My interview with Sandy Posa

Our assignment from this week as to interview an entrepreneur from any field, so I chose to speak with Sandy Posa. Sandy used to work with my dad at Gillette several years ago. As he explains in the interview, he always invested in early stage companies and continued to do so after he left Gillette. Here's what he had to say:

Joel Kost: Describe what kind of business you do and how you’re an entrepreneur.

Sandy Posa: I’ve got been working for large companies for most of my career. On the side I’ve invested in a bunch of small early stage companies over extended period of time since 1990, I would guess. So when I left Gillette like your dad did, I started becoming an angel investor. For the past five or six years I’ve invested in probably half a dozen start-ups in that period of time. With a few of the companies I’ll either get on the board or I’ll work with equity.

JK: Why did you decide to work with smaller business after you left Gillette?

SP: A lot of my career has been in the early stages in big business. That’s always been my best work. It was sort of a natural evolution. When you look across the venture community, there isn’t that many people that want to be involved in early stage companies. Most of our dollars got to high-tech stuff. By and large there’s a hole in the market for early stage producers.

JK: Can you describe the product you’ve invested in now, the cleaning product?

SP: There’s this technology that’s been around for nearly a decade, but its never been commercialized really well. It’s a product that’s based off electrolyzed water. And what it is, is a combination of salt, water and electricity, with the right kind of device. Believe it or not, that produces sanitizer. It will kill mold, bacteria…really mold and bacteria from flu virus, to mrsa, to everyday bacteria. It effectively kills that. It also has cleaning properties to it. And it’s made with salt water and electricity. It has some very green, eco friendly characteristics to it, as well as sanitizing properties that are difficult to get without harsh chemicals.

JK: Why are people reluctant to invest in it?

SP: There’s a whole series of reason why. Most of the other people who have tried to commercialize the technology are trying to do it on industrial side. Nobody’s tried it on the commercial side. It’s a really small number. I think the commercial cleaning business is north of 30 billion a year. And it’s basically all kinds of stuff. There’s been very little innovation, very incremental innovation for a long time.

JK: What are some of the other companies you have invested in?

SP: One that’s a little bit on the rental beat. It’s a database of rental apartments. If you’ve very tried to rent an apartment, it’s really a tough experience for consumers for a couple of reasons. And this company has a database that consumers and brokers can access. And that database doesn’t exits anywhere else in the country.

I’ve invested in a consumer business that is involved with Glow Design, and we design really cool products. One of the lead items is cases for your iPhone. We design for some really neat applications.

It’s a very eclectic group of companies. They all have kind one thing in common, which is addressing consumer pain points. Those are the common things that I look for, companies that solve that problem.

JK: So you tend to look for companies that try to solve consumer problems or work with technology?

SP: Yeah, That’s generally what look for.

JK: What has been the hardest part of being an entrepreneur?

SP: For me personally, is I’m not someone who raises capital. I just don’t like to do it. So I like helping the operation side of companies. The biggest problem is having to raise capital.

JK: What is your favorite part of being an entrepreneur?

SP: I like to get involved with younger and dedicated people. That’s fun for me. And eventually these companies will have the ability to change some of these markets. It’s also a little bit of a hobby.

JK: Do you have any advice for young entrepreneurs?

SP: I think if you’re at an early stage and the idea stage, a couple things. One, it’s a longer haul that you think. You’re going to have to get yourself attached to companies that have made it. It’s a very real commitment if you’re going to do it. You have to be really devoted to your idea. And the second phase, I haven’t seen one company evolve who’s original idea hasn’t’ turned 180 degrees. You have to know how businesses evolve. And number three, you have to know how to work with people. If you do and you get friends and family to invest in you early and get good market traction and validation, the earlier the better.