Nicole Cadman, Partner at Freshfields

Today, my guest is Nicole Cadman, a Partner at Freshfields who focuses her practice on advising high-growth companies and their founders across the business’s lifecycle. Prior to joining Freshfields, Nicole was the General Counsel at Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that has backed thousands of the most promising companies around the world, many of which have gone on to become market leaders in their respective industries (including Coinbase, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Reddit and Stripe).

During her time at YC, Nicole acted as a trusted advisor to startups and their founders. She helped them navigate significant opportunities and challenges, supported day-to-day needs, and spearheaded the development of YC’s internal guidance available to founders on legal topics such as fundraising, equity issuances and corporate structuring. Nicole has deep market experience, having overseen YC’s participation in thousands of venture capital financings and hundreds of mergers and acquisitions during her tenure. Nicole holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a BA from George Washington University.