Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Stevens.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kevin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Van Alstyne, TX. It’s only an hour from Dallas, but most people have never heard of the town and I can’t say I blame them. The biggest thing that happened in the town when I was growing up was the opening of Burger King-anchored gas station while I was in middle school.
My mom worked for Texas Instruments then later Raytheon when it acquired TI’s defense divisions. Often, I’d tag along with her to work and I’d get to see all of the examples of the latest and greatest defense technology Raytheon was building. In retrospect, I was always fascinated by defense and aerospace technology; my favorite movie as a kid was Apollo 13 which I re-enacted several times from my room in a self-constructed cockpit.
My dad is in the energy industry at the same company where he was hired by my grandfather. In high school, I spent my summers and weekends cleaning the warehouse and working on the landscaping of the same company before eventually being allowed to work with the engineers as they designed new substations and transmission lines.
Now that I think about it, my journey to technology and its intersection with the energy space actually started before even I knew it.
Afterward, I did what I call the “Tour de Texas”. I attended Austin College and Texas Tech before eventually completing my undergrad in Political Science at the University of North Texas. During this time, I put myself through college working a variety of retail jobs before eventually settling at Fossil as the store manager of their Dallas Galleria store. While there I met my wife Anita after voting no to hiring her in a story she will never allow me to forget.
I began my career after college working in sales and then operational finance at Green Mountain Energy shortly after it was acquired by NRG Energy. Around the same time, I started grad school at SMU and eventually earned an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship.
After 3 years at NRG, I was laid off when power prices unexpectedly shifted and it was an inflection point that changed my career forever. I’d sworn off the energy industry because of my experience at NRG was fairly boring and I wanted to do something different than what my family had always done. Enter Jerry Dyess.
I met Jerry after a colleague at NRG had recommended I meet with him, and when someone does you a favor during bad times you always accept. Jerry is the founder of Choose Energy, an energy marketplace that empowers consumers to make fair and educated choices about their power suppliers. He’s an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur and by that I mean he’s passionate, charismatic, and actually cares deeply about his team and business.
I walked into an old dentist’s office that, outside of the dental chairs being gone, had barely been re-purposed. In fact, the receptionist’s desk still functioned as an office, sliding glass windows and all. But despite this, Jerry sold me on his dream: Kleiner-Perkins backed, building something special, and most importantly I would be allowed to grow as long as I put in the time and effort.
The journey at Choose was anything but smooth, however, I worked with an amazing team and learned more than I ever could have imagined. Besides developing a varied skillset, I worked there with my business partner Jonathan, I gained a mentor in John Tough, and I still talk to several of the team members frequently.
Last year, Choose sold to Red Ventures and Jonathan and I, after much reflection and thought, decided to start a venture capital firm here in Dallas. The reasons were many: this is home for both of us, the opportunity is here, and the industries that have yet to undergo major innovation all have major hubs nearby.
Today, I get to partner with entrepreneurs to help them build what are hopefully long-lasting businesses that make an impact on our society. It’s a unique position in that I see people problem-solving a different problem every day.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not, but nothing worth doing ever is.
I worked terrible retail jobs for almost 8 years to put myself through college which meant working for 10-14 hours a day for pay that was just above minimum wage when I was supposed to be studying.
Like many kids of my generation, my parents went through a divorce while I was in college which made staying engaged in school difficult.
I was laid-off 3 months after marrying my wife while we were in debt from our wedding and honeymoon.
However, despite those things, my struggles have all been quite small compared to most others and all of them led to some of the best things to ever happen to me.
Some kids don’t have one engaged parent, and I grew closer than ever to my mom during the divorce.
I met my wife working retail, and now have one of the best partners I could ever imagine.
And getting laid off, I found the job that led me to the one I feel like I was meant to do. Things could always be worse, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Intelis Capital story. Tell us more about the business.
Intelis Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that partners with founders in the industries that impact our everyday lives. Startups come to us when they are looking to raise capital to grow their business and in many cases, we are the first investment after friends, families, and angel investors.
Our company is still young, so I’m not sure that I can say we are “known” for anything just yet. However, we strive to be authentic and transparent in our interactions with everyone and add value when we can.
If anything, I’m proud of the work we are doing to make entrepreneurs’ lives easier when possible. We spend a lot of time putting together resources for startups, speak and mentor at the local universities, and most recently held the pilot of what we hope will become a series of workshops that help founders gain the tangible skills that matter when starting a business.
Venture capital is a highly competitive and results-oriented business. It’s also unique in that it involves an immense amount of customer service. Long-term the only thing that can set us apart is the success of our portfolio companies and our reputation with the entrepreneurs we serve.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The venture capital industry is definitely changing. Over the last 5-10 years, platforms like AngelList, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo have really given everyone some form of access to investing in small companies or products they really enjoy.
The other big and more recent change is the rise of the ICO (Initial Coin Offering). An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is used by startups to bypass the rigorous and regulated capital-raising process required by venture capitalists or banks. In an ICO campaign, a project is sold to early backers in exchange for a form of cryptocurrency. Currently, this process if fairly de-regulated but I suspect we’ll see regulation take hold soon.
However, that doesn’t mean ICO’s will go away. I think regulation will actually ensure most projects raising an ICO are legitimate and make them more attractive.
The increasing access to new forms of fundraising for both startups and investors means that the days of being an investor who only brings capital to the table are numbered. Early-stage investors (like us) and angel investors are going to face pressure to bring more value to the table as the cost of capital is driven down by these new technologies.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.inteliscapital.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @inteliscapital
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelis-capital/
Image Credit:
Jill Brousard for the cover photo
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