About

Strategy

Hyde Park Venture Partners (HPVP) is an early stage venture capital fund investing in early stage technology companies in the Midwest, with particular focus in Chicago. HPVP invests in technology-enabled business and consumer services and healthcare IT companies raising their first or second round of institutional capital, ranging in total size from $750K to $2.5M.

HPVP draws on its strategic relationship with Hyde Park Angels (HPA) to provide industry and business expertise to its portfolio companies through a network of more than 90 seasoned business executives, entrepreneurs and service professionals. HPVP's principals, Ira Weiss and Guy Turner, and the HPA network take an active role in mentoring and guiding portfolio companies in product development, business strategy, financing and exit through both formal director roles and informal mentorship relationships.

Values that guide us

We respect and celebrate entrepreneurs and their ideas

We are responsive, tenacious and we do what we say

We communicate openly and honestly about fact and emotion

We make data driven decisions

We believe that rewards should accrue to those who create value

Team

Ira Weiss, Partner

Ira Weiss has been an active investor in private companies for the past 12 years, and is a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he teaches entrepreneurship and tax strategy. He is a managing director of Hyde Park Angels and was formerly a managing director of RK Ventures (www.rkventures.com). In his three year tenure at Hyde Park Angels, Ira grew the group from 7 to 90 members and helped source, diligence and monitor eleven early stage investments, making HPA one of the most active angel groups in the country. Ira’s primary investing interests are technology-enabled consumer and business services, and healthcare IT. Ira serves on various boards including, ReTel Technologies (www.reteltechnologies.com). He started his career as an accountant at Coopers and Lybrand, and received both his MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Guy Turner, Partner

Guy has four years of venture capital and strategy experience in the greater Chicago area. He joins HPVP from Boston Consulting Group where he focused on corporate strategy across a variety of industries. Guy has also been an Associate and then actively investing Member of Hyde Park Angels since 2009. Focused on technology enabled business services and software-as-a-service, Guy is a Director of HPVP’s first investment, InContext Solutions. Guy spent his early career as a mechanical engineer with Raytheon and General Electric. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, magna cum laude, and an MBA with High Honors from Chicago Booth. Guy is also a Siebel Scholar, Kauffman Fellow and is a co-inventor on two US Patents.

Nancy Corrie, CFO

Nancy is a General Partner and Chief Financial Officer of Apex Venture Partners and Chief Financial Officer of Hyde Park Venture Partners. Ms. Corrie is responsible for overseeing all financial reporting, accounting and administrative functions of the Funds as well as limited partner reporting and communications. Nancy joined Apex in 1991 after serving as an accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co. for six years and has been responsible for the back office operations of all six of Apex’s venture funds. She received a Bachelor’s degree with Highest Honors in Accounting from DePaul University and is a CPA. She is a founding board member of the Midwest Chapter of the Private Equity CFO Association.

Armando Pauker, Advisor

Armando is a general partner with Apex Venture Partners in Chicago, IL. His investment focus is enterprise infrastructure (hardware, software, security) and cleantech. Prior to joining Apex, Armando served as Vice President of Networking Products for Cybernet Systems Corporation, a Linux-based software start-up.

Wayne Boulais, Advisor

Wayne is a general partner with Apex Venture Partners in Chicago, IL. Prior to joining Apex, Wayne was a founding member of the Marsh & McLennan Capital C&I Fund and a partner at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman) developing growth strategies for high-tech clients. Prior to Mercer, Wayne led engineering development teams for Raytheon Corporation.

Steve Farsht, Advisor

Steve is the Chief Operating Officer at Tap.Me and is deeply involved in Chicago's entrepreneurial community. Previously, Steve was a General Partner with Norwest Equity Partners. Over his 9 years with the firm, Steve invested $280 million of equity in 13 management buyouts and growth capital investments across a variety of industries.

Sam Yagan, Venture Partner

Sam is the co-founder & CEO of the online dating site OkCupid.com, which was acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp in February 2011. Sam is also a co-founder and was the first Executive Director of Excelerate Labs. Prior to this, Sam was the Co-Founder and CEO of TheSpark.com, Inc., maker of SparkNotes, the world’s leading brand of educational study aids. He was also the President of MetaMachine, Inc., developer and distributor of the world’s leading P2P file-sharing application, eDonkey.

Jim Gagnard, Venture Partner

Jim Gagnard has over 25 years of executive management experience leading enterprise software companies. Until March, 2011, Jim was Chairman and CEO of SmartSignal Corporation, acquired by GE. Prior to SmartSignal, Jim led several private software companies including Questra, Launchpoint, and Diffusion. In addition, he successfully led publicly-traded Trinzic Corporation. Jim has created over $480 million of enterprise value for venture capitalists and strategic investors through successful exit transactions. Jim serves on the Board of Directors of Upwind Solutions, Agentis Energy, and A3 Solutions. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Illinois Institute of Technology, the Board of Overseers of the Stuart School of Business and is the Chairman of the Illinois Technology Association.

Lisle Technology Partners, Tech Advisors

www.lisletech.com

Lisle Technology Partners (LisleTech) is a software product development firm established in 1999. The founders are serial entrepreneurs who have built multiple successful businesses including one which created a market cap of 500 million dollars. The firm has a strong reputation assisting leading Chicago and Silicon Valley area start-ups and venture capital firms for product development as well as technical due diligence. LisleTech assists HPVP in conducting technical due diligence and in supporting the technical needs of portfolio companies post-investment.

Investing Partners