Gunderson Dettmer

Marcia is the founding partner of the firm’s Ann Arbor office and practices in our Ann Arbor and Silicon Valley offices.

After spending 15 years practicing in Silicon Valley, Marcia led the firm’s effort to establish a presence in the Midwest as the founding partner of the firm’s Ann Arbor office. Marcia maintains a robust company and investor-side practice in the Midwest while continuing her active corporate and securities practice on both coasts.

Marcia is committed to investing time and energy with entrepreneurs and investors from the incorporation stage onward. Marcia works closely with executive teams and boards on strategic decisions and then focuses on implementing the company’s plans as seamlessly and efficiently as possible. Her clients frequently report that they appreciate her strategic insights as well as her very practical, business-minded approach. Marcia truly enjoys working directly with her company clients and forms long-term relationships with her clients. As an example, many of her entrepreneur clients return to work with Marcia across two, three or even six different companies. Marcia’s work spans the entire corporate life cycle of companies, from the earliest stages to multi-billion dollar sale transactions or public offerings.

Marcia combines her dynamic company practice with a top-tier investor-side practice, routinely representing venture capital firms in their investment activities, related business matters and strategic counseling.

Marcia is a member of the firm’s Management Committee and Compensation Committee.

Case Study: True North Therapeutics

Marcia Hatch, a partner at Gunderson Dettmer, represents a variety of life sciences companies throughout their lifecycles, and has led many of them to successful mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings, including the acquisition of Flexus Biosciences to Bristol Meyers Squibb for $1.2B, the largest purchase price of a preclinical trial life sciences company at the time.

True North Therapeutics was spun out of Gunderson Dettmer client iPierian, Inc. Nancy Stagliano, CEO of iPierian, became CEO of True North.

Gunderson Dettmer corporate, tax and intellectual property lawyers, led by Marcia, structured True North’s spinout from parent company, iPierian, and worked to extract the IP that would become its lead pharmaceutical product candidate, TNT009, a drug for the treatment of rare auto-immune diseases. While True North’s scientists worked on product development, Marcia, Nancy and their teams negotiated a series of venture
financings to fund the company’s R&D efforts.

As TNT009 advanced through clinical trials and the company began the parallel development of more drug andidates, Nancy and her team needed a broader funding strategy. True North and Gunderson developed a multi-pronged plan that included preparing for an IPO, conducting a mezzanine financing, and developing key strategic relationships.

As True North readied for its IPO in May 2017, Bioverativ (NASDAQ: BIVV), a global biotechnology company, presented Nancy and her team with an acquisition offer. Gunderson’s M&A specialists negotiated a definitive agreement to sell True North for up to $825 million in just three weeks.

“Gunderson’s team has always been a true partner for True North—an extension of our management,” said Nancy Stagliano, CEO. “We needed every bit of their experience with complex transactions to make this happen in a way that benefitted everyone. Their strategic guidance, knowledge of our investors and their needs, and ability to structure financings and exit transactions in creative, win-win ways, has really guided us toward success from the very beginning.”