About Us

Eric Hjerpe, Partner

Eric Hjerpe has over 35 years of operating and investing experiences.

Boards: Active Endpoints, Boundless (ValoreBooks), ClearGov, Cloze, Fireclick (Digital River), Globoforce, HapYak (Newsela), Linkable Networks (Collinson Group), OpenRatings (Dun & Bradstreet), OwnerIQ (Inmar), Performix Technologies (NICE Systems), SimpleTuition (Follett Corporation), SupplyWorks (Consona ERP), Triblio (Liferay), TrueAdvantage (InsideView), and Virtual Logix (Red Bend Software).

Operating experience: At Siebel Systems, a senior general manager and member of the Founder's Circle. Started the subsidiary SiebelNet, which included a company investment that returned 12x in less than a year. At Silicon Graphics, was one of the first to deploy complex applications over the web.

Other: DEC divisional CIO, Arthur D. Little. While at MIT Sloan, he worked for the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), studying new software development methods. Founded a software company that wrote desktop software for product development engineers.

Education: Brown University, MIT Sloan School of Management.

Current and prior volunteer work: New England Venture Capital Association (Board), Massachusetts "12x12" Start-Up Program (member).

Jo Tango, Partner

Jo Tango founded Kepha Partners and has been in VC since 1998.

VC experience: An investor in three Unicorns. A founding or first institutional investor in Azuki Systems (Ericsson), Carbon Black (NASDAQ: CBLK; sale to VMware), ExaGrid, Goby (NAVTEQ), Mavrck, Paradigm4, StreamBase Systems (TIBCO), Vertica Systems (Hewlett-Packard), Virtual Iron (Oracle) and VoltDB; other investments include Ask Jeeves (NASDAQ: ASKJ), Digital Market (Agile Software), and NextCard (NASDAQ: NXCD). Previously, at Highland Capital Partners (General Partner).

Other: Bain & Company (case team leader), Wasserstein Perella (M&A), Bain Capital (private equity), Salomon Brothers (equity research).

Education: Yale College (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar).

Current and prior volunteer work: Harvard Business School Alumni Board (Executive Committee, Lifelong Learning Working Group Co-Chair, Nominations Committee), Harvard Business School class reunions (Co-Chair of 5th, 10th, 15th and 25th), The Roxbury Latin School (Trustee, Parents' Fund Chair, Development Committee Co-Chair), New England Venture Capital Association (Board), NECINA (Board), Boston Archdiocese Clergy Retirement Trust (Investment Committee).

Personal: Jo and his family emigrated from Indonesia with a few suitcases and $1,500. His personal blog is here. Details on his family's angel program to "leverage capitalism for altruism" are here. Jo is a part-time Lecturer at Harvard Business School and teaches the "Venture Capital & Private Equity" course.

In memoriam: Ed Hamilton, CFO Emeritus

Ed Hamilton was Kepha's CFO from 2007 until his retirement in 2018. He brought to the firm over 40 years of financial management experience in venture capital, accounting, and early stage technology companies.

VC experience: Previously, CFO at Dover Medical Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. At North Bridge, he managed more than 130 portfolio company financings, representing more than $500 million in invested capital, as well as limited partner distributions, capital calls and partnership tax matters.

Operating experience: Chief Financial Officer of ServiceSoft Corporation, American Superconductor Corporation (IPO and secondary), Safer, Inc. and Concord Data Systems.

Other: ROLM Corporation, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.

Education: Tufts University, Harvard Business School.