With $150 million in investment capital under management, Euclid Partners is a relatively small firm focusing on early-stage capital investing (seed through first stage financing). Euclid focuses on companies with anticipated revenues of $50 to $100 million within five years. Hardly bashful about its relatively small size, Euclid prides itself on strong teamwork between its general partners, and shuns the role of the passive investor. Indeed, Euclid Partners insists on the close working relationships that it cultivates with entrepreneurs. The firm offers companies value added assistance with forming management teams, recruiting, formulating operating strategies, marketing agreements, financing, granting technical assistance, and identifying suppliers. Every Euclid portfolio company has a Euclid general partner on its board of directors. Most importantly, Euclid is also willing to cough up the dough. In February 2000, Euclid announced a partnership with S.R. One, the venture capital arm of pharmaceutical firm SmithKline Beacham, to create a new $200 million dollar fund. The fund, named EuclidSR Partners, will invest in Euclid's areas of specialty, namely medical and information technology, and will be co-managed by Euclid and S.R. One partners.

Portfolio: IT

Euclid has traditionally invested in companies specializing in information technology or medical technology. On the IT side of the spectrum, portfolio successes include Euclid's investment in Avail Systems Inc., a Colorado software company specializing in data management for Novell Networks (and sold to Wang Labratories in 1995); CrossComm Corp., a Massachusetts-based producer of internetworking products that went public in 1992; Freeloader, Inc., one of the first Internet off-line services sold to Individual, Inc. in 1996, which is now a part of Rowecom IntraLinks, a New York builder and operator of communications networks that link large financial institutions such as Citibank and JP Morgan. The company has also invested in JuniorNet Corp., Multex.com, Netegrity, and Sys-Tech Solutions.

Portfolio: medical

Regarding investments in medical technolgy, Euclid has scored with Biosite Diagnostics, Inc., a developer of immunodiagnostic products that went public in 1997, and Neomorphics, a leader in human tissue repair (Neomorphics was sold to Advanced Tissue Science in 1992). Euclid also focuses on companies specializing in cost cutting in healthcare management, such as formerly PowerCenter Systems (purchased by Eclipsys Corporation in February 1999) and Xeyex Corp.

General partners: co-founders

As noted, Euclid general partners pride themselves on their ability to work as a team, and to expand their roles beyond simple investing. A. Bliss McCrum, who co-founded the firm along with Milton J. Pappas, graduated from Princeton and Wharton, and jumped into venture capital after rising through the ranks at Dominick & Dominick, an investment bank. McCrum is a director of Eclipsys Corporation and Grasp Information Corp. For his part, Milton Pappas helped found Euclid Partners after a career at Cleveland Trust Company, Merrill Turben & Co., and First of Michigan Corp. Pappas graduated from Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Marshall Law School. He serves as a director of IntraLinks Inc., JuniorNet Corp., Multex Systems, Inc., NeTegrity, Inc., Systech Solutions, Inc., and Xeyex Corp.

General partners: the others