ConnexPay will use growth capital to advance technology and expand to markets beyond online travel instant payment services.
by: Business Observer StaffNAPLES — Electronic payment provider ConnexPay, a startup fintech company co-headquartered in Atlanta and Naples, raised a Series A funding round of $7 million led by BIP Capital, one of the Southeast’s most active venture investors. 
Launched in 2017, ConnexPay works by matching payments from travel buyers to travel suppliers in real time. The technology reduces risk, eliminating the need for online travel agencies, tour operators and consolidators to pre-fund payments or obtain lines of credit.
Additionally, ConnexPay has announced it is expanding the issuance of Visa virtual cards in the travel industry. By collaborating with Visa’s issuing and acquiring financial institution partners, ConnexPay enables its customers to use Visa single-use virtual credit cards to enable payments to travel suppliers, according to a statement. 
“Collaborating with Visa to help expand issuance of Visa virtual cards provides a substantial boost to ConnexPay,” says ConnexPay founder and CEO Bob Kaufman in the statement. “Our intention is to be a game-changer for travel intermediaries and our successful funding round launches us one step closer to making this mission a reality." 
The growth capital provided by the Series A funding will be used by ConnexPay to further technology development, increase personnel and expand into new markets. 

Naples startup processes millions of dollars in transactions per day with a one-of-a-kind fintech model. Market education is the next hill to climb.
by: Andrew Warfield Lee-Collier EditorBefore Jacob Eisen begins to explain the business model of ConnexPay, he apologizes for having to “dumb it down." Not because the listener may not understand it, but because even his fintech colleagues often don’t.
“Our model is more confusing to people in our own industry, and it’s because what we are doing is not being done by anyone else in the world,” says Eisen, 36, partner and COO of the company co-headquartered in Naples and Atlanta. “We are the first truly combined merchant acquiring and issuing card solution in the world that we are aware of, initially focused within the online travel marketplace.”
'Our model is more confusing to people in our own industry, and it’s because what we are doing is not being done by anyone else in the world.' ConnexPay COO Jacob Eisen
In short, what that means is ConnexPay — launched in 2017 in part with a $355,000 initial investment by Naples-based Tamiami Angel Funds — provides a financial bridge between customers of e-commerce intermediaries, such as online travel agencies, and their travel providers, such as hotels, cruise lines and airlines. ConnexPay's technology eliminates pain points, particularly in providing the intermediary real-time access to funds needed to pay travel providers. That pain, without ConnexPay, says the company, is long: incoming credit card settlement times can be 24 to 48 hours — longer over weekends and holidays.
The ConnexPay software also ensures the travel intermediary fully pays vendors for customer orders placed through their platform. ConnexPay customers — intermediaries such as online travel agencies, tour operators and consolidators with annual sales from $100 million into the billions — can then save millions of dollars annually in merchant fees. That frees up cash reserves, which many banks require to mitigate perceived risk.
“(Banks) need tens or hundreds of millions in credit to float those payments,” says Eisen. “The intermediary has to pay the hotel or airline on their customers’ behalf. We are giving our e-commerce customers real-time access to their customers' funds so they can pay their suppliers and they don't need a line of credit or their own cash flow.”
Bob Kaufman is founder and CEO of ConnexPay.How did they do it? The technology, which took some 18 months to build, is based on the foundation of relationships between Eisen’s 48-year-old partner, CEO and founder Bob Kaufman, and his 20 years of payments industry experience with U.S. Bank and its subsidiary, Elavon. Kaufman was previously the CFO of the payments division at U.S. Bank, before he managed the bank’s virtual card division. His former boss is an investor and director in ConnexPay.
“Bob had customers in the industry who approached him with this problem the intermediaries have,” says Eisen.
The partners then spent more than a year cultivating relationships with major financial institutions to back the transactions — even as they spent millions developing the software that seamlessly matches intermediaries’ payments from clients to their suppliers.
ConnexPay is backed by more than $7 million in venture capital from two well-known institutional investors, BIP Capital in Atlanta and an as-yet unannounced second investor. ConnexPay is an issuer of both Visa and Mastercard through direct brand partnership agreements and has partnered with industry leaders for core processing and fraud detection capabilities such as TSYS, Kount and Marqeta. Clients, including airline consolidators, tour operators and online travel agencies, represent millions of transactions per year and more than $10 billion in annual volume. Unlike intermediaries such as Travelocity, airline consolidators are authorized to sell airlines' tickets directly to customers.
ConnexPay earns transaction revenue on both the processing and credit issuing ends. “Today, only the biggest of travel agencies out there don’t have credit issues with their customers,” says Eisen. “Because we are playing both sides, we can lose money on one side of it if we make money on the other. Other credit issuers out there are just competing against each other, but because we have both sides of the transaction we are able to find large customers in both the U.S. and Canada.
Behind its brief track record of success since going live in late 2018, ConnexPay is scheduled to pitch a “top five” online travel provider to win more business. While not disclosing revenues, Eisen reports the company grew 100% month-over-month in April and May and is processing millions of dollars each day in total transaction volume. Eisen expects the company to be cash flow-positive this year. 
Between its Naples and Atlanta offices, ConnexPay now employs 20, but is actively recruiting for both offices. It’s also planning to extend the platform to other e-commerce intermediaries outside the travel industry.
“Our solution works well throughout marketplace of e-commerce,” Eisen says. “The Amazons, Walmarts, Targets and online ticket brokers are all verticals where there is high volume and the companies are acting as intermediaries. We are working on that as we speak.”

​Investors with Tamiami Angel Funds were among the first to recognize the potential for the Naples-based company’s novel shoulder-surgery technology.
 
NAPLES, Fla. (May 21, 2019) — Catalyst OrthoScience Inc. recently raised $12.7 million in venture capital financing, validating the decision by early investors including Tamiami Angel Funds to back the Naples-based medical device company three years ago.
 
A review of the venture capital database PitchBook reveals that the recent $12.7 million investment led by River Cities Capital Funds for Catalyst was the largest venture capital sum raised for any company headquartered in Naples, according to Timothy Cartwright, partner at Fifth Avenue Family Office and chairman of Tamiami Angel Funds.
 
Tamiami Angel Fund II was the lead investor in Catalyst’s first round of venture-capital financing in 2016 with an initial investment of $930,000. In total, investors with Tamiami Angel Funds have invested $1.4 million in Catalyst.
 
“Catalyst is a true homegrown success story as our investors recognized the innovative technology created by Naples orthopedic surgeon Dr. Steven Goldberg,” says Cartwright. “With this latest round of financing, Catalyst is well on its way to becoming the global medical-device company we expect it to become.”
 
Tamiami Angel Funds now consist of three member-managed funds that allow high-net-worth individuals and families to invest in promising early stage and expansion-stage companies located in the U.S., with a preference for those in the state of Florida.
 
“Funding local companies such as Catalyst helps diversify Southwest Florida’s economy by providing the link between entrepreneurs like Steven Goldberg and Naples investors,” says Cartwright. “The region’s need for economic diversification during the last recession was the driving force behind the creation of Tamiami Angel Funds 12 years ago.”
 
Designed by surgeons for surgeons, the Catalyst CSR™ Total Shoulder System is a disruptive technology because of its unique approach to shoulder replacement. The humeral component replicates the natural shape of the shoulder more closely than current shoulder replacement implants. In addition, the device uses patented surgical instruments and a surgical technique that requires less bone removal than current procedures for shoulder replacement. Today, the Catalyst CSR system has been used successfully in more than 1,000 surgeries with excellent clinical results.
 
In a statement on May 14 announcing the $12.7 million investment by River Cities, Catalyst Chairman and CEO Brian K. Hutchison said: “This funding will be instrumental in fueling rapid growth for Catalyst through increased inventory, expanded distribution and new product development. The additional funding will allow us to enhance company infrastructure and hire additional talent to support our growth and to bring our novel approach to total shoulder arthroplasty to surgeons and their patients.”
 
You can read the full text of Catalyst’s announcement on the company’s website at www.CatalystOrtho.com, click on the “Events & News” tab. For more information about Tamiami Angel Funds, visit www.tamiamiangels.com.
 
About Tamiami Angel Funds
Tamiami Angel Fund I, Tamiami Angel Fund II, and Tamiami Angel Fund III are member-managed funds that allow high-net-worth individuals and families to invest in promising early stage and expansion-stage companies located in the U.S., with a preference to those in the state of Florida. The funds are members of the Angel Capital Association and the Florida Venture Forum. For more information, visit www.tamiamiangels.com.
 
About Catalyst OrthoScience Inc.
Catalyst OrthoScience develops and markets surgical implants that make orthopedic surgery less invasive and more efficient for both surgeons and patients. Catalyst was founded in 2014 by orthopedic surgeon Steven Goldberg, M.D., who saw the need to make shoulder replacement surgery less invasive and give patients a more natural-feeling shoulder after surgery. 
 
The company's first offering, the Catalyst CSR Total Shoulder System, represents the next evolution in total shoulder arthroplasty. The Catalyst CSR is a single-tray, bone-preserving total shoulder arthroplasty system containing a precision elliptical humeral head and less invasive glenoid component, using specialized ergonomic instrumentation designed for consistent anatomic joint line restoration and glenoid insertion. The Catalyst CSR system can be used in both inpatient and outpatient settings and was cleared for use by the FDA in 2016.
 
Catalyst OrthoScience has a growing portfolio of 10 granted U.S. patents with several more pending nationally and internationally.  The company is headquartered in Naples, Fla., and its products are available across the U.S. For additional information on the company, please visit www.CatalystOrtho.com.

Tamiami Angel Funds offers young, growing companies something more than money. List includes intellectual capital in business acumen and mentorship.
by: Andrew Warfield Lee-Collier EditorAmid the gloom and doom of the post 9-11 economic downtown, some angels in Southwest Florida rose to the occasion.
Angel investors, that is.
In 2004, about a year after Timothy Cartwright moved to Naples to work with an investment bank based in Chicago, he founded the Angel Investment Network — now called the Tamiami Florida Angel Funds. The goal? Recruit high-wealth investors to fund early stage companies primarily in the emerging technology space. 
Today, nearing its 15-year anniversary, Tamiami Angel Funds has some $12.7 million invested in 20 companies across three fund groups of about 40 members each, the diverse group of active and retired executives, entrepreneurs and business owners providing financial and intellectual capital to help young companies succeed. Of those 20 companies, three have exited the fund and one filed for dissolution.
“This was never done here before,” says Cartwright, chairman of Tamiami Angel Fund. “And at the time everyone was licking their wounds. I ended up talking to 600 high-wealth individuals and found 49 to put up $2 million of capital.”
And Tamiami Angel Funds was born, with the dual purpose of supplying high-wealth individuals the advantages of an accomplished, multi-disciplinary group of successful investors, and young companies ready to grow with much-needed financial and intellectual capital.
Guiding a room full of hard-charging, type A personalities accustomed to succeeding by having things their way does present challenges — though meetings and discussions are largely collegial at the general membership level. That is accomplished, Cartwright says, by combining a democratic process among the membership’s monthly meetings, with intensive committee work.
“It’s highly risky, so getting a group of 40 high-net worth types of individuals who have always been used to buying right and getting their way to cooperatively work together and decide to invest in a format where nine of 10 times they will be wrong is extremely difficult,” says Cartwright, also a partner with Fifth Avenue Advisors, a Napes investment firm. “There are situations where there are strong opinion and people can see things differently.”
Management matters
The refined, multi-step process of picking companies appears smooth now. But it hasn’t always been that way.
One example is the genesis of a procedural change from Fund 1, which like Fund 2 is now fully deployed. At the time, final approval required unanimous agreement by the executive committee, which on at least one occasion left the decision on behalf of the entire group in the hands of one member. That has since been modified. 
Fund members will evaluate as many as 450 proposals per year and invest in four to eight of them. Successful candidates must carry marketplace validation, which can include one or more of letters of intent, purchase orders, subscriptions, download data, crowdfunding campaigns and, most importantly, the promise of revenue.
The companies must also have solid management teams.
“In real estate, the adage is ‘location, location, location,’” he says. “The adage in early stage investment is ‘management team, management team, management team.’ It is a highly scrutinized component in all our deals that we consider what we call the execution team, taking the emphasis off managing something and orient them toward execution.”

Despite the scrutiny, not all investments are successful. To underscore lessons learned from risk, Cartwright, for example, says Tamiami Angel Funds now shies away from restaurants.
“One of the investments that we ended up losing more money on than we returned was a restaurant concept,” he says. “While we will invest in food and beverage companies, it would be very difficult to get our group to ever invest in a single restaurant or a chain of restaurants after our first foray into that.”
Exit strategiesInvestments, in general, are made with an eye toward a seven-year horizon. Cartwright says the average return on a successful investment by angel funds nationwide is about 22%.
In 2017, there was an exit in Fund 3 by Durham, N.C.-based iScribes, when the electronic medical documentation company founded in 2014 was acquired by Nuance Corp. for a non-disclosed amount. The deal yielded a 32% return to Tamiami Angel Funds, which invested $265,000.
ConnexPay, co-headquartered in Naples and Minneapolis, could be among the next success stories. The financial technology company secured $355,000 from Tamiami Angel Funds to complete development of its technology. Co-founder and chief operating officer Jacob Eisen says the firm's program streamlines the process between virtual payments and recipients while providing real-time data of the difference between customer transactions and outgoing payments to end providers, among other functions.
Eisen, 35, of Naples, and CEO Robert Kaufman, 40, of Minneapolis, have backgrounds in virtual payment and investment banking. Eisen says he and Kaufman could have secured growth capital elsewhere, but they chose to pitch Tamiami Angel Funds in large part for the ancillary benefits it offers.
“We had a lot of places we could have gotten funding, so raising money was not an issue for us,” says Eisen. “One thing we have been most impressed by is their desire to help in other ways aside from capital and managerial guidance. They have been willing to roll up their sleeves and connect us with potential customers. Some of them invested personal money outside the fund, and that has allowed us to expand our potential customer base.”
Investor John Kraft is an example of a fund member who brings specific experience to the table. A member of Fund 3, he is vice president of investor relations and strategy for ACI Worldwide, also an electronic payment company. Varied business experience, he says, provides for an effective group dynamic.
“We have some good debate. We have people from different locations, industries and expertise and certain people look to bring different insights into the deals,” says Kraft. “Someone from a different industry can think outside the box a little, and it results in a healthy discussion.”
ConnexPay met one of the most significant thresholds for investment — a revenue stream in place even though the software going live is still two to three months away. It has signed contracts with travel agencies representing more than $1.5 billion in annualized hotel and air sold.
“This reflects more than $5 million of expected net revenue to ConnexPay,” says Eisen. “Additionally, we have letters of intent or strong indications for another $3 billion or so of annualized spend, which would get us to over $15 million of net revenue. We are a high-margin business on a net revenue basis, so roughly 65% of the net revenue is expected to fall to net income.”
The investment will benefit the local economy as ConnexPay grows. Eisen says Naples is the ideal location for the support staff that will be needed. The company plans to soon announce a collaboration with Visa to increase issuance of virtual cards within the travel industry.
“And this before we’ve processed a single live transaction,” Eisen adds.
Hunting for gazellesConnexPay has the potential to become a gazelle — an uber fast-growing company that maintains annual growth rate of at least 20%. Tamiami Angel Funds is always on safari for early stage gazelles that can benefit from more than the financial investment in provides. 
“I would say our tagline is growth and intellectual capital,” says Cartwright. “The investment of intellectual capital is the mentorship that can come from our members who are former business executives, titans of industry and entrepreneurs who have created and sold successful, privately owned businesses. You can make magic happen when you can combine money and mentorship."
Florida-based companies that have received Tamiami Angel funding include 71 Pounds in Fort Lauderdale; Catalyst OrthoScience in Naples; Fracture in Gainesville; Fresh Meal Plan in Boca Raton; MassiveU in Naples; PlusOne Solutions in Orlando; Streann in Miami; and Senzari in Miami/Francisco. Schoolflow, which dissolved in 2017, was based in Orlando. Other investments are in companies now located in California, Rhode Island, Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, New York and Connecticut. 
Tamiami Angel Funds is not a closed group. New members are considered — providing candidates meet the threshold of at least $1 million net worth, excluding primary residence, and at least $200,000 in adjusted gross income for each of the past two years and the expectation of the same in the current year. 
“There is always room for more,” says Cartwright. “The more diverse our members are from all aspects — gender, race, industry, nationality, ethnicity — the better investment decisions we will make because we can call upon that diverse community vetting before we invest.”

Tamiami Angel Fund III scores an investment home run.

by: Business Observer Staff

Investing in startups usually comes with a caveat: Most companies don't make it, at least not enough to make the investment pay off in a big, or even moderate, way.
That's why investors with Naples-based Tamiami Angel Funds are taking a victory lap. The investors, through Tamiami Angel Fund III, put $265,000 into a medical transcription service for physicians in July 2017. That company, iScribes, was acquired in late 2017 — delivering an internal rate of return of 32% to Tamiami Angel Fund III, according to a statement. Publicly traded Nuance Communications acquired Durham, N.C.-based iScribes for an undisclosed amount, the release adds.

“Our investment in iScribes was the kind of home run that angel investors want to hit when they invest in early stage companies,” Tamiami Angel Funds Chairman Timothy Cartwright says in the statement. “Angel investors take significant risk on early stage companies with the understanding that only a few will reach successful exits and we are proud to say this was one of them.”
The return was the highest return on an investment since Tamiami Angel Fund III was launched in October 2016.

iScribes equips physicians with a mobile app and wearable technology to record patient visits, enabling trained virtual medical scribes to complete all necessary medical documentation. iScribes, the release adds, has incorporated leading security features to ensure that their technology is 100% HIPAA compliant.

The firm was born out of the frustration of its co-founder, Dr. Jared Pelo. “Once I started practicing medicine, I quickly saw how burdensome documentation had become,” Pelo says in the release. “Doctors were burning out. Counterintuitively, technology didn't seem to help. In fact, the adoption of widespread electronic medical records just made matters worse for overworked doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.”
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Pelo says he was grateful for Tamiami Angel Funds. “Tamiami Angel Fund invested at a critical juncture in the growth of the company,” he says in the statement, “and in addition to the investment offered sage business advice.”

Vital Vio is the fourth company in which Tamiami Angel Fund III has invested.
by: Business Observer StaffNAPLES — A group of investors from the Tamiami Angel Fund, based in Naples, has closed a deal to invest $400,000 in Vital Vio, a New York company behind LED technology that can kill germs while illuminating interior spaces.
The funds will be used to expand applications of Troy, N.Y.-based Vital Vio's technology and adoption of its germ-killing LEDs, according to a statement. Other investors include the New York State Innovation Venture Capital Fund, Belle Capital and Connectivity Capital Partners.
Tamiami Angel Funds consist of three member-managed funds. Vital Vio is the fourth company in which Tamiami Angel Fund III has invested. “While our funds have a preference for investing in Florida, we are always searching for the next great company anywhere in the U.S.,” says Timothy Cartwright, chairman of Tamiami Angel Funds, in the release. “Investing in companies outside Florida puts Naples on the venture-capital map, an important aspect of economic development for Southwest Florida.”
Vital Vio has commercialized a patented White Light Disinfection LED technology that kills germs with the flip of a light switch, the release states. Partnering with lighting-industry leaders, the technology is now integrated into a range of products providing illumination and continuous disinfection in public places such as hospitals, schools, gyms and food facilities. For example, Duke University athletic facilities installed the company's germ-killing lighting technology to protect athletes from infection, the release states.
“Our six-year early stage investing history as the Tamiami Angel Funds allows us to leverage our relationships to quickly syndicate top-shelf investment proposals like Vital Vio, which has an impressive combination of a deep intellectual property estate and a highly effective management team,” Timothy Cartwright adds in the release.

YOU HAVE TO PAY, OFTEN A LOT, TO GO TO COLLEGE OR university. But now that can pay off from the get-go if you’re a student at Florida Gulf Coast University. And you have a good idea.

FGCU, together with Florida State University, became the first public university in the state last week to kick off a new degree program for student entrepreneurs that will add mentors, practical experience, wide knowledge and even angel-fund grant money to their concepts-turned-business plans — no matter what their academic backgrounds or majors.
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In theory, students can now study Shakespeare, engineering, marine biology or anything else and make money at the same time by starting with one good idea then learning how to design it, patent it, produce it, market it, and distribute it. A diploma from FGCU comes with it.
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The new approach springs from the notion that creativity can come from any direction at the university. But it requires practical shaping of sorts before it can be of value to anybody.
It may also require angel investors — deep-pocket fueling agents of the future who bet on good ideas.
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“This is a business-of-arts degree in entrepreneurship. Not a business degree,” explains Professor Sandra Kauanui, director and program chair at FGCU’s Institute for Entrepreneurship.

“Lots of colleges that have an entrepreneurship degree just wrap it into just business school. But for a different, higher level of innovation, you want to connect with engineers, scientists, or many of our arts students: they’ve done things with digital media, created software applications, but they’re outside engineering or even business. They’re in the College of Arts and Sciences.
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“I blame Tim Cartwright,” she adds. “He came up here from Naples a few years ago and challenged us to do something like this.”

Mr. Cartwright, partner in Fifth Avenue Advisors and chairman of two of Florida’s biggest Angel Funds — the Tamiami Angel Funds I and II (now beginning a third iteration) — is chairperson of the investment committee that judges FGCU student projects on the runway.

A business incubator and important part of the of the program, students refine and then pitch their ideas in (or on) the runway. Like any other angel fund investors, the committee then backstops worthy ones with grants from the FGCU Foundation.

“We tell him how much we, the foundation, have and he and his committee decide how to distribute it,” says Dr. Kauanui.

To appear before the investment committee, students must have completed a semester in the runway program. They can and sometimes do become profit-making entrepreneurs even before they graduate, or just after.

“We saw 18 presentations about three weeks ago, and we invested $88,000 in 14 companies,” says Mr. Cartwright.

“The grants range from $1,000 up to about $12,500. It’s not a lot of money but it is money. They’re awarded to help students do some patent work, or do market research, or purchase a logo — to get a brand name and website services to launch their business — that kind of thing.”

Mr. Cartwright, who plans to teach a venture capital class at FGCU next year, knows whereof he speaks: the Tamiami Angel Fund II, for example, has invested a third — roughly $1 million — in a Naples-based medical technology invented by Dr. Steven Goldberg, chief of the Division of Orthopedic Surgery at Physicians Regional Healthcare System in Naples.

“He developed a new way to do a total shoulder replacement,” explains Mr. Cartwright, citing Dr. Goldberg’s company, Catalyst OrthoScience, and the device itself, the Catalyst CSR Shoulder System. “It’s patented, and he’s been issued his 510K clearance from the FDA. That means you’re approved to put your device into human beings.” There’s joy in such work, not just profit.

“This is the exciting thing, with ours being a (deep pocket) company: it’s really fun when you get to see that kind of development.”

And it’s also exciting to watch students emerge not just as thinkers, but as thinkers and doers.
Students with great ideas for products will not only put their minds together, but they’ll learn how to run the gauntlet of fiscal, legal, production and marketing challenges required to turn creativity into productivity.

“We spend at least 30 minutes each week with each student,” says Scott Kelly, assistant director of the Institute of Entrepreneurship, which includes the runway.

“From my perspective, going K through 12 and then the first year of college sort of (blunts) your creativity. So they get to feel out the ideation phase by coming up with a solution — it sort of beats the creativity back into them.”

Mr. Kelly, who graduated from FGCU with a degree in bio-engineering in 2014, had his own experience in FGCU’s Entrepreneurial program when he was a student there.

“I developed my first business in Dr. Kauanui’s classes — we developed the Aquaramp to help people with disabilities get in and out of swimming pools,” he says. “We got through the patent process and decided that the market wasn’t conducive to getting it to market.”
Getting it to market is one thing, but getting it to a stage that might work in the first place, is another thing, he acknowledges.

“What we teach here is the lean startup. The idea is to go to market with the minimum viable product. You have something you can take to market, to a very specific market, so you can test it, generate traction, and that can lead to expansion of your business or project.”

One student, for example, wanted to create an application that would help people working in or seeking real estate to find what they needed. But that was too broad, says Mr. Kelly.

“With him it was a matter of trying to get him to think more specifically. What is a major problem in the industry? What can you focus on that won’t cost a million to make happen — what can you start with tomorrow that will get people to buy into your idea?
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“So, he spent the next few months working on getting down to that specific target market. He ended up creating an app called RoomDig. They’re in the process of (establishing) the IP, the Intellectual Property rights, now. It’s specific to student needs in housing.”

Helping students find what they need and want. Since roughly 20.5 million students enrolled in colleges and universities in the U.S. last fall, that housing app might be a very good idea.
“When you put people together from across the disciplines, the level of creativity is so much better,” says Dr. Kauanui.
And a promising truth emerges: You don’t have to be a business student to be an entrepreneur. 
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Financial success and social welfare are not mutually exclusive. One innovative company in Immokalee shows us the way.

The small agricultural town in eastern Collier County may be an unlikely place for the newest trend in venture-capital circles, but one company there is at the vanguard of social investing.

Tamiami Angel Funds, a group of Naples investors who invest in promising young companies, recently formed a unique partnership with the Community Foundation of Collier County to raise capital for Taste of Immokalee.

But Taste of Immokalee is unlike any company you’ve seen before in Southwest Florida. It’s not a nonprofit charity and it’s not a for-profit company. It’s a hybrid called a benefit corporation, or “B Corp.," a structure that only recently has been permitted to form in Florida.

Started by enterprising students from Immokalee High School in 2014, Taste of Immokalee sells hot sauces, spices, salsa and barbecue sauces in stores such as Publix and Winn-Dixie. Under the mentorship of experienced Naples business leaders, the students from the socio-economically underserved area learn valuable hands-on business lessons such as marketing and distribution.
Anyone can invest in Taste of Immokalee just like any for-profit company and become a shareholder. Or you can make a charitable contribution to 1 by 1 Foundation, the nonprofit that helped launch Taste of Immokalee with grants from insurance giant State Farm.

But investing through the Tamiami Angels Impact Investing initiative at the Community Foundation of Collier County (CFCC) could mean a windfall for the greater benefit of the community. Here’s how: By ceding their shares in Taste of Immokalee to the CFCC, investors get a tax deduction because of the foundation’s nonprofit status. If Taste of Immokalee becomes a successful company, as investors believe it can, the Community Foundation can earn a windfall and reinvest the proceeds for the benefit of the community.

This is an important development because it’s another tool in the economic development arsenal to diversify the region’s economy.

What’s more, it’s a way to boost the economic well-being of communities that haven’t benefited from the economic recovery.

There is a well-known precedent for this kind of social benefit to financial success. Food and beverage company Newman’s Own has distributed $475 million to charity thanks to actor Paul Newman, who founded the company in 1982.

Tamiami Angel Funds and other investors are confident that Taste of Immokalee can be financially successful and boost economic opportunity. But like any startup enterprise, Taste of Immokalee needs capital to grow.

Tamiami Angel Funds is the lead investor and its members are contributing $12,000 to seed a $250,000 capital raise. That’s money Taste of Immokalee can use to bring manufacturing to Collier County and provide more opportunity and jobs to the region.
Taste of Immokalee will show the state that profits and social welfare aren’t mutually exclusive. Now’s the time for investors to prove us right by visiting Tamiami Angel Funds' website -- www.tamiamiangels.com -- for more information.

Tamiami Angel Funds are member-managed funds that allow high-net-worth individuals and families to invest in promising early stage and expansion-stage companies located in the U.S., with a preference for those in Florida.
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Keith Grant left the recent Venture Pitch SWFL forum in Punta Gorda having made a case that old-school tool manufacturing and 21st century technology go together like a firefighter and fire hose.
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Grant, a former firefighter who founded North Port’s Frontline Equipment Technologies LLC four years ago, also left with $30,000. He will use the venture capital to help him consolidate shops he has in Murdock Village, Charlotte County and in south Sarasota County in Venice.

Production under a single roof will help Grant boost production and increase marketing of his two main tool categories – HydraSpear Equipment Systems water-jetting nozzles and GatorFloss stainless steel-wire cutting saws. The investment will also help Grant do more of his own machining.

“We’re just going into a different level,” says Grant, who expects to add more private investment to the $30,000 from Venture Pitch.

Frontline is a departure of sorts from the software, internet and e-commerce companies that usually inhabit the world of early-stage ventures, says Timothy Cartwright, chairman of Naples-based Tamiami Angel Funds, a co-sponsor of Venture Pitch SWFL. “Frontline is maybe more old school in that they actually make a product that you can touch and feel,” Cartwright says.
And Grant made sure the judges could do that. He helped Frontline distinguish itself in the Venture Pitch competition by assembling one of his products as he made his pitch to a panel of judges.

The night before the event, Grant assembled a prototype of one of his HydraSpear products, carried its parts in a bag onto the forum stage and proceeded to put the parts together. When done, he presented the 7-foot SaberSpear.

The firefighting tool has fireproof extenders and a penetrating nozzle that applies a high-pressure water flow inside a fire without the firefighter having to get too close. The SaberSpear, headed to market this spring, can also be equipped with a cap that allows a striking tool to drive underground to saturate subsurface fires.

“Showing that product made a great impact with the judges,” Cartwright says.
Grant, who left a career as a Providence, R.I., firefighter for medical reasons in 2003, launched his company to make tools for fighting fires and for cutting drivers out of crashed cars. He discovered that with slight modifications, the products could have multiple uses.

For instance, the HydraSpear tools can be modified for piercing tools in marine work, among other uses. “They picked up the HydroSpear and ran with it,” Grant says of the marine industry. “It helps them with setting pilings and building seawalls.”

Utilities companies, he says, like HydroSpear tools for their precision boring, and drainage contractors like them for clearing drainage paths.
The GatorFloss saws use stainless steel wire cables to cut through aluminum, brass, copper composites, wood and other nonferrous materials. They are useful for disaster rescue teams, Grant says.

Grant has spent thousands of dollars developing and testing steel nozzles for the HydroSphere tools. He recently partnered with Englewood-based 3-D printing company LiteWorld LLC, which helps him save on costs.

Frontline employs two engineers. One is a specialist in fluid dynamics and the other software development. And a new executive addition is Bill McCabe, a retired CFO and CEO of a manufacturing company who worked with Frontline during a 13-year stint as a SCORE volunteer. McCabe retired from SCORE to serve as Frontline’s CFO.

McCabe says he falls into the category of retired executives not easily impressed. But Frontline impressed him enough to go to work for it, he says.

“I have seen a lot of different kinds of businesses and have a pretty good feel for their potential,” McCabe says. “I am impressed by their products and the market potential.”

An enterprising group of high school students in rural northern Collier County covet a taste of the business big-time.
The students, at Immokalee High School, are behind Taste of Immokalee, run under the support of several seasoned Naples area business leaders who mentor the students. Taste of Immokalee sells salsa, hot sauces, spices and barbecue sauces, and its products are in Publix, Winn Dixie and several Naples area independent retailers, including Wynn’s Market. It also has an e-commerce website, http://www.tasteofimmokalee.com.
  
“People compare us to Junior Achievement,” says Taste of Immokalee Executive Director Marie Capita, an attorney and former Collier County official. “But we are Junior Achievement on steroids. We give the kids a real-life experience.”

Taste of Immokalee has some other unique features. For one, it’s a benefit corporation, which, under a 2014 Florida law, allows it to pursue both profits and community benefits. Also, the company’s board of adult leaders includes former college basketball star Ralph Sampson.
And Taste of Immokalee recently worked out an unusual capital-raise agreement with Naples-based Tamiami Angel Funds and the Community Foundation of Collier County. Led by Tamiami Angel Funds, Taste of Immokalee seeks to raise $250,000.

The company, says Tamiami Angel Funds Chairman Timothy Cartwright, is “at the vanguard of the trend of social investing, which considers both financial success and community benefits to create social change.”

Taste of Immokalee was founded in 2014, with support from the 1 By 1 Leadership Foundation and grants from insurance giant State Farm. Its mission is to work with students in socio-economically underserved Immokalee, where the population is mostly migrant and immigrant workers in tomato fields.

Taste of Immokalee did about $14,000 in sales in 2015, says Capita. That figure jumped to $55,000 last year. The students, a changing roster that averages about 20 teenagers a semester, have worked on social-media campaigns and merchandising activities at local festivals, schools and retail outlets, among other business tasks.

If Taste of Immokalee reaches its full goal, the $250,000 capital raise could be a tipping point. It intends to use the money to move its production and packaging from a Sarasota plant to Immokalee, where it can make more goods, faster, Capita says. The funds will also boost the company’s marketing and branding efforts. And a portion of the proceeds goes back to the Immokalee community.

Taste of Immokalee students pitched their company in front of Tamiami Angel Funds’ investors late last year. While the group was impressed, Cartwright says they were hesitant to invest because the young leadership changes often, when students graduate.
That’s where the community foundation helps. It set up a special account for the benefit of Taste of Immokalee that allows investors to claim a tax deduction because they donated the shares in the company to the nonprofit foundation.

Tamiami Angel Funds raised an initial $12,000 from their members for Taste of Immokalee. The organization plans to work alongside Capita and the adult-based senior leaders on Taste of Immokalee’s board to help raise more funds. Says Cartwright: “Our view is that there is plenty of room in the world for more entrepreneurs.”

Be Good
The Florida Legislature passed a law in 2014 that created a new method of incorporating an entity: a B Corporation, also known as a benefit corp. The hybrid between a for-profit and nonprofit gives the company’s directors the ability to pursue both community benefits and profits.
Florida joined about 25 other states that now have a B Corp prevision. B Lab, a B Corp industry advocacy group, estimates there are some 1,600 certified B Corps worldwide, in at least 120 business sectors.
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The Florida B Corp legislation, according to a Florida Bar Association analysis, has three guiding principles: the entity has a statutory purpose to engage in public benefit activities; a mandate to directors and officers to consider the effect of any corporate action or inaction on the corporation’s public benefit goals; and a mandatory annual report to shareholders describing the efforts of the corporation to achieve the statutory and any specifically adopted public benefit goals.