After nearly two decades practicing law, mostly in the startup world, Win Chevapravatdumrong needed a change.
So after spending six years as general counsel at MasterClass, he left the online education provider to become a partner and the first head of legal for M13 Ventures Management LLC. He’s taking what he learned as an in-house counsel to help founders build businesses.
“A strong in-house lawyer navigates risk to support business growth, not to get in its way,” Chevapravatdumrong said in an interview.
Brothers Courtney and Carter Reum, the latter of whom is married to celebrity Paris Hilton, started M13 in 2016 after working as investment bankers at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The Santa Monica-based company, while located outside the established venture capital corridor of Silicon Valley, is in a region of Southern California that has become home to an emerging startup scene.
While he didn’t know either Reum before he took the job, Chevapravatdumrong said he traveled in similar startup circles with the founders and was familiar with some of M13’s partners.
“Access to incredible talent, remote work, and generation-defining technology” drew him to M13, Chevapravatdumrong aid.
He’s part of a “propulsion platform” that works with portfolio companies to help founders “scale quickly and efficiently” across verticals such as brand, data, growth, operations, people, and product, he said.
“I can’t think of a better time for entrepreneurship and the opportunity to work with founders pursuing innovative ideas and businesses,” he said. “For me personally, this means applying what I’ve learned not only as a general counsel, but also while wearing other hats—people, finance, partnerships, to name a few—to work with our founders on solving problems.”
Those issues include business development, human resources, intellectual property, privacy, regulatory, and tax, Chevapravatdumrong said.
The fire sale a month ago of Silicon Valley Bank affected venture capital firms like M13, some of whose portfolio companies had their money with the troubled lender.
Chevapravatdumrong said he’s stayed up on speed on developments in the banking sector, which he helped “shape into practical advice for both M13 and our portfolio companies.”
Delivering Value
As an in-house lawyer, Chevapravatdumrong said he and others have had to fight the perspective that “legal is just a cost center.”
Chevapravatdumrong started his career in the emerging companies practice at Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles before taking corporate legal roles at streaming media service Hulu and now-defunct internet video startup Vessel.
He most recently was the first general counsel for Yanka Industries Inc.-owned MasterClass, where he built the privately held company’s legal function before leaving the company in January.
He witnessed the value a “well-structured, high-functioning legal team” can deliver, Chevapravatdumrong said. His advice to lawyers: “learn how to quantify that and be able to explain your impact.”
San Francisco-based MasterClass promoted associate general counsel Kevin Yung to succeed Chevapravatdumrong as legal chief in March. The company cut 20% of its workforce in 2022 and let go of more employees this year.
MasterClass declined to comment.
Building Connections
A “major differentiator” for M13 is that the firm brings a “fresh perspective to venture investing” by relying on partners that are operators, or individuals that previously worked at startups, as opposed to investors with traditional finance backgrounds, Chevapravatdumrong said.
The operator versus investor debate is one that has gained more traction in the venture capital world in recent years.
Chevapravatdumrong said he’s the sole in-house lawyer at M13, although the firm has at least one other partner—Anna Barber—with a legal background.
M13’s new legal chief declined to discuss his preferences for outside counsel. Cooley handled a $400 million flagship fund formation for M13 last year and also advised on a second fundraising by the firm in 2019.
While Hilton’s not officially part of M13, the firm has touted her business expertise on its website. Chevapravatdumrong said he has met the hotel heiress, whom he called a “powerhouse businesswoman and entrepreneur with whom we love to collaborate when we can.”
Chevapravatdumrong himself is no stranger to celebrity. His sister is Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, an attorney who gave up a Big Law career to become an author, comedian, and screenwriter.
Among her Hollywood highlights is a movie she wrote out this summer called Joy Ride and being an executive producer of the animated sitcom Family Guy.
