Jeffrey Hurst

Jeffrey M. Hurst is a co-founder and General Partner of Commonwealth Capital Ventures, a Boston-area venture firm he helped launch in 1995 to back early- and growth-stage technology companies. Over roughly 25 years there, the Commonwealth team invested in more than 140 high-growth companies and managed more than $580 million of committed capital raised from educational and financial institutions, pension funds, and family offices. His investing spans communications infrastructure, information technology, and analytical/life-science systems.

Before founding Commonwealth, Hurst spent his early career in finance and private equity. He was a Senior Vice President in GE Capital's Corporate Finance Group, served as a Managing Partner of Cox Partners (a Dallas-based private equity firm), and began his career at Bankers Trust Company. In total he has more than 30 years of private equity and venture capital experience.

Hurst is now also a Partner and Investment Committee member at Staley Capital, a Newton, Massachusetts growth-equity firm focused on B2B software and applied AI. Staley invests $5–20M in growth-stage B2B technology companies serving consumer-facing industries (retail, restaurants, adtech/martech, supply chain), typically at the inflection point where a company has built its product and won early customers but needs capital to scale sales and marketing.

He earned a B.A. in History and Economics from Duke University and an M.B.A. from Tulane University. He has served as a Trustee of the New England Aquarium and on Duke University's Trinity College Board of Visitors, and has held numerous portfolio-company board seats, including chairing Seahorse Bioscience.

• Backs high-growth technology companies positioned to become leaders in their markets — historically early- and growth-stage at Commonwealth, and increasingly growth-equity at Staley Capital.
• At Staley, targets the "better, faster, cheaper" B2B software thesis: companies with a demonstrable value proposition that have built product and acquired initial customers but left sales and marketing underfunded — the point where growth capital compounds.
• Sector strengths: communications infrastructure, IT, and analytical/life-science systems (Commonwealth heritage) plus B2B/vertical SaaS, applied AI, fintech, and retail/martech/supply-chain software (Staley focus).
• Check size discipline: at Staley, $5–20M minority growth-equity positions; comfortable taking active board roles rather than passive checks.
• Values "secular shifts in consumer behavior" and timing — investing when a market inflection makes a proven product ready to scale.