Kepha Partners

Description

Eric Hjerpe brings over 23 years of operating and investing experience to the firm. In the late 1980s, he founded a software company that wrote desktop software for product development engineers. In the early 1990s while at MIT Sloan, he worked for the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), studying new software development methods. In the mid 1990s, his team at Silicon Graphics was one of the first to deploy complex applications over the web. In the late 1990s, at Siebel Systems, Eric started the Siebel subsidiary SiebelNet, which partnered with USinternetworking (USi) to provide Siebel Enterprise Applications via the internet. He became interested in venture capital when, at Siebel Systems, he sponsored the company’s investment in USi, which returned 12x in less than a year. Prior to joining Kepha Partners, Eric was a Venture Partner and Partner at AtlasVenture, where he spent 6 years. He worked with AtlasVenture portfolio companies Active Endpoints, Fireclick (sold to Digital River), Globoforce, OpenRatings (sold to Dun & Bradstreet), OwnerIQ, Performix Technologies (sold to Nice), SimpleTuition, SupplyWorks (acquired by Intuitive), TrueAdvantage (acquired by InsideView), and Virtual Logix (acquired by Red Bend Software). He holds a Master of Science in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor's degree from Brown University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA), is a TechStars Mentor, is on the Brown University Advisory Council on Computing and Information Technology, and is a member of the Massachusetts 12x12 start-up program. Jo Tango founded Kepha Partners. He has invested in the e-commerce, search engine, Internet ad network, wireless, supply chain software, storage, database, security, on-line payments and data center virtualization spaces. He has been a founding or first institutional investor in AutoVirt, Azuki Systems, Bit9, ExaGrid, StreamBase Systems, Vertica Systems, Virtual Iron (acquired by Oracle) and VoltDB, getting involved nearly always at the company inception phase. Other investments include Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ), Digital Market (acquired by Agile Software), and NextCard (Nasdaq: NXCD). Jo previously was at Highland Capital Partners for nearly 9 years, where he was a General Partner. He also spent five years with Bain & Company, where he was based in Singapore, Hong Kong and Boston, and focused on technology and start-up projects. Jo attended Yale University (B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Business School (M.B.A., Baker Scholar). He serves on the board of NECINA (New England Chinese Information and Network Association) and is very active with the MIT Deshpande Center. He has served as Co-Chair of his Harvard Business School class 5th, 10th and 15th reunions and is on the leadership team for his Yale 20th reunion. Jo is passionate about start-ups and loves working with entrepreneurs who dare to strive. Jo and his family emigrated from Indonesia with a few suitcases and $1,500.

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