Giving Central Coast Entrepreneurs a Boost
Since Martin Shum stepped down last year as head of ACT Networks, the Camarillo telecommunications firm he founded in 1987, Shum has been busy offering advice to fellow entrepreneurs.
Through his new company, Martin Shum & Associates, Shum has been assisting would-be corporate tycoons in the early stages of business development, by guiding them from the idea stage to the point of seeking capital investment.
It comes as little surprise that Shum will be among the speakers at the Venture In Central Coast Capital Conference on April 29 at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort in Santa Barbara.
The second annual conference is aimed at providing entrepreneurs with information on investment financing, as well as offering networking opportunities for business owners and investors. The program will include seminars on seeking venture capital, seed capital and loans, and a keynote address by garage.com President Bill Reichert, who will discuss the changing venture-capital industry.
“What we see is a growing need of entrepreneurs in the Central Coast region--from San Luis Obispo to Westlake Village--not only for capital itself, but for places to find the capital,” said conference organizer Jeff Carmody, a venture lending officer with Montecito Bank & Trust and Sand Hill Capital.
“The idea here is to provide them with the tools of the trade, to get them through the process of growing their business and understanding what it means to take on investment capital,” Carmody said.
Last year’s inaugural conference attracted about 270 people, ranging from entrepreneurs with no more than a concept to owners of multimillion-dollar businesses looking to reach the next level of growth.
Shum’s interest lies more in helping those new on the scene.
“My focus in the Ventura County area is to work with entrepreneurs who had the gumption to start a business but lacked the knowledge to start it right,” Shum said. “One thing that’s very noticeable to me as I work with entrepreneurs in this area is that there is a lack of knowledge about how to start a business.”
Compared to Northern California, he said, Southern and Central California are newcomers to the entrepreneurial game.
“In the Bay Area, in the Silicon Valley, there are so many companies spinning off new companies that you find most people you talk to know the things to do and the things not to do to start a business,” he said. “I think in terms of infrastructure, available resources, and a starting base for new business, we are probably five years behind the Bay Area. Right now, there is probably a 10-to-1 ratio in venture capital firms between the Bay Area and [the Central Coast].”
But Shum said entrepreneurship in the region has been on the rise in recent years.
“If you go back to when the Silicon Valley started to develop new businesses and new ventures, they tapped into the top talents of Stanford and UC Berkeley,” Shum said.
“In Southern California, we have UCLA, Caltech, USC, and the majority were going into the defense industry,” he said. “When the government started cutting defense, it changed the picture. People started saying, ‘I’m at the top of my class. I want to be a millionaire. I want to be an entrepreneur.’ ”
