Venture Capital Experts: Vision, Tenacity, and Passion are Keys to One’s Success

Sep 29, 2015

KIHEI, Maui, Hawaii – September 25, 2015 – On Thursday, September 24th, 33 entrepreneurs and professionals from various industries attended Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) workshop, “Venturing Out: Exploring the World of Venture Capital.” Their goal: to learn more about venture capital – what is it, where do you find it, and how do you secure it.

Held at the Malcolm Center in Kihei, five experts in the venture capital industry shared invaluable advice on how to attract venture capital to expand and grow one’s business. Speakers were:

Warren Doi – Go-to-Market Track Lead at the Hawaii Energy Excelerator
Donovan Kealoha – Senior Associate at Startup Venture Capital
Gregory Kim – Partner at Convergent Law Group LLP and President of Business Law Corps
Padma Rao – Experienced entrepreneur and advisor to mbloom a Maui headquartered venture capital fund.
Bill Richardson – Interim Director of UH Office of Technology Transfer and Economic Development

When speakers were asked for their advice to entrepreneurs seeking venture capital, they responded:

“Think big for sure and understand that you need to be better than the rest,” said Doi. “Here in Hawaii, you have a very integrated supportive network that you don’t have in the dog-eat-dog world of Silicon Valley. I think that’s Hawaii’s strength to have this entrepreneurial community where people are more inclined to help you. Ask for it and build those relationships that can help put you on that accelerated path to success.”

“Make sure you have traction,” said Kealoha. “Whether it be growing your user base or having revenues growing at a significantly healthy clip, having traction makes the valuations and negotiations a lot easier and venture capitalists will look at you more favorably.”

“My advise to you is go out there and have fun,” said Kim. “There’s nothing more motivating than doing something that’s important to you and that you’re passionate about. Don’t worry if you fail. Just dust yourself off and move on.”

“Make sure securing venture capital is what you want to do,” said Rao. “Because, you’re taking on partners. You are actively letting other people be part of your decision process for your company. You are adding a new constituency to the dynamics of your company in general. We encourage you to do research on your own to learn more about these types of funds and if it’s right for you.”

My advise to budding entrepreneurs is be a bit quirky about what you want in life,” said Richardson.  “Since 1993, I’ve been working to build a community of entrepreneurs in Hawaii. What I wanted in life was to create more STEM jobs in Hawaii for our youth to enable them to live here at home. That’s been my passion. So I encourage you to do everything with passion, because whatever you do with passion, you’ll succeed.”

While impressions from those who attended ranged from sheer exhilaration to cautiously optimistic, the overall consensus was the advice offered by these experts were invaluable in weighing the pros and cons of venture capital funds.

“Here you have the leading minds in venture capital funds sharing their expertise,” said Chris Speere, Maui Innovation Center Coordinator for the University of Hawaii Maui College.  “It would be very difficult to have this opportunity to learn about these topics without MEDB bringing these people here to talk about venture capital. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to digest. But at the same time, it plants the seeds to your next step.”

David Fry, owner of Board.Vote, a team project that captured first place in the 2015 Startup Weekend Maui, is one who is currently looking at the next step. “After Startup Weekend Maui, we had an opportunity to work on our business and we’re now looking at where we go from here,” said Fry. “Do we self-fund for a bit, do we want to go through angel funding or pursue venture capital? This workshop was a great way to learn about this industry and understand from both perspectives and from both sides of the table, what we need to be and what we should be expecting out of venture capital investments.”

For others, it was all about dreams and what pathways to take to get there.

“I dream big,” said Cecilia Hercik owner of Olavine Spa, who hopes to one day establish day spas for kama`ainas statewide. “In order to grow big, you need strong partners, you need capital. As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.”

The “Venturing Out: Exploring the World of Venture Capital” workshop was part of MEDB’s Technical Assistance Series, a grassroots effort to help small businesses establish strong systems, processes, tools, and best practices to build a solid foundation for success.

The workshop was sponsored by the County of Maui, Maui Economic Development Board, and Business Law Corps.  For more information, contact Frank De Rego Jr. at MEDB: email frank@medb.org or call (808) 270-6807.

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