Martin Hale

Martin is the founder and CEO of Hale Capital Partners (HCP) and OGTF’s Venture Partner. Since the founding of HCP in 2007, Martin has cultivated the company as a growth equity firm with an evergreen structure. This allows HCP to provide, over a long-term time horizon, the resources, processes, and values to support talented management teams accelerating innovation and growth. Martin has deep expertise supporting new product cycles with companies driving disruptive innovation; whether they are public or private, spin-outs and divestitures, or classic early stage ventures seeking product market fit. Prior to founding HCP, Martin was a founding member of Pequot Ventures (now known as FirstMark Capital) where he served as a member of the General Partner. From 2002 to 2007, Martin was a Managing Director and a Member of the Operating & Investment Committees helping to lead 7 funds with approximately $2.2 billion under management. Prior investments included Cobalt Networks (IPO, sold to Sun Microsystems for $2 billion), Flarion Technologies (sold to Qualcomm for $850 million), Celiant Corporation (sold to Andrew Corp. for more than $500 million) and Analex Corporation (sold to QinetiQ for $188 million). Prior to Pequot Ventures Martin was an Associate at Geocapital Partners and an Analyst at Broadview International. He received his B.A. cum laude from Yale University.

Nate Foos is an Associate at Hale Capital Partners, where he leads early-stage investment strategy for the organization. He and Martin Hale will be the Co-Fund Manager for OGTF. Prior to joining HCP, Nate was the Due Diligence Director for Keiretsu Forum NW and the Senior Portfolio Manager for Keiretsu Capital’s Co-Investment Funds with >$20M AUM and >100 portfolio companies spread across tech, life science, and consumer products. He is also the CFO of Black Founders Matter, an emerging fund based in Oregon with just under $2M committed capital and 10 portfolio companies. He has successfully led due diligence on over 50 early-stage technology startups. Nate’s expertise in this arena has been shared broadly though a series of educational workshops he created for the investor community, and his participation on Keiretsu Forum NW’s Term Sheet Committee and Rockies Clean Tech Committee. He has held senior positions in accounting and auditing roles.

Eric is a highly experienced C-Suite executive, inventor, entrepreneur, and investor with more than 20+ years of commercialization and FedTech experience. He is the co-founder of Converge Technologies, a technology commercialization company with a successful history of supporting early-stage technology start-ups. He is the co-founder of Converge Ventures, an Ohio start-up studio committed to developing high-potential start-ups launched around innovation developed at Ohio’s universities and federal laboratories. Prior to founding Converge, he spent several years at Ohio State, supporting commercialization.  While there, Eric was lead for the formation and successful launch of over 20 technology focused start-ups. Prior to OSU, was with D&S Consultants, an aerospace and defense commercialization company he joined in 2000. Over the subsequent 12 years, he held positions of increasing responsibility from vice president, and chief operating officer, culminating with three and a half years as the president of the company with annual revenues in excess of $300 million and more than 800 employees. Eric has a BS in computer science (cum laude) and an executive MBA (magna cum laude, salutatorian, and Pace Setter) from The Ohio State University.