HILLCREST VENTURE PARTNERS - Key Persons


Courtney Hall

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director, in Memoriam
Courtney Hall was a co-founder and Managing Director of Hillcrest Venture Partners. He focused on investments in the following sectors: Enterprise Applications, Financial Technology, and Wireless. Courtney managed the firm's investments in nProgres, NS8 andPhoenix Energy Technologies (Acquired by Duke Energy, NYSE: DUK). Before co-founding Hillcrest, Courtney co-founded EXACT Sports, a company that performs quantitative assessments of the athletic, psychological and neuro-cognitive abilities of high school and collegiate student/athletes. Prior to EXACT, Courtney was an investment banker at UBS and Morgan Stanley. Before working in investment banking, Courtney worked for the law firms Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigan, and Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (now DLA Piper). Courtney was the starting center for the NFL San Diego Chargers from 1989 to 1997 where he was a Captain, a four-time Pro Bowl 1st Alternate, and a NFL Players Association team representative. He also captained the Chargers to the 1994-95 Super Bowl; the franchise's lone Super Bowl appearance. Courtney served as a Bloomberg Mayoral Appointee of the New York City Campaign Finance Board and as the Mayoral Appointee to the Board of Trustees of the Randall's Island Park Alliance. Previously, Courtney served on the Investment Committee for Rice University, which is responsible for managing the university's $4.8 Billion endowment. Courtney holds a JD/MBA from the University of Chicago, and a BA in Economics and Managerial Studies from Rice University.

Darin Chen - Founder, Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Co - Founder
  • Managing Director
Darin Chen is a co-founder and Managing Director of Hillcrest Venture Partners. He focuses on investments in the following sectors: Enterprise Applications, Information Technology Infrastructure, and Life Science Research Tools. Darin manages the firm's investments in GenieDB, Jeda Networks and MomentFeed. Prior to co-founding Hillcrest, Darin was Senior Associate at Arcturus Capital, where he evaluated and sourced investment opportunities from diverse industries. Darin led the firm's investment in and served as board observer to High Throughput Genomics (now HTG Molecular Diagnostics, IPO, NASDAQ: HTGM). Darin also recommended investments in Artes Medical (IPO, NASDAQ: ARTE) and Incuity Software (Acq. by Rockwell Automation, NYSE: ROK). Darin began his career in venture capital as an Analyst at Hopewell Ventures, where he evaluated deal flow and helped raise the firm's inaugural fund. Before Hopewell, Darin co-founded Lan-CE, an industrial process improvement company, and E-volutionet.com, an Internet exchange for the procurement of services. Prior to his entrepreneurial work, Darin was an Associate at the law firm of Schaffer & Baumer, where he specialized in corporate law and represented cancer research organizations. Darin worked as a Research Scientist at Immunosciences Laboratories, a clinical immunology laboratory, before he began practicing law. Darin has also served on the investment screening committee for the Southern California Biomedical Council Investor Conference, as a company mentor for the NIH Commercialization Assistance Program, and on venture panels for CONNECT and OCTANe. Darin holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, graduating near the top of his class, a JD from Loyola University of Chicago, and a BA in Molecular Biology from Rice University.

Jim Dovey - Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Managing Director
Jim is a Managing Director of Hillcrest Venture Partners. He focuses on investments in Enterprise Applications, Communications Infrastructure, and Wireless Technologies. Jim oversees the firm's investments in Branded Online and MomentFeed. He also managed the firm's investments in Phoenix Energy Technologies (acquired by Duke Energy, NYSE: DUK) and QuickFire Networks (acquired by Facebook, NASDAQ: FB). Before joining Hillcrest, Jim was previously an Operating Partner with Meritage Funds, a growth equity fund based in Denver. Jim managed Meritage's investments in Completel Europe (IPO) and Newpath Networks (acquired by Crown Castle; NYSE: CCI). Prior to his work at Meritage, Jim was a successful communications executive for more than 40 years, playing a visionary role in the cable industry and starting several successful businesses. He served as founding Chairman and CEO of Completel from 1998 to 2001. He also served as Deputy Chairman of IVS Cable International, building the company until its sale to KPN Cable in 1995. Jim held various executive positions with United Cable over a period of fifteen years, and in 1987 founded United Cable International to build and buy cable properties in the UK. He served as CEO of UCI through its combination with the UK assets of US West to form TeleWest (now Virgin Media; NASDAQ: VMED).

Julian Lin - Founder, Managing Director

Job Titles:
  • Co - Founder
  • Managing Director
Julian Lin is a co-founder and Managing Director of Hillcrest Venture Partners. Julian oversees the firm's investments in Phizzle and Virtulocity. He also managed the firm's investments in FastSoft (acquired by Akamai, NASDAQ: AKAM), Jeda Networks, Notion (acquired by Comcast, NASDAQ: CMSCA), QuickFire Networks (acquired by Facebook, NASDAQ: FB) and Titan Photonics. Before working in venture capital, Julian co-founded Westhold Corporation, one of the leading companies providing radio frequency timing and scoring systems. His technical expertise and entrepreneurial experience has made him a sought after leader of multiple venture-backed companies. Julian was previously Managing Engineer of Communications Software for Conexant Systems (NASDAQ: CNXT). Prior to working at Conexant, Julian was Global Managing Engineer - Handheld Telecom Instruments for Textron (NYSE: TXT). As a technical consultant, Julian helped develop several successful companies, including Tempo Research (acquired by Textron, NYSE: TXT); Equator Technologies (acquired by Pixelworks, NASDAQ: PXLW); and Entropic Communications (IPO, NASDAQ: ENTR).