As is often true, the story of a man begins with a story of a woman.
That’s certainly the case with Elton Rivas and how he made his way to Jacksonville.
A Coast Guard kid, Rivas had moved around to coastal cities every four years or so. He was a high school senior in New Smyrna when he made his college choice with his heart.
“I followed a girl to UNF,” Rivas said.
The relationship didn’t work out for Rivas, who graduated from the University of North Florida.
He spent five years at Interline Brands then left his senior director’s job in 2010 for what he called his most life-changing year.
It’s also the year he lost the majority of his savings in a failed solar-energy company in Ponte Vedra. “Frankly,” he said, “It was a humbling experience.”
That was followed by what became a fateful for decision for Rivas, two friends and, as it turns out, for Jacksonville.
In a coffee shop off Southside Boulevard, Rivas, Varick Rosete and Dennis Eusebio had decisions to make.
They all had job offers outside Jacksonville but moving wasn’t necessarily their first choice. In fact, they were tired of being told they’d have to move to live in a city that encouraged entrepreneurial efforts.
Rivas said the conversation became this: “Are we moving and going and doing something different or are we going to stay here and try to build a culture that we really wanted to be part of?”
The decision to stay helped build a new entrepreneurial path in the city and helped tear down the perceptions that a startup community couldn’t succeed here.
This past year or so has been life-changing for Rivas, as well.
He’s been involved in creating One Spark, the crowdfunding festival that’s expanding to Berlin this fall; CoWork Jax; and KYN, a business accelerator that grew out of One Spark.
Rivas has appeared in Forbes magazine. He has talked about One Spark to people around the world. And he runs in the same business circles as guys like Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, whose investment company backs KYN, and longtime civic leaders Peter Rummell and Preston Haskell.
By the way, Rivas is 33 years old.
Building strong business relationships
Michael Munz, an executive vice president at the Dalton Agency, has been a One Spark board member since before last year’s inaugural festival.
He called Rivas a “human bridge” who brought together people with “a unique set of backgrounds, skills and talents who all have one thing in common — their desire to evolve a creative ecosystem that will not only make Jacksonville great but also bring the values of One Spark to the world.”
Rummell said Rivas is “out of central casting.”
“He’s so young it should be illegal. He’s smart and bright and articulate,” he said. “And he’s just nerdy enough to be interesting.”
Rummell said he was impressed with how Rivas handled himself with CoWork. Rummell initially invested in that business, then did so with One Spark, as well.
Building strong, sustainable brands
The building blocks for One Spark included a video, countless sticky notes and a lot of talking. Plus, Rivas said, the timing was good. The country was coming off one of the greatest economic recession periods in the country, when many left corporate jobs either on their own or by being let go.
“There was a lot of pent-up passion for creating new things,” Rivas said. “Or launching that idea they always hand in the back of their mind.”
Rivas said the “biggest pain point” in the startup world is connecting great ideas with capital (both human and financial). That’s where the three friends came in.
They put out a video that was played on Vimeo and social networks. The next day a couple hundred people showed up to talk about it.
Rivas and the others kept talking about the idea, ignoring the typical fear that if you talk about a new business plan, someone will steal it.
“I would argue that 99 out of 100 times quite the opposite holds true,” he said. “We talked to as many people as we possibly could.”
Early on, 60-70 people would meet monthly at CoWork to talk about what ultimately became One Spark. They shared their thoughts on sticky notes.
“We have pictures of the windows of the atrium at the Co-Work. All of it was sticky notes, everywhere,” he said.
They raised $106,000 in 30 days through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
That was enough to be able to approach a businessman like Rummell, Rivas said, who brought capital, experience and credibility to the idea.
The One Spark setup “blends this real organic grassroots truthful down-to-earth movement with passionate civic-minded leaders,” Rivas said. ”And the two of those together can do a lot.”
Out of One Spark grew KYN, the business accelerator that’s being extended from four to six months for its second class.
That fourth month is about the time the businesses in the inaugural class participated in Demo Day, which led to lines of credit and additional financial backing. Rivas said the companies needed additional help at that point in their venture.
He’s enjoyed working with the chief investment officer with Khan’s Stache Investments but knows having Khan tied to the accelerator is important. “It’s a good name, right?” he said, with a laugh.
Building One Spark's brand
Rivas thinks One Spark can be a global brand within five years.
They won’t need a much bigger team, he said, “just a more concerted focus on how we scale.”
The concept of One Spark as most people know it in Jacksonville is an event, he said. But as they build a global brand, the festival aspect will be one component of what One Spark offers.
Rummell also is confident the concept has that potential.
“The more time we spend with this,” he said, “the more we think we’ve got something here.”
Rummell said One Spark is blessed to have a small group of people that trust each other, including the three co-founders.
“The irony is this is all about them not leaving,” he said. “The thing we’re fortunate about is they cared enough to not
leave.”
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