David Barbash
Title: Managing Partner, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund LLP
Age: 50
Experience: 23 years
David Barbash spent a spell on Capitol Hill following his graduation from Connecticut College, but he knew deep down that he really wanted to be a lawyer and when he had enough of Washington, he headed straight to the University of Virginia Law School. He practiced corporate law in Hartford and New York before returning to his native Massachusetts. At Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, his practice ranges from representing companies in mergers and acquisitions to helping early-stage companies find funding in the first place. Now managing partner at the firm, Barbash sat down with Banker & Tradesman to talk about keeping the lights on and working with “two guys in a garage.”
Q: Tell me a little bit about the work you do helping startups find VC funding.
A: Part of my goal early on is to become part of the team and to help them and lead them down the path as best I can. From a legal perspective, what I mean is to make sure their contracts with third parties sufficiently protect them. Then if they’re lucky enough and someone comes to them with a term sheet and wants to invest in the company, my role is to protect the company and the founders in taking on that money.
The goal is to work with those two guys in the garage as they develop and move out of the garage to their first location, to their first customer, their first employees, their first investment, and watch the company as it develops. Eventually, there’s an exit or more often than not, a sale of the company. If they’re lucky enough, they’ll do an IPO. For me, the typical exit is an M&A. It’s been a great experience for me to be able to be there from the beginning and see it to the end.
Q: That must involve challenges beyond the legal side, right?
A: Yes, sometimes I have to put the legal hat to the side and talk about the people side of it. What I try to do is make them aware of how, in my view, their life is going to be different. And it doesn’t have to be different in a negative sense, but for example, I prepare them for board meetings and try to take them through what a board meeting is going to be like.
Communication is, by far, the most important part of it because you can’t be totally in a silo when someone else has invested money. You need to have honest, clear, full communication between the founder and the investor. That’s critical and that’s what I try to stress more than anything else: honest communication.
If you do hit a bump in the road – and most early-stage companies do – it’s developing that relationship with an investor so they’ll work with you not only at the closing of the financing when everyone’s happy and excited.
Q: What industries have you seen heating up?
A: I do a lot of work in the clean tech industry. I represent the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. They’ve been active in wind and solar, so I think those are relatively hot areas. Robotics has also gained a little bit of traction over the past year or two.
Think about the things we all look for: our computers moving faster, being able to hold more data on our phones. And things that provide us more convenience in our day-to-day life – being able to buy things with your cell phone rather than carrying your wallet around with you. I think those types of consumer companies are also pretty hot right now. I think those are probably the areas that at least, either through clients or my own observations, are growing fastest.
Q: I understand you were recently named partner, too.
A: Yes, in April of this year. In addition to my practice and working with my clients, going out and developing more clients, I am responsible for the overall operations and strategy of the firm. I work on the operations side, and I work with our executive director, HR director and marketing director on the day to day operations of keeping the lights on and keeping the people happy.
David Barbash’s Top Five Sports Movies:
- Hoosier
- Rudy
- Brian’s Song
- Remember The Titans
- Miracle
