Welcome to the My High Tech Startup blog!
I’d been on the fence about the idea of blogging for some time. What would I have to say and would anyone even read it? At a Seattle Lunch 2.0 event, I engaged in a discussion about blogging and why folks decided to blog. One of the participants said something that ultimately led me to take the plunge. “Occasionally, I’ll write something on my blog and then later I’ll get a random email or comment that what I wrote was useful. The rest of the time I’m getting started on my providing content for my eulogy.”
About My High Tech Startup blog
These writings are meant to provide some information (and occasionally an insight or two) to individuals involved in the entrepreneurial world. Entrepreneurs, investors, techies, inventors, lawyers, accountants, futurists, bankers, candlestick makers, lovers, fighters, Olympians and anyone else who stumbles across this page wondering where to find Seattle on a map may find this useful. The blog will cover topics ranging from legal issues faced by startups to trends in venture capital to a sense of the Seattle entrepreneurial community to my own personal interests in technologies or life. If there is something that you’d like to see or a question you’d like me to try and answer, just let me know. I’ll do my best.
You’ll see some great cartoon images here on the site. Thanks to Kansas City artist Travis Fox who drew the images you see here and provided the images in the book.
What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High Tech Business Venture
That’s the title of a book I’ve written (yes, it is a bit long, but it is part of a series… so think “Starting a High Tech Business Venture” for short. This website also contains previews of chapters of the book, documents you can download that are referenced in the book, and information I would have liked to cover, but there just wasn’t enough room. I may be biased, but I think the book is a good resource and hopefully, in conjunction with this website, becomes an even better one.
The formal bio
Eric A. Koester is an attorney Cooley Godward Kronish LLP (previously with Heller Ehrman LLP’s Venture Law Group) and has a practice focused on emerging technology companies, venture capital firms and investment banks, with particular emphases on venture capital and bank financings, corporate partnerships, commercial agreements, intellectual property licensing, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. Eric is a graduate of the business school at Marquette University and a graduate of The George Washington University School of Law. Eric is also a certified public accountant.
Prior to joining Heller Ehrman, Eric held financial and accounting-related positions at Morgan Stanley and Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. While attending law school, Eric held positions in the Enforcement Division of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (formerly NASD, Inc.) assisting with ongoing securities industry enforcement proceedings, as a Summer Associate at the Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C., and in the legal department of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) focusing on issues of antitrust in the healthcare contracting industry.
Eric is married to Allison Koester, a PhD candidate in Accountancy at the University of Washington. They have two pugs, Bailey and Riley. Eric loves to travel and his lifelong goal is to make it to all 100 of the Hillman Wonders of the World. So far, 36 down… lots to go.
For more about me, you can also visit my LinkedIn page here.
