Team

Investment Professionals

Tripp Peake - Managing Partner

Tripp brings over 20 years of venture building and investing experience to the funds.

Immediately prior to Long River, Tripp was a partner at Kestrel Venture Management, where he focused on the management of Mass Ventures Equity Fund, a $14 million early stage fund established in western Massachusetts in 1997. Tripp serves or has served on numerous boards, including Extreme Reach, Health Guru, Optasite (acquired by SBA Communications), Profile Systems (acquired by Comergent), Protedyne (acquired by LabCorp), Qteros, Sovereign Hill Software (acquired by Dataware), and Western Mass Radio Group (acquired by Pamal Broadcasting). Before joining Kestrel, Tripp was co-founder and CEO of two venture development consulting companies: Mass Ventures, based in Amherst, MA and associated with the University of Massachusetts; and Science Park Associates, based in New Haven, CT and associated with Yale University. Both of these companies provided university spin-offs and regional entrepreneurs with strategic and financing advice and helped raise over $50 million in private equity for 18 different early stage ventures. Tripp holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A from Yale University.

Will Cowen - Managing Partner

Will brings over 20 years of early stage company building experience as a CEO of several start-ups, and as an early stage venture investor.

Will founded his most recent company, NaviNet, in 1998 with backing from North Bridge Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, and GE Equities. Today, NaviNet is a leading healthcare IT firm which streamlines transactions between healthcare payers and over 800,000 healthcare providers. Prior to NaviNet, Will was CEO of venture-backed Pegasus Medical Technologies, an electronic medical records company sold to HBOC/McKesson (NYSE:MCK). Early in his career, Will was a founder and VP/Business Development at consumer products company, Thermocell, which is today a $500 million dollar division of the Hunter Douglas Company. On the investing side, Will was a Managing Partner of Interface Technologies and Firepond Partners, two early stage healthcare funds. Will serves, or has served, on the board of numerous companies including Eggrock, GetWellNetwork, Healthrageous, lifeIMAGE, Medical Metrx Systems, MedVentive, Phreesia, Solais, and Verax Biomedical. Will holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado and an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mike Cataldo - Venture Partner

Mike is an accomplished entrepreneur and early stage investor who focuses on healthcare companies for the funds.

Most recently Mike was CEO of Cambridge Semantics, a Boston-based start-up which delivered the first development platform for the World Wide Web Consortium's semantic technology standards. Prior to that, Mr. Cataldo spent seven years as a private investor and management consultant focused on early stage companies. In 1997, he founded MediVation, which developed the first ePPi (Electronic Provider Patient Interface) connecting patients with their own doctors via the Internet. After becoming the market leader, MediVation was acquired by McKesson Corporation in 2000. Prior to that, Michael was GM of Optika Imaging's healthcare division and VP of Sales & Marketing for STC where the DataGate product to became healthcare's de facto standard for integration. Earlier, Michael held management, marketing and sales positions at IBAX Healthcare Systems, Shared Medical Systems and Cable & Wireless. Michael holds a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University.

John Kole - Venture Partner

John is an accomplished executive and investor who focuses on information technology for the funds.

In addition to his role at Long River, John is President of Merrimack Capital LLC, a privately owned investment fund. Previously, John was a Managing Director and a founding General Partner of Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC), a $350 million venture capital fund sponsored by Comcast Corporation. At CIC, John was responsible for investments in technology start-ups across a variety of sectors, from cable and telecommunications infrastructure to enterprise software and internet commerce and content. Before joining CIC, John worked as an investment banker in Credit Suisse First Boston's Media and Telecommunications group, and as a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell. John is a CFA charterholder and earned his J.D from the University of Michigan Law School, and his B.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Michael Barach - Venture Advisor

Michael serves as a Venture Advisor for Long River and as General Partner for Village Ventures. Michael is an experienced venture investor and an accomplished entrepreneur.

Prior to Long River, Michael served as CEO and President of Mothernature.com. At Mothernature, Michael raised $113 million through three private rounds and an IPO in December 1999. He recruited and built the entire senior team, and grew the company from eight employees to a peak of 225. Mothernature.com won numerous customer and industry awards, including a spring 2000 Gomez Award as the leading e-commerce health site on the Internet. From 1990 to 1998, Michael was employed by Bessemer Venture Partners, where he specialized in the telecommunications, retail, and electronic commerce categories. Michael was a Partner at Bessemer from 1994 until 1998. Prior to 1990, Michael held several executive management positions in various retail organizations. Michael holds a B.A. from Amherst College, and both a J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard.

Joseph Steig - CFO and Investment Analyst

Joseph has over fifteen years of experience in finance and operations with equity-backed ventures and has also worked as a technology economic development consultant. He has particular investment analyst experience in the IT, media, and Cleantech sectors. Joseph holds a B.A. from Hampshire College and has done post-graduate work in finance and management.

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