Blake Hansen

Blake Hansen is an Eagle, Idaho–based entrepreneur and investor who founded Alturas, a privately held holding company that owns and operates real estate assets and multiple operating companies. He studied business at Brigham Young University and graduated from Boise State University with a degree in accountancy, beginning his career as an auditor at a national public accounting firm before turning full-time to investing. He made his first stock-market investment at age 12 and bought his first real estate while in college; he has been investing in real estate since 2003.

Hansen built Alturas by applying a Warren Buffett–style "own and operate" philosophy first to real estate and then across industries. In 2012 he co-founded Alturas Capital Partners (ACP), the group's commercial real estate arm, with Travis Barney — starting with Eagle View Plaza in Meridian and growing to a portfolio of 3.5+ million square feet across five western states. Under the Alturas umbrella he also launched Alturas Ventures, Alturas Homes, and Alturas Cabinet Co., positioning himself as a "business operator first" rather than a passive check-writer.

Beyond his own companies, Hansen is an active angel in the Idaho startup ecosystem. He is a member of the Boise Angel Alliance, has invested in three of its funds, and has served on its screening and portfolio committees and multiple due-diligence teams. He co-chairs the Idaho Technology Council's access-to-capital initiatives, has overseen the annual Idaho Deal Flow Report, sits on the Boise State Alumni Association Board, and has served on the AlertSense board since 2011. In 2014 he became principal owner and director of Konexus (formerly AlertSense), an enterprise risk-management and emergency-notification SaaS company.

• Operators-first, long-term ownership: Alturas Ventures acquires and backs small and medium-sized businesses "across any industry," emphasizing hands-on operating involvement and scaling companies over the long term instead of flipping them for quick returns.
• People and compounding over big swings: Hansen stresses steady, compounding effort — "the big things have emerged over time by being stable, not the big dreamer who is always trying to swing for the fences" — and believes "every possible problem that the planet faces can be solved by people."
• Partnership-driven: "Everything good in my life is done in collaboration with others." He starts every company in partnership and looks to unlock potential in founders and teams.
• Evolved from passive to active: He notes he had "always done passive investments" but roughly five years ago began writing sizable checks and becoming actively involved rather than just "a VC that writes a check."
• Stage & geography: Seed/early-stage and multi-stage investments, concentrated in Idaho and the Intermountain West.