Our Story Defines Our Vision

Ben Dubin brings three perspectives to venture capital disputes — investor, founder, and board member. During sixteen years, beginning in 1998, at Asset Management Company, one of Silicon Valley's earliest venture capital firms, and at Asset Management Ventures, the affiliated partnership he co-founded in 2004, he headed the information technology and life sciences investment practice, leading or participating in investments totaling more than $100 million in more than 100 early-stage companies. He served on the boards of many of those companies — in two cases, Corrigo (acquired by Jones Lang LaSalle) and Vetcentric (acquired by Vets First Choice), from the seed round through acquisition — and on the board of Digisec, whose subsidiary Yamei Electronics Technology was acquired by Trimble. His board service continued beyond his investing tenure.

Earlier, he co-founded two technology startups, Full Source Software and Los Altos Technologies; in 2020 he became Founding Partner of Health Gap Ventures, a venture platform focused on health equity. His professional focus today is expert witness and litigation consulting work through VC Expert Services.

Ben's analytical foundation combines two Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees — Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering — from the University of Michigan with an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he received the Dean's Award. This technical and business training informs his approach to complex financial modeling, valuation analysis, and deal structure evaluation — skills he applies in expert engagements in venture capital and startup disputes.

Since 2015, Ben has provided expert analysis and litigation consulting to law firms and corporate counsel in venture capital and startup disputes, and has advised founders and board members on venture capital best practices. His engagements have included federal and state court proceedings and confidential consulting. His expert work has addressed disputes between venture fund principals over partnership interests and carried interest, economic causation and damages for venture-backed companies, and representations made to investors in fundraising. As an investor and board member he has dealt first-hand with deal structuring, board governance, founder separations, down rounds, contested exits, and liquidation preference stacks, and he brings both the investor's and the founder's vantage point to each engagement.

A part-time instructor in entrepreneurship at Foothill College since 2004, Ben has spent more than two decades translating venture capital concepts into clear, accessible explanations — a skill he brings to expert reports and testimony for judges, juries, and arbitrators. He is the author of the six-volume practitioner series The Architect's Guide to Venture Capital, and his articles have appeared in Law360 and The D&O Diary; see Publications.

VC Expert Services is a single-principal firm. Ben personally leads each engagement, develops and takes responsibility for his expert opinions, and provides the firm's expert testimony. When a matter requires specialized technical or industry expertise, he engages subject-matter specialists, with their roles and contributions disclosed as required by the applicable rules and orders.

Bao Tran brings a rare combination of legal, technical, and business expertise to venture capital, startup, and intellectual property disputes. With more than three decades of experience in patent law, IP strategy, and innovation-driven business development, Bao has advised companies across the full technology lifecycle — from early-stage startups building defensible IP portfolios to public companies managing complex patent assets.

As the principal of Patent PC, formerly Tran & Associates, Bao has built and managed patent portfolios for technology and life sciences companies operating in highly competitive markets. His work has included patent strategy, portfolio development, IP monetization, freedom-to-operate analysis, and the alignment of intellectual property assets with financing, commercialization, and exit strategies.

Bao's expertise is particularly relevant in disputes involving technology valuation, patent ownership, founder and company IP rights, portfolio strength, technology diligence, and the role of intellectual property in venture-backed company financings and exits. He has worked with companies in medical devices, semiconductor technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain and cryptocurrency, Internet of Things, advanced computing, cleantech, 3D printing, and quantum computing.

For VC Expert Services, Bao provides specialized intellectual property and patent strategy expertise in matters where technology ownership, patent portfolio value, innovation claims, licensing rights, or IP diligence are material to the dispute. His contributions are engaged on a matter-specific basis and disclosed as appropriate in accordance with applicable expert disclosure requirements.