Casey Cotter

Current

• Engagement Director / Principal at Casey Cotter & Associates

Past

• Director of Partner Relations at VideoEgg
• Intern (Associate) at GKM Ventures
• Principal, Business and Corporate Development at Travelocity.com

• Business Development Manager; also Product Marketing (channel mgmt) at Preview Travel
• Manager, Strategy and Finance; also Operations Manager, New Markets (Rollout Team) at CitySearch
• Analyst, Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch

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Education

• University of California, Los Angeles - The Anderson School of Management
• Wellesley College

Connections

177 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• Room to Read
• The Princess Project
• Social Capital Markets

Casey Cotter’s Summary

* 10+ years of management / investment experience in the technology, media, and consumer internet spaces (at start-up, rapid growth / professionalization, and public stages)
* Completed number of consulting engagements for large VC and buyout/mezzanine funds, start-up companies, as well as angel investors.
* Solid due diligence and deal sourcing, structuring, negotiating and closing experience.
* Expert consultative and solutions selling skills.
* Exceptional financial and operational modeling skills.

Casey Cotter’s Specialties:

* Business plans.
* Product development and go to market plans.
* Post-launch strategy and execution: + acquire and retain customers/users; + measure and improve various conversion and return metrics; + create compelling user experiences; + identify further product needs, prioritized.
* Investor presentation preparation and coaching.
* Negotiations – partnership, investment, and acquisition structuring and management (including integration planning and execution).

Casey Cotter’s Experience

• Engagement Director / Principal

  Casey Cotter & Associates

  (Management Consulting industry)

  September 2004 — Present (5 years 3 months)

  * Advise clients regarding business plan development and investor presentation and terms/process coaching, as well as product development and go-to-market strategies for early and growth stage companies. Clients primarily in the web 2.0, internet content and community, mobile content and commerce, clean tech, and VC/private equity industries.
  * Performed industry analyses and developed investment theses, as well as conducted due diligence on investment opportunities, for venture capital and private equity clients. Completed investment consulting engagements for large VC and buyout/mezzanine funds, angel investors and a wealth management firm.
  * Teaching Assistant, UCLA Law / UCLA Anderson joint course (“Elements of Economic Orgs: Doing Deals”), 2005

• Director of Partner Relations

  VideoEgg

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

  April 2007 — 2007 (less than a year)

  * Led department responsible for the launch and ongoing relationship management of more than 70 partners.
  * Identified and implemented opportunities for increased content consumption, user adoption, and advertising integration.

• Intern (Associate)

  GKM Ventures

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  July 2003 — January 2004 (7 months)

  Venture capital firm focused on information technology (IT), semiconductors, communications & digital media
  * Evaluated variety of business plans and deals, conducted due diligence, analyzed and modeled financial projections, conducted new business research and strategic planning, as well as assisted with business development for the fund.
  * Member of 12-person review committee which evaluated and coached companies for the Software Council of Southern California's annual VentureNet Conference, a software and information technology conference (http://www.venturenet.org)

• Principal, Business and Corporate Development

  Travelocity.com

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; TSG; Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)

  March 2000 — May 2002 (2 years 3 months)

  * Negotiated and drafted terms, closed deals pertaining to content, distribution, product development, ancillary revenues, and potential investment and merger/acquisition opportunities. Participated in integration teams, as appropriate. Quite comfortable with contractual language and managing drafting process to ensure negotiated terms are reflected well in final agreements.
  * Analyzed various acquisition and investment opportunities and negotiated terms of various financial instruments (convertible debt, equity, and performance warrants).
  * Played key role in hiring process as business development group expanded: benchmarked and wrote various job descriptions, developed and screened candidate pool, short-listed finalist candidates, filled 3 positions with strong performers (doubled team’s size).
  * Conducted preliminary research and analyses for Chairman and CFO related to corporate venturing opportunities.

• Business Development Manager; also Product Marketing (channel mgmt)

  Preview Travel

  (Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)

  1998 — March 2000 (2 years )

  * Negotiated and drafted terms, closed deals pertaining to content, distribution, product development, ancillary revenues, and potential investment opportunities.
  * Co-managed key distribution relationships with AOL, Excite, Lycos, and other strategic partners and affiliates. Created new marketing opportunities (tv, print, web); provided product development input for improved user experience, site navigation, and transaction conversion; oversaw online advertising placements and performance; coordinated editorial and promotional calendars; and provided guidance to senior management concerning opportunities for contractual improvements and improved ROI.
  * Identified opportunity which secured an additional $800,000 in advertising revenues in 1999.
  * Led IR efforts, including: analyst outreach and inquiry handling; assisted in quarterly earnings call drafting and preparation; managed proxy solicitation process; and developed copies of analysts’ models.

• Manager, Strategy and Finance; also Operations Manager, New Markets (Rollout Team)

  CitySearch

  (Public Company; Internet industry)

  1996 — 1997 (1 year )

  * Raised $35 million in private equity financing round. As part of small financing team, helped: build business model, draft offering memorandum, prepare road show documents, and handle due diligence inquiries and presentations.
  * Created enterprise manual of strategy and how to build operating units (each city guide) from assessment through launch phases. Used for training management and in potential investor / partner discussions.
  * Managed teams of up to 20 professionals and staff on various projects.
  * Developed monthly profit and loss reporting, as well as budgeting format and process, for each field office.
  * Identified and developed regular reporting of key performance indicators to track each market’s performance.
  * Developed product-related guidelines to improve production process, customer service and sales force expectations-setting with customers. Trained part of national sales force on these policies. Helped cut production timeline by 75%.

• Analyst, Investment Banking

  Merrill Lynch

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ML; Investment Banking industry)

  June 1994 — August 1996 (2 years 3 months)

  * Completed variety of public and private high yield placements in: healthcare, oil and gas, textiles, electric utilities, telecommunications, and media. Built models for reverse leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, high yield financings, and various warrant, tender and strip yield analyses.
  * Performed research and analysis for M&A and international strategy projects presented to Chairman and CEO.

Casey Cotter’s Education

• University of California, Los Angeles - The Anderson School of Management

  MBA , Finance, Entrepreneurship , 2002 — 2004

  Dean's Fellowship.

  Activities and Societies:

  Entrepreneur Association (500+ member co-curricular club) - Director of Programs (Board of Directors role, elected; managed team of owner-managers, responsible for 125+ events over course of school year). The Executive Committee (TEC)-on-Campus participant. Investment Finance Club. Real Estate Association. Wine Club. Surf Club.

• Wellesley College

  B.A. , International Relations, Russian, Economics , 1990 — 1994

  Honors Program. Senior Honors Thesis. National Dean’s List. Mensa Scholarship.

  Activities and Societies:

  * Student representative to the Wellesley College Board of Trustees (Nominating and Student Life Committees).
  * Wellesley Washington Internship Program.
  * Senator, College Government. Student Organization Funding Committee.
  * Pushkin Institute (USSR Academy of Arts & Sciences) -- intensive Russian language studies and home stay for two terms in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Additional Information

Casey Cotter’s Websites:

• Room to Read
• The Princess Project
• Social Capital Markets

Casey Cotter’s Groups:

Volunteer, MIT-Stanford Venture Lab.

•    VLAB
•    Women 2.0
•    Merrill Lynch Employees and Alumni
•    Wellesley College Alumnae Association
•    85 Broads
•    Social Capital Markets Conference (SoCap09)
•    TEDx San Francisco Bay Area

Casey Cotter’s Honors:

* Graduate / Certified Director, Corporate Directors Institute at UCLA, October 2003.
* Graduate, Harvard Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives (Cambridge, MA), June 2001.
* Reviewer, Finance and Ecommerce categories, The Webby Awards, 1999-2002.

Casey Cotter’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch