Impact’19: Tom Kandris

Tom Kandris is a regional business leader from Northern California, and a serial entrepreneur and investor. Kandris spent the first half of his career entrenched in the semiconductor industry where he held domestic and overseas senior executive and board-level roles in major American, Japanese and European corporations. In 2000, Kandris cofounded PackageOne, an innovative and agile manufacturer of corrugated packaging products, which grew from a self-funded startup to an over $60 million enterprise. He led the company to a successful exit in 2017. He sits on several for-profit, nonprofit and government boards, including on the Comstock’s editorial board.

BioSource: comstocksmag.com

Alan
I’m here today with Tom, Kansas. And he’s a serial entrepreneur and involved with law with the angel funding of some of the companies in Sacramento and, Tom, can you give for the listeners, your background and how you came to where you are today?

Tom
Well, I started in the technology space. So I like to say went from high tech to no tech. So it was 20 plus years in the microelectronics industry, mostly in the semiconductor equipment space, and was fortunate enough to be employee number six in the US at a company called ASM ethnography back in 1984. And fast forward, had some executive positions along the way with that company. Last stop, but my second stint at ASML, I was in Asia, managing Asia Pacific. But in between there, I did some startups in the semiconductor equipment industry, before starting my company, package one and 2000 and then wound up having an exit in 2017. So we had distribution products, but also manufacturing through throughout Northern California and wanted to become the second largest in Northern California, by the time independent by the time we exited.

Alan
The package, one was focused on?

Tom
Focus on packaging materials, primarily corrugated manufacturing. So we did have some specialty items digital print, we also invested some innovative technology that was produced by the US forestry products to essentially take materials out of the landfill, and repurpose them into the packaging products.

Alan
So Tom, you did an exit 2017.

Tom
This is my second anniversary is June 19 2017, is when I had my exit. So second year anniversary.

Alan
So good. So now you’re focusing on helping other entrepreneurs. And and you do that through helping him in an angel stage investing or?

Tom
So an angel or private equity type of stage, I think angel is for some of the early stage folks, but also like to do business with later stage companies that are looking for growth capital. And so I think the bottom line is I have a passion for entrepreneurs and a liking. I like help helping good people make their dreams come true. And so some people in the community have called me the fairy godfather. So helping people’s dreams come true, but good people with good ideas.

Alan
What’s the difference between a company that you want to work with versus not?

Tom
I would say that, you know, I first look at the the people on the team, right? So if you have a, if you have a weak team, but you’re good people silver is going to be very hard to implement. So you look for people that have resolve, and you have the passion, you know, passion doesn’t mean like enthusiasm, but the ability to suffer with your company, and but also the ability to have the resolve to pick yourself up and do it again. So I look for teams, I look for interesting ideas, particularly ideas that have some sort of advantage or differentiator. And then because I think that you can get teams to help you implement. So it’s about the people that have got the courage and a resolve in and the the business concepts to see it through.

Alan
And Tom, in today’s world, I guess it’s ever changing. But when you’re when you’re looking at technology today, do you like to go into the new state of the art technology? Or do you want to stick with proven concepts?

Tom
Well, I think if there’s, if there’s a bandwidth or technique, if there’s an expansion of technology that hasn’t been really tapped into, I think then they go to a an extension, and really kind of leverage current technology. So there’s there’s room for that. In fact, I built my last business based on extensive technology. So if you have ways of becoming more efficient, more innovative and an older technology, there’s still still room for investment, but also looking at new technology. You know, we’re heavily invested in blockchain technology, chain of custody, it kind of goes back and it’s in my background, overall supply chain and technology. So I have an affinity for that. But also like things that that you can touch and feel. So I like people who actually make things that provide some level of differentiation.

Alan
Tom, how does a person reach you? So

Tom
they can reach out to me through email, you know, Tom at PK, the number one inc.com

Alan
Be amazing here today with Tom, Kansas. And thanks for being with us today. Oh, thanks for having me.

 

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com.  GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.

Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio