BARRY WEINMAN

What this episode covers

Barry Weinman merged and then took his first company public, making his first 9 employees millionaires (including the receptionist) in the 1970’s. He then became a venture capitalist and he and his partners have helped 70 companies become public companies. Some companies included are Palm, 3Com and Medscape. Barry later founded the Barry and Virginia Weinman Foundation that established the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship at the College of Business in the University of Hawaii. The foundation is dedicated to social causes and education. Some questions asked: Welcome to Greater Good Radio Hawaii Barry. You are a venture capitalist can you tell us in your words what you do? How did you get started? What are your rules of engagement? What’s the process for an entrepreneur pitch to you? How do you judge a business plan and executive/business summary? What types of businesses do you invest in? What are you looking for in a business? Was there a tipping point or breakthrough moment in your career that you remember? Where did you learn the value of a successful entrepreneur and being a community activist? Did you always think that way or did someone “enlighten” you to this way of thinking? What’s your philosophy on whether or not business people should give back to the community? Our show focuses on businesses giving back to the community, what is your take on giving back to the community? What do you say to those people who say there just isn’t enough time to get involved with the community because they need to focus on their careers first and primary? Could you tell us a little bit more about the Wienman Foundation and how it works together with the University of Hawaii? What’s involved in setting up a foundation like this? Can you share with us what your first venture was and the outcome? You work with your wife, how has it been working with her? What did you learn from your first IPO? How did you team up with Hewlett Packard? Who engaged working together? How did you come up with the philosophy of sharing the company’s equity with your employees? What are the original 9 employees doing today? What are the most important laws to becoming successful? What is the most important thing to teach your children? What was your biggest business challenge and how did you overcome it? Do you have any stories you can share about a tough time yet you still had hope and belief that with patience you will make it? What are the biggest mistakes people make? How do you know when to change gears? Any last advice for business people? What can we look forward to in the future? What message would you like our listeners to receive from this discussion? What are the reasons you decided to come on this show? Can you tell us why other people should come on this show? Can you tell us why people should listen to this show? BIO: Barry Weinman has been making venture capital investments, principally in Silicon Valley, since 1980. He is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Allegis Capital. The Allegis Capital Venture Funds manages over $500 million of corporate strategic money from a diverse set of 32 global corporations including AT&T, Boeing, Fujitsu, General Electric, Motorola, Sun Micro, Siemens, Procter & Gamble , Dow Jones , JP Morgan, and Honda. Since 1980, Barry and his partners have helped take over 70 private companies public. He has served on the Board of Directors of numerous high tech public and private companies. Barry holds a B.S. from Clarkson College of Technology, and an M.A. from the London School of Economics / University of Southern California. The London School of Economics finds the Hawaii Gas Cap Law quite amusing. In mid 2005 he co-founded DragonBridge Capital i...