Company aims to help other firms grow
Sennet Capital's founders include former execs from Hawaii Biotech, DFS and City Bank
Three local executives have joined forces to start a new company offering financial services and management consulting for mid-sized firms seeking to sell off assets or grow.
Sennet Capital LLC is the brainchild of John Bower, former chief financial officer and chief operating officer of Hawaii Biotech; Kenton Eldridge, a former executive with DFS Group and Federated Department Stores Inc.; and Richard Lim, former president and chief operating officer of City Bank.
Billing itself a "merchant bank," Sennet will offer a range of services normally associated with an investment bank, a private equity fund and a management consulting firm. Bower, who is Sennet's managing partner, said he believes Sennet's combination of offerings is unique among Hawaii's universe of professional and financial services firms.
Bolstering Sennet's expertise is a blue-chip board of advisers that includes executives with significant leadership experience in their fields. They include Paul Casey, former president and chief executive of Hawaiian Airlines; Mary Charles, founder of the destination management firm Mary Charles & Associates; John Dean, former chief executive of Silicon Valley Bank; and Duncan MacNaughton, chairman of the MacNaughton Group, a real estate development firm.
Sennet's consulting arm will seek to match such executives with companies seeking management advice. Typically, Bower said, Sennet consultants will be compensated with a modest retainer from the company they are advising, plus stock warrants in the company that become valuable only if the company achieves significant growth.
Already, Sennet has helped the Hawaii-based fledgling Yoee US Inc. -- which aims to position itself as the Expedia.com of China travel -- hire Casey as its interim chief executive.
Sennet has achieved some success in another of its segments: helping companies raise money. The company, Bower said, has helped raise equity and debt for Atlantis Cyberspace Inc. and It's All About Kids LLC.
Both the management consulting and money-raising aspects of Sennet's business fall under the company's overarching mission: to help mature companies reach the next level, a task that Bower speaks passionately about.
This includes not only raising money and dispensing advice, but also recruiting skilled workers and devising compensation plans that will lure those workers to the company without causing resentment among company veterans who might find themselves earning less than the newcomers. It also means dealing with corporate-culture issues that often come with fast growth.
Although Bower is a serial entrepreneur who has worked with true startups, he said Sennet's private equity division is looking for companies with positive cash flow of at least $1 million to $2 million. These include not just young companies, but also older ones whose owners may be looking to sell out -- companies that normally might turn to a standard investment bank.
"A lot of the bankers see that's where the opportunities are," Bower said.