Click here for Part I & Part II

Investing in Philadelphia’s future through collaboration with innovative businesses and the region’s first Microsoft Innovation Center

Wayne Kimmel is the Managing Partner of SeventySix Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in “passionate, smart, and nice” entrepreneurs and their innovative startup businesses. Founded in 1999, SeventySix Capital has backed over 40 consumer-facing companies that have gone on to become preeminent names in the health care and technology spaces. The firm has completed a number of successful exits: Seamless, Take Care Health Systems, NutriSystem, and several other companies in SeventySix’s portfolio have gone public or have been acquired by multinational organizations such as IBM, Intel, Walgreens, and Aramark.

Named one of the region’s “Top Innovators” (Philadelphia Magazine, 2012), Wayne is one of the most active philanthropists in the Philadelphia area. He serves on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the Jewish Federation of North America, and the Einstein Healthcare Network—where he also acts as Chairman of the network’s Development Committee.

Earlier this month, Wayne and his firm made news with the announcement of Philadelphia’s Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC): a collaboration between Microsoft Corp., SeventySix Capital, the University City Science Center, and Wexford Science & Technology. The MIC is Philadelphia’s first, as well as the third location in the U.S. overall.

Q. What are you looking for in the people at the lead of the companies you invest in? What qualities make a good entrepreneur?

WAYNE KIMMEL: When we look at entrepreneurs, we make sure that they’re the right kind of people, but then you really take a look and try to figure out: “Do they truly have that desire? Do they have that drive, Do they truly have the passion to want to make this idea successful?” That’s what it’s all about. They have to truly love what they’re doing because it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be hard to create a new thing and then get the world to use it. It just doesn’t happen overnight. You have to have this drive, this desire, this incredible passion to keep running. You’re going to run into walls and you’ve got to knock them down. You going to fall down—you better be able to get up. It’s not when you get knocked out and you say, “I’m out.” No, that’s not how this game works. You’ve got to keep fighting, keep working hard. You will get knocked out. You may hit a roadblock. It may look like you may not succeed, but you gotta fight through it. You gotta go get there, and that’s something that we look for in all of our CEOs and all the entrepreneurs we get involved with. And we try very hard, in a very short amount of time that we get to meet them and spend time with them, before we make a monetary investment in their company. It’s a very, very short dating period that we have to figure these things out But, if we get it right and we invest in that person that will not take no as an answer—when someone says, “no,” it’s like, “When’s our next meeting? You just said no—when’s our next meeting? Are we getting together again?” That’s the kind of person I like to invest in because that’s the kind of person you need to be. You will get doors slammed on your face. You will get the “no.” You will get “I’m not interested in this, ever,” but then maybe that “ever” isn’t forever, right? That’s the part that’s really important for us: to be able to figure that out and find those kinds of people to invest in.

Q. Can you share with us some of the successes you’ve had in your portfolio?

A. We’ve been very lucky to have been involved with companies that have become household names in the tech and consumer music industries. Companies like Indiegogo—being an early investor in that company is incredible. They’ve become the world’s largest crowdfunding company. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the two major players. We think we’re doing some incredible things from the Indiegogo perspective.

Another one of our companies, ReverbNation, are the leaders in the independent music world. We have over four million artists all across the world that use ReverbNation to help them promote themselves as artists, as bands. We also now have over 300 artists in our connect program—sort of like our AAA Program, as I like to say, sort of the minor leagues in baseball. Through the use of technology, through the use of big data, through the use of the A&R process that the old record companies used, we’re now able to identify some of the leading independent artists from around the world. Not only do we let them use all the digital products and digital things that we have that we provide them online today and help them get the next gig—help them put their music on iTunes, help them make a website, help them get more fans on social media—but we also now work with the top artists and help them get to the next level. We’ve been very lucky to work with some great artists over the years that actually have taken it to the next level: many Grammy winners. We see them coming up through the chain and it’s incredible working with the company. The company’s CEO—his name is Mike Doernberg. Mike is a relentless CEO. He’s a guy who wants to make everything perfect. He wants to make the experience for the artists the best that it can be. Whether you have one fan or whether you have a million fans, he wants that experience to be great. And it’s a real pleasure to work with teh team there because they’re perfectionists, they’re technologists, they’re music people, and they care. They care about the artist and we want to make sure that each artist feels that they’re special and they could be the next next. That’s the whole idea behind ReverbNation: that you can, because you can go from one artist to being on the stage at a large venue someday. We hope that we could help those artists, through the tools and things that we’re able to give them, get there.

Connect with Wayne on LinkedIn

ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

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Justin Bell, Managing Director

Justin Bell serves as a managing director in Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's Wayne, Pennsylvania office. Since joining the firm in 2006, Mr. Bell has completed more than 3.0 million square feet of office and industrial transactions valued at $172 million. He specializes in office and industrial landlord and tenant representation as well as end- user sales, relocations, expansions, lease renewals, lease diagnostics, broker opinion of values and financial analysis. Mr. Bell spends the majority of his time advising companies in suburban Philadelphia.

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