MANAGING PARTNER

Harry Hopper

Harry has extensive experience in starting, funding, developing and advising high-growth companies. He has been an entrepreneur-founder, a venture capital Managing Partner, and active board member for 25+ companies in the communications, media and technology sector (CMT) over a span of more than 30 years. Harry founded MFP after a long tenure as a Managing Partner at Columbia Capital, a CMT venture capital/private equity firm which he joined in 1994. Harry served as a Managing Partner at Columbia for 4 institutional funds ($2 billion+ under management), as well as co-founding Digital Television Services, a direct CMT investment by the principals. Until 1999, he also served as President of Columbia’s affiliate investment bank, the Columbia Group.

Harry is currently on the Boards of Plainsight Corp.; LendPro, LLC and HyperSpectral.ai. He serves as an advisor to all MFP portfolio companies.

Harry’s past public board seats include: Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX); MetroPCS Communications (formerly NYSE: PCSmerged into T-Mobile US; NYSE: TMUS,); Pegasus Communications (NASDAQ: formerly PGTV); and DSL.net (NASDAQ: formerly DSLN).

Harry’s past private board seats include: Affinity Internet (acquired by Hostway), AFSC (acquired by CDC), Broadslate Networks (acquired by DSL.net), Bachtel Cellular (4 mobile operator JVs acquired by Verizon, AT&T), Cellular One of East Texas (acquired by MTPCS), Columbia Spectrum Management (acquired by P-Com), Cricket Oregon JV (acquired by AT&T), Digital Television Services (acquired by Pegasus Communications), MobiPCS (acquired by Verizon), Open Mobile (merged with Sprint), Pihana Pacific (acquired by Equinix), Public Mobile (acquired by Telus), Salt, Inc. (merged with Stcky.io), Sky Broadcasting (acquired by Broadcasting Partners) and Xemod (acquired by Sirenza Microdevices).

Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Harry served as Executive Vice President of Bachtel Cellular Liquidity, LP, a wireless investment fund. Prior to Bachtel, he was the founder of Sky Broadcasting Corporation and AFSC Corporation, and, earlier, a corporate finance and M&A lawyer.

Harry received his B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa) and J.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Harry is an avid cyclist and a supporter of education and the arts. He is a former Trustee of George Mason University and is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the non-profit Corcoran Trust.

Venture Partner

Derek Smith

Derek Smith has over 20 years of financial services industry experience helping companies increase assets while controlling credit losses. Devising innovative and effective credit policies and implementing them through credit operations has been a recurring theme in his career. Derek’s expertise on credit processing system enhancements has allowed his clients to expand markets and increase profits

Derek was a member of the original 8-member Executive Team at Capital One, where he headed all customer acquisition. As Capital One combined credit risk and marketing under customer acquisition, Derek directed the entire process from product development, name selection, marketing material, and credit policy. Capital One’s assets doubled each of the last 3 years of Derek’s tenure.

Derek was Director, Customer Value Management (2000-2001) for Barclaycard UK and Chief Risk Officer for all Barclays Consumer Products (2004). Derek’s expertise helped Barclaycard diversify its product portfolio and thereby expand its addressable market. Barclaycard’s profits grew 4X while Derek was working for or consulting to Barclaycard.

At College Loan Corporation, Derek was Chief Risk Officer (2005-2008) and Chief Marketing Officer (2007-2008). Due to Derek’s efforts, College Loan’s application processing was unparalleled in the student loan industry and its credit losses were below industry norms. Unlike most of College Loan Corporation’s competitors, the company survived the financial crisis as the loss exposure of the company was mitigated.

Derek is currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of LendPro, LLC, an MFP portfolio company, where he uses his expertise to help finance companies and retailers maximize the potential of point-of-sale financing. Financing large-ticket items increases the purchasing power of consumers enabling larger ticket sizes for the merchant while granting lenders a stable and relatively inexpensive acquisition channel.  He also provides a broad range of advice and support for several other MFP portfolio companies and their partners and customers.

Derek holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a BA from Amherst College.