FOR DISRUPTORS
BY DISRUPTORS

INNOVATION

For more than 50 years WR Hambrecht+Co team members have provided billions of dollars in early growth capital to more than 500 companies including:

HISTORY

Art + Science

WR Hambrecht+Co was founded by William Hambrecht, who previously founded investment bank Hambrecht & Quist that went public in 1996 and was acquired by Chase Manhattan Bank in 1999 for $1.35 billion. While notable on many fronts, William Hambrecht is especially renowned for identifying promising young companies and propelling them forward.

In the 1990s Hambrecht also began a series of collaborations with Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, leading WR Hambrecht+Co to adopt an investment strategy based on a disciplined application of Christensen's empirical research.

Ongoing refinement of this approach resulted in the Market Exaptation Simulation Engine ('MESE®'), an advanced computing and big data platform that has continued to evolve for more than a decade. MESE® provides unique insights into private markets with an ability to pinpoint early disruptive companies around the globe.

VALUES

People

People are not a means, but an ends. In other words, individual accomplishment and wealth creation are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, at their best they are means to increase the wellbeing of people and society as a whole.

Technology

Used prudently, technology has transformative potential to improve the effectiveness, financial performance and social impact of investors and innovators alike.

Fairness

Whether investing in startups, building partnerships or helping companies go public, WR Hambrecht+Co believes fairness is critical to productive relationships and a better world. From acting with integrity, to combating discrimination, to advocating a more level playing field for investors through open auction-based IPOs or more merit-based decision technologies, WR Hambrecht+Co is built on the belief that good business is good business, and that zero-sum thinking leaves people divided.