That Brian Haynes’ great-great-grandfather started the family fortune by winning a telephone company in a pinochle game should not reflect on Haynes’ position as the new head of the Tacoma Angel Network.

He doesn’t know how to play pinochle.

At 31, as CEO of the telephone and cable TV company Rainier Connect, he does know about building a business.

Which is the reason TAN exists.

The network was founded in 2006 to provide a forum for entrepreneurs looking to secure capital in the early stages of creating their enterprises. Three years later, TAN has provided nearly $4 million in funding to dozens of companies.

Two of the founders, investors Larry Kopp of Globe Capital and John B. Dimmer of FIRS Management, have lately stepped down from their leadership positions within the group.

Enter Brian Haynes.

“I love business,” Haynes said recently. “I love figuring out how businesses become successful.”

He has been a part of Tacoma Angel Network for two years.

The group currently counts 36 investors – mostly from Pierce County. The target, Haynes said, is 45.

Kopp outlined some of the benefits of membership before he attended a recent meeting of investors at the downtown Tacoma Pacific Grill Events Center.

One, TAN can provide capital to entrepreneurs, and then provide mentorship for the budding companies. Two, investors have the chance to gain a healthy return on their investments.

A TAN committee typically reviews 25 proposals a month. A dozen will be deemed prepared to a degree that they will be reviewed by a screening committee, and a handful will be invited to make a formal presentation to the assembled investors.

A fledgling company will pay $250 to make a formal presentation, while TAN members pay an annual fee of $350 to attend meetings where the presentations are made. The group itself is volunteer-led and has earned 501(c)(6) nonprofit status. Potential investors are required to have a net worth of $1 million or an annual income of at least $200,000.

“I thought they were extremely approachable. They really went out of their way to help you understand the process. It was a conformable environment,” Sasha Muir said last week.

After presenting her company, “butter London,” to TAN investors, she received $750,000 in funding.

As originally proposed, her company provides nail care at a salon at Sea-Tac Airport – but the founding business model has evolved beyond salons and now includes a growing line of high-end nail care products.

Muir said she has stepped away from day-to-day operations at the company and is beginning to build a new enterprise, “Knickerbocker Glory,” which will manufacture and distribute “comfortable and cute” organic-fiber underwear for children.

When she founded butter London in 2005, she approached investors in King County as well as in Tacoma.

“You tend to think everything is happening in Seattle, and that isn’t true,” she said.

TACOMA INVESTMENT

“The purpose of TAN, for me, is to create opportunities for people to invest locally,” said Paul Miller, an investor and member of the group. “Most of the companies that we look at all come from the Puget Sound basin. I’d prefer it if they came from Tacoma and Pierce County. There just aren’t that many companies.”

Miller said, “I’m more interested in what TAN can do for the economy than just the return on investment. Start-up companies make a real impact on the local economy.”

Without a source of angel financing and venture capital, Miller said, “other cities and other regions will outpace us for growth in the future. That’s what TAN can bring. Groups in Seattle, as they pick companies that they like, one of the first questions they ask is, ‘Are you willing to relocate to Seattle?’ If we don’t have TAN locally, venture capitalists are going to steal companies northward.”

Along with Dimmer and Kopp, and others, Paul Ellis at the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber helped found TAN. His successor in the group, Chamber Business and Trade Manager Gary Brackett, said this week that the group seems to be consolidating its success.

“I think it’s going well,” he said. “Especially in spite of the economy, which has tended to have an impact on the portfolios of investors.”

Haynes, Brackett said, should serve the group well. “Brian is obviously a younger leader. He’s becoming involved in several aspects of the community. He’s already doing a good job. What I’ve seen with Brian is not so much changing direction as improving the outreach to the people who are involved.”

A successful group of investors, Brackett said, can do more than help build businesses and create a profit.

“It serves as an economic development tool. It serves to let those who are evaluating our community know that we are open to new ideas and that we will support new ideas.”

TRANSITION

“If you’ve got a product that saves money, speeds things up or makes people feel better, you’ve got a winner,” Kopp said.

Whatever the economy.

“FedEx, GE, Microsoft, Trader Joe’s, CNN – all came out of recessions,” he said.

Things do change.

“I think Brian is representative of growth in Tacoma, and business in Tacoma,” Kopp said. “He’ll help bring some of that business savvy that businesses appreciate. The important thing is, he’s a good leader.”

Both Kopp and Dimmer will continue to participate in the forum.

Haynes recalls being asked several months ago to lead the network.

“It was a surprise,” he said. “These are big shoes, and I’ve got small feet. I want to continue the process they started.”

“In the beginning,” Kopp said, “you have to set it up. We ran it. Now it’s putting the pedal to the metal. I stayed active longer than I intended to, but I’m glad I did.”

“I’m very optimistic for Tacoma,” Haynes said.

“It’s a helpful town,” said Kopp. “It’s an egalitarian town.”

“We all worked together to keep Russell and DaVita,” Haynes said. “If we can keep that together, what can’t we change?”

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com

Brian Haynes

Title: Director, Tacoma Angel Network; he replaces founders and co-directors Larry Kopp and John B. Dimmer.

Age: 31

Education: Clover Park High School; Johnson & Wales University

Family: Wife, Aimee; sons Ben and Jack

Employment: CEO of Rainier Connect Since his father’s retirement two years ago, Brian Haynes has served as president and CEO of the 60-employee Rainier Connect, which provides voice, data and cable service in the Puget Sound region.

“The transition has been interesting at times,” he said. “My father and I have a great relationship – my dad is the chairman of the board. Between ’05 and ’09 it’s been a mutual evolution, taking a 90-year-old monopoly and trying to make it a competitive, market-driven company.”

The company counts about $13 million in annual sales.

A Lakewood native, Haynes studied entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. In 2000, he joined the family business – which had expanded to include a communications company in California, where he spent the next five years.

“It was a farming community, 60,000 people,” Haynes said. “It taught me how to provide local service.”

He joined boards and committees. He learned “the tie between giving and receiving.”

He became involved with public-service projects and found that “not only is it good, it’s good business.”

That his great-grandmother listened in to almost every conversation while running the switchboard for the family telephone company should reflect only on the importance Haynes places on connections between customers and the companies that serve those customers.

It’s Haynes who has been going randomly door-to-door introducing himself to clients. And it was Haynes who purchased $2,500 in gift certificates that he personally distributed to customers in Eatonville.

“It was just to thank them, and in doing that it helps one of our (local) restaurants,” he said.

He has met with customers in Eatonville, Graham and Tacoma, arriving on their doorstep, “just to find out how our service is being accepted, what we can do better. When was the last time someone at a utility asked you how they were doing?”

C.R. Roberts, The News Tribune

Tacoma Angel Network

What: A group of investors who meet in a forum with entrepreneurs who are seeking financing. Angel financing typically comes before larger sums derived from venture financing.

Founded: 2006

Members: 36, primarily from Pierce County

Investment: Average amount the group invests per selected company is $200,000

Cost to present: No charge for screening; $250 to present

New members: Being recruited, especially from Pierce, Thurston and Kitsap counties

Sponsors: University of Washington Tacoma, Gordon Thomas Honeywell, Moss Adams, SiteCrafting, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, The Tolt Group

More information: www.tacomaangelnetwork.com