Ruslan Sergeyev

Managing Director

Hercules Capital

Ruslan is a Managing Director for Hercules Capital, leading technology origination out of New York City and responsible for sourcing and executing investment opportunities. Prior to Hercules, Ruslan was a Managing Director for the Stifel Venture Lending team helping run origination and structuring efforts across the east coast for the venture bank. He also spent the prior five years at PacWest where he led the credit team across the PacWest east coast venture banking portfolio. Ruslan has over 12 years of credit investing experience across all stages of debt and company profile, previously working on the Direct Lending team at Golub Capital, a middle market private credit fund. He began his career in Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the Leveraged Finance Group.

4:00pm - 4:35pm

April 10, 2025

Venture Debt Deal Sourcing/Origination/Screening

• Where to source high-potential venture debt deals
• Balancing sponsor-backed vs. independent deals
• Avoiding adverse selection and chasing the wrong deals
• Structuring a systematic origination process
• Building rapport with founders, boards, and investors
• The role of brand and reputation in deal flow
• Lessons learned from the most successful (and unsuccessful) deals

9:55 AM - 10:25 AM

Wednesday March 6, 2024

Why is Venture Debt a Terrible Idea?

  • The good, bad, and ugly of venture debt
  • When is venture debt a poor plan?
  • Using venture debt wisely to fund growth