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Starting Monday, former Atlas Ventures general partner Eric Hjerpe will join Kepha Partners as the Waltham venture capital firm’s second investing partner, Hjerpe and founding partner Jo Tango have confirmed.
News of Hjerpe’s departure from Atlas leaked in April news reports, three months after Atlas cut its investing team, shifting Hjerpe to venture partner.
Tango said he and Hjerpe had been discussing a partnership for three years. He cited Hjerpe’s network and his reputation for adding value to companies. “He knows a lot of people I don’t,” Tango said.
Atlas spokesman Matt Burke said the firm wishes Hjerpe well but declined to comment further, citing company policy.
Hjerpe started his tech career in 1986 at Arthur D. Little Inc. In his spare time, he founded an enterprise software company called MFG Software Inc. Later, he worked at Digital Equipment Corp., where he discovered Siebel Systems Inc. and became one of the startup’s first customers. He left DEC for a position at Siebel in 1997, and joined Atlas Ventures in 2003.
He said he hopes to continue expanding on his experience in business-to-business infotech startups.
“I think you’ll see us be relatively broad, but we do have a bias toward (intellectual property) opportunities as opposed to just pure execution plays,” he said.
Hjerpe’s Atlas board seats included Irish enterprise software company Globoforce Ltd., and consumer Internet companies OwnerIQ Inc. of Boston and SimpleTuition Inc. of Newton.
“He’s fantastic. I’m sorry to see him go,” said SimpleTuition co-founder and CEO Kevin Walker. Hjerpe’s large-company experience helped the startup establish processes that paid off later, he said.
Founded in 2006, Kepha has funded three companies out of its $100 million first fund, with plans to eventually fund seven to 10, all early-stage, Tango said. He said Kepha may look to add up to two more partners but will not hire associates.
“We believe the entrepreneur is our customer,” Tango said, citing operating principles he said Hjerpe helped write. “We believe the best people who can add value to entrepreneurs are people who are very experienced at being a partner.”
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