Sean Schickedanz

Executive Director

Sean's Bio

Sean advises Clean Energy and Cybersecurity companies on M&A and strategic financing transactions. He brings over 25 years of expertise in investment banking and venture capital to Woodside Capital Partners.

Prior to joining WCP, Sean’s successful personal investments in private companies, such as the first check into OpenTable.com (acq: PCLN) and profiting on ProClarity (acq: MSFT), led to his shift to venture capital, raising his first fund, Sunflower Capital Partners, in 2000. Sean followed this first fund with two more funds under Clean Pacific Ventures from 2005-2020. Clean Pacific focused exclusively on alternative energy, agriculture and water. Successful outcomes from the combination of funds include CallTower (shareholder buyout), USBX (acq: Imperial Capital); Marrone Bio Innovations (NASDAQ: MBII), AquaCue (acq: BMI) and AquaGenesis (acq: Kemflo). Sean has been a director on 17 boards of directors over the last 20 years at various stages of development. He has also advised in several companies in the clean energy, energy efficiency, Agtech, EV/mobility, cybersecurity and SaaS sectors in the last several years.

He mentored several companies as a member of the Investor Advisory Board of the Energy Excelerator (now Elemental Excelerator), and has guest lectured at Haas Business School and Stanford. Sean is also a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School.

Sean began his career at Merrill Lynch investment banking with the utilities, financial institutions and corporate banking groups. He then moved to Montgomery Securities where he covered auto services and was appointed Managing Director. He earned a B.A. in English at Brigham Young University as well as a J.D. and M.B.A. from Duke University.

Sean's Media

Sean's Thought Leadership

WCP Q3 Insights Newsletter

99 Startups Poised for Growth : Prospering Amidst Pandemic

Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable – The Tech Ecosystem and The Pandemic – What We Expect

WCP Insights Blog: The Amazon Re:MARS Conference – What We Learned by Kelly Porter

WCP Proudly Releases The Top Acquirers in Artificial Intelligence Report

WCP Releases the Next Segment of The 2-Minute M&A Advisor: What Should You Look For In An Investment Banker?

WCP’s Kelly Porter and Ron Heller Speak On “Doing Business With Buyers And Investors In China”

WCP Proudly Releases The Top Acquirers in Artificial Intelligence Report

Palo Alto, CA – April 03, 2018 – To obtain a copy of the full report please click here.

WCP is proud to share The Top Acquirers in Artificial Intelligence Report by our Managing Partner and Managing Director, Kelly Porter.

Transactions

WCP acted as exclusive financial advisor to KRT Marketing in its acquisition by Recruitics. KRT Marketing is a West Coast based data-driven recruitment marketing agency. Recruitics is an East Coast based agency the makes it easy for leading brands to attract and hire great talent. As pioneers in the space, Recruitics revolutionized recruitment advertising in 2012 by introducing the first recruitment marketing analytics and optimization platform. By acquiring another rapidly growing and innovative agency, Recruitics strengthened its position as the leading provider of talent attraction solutions to the Fortune 100.

Valencell, the leading innovator in wearable biometric sensor technology, and Sonion, the global leader in micro acoustic and micro mechanical technologies and solutions for hearing instruments and specialty earphones, today announced a strategic partnership that will expand the boundaries for the use of biometric sensors in the ear. As part of the partnership, Sonion has made a strategic investment in Valencell, making Sonion a significant shareholder in Valencell Inc. WCP acted as exclusive advisor to Valencell for this transaction.

Content Delivery Network and App Delivery Platform Provider XDN has been acquired by Fortinet, in a bid to strengthen its own software abilities in cloud management, said John Maddison, Fortinet's VP of technical marketing. This deal should help Fortinet integrate security and WAN optimization services with content acceleration software from XDN, providing a distributed, cloud-based approach to adapt effectively to disruptive attack traffic.

Badgeville, a provider of gamification and social engagement solutions, was acquired by CallidusCloud to bolster its own solutions around cloud-based sales, marketing, learning and customer experience. CallidusCloud was subsequently acquired by SAP for its sales performance management (SPM) and configure-price-quote (CPQ) solutions in a $2.4 billion deal.

LiftIgniter, a provider of on-site and in-app content recommendations across hundreds of leading digital properties worldwide, was acquired by Maven, a media coalition of professional content destinations, operating exclusively on a shared digital publishing, advertising and distribution platform. The transaction bolsters Maven’s content with LiftIgniter’s recommendation technology, providing consumers with a personalized and more enriched online experience.