Enterprise Partners

Specialty: First-round, information technology and health services and devices

Capital Under Management: $415 million

Amount Invested in 1996: $30 million

As long-time executives in health care companies, James Berglund and Charles Martin came across a lot of people with ideas for products. Problem was, the people with the ideas seldom had the knowledge to bring them to life.

So in 1985, the two, who had been friends and business associates, founded Enterprise Partners to do just that.

“The opportunities seemed so large and venture capital seemed like the best way to take advantage of them,” said Berglund, who was president of Continuous Curve Contact Lenses Inc.

Now with five partners all one-time executives the firm reports nurturing a string of successes such as Apria Healthcare, a large home health care company.

Enterprise Partners mostly invests in start-up operations and takes an active role in building a team around a “well-defined” product or service, said James Gauer, a general partner who specializes in developing information technology investments for the firm.

“Many funds are interested in backing experienced management teams,” Gauer said. “But we are all former CEOs and try to build a team if a product is in a hot market and the people have a way to find real-world pain relief for a business problem.”

As such, the partners spend a significant part of their time interviewing candidates for management positions at the 12 companies in which they have capital invested.

The end of May saw Enterprise Partners launching its fourth fund. With $200 million in capital, it’s double the size of the previous one. Gauer explained that about 40 percent of the projects Enterprise takes on involve information technology, 40 percent are medical services and medical devices and 20 percent are leveraged buyouts of established companies.

With offices in Brentwood, La Jolla and Newport Beach, the firm tries to focus its investments in the region. However, Gauer said that with interesting information technology firms increasingly found outside California, Enterprise is finding its opportunities farther and farther afield.

For example, he said, one of its hottest current candidates for an investment is a software developer in Dallas.

Wade Daniels