Hatch Graham
Managing Director
hgraham@ataventures.com

Hatch is a co–founder and Managing Director of ATA Ventures. Following formation of the firm in early 2003, Hatch has made investments in telecom, enterprise, semiconductor, and software companies. He currently serves as a Director on the Boards of Synfora, Actelis, FastScale, Rivulet, VMIX and Yottamark.

Hatch blends a unique and celebrated background in public and private companies with extensive venture experience – his six years as a Managing Director of ATA Ventures is coupled with former experience through the 1990’s and early–2000’s supporting U.S. Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Sevin–Rosen Funds and CommVenture Partners in the process of evaluating companies/technologies and providing industry expertise to related Boards.

He has co–founded of several innovative startups in wireless, optical, and wireline telecommunications, serving as Chairman or CEO on several. Examples include Wave7 Optics (acquired by Enablence), a pioneer in the fiber–to–the–home industry and Resonext (acquired by RF Micro Devices), a successful pioneer in the wireless “Wi Fi” sector. Additionally, Hatch was a charter employee of Zoran Corporation (ZRAN) in the mid–1980’s, a leading Digital Signal Processing company serving the consumer products sector.

In addition to his activities with privately owned companies, Hatch held executive officer positions within industry–leading public companies, including World Access, TCSI Corporation, and Stanford Telecom.

While at Stanford Telecom, Hatch led the company’s transformation from a pure government contractor to a combination of growth–oriented commercial enterprises serving wireless and wireline communication sectors. Silicon Valley Business Journal credited Hatch as the key force in the impressive turnaround to prosperity, citing “Stanford Telecom hit the jackpot in 1994 after two years of little growth…the turnaround has been led by Hatch Graham’s ASIC and Custom Products Divisions.” The efforts resulted in highly successful and publicized M&A events with Intel Corporation and Newbridge Networks. During Hatch’s 5–year tenure at the helm of the company’s commercial business units, shareholders enjoyed an 8X increase in stock price.

In another example, Hatch joined World Access as Group President in 1997 to help revive the de–listed telecom company. Hatch and the executive team completed an impressive turnaround which included incredible revenue growth – revenue was less than $50M per year and profitless when he joined, but within two years, revenue was well over $200M and profitable. Within the same period of time, World Access market capitalization grew by more than $500M. The company developed telecom equipment in the areas of Switching, Transport, and Access systems.

As a technologist in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Hatch was one of the most accomplished and award winning semiconductor designers with over two dozen communications IC’s to his credit – most architectures are still in production over 15 years later. Hatch’s concepts led to key patents in direct digital synthesis, programmable logic device, digital filtering, forward error correction, spread spectrum wireless, cable TV, and cellular telephone applications. For his invention in digital modulation for cable TV, he was granted the coveted “reverse path” patent which enabled cost effective broadband CATV architectures, a primary enabler for the Cable Modem industry. Hatch was also granted an error–correction patent that contributed to the introduction of Direct Broadcast Satellite television.

Products that Hatch has personally designed have been featured on the covers of many publications, including RF Design Magazine, DSP and Multimedia Applications, Microwave and RF Magazine, Electronic Engineering Times, to name a few. In their 20th Anniversary issue, industry–leading trade journal Electronic Engineering Times published a feature article about Hatch, honoring him as one of the industry’s top technology development leaders, labeling him “a force in our industry.” He is also a published author on Engineering Management excellence. Hatch has been a recipient of Idaho State University’s Professional Achievement Award, where he graduated in 1982 with a B.S. Engineering degree and currently serves on the ISU College of Engineering Advisory Committee.