represented Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANTH) in various equity offerings
- Represented Amplify Snack Brands, Inc. (NYSE: BETR) in its follow-on public offering
- Represented Blueprint Medicines, Inc. (NYSE: BPMC) in its follow-on public offering
- Represented MyoKardia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MYOK) in its follow-on public offering
- Represented Qualtrics International, Inc. in its dual track proposed initial public offering and sale
- Represented Truck Hero, Inc. in its dual track proposed initial public offering and sale
- Represented underwriters in the Sonim Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: SONM) initial public offering
- Represented underwriters in the ForeScout Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSCT) initial public offering and follow-on offering
- Represented underwriters in the Tintri, Inc. initial public offering
Professional Experience
Credentials
Education
JD
University of California, Berkeley School of Law
BA
Amherst College
Clerkships
Hon. Joseph C. Spero, USDC, N.D. Cal.
Admissions
Bars
- California
Recognition & Awards
John was selected to Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars list for 2021 and 2022.