NJEF is proud to spotlight Ron Hahn of Early Stage Enterprises

Ronald R. Hahn is one of the general partners of Early Stage Enterprises (ESE) and has been investing in early stage businesses for 31 years, acting as an officer and/or General Partner of four venture capital organizations.

ESE is a private venture capital fund organized to provide capital and guidance to early stage companies in the Mid-Atlantic region. ESE has $44 million to invest, and is licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC).

Ron and James J. Millar founded Early Stage Enterprises in 1996 to address what they saw as an under-served segment of the private equity market. ESE is a private venture capital fund organized to provide capital and guidance to early stage companies in the Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and Virginia. ESE has $44 million to invest, and is licensed by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC).

In recent years, companies requiring less than $2 million of capital have encountered increasing difficulty securing financing as trends in the venture capital industry have shifted towards an emphasis on larger and later stage investments. ESE welcomes proposals from these companies, and will consider investing as little as $250,000 in companies that have exceptional growth potential. In the current environment, start-up capital is very difficult to raise.

When coming to the NJEF program, make sure to talk to Ron about how ESE's strategy for financing start-ups has changed since the boom and listen to his strategies that entrepreneurs should employ when seeking start-up venture capital.

During his thirty-year career, Ron has worked with companies in a number of different industries, sitting on the Boards of Directors of more than thirty companies. He currently serves on the boards of five portfolio companies. His experience also includes organizing public offerings, private placements, and acquisitions. In addition, he has started a successful business, operated as a crisis manager and consulted to numerous organizations.

Ron started his venture capital career at Heizer Corporation, at the time a major Chicago-based venture capital firm. While a Vice President at Heizer he had day-to-day responsibility for managing a portfolio of investments including Federal Express Corporation and Commodities Corporation, two highly successful venture capital investments. Later in his career, he founded Princeton-Montrose Partners, LP, a venture capital fund specializing in life science technology. Before founding ESE, he was a Vice President and General Partner of Patricof & Co., a New York based venture capital organization.

He has been Chairman of the Selection and Judging Committee for the New Jersey Venture Fair for the last five years. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business Administration where he teaches a seminar on venture capital. Ron received his BA degree from Occidental College, and his MBA degree from the Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles.

Ron Hahn
Early Stage Enterprises
995 Route 518
Skillman, NJ 08558
phone: 609-921-8896
fax: 609-921-8703
e-mail: ron@esevc.com
website: www.esevc.com