Apr 21, 2017
4/03/2017
Financial success and social welfare are not mutually exclusive. One innovative company in Immokalee shows us the way.
The small agricultural town of Immokalee 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 Collier County Community Foundation 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 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 the 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 contacting Tamiami Angel Funds for more information (www.tamiamiangels.com).
Timothy Cartwright is chairman of Tamiami Angel Funds, 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.
4/06/2017
Socially conscious investors fund pioneering company
Investors are raising $250,000 in capital for Taste of Immokalee, a Florida corporation that is breaking new ground in socially responsible investing.
In a unique partnership between Naples-based Tamiami Angel Funds and the Community Foundation of Collier County, investors in Taste of Immokalee know their investment will benefit underprivileged children in eastern Collier County who are learning to become entrepreneurs.
Launched three years ago by Immokalee High School students, Taste of Immokalee sells hot sauces, spices, salsa and barbecue sauces in stores such as Publix and Winn Dixie. Under the mentorship of Naples business leaders, the students from the socio-economically underserved area learn valuable hands-on business lessons in developing social-media campaigns and merchandising activities at local festivals, schools and retail outlets.
Taste of Immokalee is a benefit corporation, a newly permitted Florida corporate structure that lets companies pursue both profits and community benefits. Traditionally, companies either had to register as for-profit or not-for- profit, but the state approved this new hybrid structure in 2014. It gives the company’s directors the ability to pursue both the community benefits and the profits as their mission.
“Taste of Immokalee students pitched their company to our investors, and we were won over by their entrepreneurial drive to succeed,” says Timothy Cartwright, chairman of Tamiami Angel Funds, member-managed funds that invest in promising young companies. “They are at the vanguard of the trend of social investing, which considers both financial success and community benefits to create social change.”
Mr. Cartwright believes this new initiative with the Community Foundation of Collier County, called the Tamiami Angels Impact Investing Initiative, will create similar socially responsible investment opportunities in the future.
Tamiami Angel Funds raised an initial $12,000 from their members, which will be deposited in a special account set up by the community foundation for the benefit of Taste of Immokalee. This allows investors to claim a tax deduction because they donated the shares in the company to the nonprofit foundation.
“This is the kind of groundbreaking endeavor the community foundation was designed to facilitate, and we hope this is the first of many such corporate efforts to benefit other causes, such as restoring the environment and improving human health,” says Eileen Connolly-Keesler, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Collier County.
If Taste of Immokalee is as successful as investors believe it can be, the benefit to the community could be significant. For example, food and beverage company Newman’s Own has distributed $475 million to charity thanks to the actor Paul Newman, who founded the company in 1982.
The capital that Taste of Immokalee raises will be used to bring the manufacturing and distribution to Collier County and to boost sales to achieve profitability, says Steve Stolz, board member of Taste of Immokalee. Currently, the company has contracted with a Sarasota based firm to produce and package the sauces and salsa, but long-range plans include production in Immokalee.
The nonprofit 1 By 1 Leadership Foundation of SWFL helped the students launch Taste of Immokalee in 2014 with the help of grants from insurance giant State Farm. “This is all about the kids,” says John Lawson, executive director of the foundation. “They can build it to sustainability.”
For more information, visit www.tasteofimmokalee.com, www.tamiamiangels.com and www.cfcollier.org. ¦
4/13/2017
Satisfaction comes from helping people
Timothy Cartwright wears many hats in his professional life.
He is a partner and co-founder of Fifth Avenue Advisors, a wealth management, mergers/acquisitions and angel investing management firm. He’s also managing director of the FAA subsidiary he founded in 2003, Compass Advisory Group, a consultancy that completes business transactions and corporate restructurings for mid-market companies.
Add to that his chairmanship of Tamiami Angel Funds, which are member managed investments in promising young companies, and his service as president of the Gulf Coast Venture Forum, a Southwest Florida-focused, nonprofit, angel investment network.
These professional pursuits, as with his life, are infused with the teachings of his Christian faith, something he has in common with his partners in FAA, Craig Lyon and Gary Price. He says they share philosophies, ethics and an appreciation for serving customers.
“It really emanates from our core value of using our Judeo-Christian beliefs and implementing them in our business: respect for every individual, a servant-leadership mentality that we take into our business every day, recognizing the talents we have been given and determining to use those talents to their highest and best use in serving others,” Mr. Cartwright says.
“I think it’s equally important that you recognize that everyone has talents and gifts, so no one person has all the skill sets required. That’s why we’ve come together in a partnership; we’ve found that a team approach to serving clients is much better than an individual approach.”
He and Mr. Lyon formed FAA in 2006, bringing their individual businesses, Compass Advisory Group and Magnus Capital, together in a one-stop shop.
“He was a regular investment advisor who managed family wealth and I had a merger and acquisition advisory firm that helped people sell their companies and become liquid,” Mr. Cartwright says.
Mr. Price, a former vice-mayor of Naples, added his wealth management skills to the mix in 2008.
A native of suburban Chicago, Mr. Cartwright has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s of management in finance and accounting from Northwestern University. College was followed by two years with Arthur Andersen, a holding company and former Big Five accounting firm, in Chicago.
Next, Mr. Cartwright dove into entrepreneurship by starting a supply chain consulting company, Benchmark Solutions, which grew to have locations in four Midwest cities. After leaving that company in 1999, he started Byproducts Interactive, an internet marketplace for food and agricultural byproducts, which was victimized by the economic downturn that occurred after 9/11.
He and his wife, Amy, visited Naples in 2002, as he considered his next move. A beachfront lunch at Lowdermilk Park helped prompt their decision to move their family, which included three young children, from suburban Chicago to Collier County.
After the move, Mr. Cartwright became involved in organizing and educating angel investors and facilitating the funding of small businesses to diversify the region’s economic development through investment in innovative industries. This led to the creation of Tamiami Angel Funds in 2008.
He describes the impact of the Tamiami Angel Funds as one of his major sources of pride, citing the company Taste of Immokalee as a prime example behind that feeling.
Taste of Immokalee was launched in 2014 by Immokalee High School students. The company sells hot sauces, spices, salsa and barbecue sauces the students create in stores such as Publix and Winn-Dixie. With mentoring provided by Naples-area business leaders, students from the economically challenged community gain hands-on experience in various aspects of running a business.
Tamiami Angel Funds has raised $12,000 from its members for the company, in a partnership with the nonprofit Community Foundation of Collier County. Investors are working to raise a total of $250,000 to enable Taste of Immokalee to bring manufacturing and distribution of its products to Immokalee from Sarasota.
“The greatest satisfaction comes out of serving people and helping them achieve their dreams and their goals,” Mr. Cartwright says. “That goes across the board, whether it is serving high net worth families and helping them accomplish their goals of charitable giving or paying grandchildren’s tuitions, whether it’s working with entrepreneurs and angel investors, all the way to the public service and volunteer roles that we play in various organizations.” ¦
Interview with Tim Cartwright
Business mentors: My partners.
First jobs: Delivering the newspaper and detasseling corn.
Business words of wisdom: Operate at the intersection of professional drive and personal humility.
Favorite business book: Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal.”
Two things you look for when hiring: People who are confident but coachable.
Any job openings? No.
Last time you had to fire someone, and reason? Sorry, that’s confidential.
4/21/2017
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.
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.
