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An Interview with Christopher Kape, Vancouver Serial Entrepreneur, Founder of JAMCO Capital Partners

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We sat down to talk with Vancouver entrepreneur, venture capitalist and philanthropist Christopher Kape.

Q: You’ve been active as an entrepreneur for two decades. How did it all begin and what companies are your most successful?

Christopher Kape: JAMCO Capital was created in 2001 after the dot-com collapse. While most investors viewed this time with skepticism, I viewed it as the perfect opportunity to enter the space and look for value plays. Gone were the days of sky-high valuations and quick exits. The capital markets’ instability created opportunity, and less competition made it possible to identify and invest in true winners.

JAMCO’s first investment in 2001 was acquiring the assets of a telephone-based dating service company that was in bankruptcy. Since it was under receivership, we had to go through a bidding process. Given that very few people were willing to risk their capital in the post dot-com bear market, we were able to win that bid with little competition, thereby securing a great first deal. Our management team was able to bring about a significant increase in the value of the business which led to our first exit 3 years later. That exit provided JAMCO with a sizeable pool of capital to use going forward.

From its inception, JAMCO focused on the high tech and gaming space and has benefitted from good returns as a result of betting on businesses with great potential, and most importantly, solid management. We have been able to complete significant exits over the years, culminating with four particularly large ones in 2018 and 2019. Most notably was Don Best Sports, a Las Vegas company that provides the global sports betting industry with the fastest and most accurate sports information.

Given our expertise in gaming, and with the recent changes (in 2018) to the US federal laws specifically related to sports betting, there are ample opportunities that JAMCO has been pursuing as it continues to thrive.

Q: With what other companies were you or are you involved in and in what industries?

Christopher Kape: JAMCO has invested in many businesses over its 20+ years of operating history. While I’d love to say that we only pick winners, that just simply isn’t true and losing is part of the investing game. Some of the notable businesses that we have invested in that have done well include Riversol Skin Care (riversol.com), Sharky’s Mexican Grill (sharkys.com), Midnight Paloma (midnightpaloma.com) and The Pie Hole (thepiehole.com). More remarkable are the investments whereby we can add value because we have industry expertise, such as Revols (revols.com), Don Best Sports (donbest.com), Jackpot Digital (jackpotdigital.com) and others. As for the unsuccessful investments, we’ll choose not to list those!

Q: Many startup companies are struggling to succeed during the current COVID-19 health crisis. As a venture capitalist, how have you adapted to making investment decisions in these extraordinary circumstances?

Christopher Kape: While COVID-19 has had a significant impact on every aspect of life thus far in 2020, which may continue well into the future, it will not stop progress. People still have business ideas, businesses still have an organic desire to survive, grow and thrive and in general, the economic world will keep moving forward through good times and bad.

I would love to say that everything is business as usual, but it’s not. Some businesses are thriving due to the pandemic (grocery stores, pharmacies, online entertainment and media, video conferencing, online shopping). Most businesses however have been tremendously hurt by these extraordinary circumstances.

For now, JAMCO has taken a wait and see approach. We are fortunate to have some capital to deploy, but we must be careful as we do not know the time horizon or full economic impact of the ‘closed’ global economies and how that will play out in the months and years to come. In addition, part of our vetting process not only involves thoroughly evaluating a company’s financials and assessing its growth opportunities, but also trying to work closely with and getting to know the management team and other stakeholders. This is relatively hard to do when you cannot travel or meet in person, thus severely curtailing our ability to make qualified investment decisions.

Q: Under your leadership, JAMCO completed significant exits in four businesses in 2018 and 2019, providing the firm with a larger pool of cash with which to make future investments. You now have your eye on gaming. What specific investment opportunities has JAMCO been pursuing in this area?

Christopher Kape: While JAMCO has focused on gaming in the past, it was not opposed to looking at a vast array of investment opportunities in many different industries. That has changed as a result of the recent exits it’s had, which were all in gaming and high tech. As a result, JAMCO will only pursue investing in businesses that are focused in business areas it has expertise in, namely high tech and gaming. While I am not at liberty to provide specifics as we will not announce deals prior to their official closings, there will undoubtedly be 2-4 deals that close in 2020 and 2021 in the gaming space.

Q: You’ve been highly active in a number of philanthropic initiatives over the years. Can you speak to that?

Christopher Kape: Service work is very important to me – it has contributed to my soul in meaningful ways and has changed me as a person. I didn’t always focus on this, especially in my younger years where earning money took priority. After all, there are only so many hours in the day and as a young parent and entrepreneur, I, like most others, didn’t even have enough time to tackle my daily to do list, let alone set aside time for service work.

Once I became more settled with my financial foundation, service work started to creep in, and it proved very rewarding. We live in a world that is extremely fast paced and as a business person, you tend to work very hard on your own projects without taking enough time to realize just how fortunate we all are for some of the things we completely take for granted. Performing service work, whether it’s local or abroad, gives you a different perspective – all of a sudden you realize that you have a lot more than you even knew! Food, running water, hospitals, roads, freedom, functioning government, opportunity, etc., are ever present and available in our society and we are lucky to have them all, but you only realize just how fortunate when you meet people who don’t have them.

Interestingly, service work can actually result in economic benefit to oneself as well. On a recent trip to Bulgaria, I pre-planned a day of service with a local NGO that provides meals for the homeless. During that volunteer experience, I ended up meeting other volunteers who happened to be in the same industry as a business I was looking to invest in. Not only did they unknowingly give me a few hours of insight into the industry, but I become friendly with one of them and recruited him into the business into which I invested. While I do the philanthropy work because it is soul fulfilling, it can be interesting to see where some of it leads.

Q: What sorts of community service projects have you undertaken at home? You’ve been very active in providing support during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Christopher Kape: I try to combine any activity, whether business or personal, with some sort of service project. For example, when the pandemic broke, one of our investments, The Pie Hole, a local bakery with 3 locations, had to temporarily close its doors. Being in the food industry, it had a large amount of perishable food that would have gone to waste. After agreeing to give the food away, I organized food hampers for over 100 families in the Vancouver, BC and Burnaby, BC areas. I hand delivered 20 myself, and organized friends and family to deliver the rest. Government programs were not yet in place and after meeting the families personally, I could not just deliver one food hamper and leave them stranded. To that end, and to provide additional help, I collected monetary donations from my network and sent the families, safely via email, gift cards to grocery stores so that they could keep food on their tables until help arrived.

Another example occurred just this past weekend. I enjoy playing poker and decided to hold an online tournament with friends and family. I set it up with a rule that the winner of the tournament would donate 25% of the total prize pool to a local Vancouver food bank. Over 25 of us gathered online and had a great time playing cards, and the winner was able to provide a sizeable donation thereby making the event all the more special for all involved.

Q: When you’re not investing in and running companies or doing philanthropic work, what does Chris Kape do for relaxation!

Christopher Kape: I enjoy being outdoors most, rain or shine, cold or hot! Whether it’s running, biking, hiking, skiing, surfing or just plain old walking, I am thoroughly happy being active among nature!

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