Jacques Habra

Jacques Habra is a Lebanese-American technology entrepreneur and investor, born January 9, 1974, in Beirut, Lebanon. He earned a bachelor's degree (1996) from the University of Michigan, where he studied English and Philosophy with Honors. During his senior year he founded Web Elite, a web-application technology agency, which he grew through the early dot-com era and sold in 2001 to a group of investors for an undisclosed sum. He was named Andersen Consulting's Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2001) and was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in 1999, 2000, and 2001.

Habra is the founder and CEO of Noospheric, a Santa Barbara-based startup incubator, consulting agency, and angel-investment vehicle. The name and his stated philosophy draw on Teilhard de Chardin's "Noosphere" concept and what he calls "ethonomics" — blending smart economics with sound ethics. Through Noospheric he provides early-stage companies with branding, positioning, strategic partnerships, investor relations, and lead angel capital, frequently embedding deeply with founders (he served as interim CEO of one portfolio company). He has also been an adjunct professor/workshop leader at Santa Barbara City College, where he developed much of this entrepreneurial philosophy.

His most prominent venture as an investor was TrackR (formerly Phone Halo), where he was lead angel investor and advisor from 2009–2011 and interim CEO from June 2009 to November 2010; the company later raised a $50M Series B (2017) led by Revolution Growth and the Amazon Alexa Fund. He also founded SelfEcho (2013), a Santa Barbara well-being technology company that tracked psychological metrics via smartphones (products included "Mobile Therapy," UpJoy, and a forthcoming "Happy Index"). Around 2017 he served as Chief Strategy Officer at cannabis company Grown Rogue.

In recent years Habra has shifted much of his attention to real estate development, operating through HIP Properties / HIP Real Estate (real-estate holdings he has managed since the late 1990s). He serves or has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Westmont College Foundation Board, the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Central Coast, the Arthritis Foundation Leadership Council, and Mentorship Works, and was named SBTIA Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016.

• Invests at the earliest (seed/angel) stage, typically in regional Santa Barbara / Central Coast startups, often before launch.
• Combines capital with hands-on operating support — branding, naming, positioning, strategic partnerships, legal coordination, and investor-relations prep — rather than passive checks.
• Focus areas have centered on consumer mobile/web technology, personal analytics and well-being ("the next network will be internal"), connected/IoT devices, and marketing technology.
• Philosophy-driven: champions "ethonomics" (smart economics + ethics) and advancing "consciousness in business and technology."
• His own stated mantras: *"You accomplish what you measure"* (on SelfEcho) and an emphasis that he looks to *transform "one-product companies" into investable businesses* (echoed by TrackR's founder).