Accelerating early stage companies



Jim Opfer Founding General Partner

 

Mr. Opfer is Founding General Partner of LaunchPower Inc. Previously, he was Entrepreneur in Residence at Altos Ventures after selling his business news delivery service to AskJeeves. He has been helping and running startups for over 15 years also formerly serving as Venture Advisor to Accel Partners, Advisory Principal to Sterling Payot Investments in the telecommunications and wireless areas. Very active on the wireless speaking and writing circuit in the mid-1990s, Jim was known as one of the most connected persons in the world.
 
Jim retired from the Air Force as a Colonel in 1992 after 21 years building fixed and mobile telecommunications networks for the Department of Defense. His Air Force career was highlighted by serving in White House Presidential Communications for the Reagan Administration/National Security Council,  and chief architect for networks for the National Reconnaissance Office. Mr. Opfer was responsible for over 1,700 people worldwide and a $200 million/year budget where he was known in Silicon Valley as the "venture customer" who started many startups with early customer funding, to include Cisco, GRiD Systems, and NeXT Computing.
 
Mr. Opfer is a graduate of the University of Detroit in Electrical Engineering and holds an MBA from California State University.  He also was recently an advisory member of the University of Colorado Masters Program in Interdisciplinary Telecommunications.

 

Christina Dupre, General Partner

 

Christina lends her knowledge and 20 years of experience in Internet technologies and network infrastructure to Launch Power clients for Investment Analysis, Acquisition Strategies and Business Development programs. Areas of expertise include mission critical network management software, wireless communications and Smart Infrastructure.

Her recent Corporate Strategy experience includes serving as CEO re-launching C-Plane as LAYERZngn and as VP of Business Development and Government Programs for Narus. Her skills for positioning companies for growth and exit events were focused as Director of Network Integration Services at ICG, which was sold to Liberty Media and later Level 3. As VP of Business Development for JP Mobile, Christina was responsible for Carrier and Device manufacturer relationships. JP Mobile was sold to Motorola.

 

Christina is applying her certified Leadership in Environmental & Energy Design principles to assist clients with strategies for emerging Smart Grid technologies. She holds a BS in Business Administration from Menlo College and is active with IEEE, IETF, and the Wimax Forum. 

 

Dr. Sang Park, General Partner , and Head of International Business and Technology Consulting 


*          PhD, Electrical Engineering, Purdue University
 
*          MBA, International Business, Yonsei University (Korea)
 
*          Formerly with Samsung SDS, S-Net Systems (Korea) and TKC Global Solutions
 
*          Former CEO of Quarterview