Dynamic, Functional Capital

Manuel is a 30-year veteran of the venture capital and financing community who has devoted his career to helping entrepreneurs and new businesses succeed by providing them with highly responsive, creative and flexible financing solutions.

As an entrepreneur and innovator himself, Manuel understands the challenges new ventures face as they seek to find the capital necessary to begin production, scale their operations or take their companies public. Under his leadership, Hercules has committed more than $7.3 billion in investments to over 410 VC-backed, innovative companies.

Prior to founding Hercules Capital, Manuel was a Managing Director at VantagePoint where he focused on technology investments. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Investment Officer of Comdisco Ventures, a division of Comdisco, Inc.

As a long-standing advocate for children’s health, developmental learning and education, Manuel currently serves as a director on the following non-profit boards:

Northeastern University, where Manuel is a Member of the President West Coast Council, Member of the Academic Affairs and Student Experience Committee, and Member of the Corporation;

Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health (LPFCH), which was established in 1996 out of the Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University and is an independent public charity, devoted exclusively to elevating the priority of children’s health and increasing the quality and accessibility of children’s healthcare through leadership and direct investment. Manuel serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Compensation Committee, Chairman of the Executive Search Committee, Member of the Executive Committee and Member of the Investment Committee.

Children’s Health Council “CHC” which specializes in working with children with ADHD, Learning Differences, Anxiety & Depression and Autism Spectrum Disorders and Teen Mental Health Therapy. Manuel serves as Corporate Treasurer, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Chairman of the Investment Committee and Member of the Executive Committee.

Previously, Manuel also served on the Board of Directors for the Charles Armstrong School, an independent, non-profit, co-educational lower- and middle-day school specializing in teaching students with language-based learning differences, such as dyslexia. Located in Belmont, California, Armstrong helps its students re-enter traditional public and private schools with the learning tools necessary to be language proficient.

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Brian Sapp is a managing director In the Energy Technology Group at Hercules. Sapp has more than 16 years of experience in finance working with VCs, start-ups and public companies as an investment banker. Prior to joining Hercules in 2014, Sapp was a director in the energy technology investment banking group at Robert W. Baird & Co., where he originated and executed private and public equity and debt capital raises, and advised on M&A transactions. Prior to Baird, Sapp held senior banking positions at Wedbush Securities, Thomas Weisel Partners and SVB Alliant in their energy technology and technology groups. Sapp first started covering the clean technology / energy tech sector in 2004 at Pacific Growth Equities. Prior to investment banking, Sapp was an environmental process engineer with TE Connectivity for three years. Mr. Sapp received an MBA from Cornell University and a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.

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