Early Stage Partners

Est. 2001

Mission

Early Stage Partners is proud to serve our limited partners and to support leading technology companies in the Midwest.

We believe that by providing much-needed capital, advice and connections to promising early stage companies, we can breed success for entrepreneurs, investors and the region as a whole.

Jim Petras
Managing Director

Charlie MacMillan
Chief Financial Officer

Jonathan Murray
co-founder

About ESP

Early Stage Partners is a venture capital firm founded in 2001 with the belief that the Midwest could produce a significant number of attractive technology companies.

Since then, this belief has been borne out. The Midwest is experiencing a surge of entrepreneurial energy and, as a result, is generating high quality investment opportunities. Early Stage Partners has been pleased to capitalize on this trend.

ESP Fund I, launched in 2002, and ESP Fund II, launched in 2008, are both expected to achieve top quartile returns among funds of a similar size and vintage. Early Stage Partners experienced a banner year in 2014, when portfolio companies TOA Technologies, Simbionix and Reverse Medical were sold to strategic investors for a combined value approaching $750 million. TOA Technologies, sold to Oracle, remains the largest ever exit for an Ohio-based software company.