Skip to main content

Daniel I. DeWolf

Member / Chair, Technology Practice; Co-chair, Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice

[email protected]

+1.212.692.6223

Share:

Daniel is a leading authority on growth companies and venture capital law — and has worked on pioneering online capital-raising methods since the Internet’s beginning. He is immersed in the national and international ecosystem of emerging companies and investors focused on start-ups. He has also been a member of NYU Law School’s faculty since 2003, where he teaches venture capital law. Earlier, he co-founded and served as managing director of an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City.

Daniel is Chair of Mintz's Technology Practice Group and Co-chair of the firm’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice Group. In addition to his active legal practice, he is an adjunct professor of law at the NYU Law School. Daniel is also Editor of MintzEdge, an online resource for entrepreneurs that includes useful tools and information for starting and growing a company.

Before joining Mintz, Daniel was head of venture capital funds and a managing director of SoundView Technology Group, Inc. (formerly Wit Capital), a technology-focused investment bank. Prior to joining SoundView, he was head of the corporate and new media and e-law practice groups at one of the leading New York firms representing early stage and technology companies.

Daniel has more than 35 years of corporate transactional experience, both as a lawyer and as a businessman, and has been an advisor to many emerging and developmental stage companies. He is a board member of several technology companies and was a co-founder and Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm.

Additionally, Daniel is an author of a leading treatise on venture capital called Venture Capital: Forms and Analysis (Law Journal Press, 2007).

viewpoints

Recognizing that physical therapy will always be in demand, Dr. Stephen Fealy MD, a leading orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), and Greg Peters, a leading health and fitness expert, joined forces to make the overall physical therapy industry and experience more effective and efficient, thus BetterPT was conceived.

Read more
This issue includes two articles that challenge conventional thinking. The first, called “Software is Still Patent Eligible,” makes the case that software patents can still be obtained. IP generally accretes in value over time and is critically important to the value proposition of many enterprises. While some commentators believe that software patents are no longer worth trying to obtain, we disagree. The second article is about a novel way to construct a more balanced approach to the share ownership of founders and investors. People often forget that the NVCA (National Venture Capital Association) forms are created by counsel to the venture capital industry and as such are generally biased in favor of the investor. Our article proposes a novel solution to mitigate this bias and the solution is both simple and equitable.

Read more
Our client, Benji Cohen, was running an Energy Markets Division at Macquarie when he had a lightbulb moment. Everywhere he looked valuation models were being put together in the most laborious way imaginable, with Excel tables containing hundreds of columns and thousands of rows. Benji saw a real point of pain in the marketplace and acted on it. Thus, in 2012, Benji created T-REX as a subscription-based, SaaS, FinTech platform that could compress the time for the valuation process to make the process 50 times faster and more accurate as well. And, the focus would be in a growing niche — the renewable energy sector. Benji was able to see the size of the opportunity, the point of pain in the marketplace, and the solution. With much hard work and great execution, T-REX is now a leader in this part of the FinTech space. In this edition of TechConnect, we highlight T-REX in our Innovator Profile.
Read more
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York City, T-REX’s secure, enterprise SaaS-based analytics, risk, and portfolio management platform standardizes and provides transparency to the complex structured products evaluation process, increasing liquidity and creating significant investment opportunities for the hundreds of billions of dollars of capital across various esoteric, non-commoditized asset classes.

Read more
If there is one common theme that entrepreneurs tend to have, it is fire – meaning, many entrepreneurs are passionate about an exciting idea that they seek to turn into a business. However, entrepreneurs often quickly realize that, in order to make their fire glow high and bright for the world to see, they need fuel – meaning, capital.
Read more

Changing World of Raising Capital

September 15, 2016 | Article | By Daniel DeWolf, Megan Gates

The world of raising capital changed over the last several years. Offerings of securities generally used to fall into two main buckets: (i) private placements under the old Rule 506, or (ii) a public offering.
Read more
Vidrovr can index, search, and recommend video content in a cost-effective, automatic, and accurate manner. Vidrovr addresses three key market needs: 1. Domain and customer-specific automatic metadata generation for videos, 2. Video Content Management solutions that enable automatic placement and recommendation of video clips for across a company’s digital products, and 3. Automatically linking and sourcing visual social media content that is relevant to a particular video or online article before it is published. Vidrovr was recently named as one of the winners of the prestigious Publicis90 competition, which entails investment and mentorship from Publicis Groupe.

Read more
The world of raising capital for emerging companies has experienced a revolution. Prior to the enactment of the JOBS Act in 2012, raising capital for private companies was limited to offline communications and was dominated by professional venture capitalists; now the capital raising process has been democratized. Capital can be raised online directly by companies or through intermediaries. It can be accomplished by crowd sourcing to “accredited investors” or, in limited amounts, by crowdfunding to everyone. Additionally, companies can raise capital in an “IPO lite” manner by using the new Reg A+.

Read more
In this issue, we answer the question we are asked on a weekly basis: Are electronic signatures enforceable? (spoiler alert….the answer is YES). We also feature an amazing company called SeedInvest, a true pioneer in terms of raising a company online from the crowd. Additionally, consistent with our focus on robotics, we have an interesting article about selling your robotics company.

Read more
Cynthia Larose – Chair of the Privacy & Security Practice Group at Mintz – was named by the National Diversity Council as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology for 2016. Honorees are women serving as top leaders in their organizations and professions, who maintain a record of accomplishments in areas of expertise, operate with the highest integrity, demonstrate a commitment to corporate citizenship, and serve as effective role models to inspire the next generation of female professionals.

Read more
Read less

News & Press

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

Mintz advised Adlumin, Inc., a provider of an enterprise-grade security operations platform, in its acquisition by N-able, Inc. (NYSE: NABL), a global software company helping IT services providers deliver security, remote monitoring and management, and data protection as-a-service solutions.

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

A Mintz team led by Corporate Members Jim McKnight and Joe Ronca advised Altamira Technologies Corporation on its acquisition of Virginia Systems & Technology, Inc. This strategic acquisition expanded Altamira’s capabilities and national security customer portfolio, while winning “Deal of the Year” in the “Under $50 Million” category at ACG National Capital’s 22nd Annual Corporate Growth Awards.

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

BOSTON – Mintz has earned top rankings in the 2023 edition of Legal 500 United States guide. The firm is recognized in 14 practice categories, and 59 individual attorneys are also recognized in the guide, some in more than one category.

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

Through its creative partnership with legal tech provider Clara, Mintz provides founders with a cost-efficient way to start a US business. Utilizing Clara’s platform, Mintz created templates that enable users to form Delaware companies and prepare all necessary documents while additionally helping founders to meet all legal requirements.

News Thumbnail Mintz

My Startup World covered Mintz's collaboration with legal tech provider Clara and quoted Members Dan DeWolf and Sam Effron.

News Thumbnail Mintz

Law360 covered Mintz's partnership with legal tech provider Clara. The move allows Clara to enter the U.S. market.

News Thumbnail Mintz

Chair of the firm’s Technology Practice, and Co-chair of the firm’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice Daniel DeWolf was interviewed by FinTech Tv's Vince Mollinari about the state of the international venture capital market and potential opportunities for Congress to implement economy driving legislation.

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

Mintz has acted as deal counsel to Altamira Technologies Corporation in its acquisition of signals intelligence mission business, Virginia Systems & Technology (VaST).

News Thumbnail Mintz

Mintz Member Daniel DeWolf co-authored an article featured in The Deal exploring the top five ways to accelerate the growth of emerging companies.

Press Release Thumbnail Mintz

Antler Innovation U.S. LLC has selected Mintz as its law firm partner of choice to support its portfolio companies in the U.S. as it expands its presence and foothold in America’s emerging growth ecosystem. With more than 500 portfolio companies globally valued at $2 billion, Antler is helping to professionalize early-stage investing by bringing new capital, a large global community of co-founders, and a broad set of industry expertise to support fast-growing companies from the earliest stages. 

News Thumbnail Mintz
Mintz Member, Chair of the firm’s Technology Practice, and Co-chair of the firm’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice Daniel I. DeWolf appeared on FINTECH TV’s Digital Asset Report to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the private marketplaces, digital transformation in the private marketplaces, and venture capital activity and indicators.
Daniel DeWolf, Co-Chair, Venture Capital and Emerging Companies, and Megan Gates, Co-chair of the Securities & Capital Markets Practice Group, authored this VC Experts Blog piece discussing how the world of raising capital has been evolving over the last several years.
Press Release Thumbnail Mintz
Mintz was recently named the exclusive legal sponsor of AREA, a real estate technology venture accelerator program based in New York City. As a sponsor, the firm will offer in-kind legal services to real estate technology startup companies participating in the intensive three-month program.
Daniel DeWolf, Co-chair of Mintz’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies and Technology Practices, and Associates Sam Effron and Rachel Gholston, authored this VC Experts Blog piece providing a clear overview of the best practices businesses can implement when using electronic signatures.
Read less

Events & Speaking

Moderator
Moderator
Mar
19
2020

Investing in Energy Transformation [Event to be rescheduled]

Briefing on Power, Technology and Security Strategies

Mintz, 666 Third Ave, New York, NY

Seminar Reference Image
Speaker
Jul
30
2019

TechGC Roundtable

San Francisco, CA

Moderator
Jun
19
2019

Private Tech Investing Success Stories for Family Offices

Mintz, Chrysler Center, 666 Third Avenue, New York

Speaker
Apr
10
2019

TechGC Roundtable

New York, NY

Speaker
Apr
3
2019

The First Most Important Decision for the Entrepreneur: How to Choose the Right Corporate Entity for Your Startup

BioLabs@NYULangone

BioLabs@NYULangone, 180 Varick St., 6th Floor, New York, NY

Speaker
Speaker
Speaker
Mar
15
2018

Legal Clinic

NYC MediaLabs

Co-chair
Oct
27
2017
Speaker
Mar
17
2017

Corporate Formation Workshop

NYC Media Lab

New York, NY

Moderator
Nov
3
2016

The Changing World of Raising Capital

MintzEdge and Columbia Technology Ventures

New York, NY

Read less

Daniel is a leading authority on growth companies and venture capital law — and has worked on pioneering online capital-raising methods since the Internet’s beginning. He is immersed in the national and international ecosystem of emerging companies and investors focused on start-ups. He has also been a member of NYU Law School’s faculty since 2003, where he teaches venture capital law. Earlier, he co-founded and served as managing director of an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City.

Recognition & Awards

  • Recommended by The Legal 500 United States for Venture Capital and Emerging Companies (2015 – 2017; 2021 – 2022, 2024)

Read less

Daniel is a leading authority on growth companies and venture capital law — and has worked on pioneering online capital-raising methods since the Internet’s beginning. He is immersed in the national and international ecosystem of emerging companies and investors focused on start-ups. He has also been a member of NYU Law School’s faculty since 2003, where he teaches venture capital law. Earlier, he co-founded and served as managing director of an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City.

Involvement

  • Adjunct Professor at NYU School of Law
  • Guest Lecturer, High-Growth Corporate Transactions, Cornell Law School at Cornell Tech
  • Judge, Harvard Business School Business Plan Contest
  • Member, Advisory Council to the Public Policy Committee of the Angel Capital Association
Read less

Daniel I. DeWolf

Member / Chair, Technology Practice; Co-chair, Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice

New York