Serial Entrepreneur Byron Bennett Started Young and Shares those who have supported his Entrepreneurial Passion

Serial entrepreneur Byron Bennett began his entrepreneurial journey in high school, never expecting that one day he would lead a venture called Zergratran to build in Columbia an alternative to the Panama Canal. He shares the challenges he is facing which include raising funds for a venture of significant scale. His stories of earlier ventures illuminate the unique path of an entrepreneur while offering insight helpful to aspiring and fellow entrepreneurs. 

Transcript

Jeanne Gray: I'm Jeanne Gray, publisher of American Entrepreneurship Today and host of the podcast series, Experienced Voices, where I talk with highly accomplished people who share the critical elements that led to their success.

Our guest today on Experienced Voices is Byron Bennett, a serial entrepreneur with a great story. Byron's most recent project is the building of an alternative shipping route in Colombia that will compete with the Panama Canal. What is most interesting about Byron is where he began his entrepreneurial journey that eventually led to his current large scale venture that is drawing on his years of experience.

In our discussion, he covers a lot, the highs and the lows, mentoring, business plans, while also sharing the challenges he faced that have kept him totally passionate about being an entrepreneur. 

Jeanne Gray: Byron, thanks for being a guest on Experienced Voices. 

Byron Bennett: Thanks for inviting me. It's great to be here. 

Jeanne Gray: I think it's safe to say that you're a serial entrepreneur. So, let's start by talking about your most recent venture, which seems to be very ambitious. 

Byron Bennett: Yes, it is. It's a big, audacious project. And What we're doing is we're building an alternative to the Panama Canal to address the congestion and capacity issues that are plaguing the global shipping system at the moment.

Jeanne Gray: How did you get involved in something like that? 

Byron Bennett: Well, that's an interesting story. My wife is from Colombia, and when she wanted to go back to Colombia five years ago, I started looking at what I can do in Colombia. In the back of my mind, I have always thought about using this Maglev launcher that NASA put out a concept for about 25 years or so ago to build a shuttle system for the Caribbean.

So when I focused on this, I started thinking about how it could be done. I quickly realized that we had to go underground because it was an internationally protected rainforest. And I realized that we needed speed and we needed efficiency to unload these large cargo ships and to transfer the containers across efficiently.

And we wanted them sorted individually so that we can put them onto more directed destination ships. So I thought of using Maglev to facilitate this. So that was the genesis of this project. 

Jeanne Gray: Did you write a business plan? That is one of the most fundamental questions all aspiring entrepreneurs are told to do.

But you've done a few ventures. So do you go back to the fundamentals of writing a business plan? 

Byron Bennett: Absolutely. But it quickly went out the window. 

Jeanne Gray: As 

Byron Bennett: a serial entrepreneur yourself you know that you make your plan, but then. You have to deal with the real world and 75 percent or so of what you deal with every day is not what you thought you were going to be dealing with that day.

So built the business plan and the plan was for executing the actual business. But it's taken us years to get to a point where we can actually execute the business and the business plan. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, it's often typical with so some really ambitious or visionary types of startups is that it takes years just to get to, you know, the very first important step.

So what do you think accelerated the process, you know, or what pulled together that that sort of gelled it to then accelerate 

Byron Bennett: COVID? COVID. We started prior to COVID when people really didn't. Understand the efficiencies and the congestion in our global shipping system. Then COVID highlighted all of the congestion off of all of the ports.

Now fast forward a couple of years and we now have drought at the Panama Canal and war at the Suez et cetera, that are, Creating blockages within our system and COVID didn't reduce capacity to transfer containers across the Panama Canal, but the drought did so. COVID really exhilarated people's understanding of the problem.

And the recent droughts have just brought it front and center so that people are looking for solutions. Now you have solutions being proposed in Mexico Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia.

Jeanne Gray: Who do you sort of vet the idea with or have you partners who are bringing additional knowledge into, into the startup? 

Byron Bennett: Yes, the first person I vetted the idea with was actually my father in law, Roberto Espiesa. He was in charge of tunnel and pipeline construction for the Colombian state oil company, Ecopetrol.

So he's one of the foremost tunneling engineers in the country. And when I ran the idea by him he loved it. Columbia, never really liked the fact that Panama was taken from them, and they've always wanted their own canal. Options have been proposed over the years, but they've been blocked for environmental reasons, political reasons, or Panama didn't want the competition.

But environmental is probably the largest and most important, because you're talking about An internationally protected rainforest and putting a canal through it. Just, it, it's just not appealing. It's just not something that people really want. Give you an example. 80 percent of the world's bird population is represented in this 1 percent of land mass.

Jeanne Gray: When you did your plan, So you're talking about, you know, the environmental repercussions of this, but also something like this requires really significant funding. So where or how did you think out the approach to find the financing? 

Byron Bennett: Interesting question. We're still in the process of finding the financing and we laid out the plan in three steps.

Pre construction, construction, and the first step is pre feasibility. So in pre feasibility you need to just submit all the documents to the government and all of your initial analysis. This is all This is all before you do any work. This is all before you go into the ground at all. So you have pre feasibility.

And once you get approval to move forward with the plane, you have pre construction and then construction. So, We budgeted everything out based on the cost of building similar projects. We used a lot of numbers from the Crossrails project in England the tunnel and expansion of lines that they did underneath London to create our models.

Now pre feasibility, we need about 750, 000 to complete the pre feasibility studies. And we have pre construction or feasibility budgeted at about, 750 million. This is all the stuff you do before you actually start construction. When you start construction, it's just building out everything that's planned.

But all of the plans, all of your resources are sorted out in feasibility. Now construction, we estimate at 15 to 20 billion dollars. And the interesting thing here is that We have a lot of parties countries, infrastructure funds, sovereign wealth funds, that are interested in funding feasibility and construction, but because there's some risk associated with pre feasibility.

They don't want to fund that. And they're used to getting these projects after pre feasibility. And when there's already a public private partnership in place with the government. So that's where we are now, raising the funds we need for pre feasibility. But we really Have a large stack of people, companies, and countries that would be interested in funding feasibility and construction.

Because over a hundred and fifty countries utilize the Panama Canal. And they're all being affected by the blockages in our global shipping system and the drought at the canal itself. For example, 15 percent of retail prices is transportation. Now, those that can't go through the Panama Canal have to go longer routes, like through the Suez or around the Horde of Africa, but with the Suez blocked and having to go around the Horde of Africa increases transportation costs by about 50%.

So these problems are driving inflation and creating inefficiencies and in general making, like for example, the U. S. economy less competitive.

Jeanne Gray: I, I can only imagine where you're taking on a project of this size, that it really comes down to being connected and having great people skills in addition to the many years you've been an entrepreneur. So share a little bit about why you became an entrepreneur or how you became an entrepreneur that put you on this pathway.

Byron Bennett: Certainly. I was, I was an Air Force brat. And after sophomore year in high school, while I was living in Germany, my mom thought it would be a good idea for me to finish high school in the US so that I can get it to a good college. So I moved back to Philadelphia and I was living with my grandparents in West Philadelphia.

And I was introduced to I was introduced to a program called Fill A Job an internship program for high school students, and I was placed with a professional tax and financial consulting firm that was run by a gentleman named Lynn Thomas. And Lynn introduced me to a program that was being funded by Michael Milken at the Wharton School.

Called the Wharton West Philadelphia Project and through that program they were starting the Young Entrepreneurs at Wharton program. So, to my nature, I wanted to stand out when I applied so I took the application and I photocopied it in red ink and So that it would stand out. So I ended up getting into that program, that was funded by Michael Milken, and ended up starting my first business through that program.

And through that program, I also gained some of my first mentors that are still in my life today. The Young Entrepreneurs Program was taught by . The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, which is now the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. They kept the same acronyms.

And it was started by a gentleman named Steve Mariotti. Steve is still a good friend and mentor for me. And after that summer program, I was next introduced to the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Business program, which was also at the Wharton School. And of course, after those two programs, I end up getting recommendations from several of the deans and from Michael Milken to attend the Wharton School itself.

So that's how I got my start in entrepreneurship. And , I feel that it's so instrumental and important to have good mentors and people that have been there, done that and understand what you need to go through to advise you and help you along the way. So to this day, I still consult with my mentors and I still look for mentors every step of the way.

As a serial entrepreneur. You rarely know everything you need to know about the business that you're going into. So you have to build a team around you that does.

Jeanne Gray: How would you explain to someone who is looking for a mentor to qualify what a good mentor is an entrepreneur? 

Byron Bennett: Ooh, good question. First, they have to be knowledgeable about the subject matter. The business that you're going in. Now, someone that knows nothing about what you're doing can advise you, but each business, each industry has its own challenges.

You go back to the story about what you're doing. Asking different people to fix a machine. And they can't fix it. But you go back to the old person that's been working with that machine for years and they can fix it in a moment because they can understand what needs to be done and what is wrong.

And that's kind of like what having a good qualified mentor with experience in the space can do for you. my advice would be to look for someone within the space, but someone you Get along with very well, someone that you can trust and someone that you can confide not just your business issues with but your personal issues with because a lot of The challenges of entrepreneurs is dealing with employees and mixing your personal life and your business life and how to best manage everything.

So it has to be someone that you really. Able to confide in and get personal with, and are comfortable accepting the advice from. 

Jeanne Gray: I, I imagine what you described does not happen, you know, within a week. But if you've targeted the right person, that you see the growth in the relationship. So it's not one of sort of like dumping to a person, you know, All your immediate needs, but it's one of navigating sort of a parallel course.

Would you say that's a way to describe the growth of a relationship? 

Byron Bennett: Absolutely. You, I've never had a Venti mentor relationship that started off with full disclosure day one. It just starts off with like a networking introduction or, Some other introduction and you get to know each other. And yes, over time you build a relationship that you value and they value and you're comfortable discussing everything with and they feel comfortable giving you advice about everything.

Jeanne Gray: If I'm an aspiring entrepreneur, And I realize I'm hearing this from so many different sources. Get a mentor, get a mentor. Don't they have to overcome the fear of someone saying no? Or the fear of admitting they don't know everything? 

Byron Bennett: You do. I'm to the point where I've done enough businesses, and they're all different, so I understand that I don't know everything.

So the first thing I do is I look for people that can help me build up my knowledge base. And understand the business and the requirements, but yes.

Jeanne Gray: Don't be afraid. Just go out and take the risk. 

Byron Bennett: Absolutely. And don't assume that you're going to get the right person on the first try. It's something that you build into. .

Jeanne Gray: So starting with. An entrepreneur who's written the business plan and now they have to execute it. How do you, how would you describe how you set up your milestones to drive your progress? Because when you're at the very beginning, it's even though they have a written plan, it's all unproven and it's, it's often very disjointed, but in the first year or two, it's all about just.

Making the next milestone. Do you set up milestones with everything that you do? 

Byron Bennett: You have to, but I find that the businesses tend to dictate the milestones to you. Like, for example, with my current business, laid out the business plan and had to focus on the first milestone, which was getting approval from the Colombian government to move forward.

Then after that, you start focusing on the next milestone. And getting from one milestone To the next rarely goes as planned. You have to just figure it out. And that's what I would say. To someone considering doing this and becoming an entrepreneur. Is that you really just have to have the attitude that I'm going to figure out what needs to be done to get this done.

And each day you work as hard as you can towards those goals.

Jeanne Gray: To do or to have such drive to do what you just described, the individual must have some personal support. If they're not married they probably have college friends. They, they have someone that they've met through their employment, but it's, it's something where an entrepreneur ends up being often isolated or being singularly driven.

So how would you suggest or, or tell an entrepreneur, or How to get through the ups and the downs emotionally of doing something that most other people, especially those with full time jobs, have really no understanding. of the challenges you embrace. 

Byron Bennett: Yeah, it's very important to have a strong support network.

But it's also very important to understand that after a certain amount of ups and downs, that support network starts fading. And you have to maintain your belief and your perseverance and your commitment. And continue to build out a wider support network of people within the business, people, partners, stakeholders that need what you're building and understand what you're trying to do.

Because after a certain level of support, your close friends, your family. Those people that have the 9 to 5, they start questioning, should you continue plugging away at doing this when you can go get a 9 to 5? They really don't understand. But the thing about entrepreneurship, and I mentioned this in a recent post on LinkedIn, is you can't be half in.

You can't be 98 percent in, or 99 percent in. You have to be 100 percent committed to what you're trying to do. Until you're certain that you can't do it, or it's not going to work out. But, If it needs to be done and you committed to it in the first place, it's because you were 100 percent certain that you wanted to do it or it needed to be done.

But if that's, so if that was the case, you have to maintain your focus and your drive and your commitment until you get the job done. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, I would imagine someone who's. Aspiring to be an entrepreneur for the first time. And this is questions that are posed to panels are, have you done something in the past that proves to you that you can overcome challenges?

Because, because that's all entrepreneurship turns out to be, is one problem solving challenge after another. A person without that skill set I think would. face adversity very quickly. Would you, would you, would you say to someone who's writing that very first business plan? Hey, did you, did you work your way through college?

Did you pay for your college? Did you take on some challenge that you even failed at, but you took it? Does that make sense? 

Byron Bennett: It does make sense. It's just I kind of believe that you just have to jump in and try. And that's how you start building your experience level and your understanding of entrepreneurship and what you need to do.

If you have, like, Like, for example, I'm a zero generation American and I see this as the land of opportunity, and I work extremely hard, and I've always had a work hard mentality, but if anything, yes, that helps. But what really helps is just jumping in and getting your feet wet and having that first failure and figure out what you need to do and what's right for you.

So that attitude and that willingness to just try is probably what you need. And then everything else you will learn as you go. 

Jeanne Gray: , I imagine that's why the business plan has become such a foundational tool, Byron, is that, you know, most startups fail. So preparation, I think that's the expression, success is based on your preparation or vice versa, is getting that business plan in place. So just kind of taking this one step forward is what do you think of first time entrepreneur thinking about even for yourself, what is a common mistake by a first time entrepreneur that they should look out for, they should be wary of.

Byron Bennett: I would say

be wary of thinking that you know what you need to know before you go into the business. With the business plan you're taking Information and data from past and making projections and laying out a plan, but then you have to deal with the real world. Then you have to deal with bureaucracy if it's getting a license.

Then you have to deal with competitors, then you have to deal with people, and attitudes, and personal situations, and all of those things affect your ability to execute. So, I would say just, Try and go into it understanding that you're gonna have to learn along the way. That you're gonna have to figure it out along the way.

Don't assume that the plan is the Bible. When you, You often hear stories of investors or venture capitalists tossing a business plan or just slashing projections in half, etc. But, that, that is true. And valid in a lot of cases because the plan is just the blueprint. But you have to adjust that blueprint every day along the way.

So you want to understand what you need to do and where you want to go. But you're going to need to learn along the way and make adjustments. Just don't assume that you know everything going in. 

Jeanne Gray: I had a angel explain once that you know, especially when they've funded an entrepreneur, that by the end of the first year, the business plan that they funded is not exactly the business plan that is going forward.

And. So adaptability is a, an important part of being an entrepreneur. But I also wonder is, and you would know this as a serial entrepreneur, is when you go to market and you think you've got everything in place, but it's actually your direct contact with the customer base that really determines whether or not your original business plan was, was on target.

Do you think that that makes sense? 

Byron Bennett: Absolutely. And I'll give you an example. We built an amazing wine game called Viti Vini. Now, the name itself is short for viticulture and vinification and Wine and life, et cetera. It's a great name and the game itself included an entire course, introductory course on wine, and we designed this beautiful package and at the time games were being pulled from the shelves at Walmart for marketing for kids, so we didn't include any wine bottles or any glasses or drinking on it, and we thought everything was great.

And we took a booth at the at the International Gift Fair at the Javits Center in New York. And within a few minutes, if not within a few hours, we noticed our major mistake. The packaging and the name communicated vitamins instead of wine. So everyone was confused and everyone thought we were selling vitamins.

Now, if you could imagine having to change all of that branding. And what you do with all of the, with the batch that you ordered from China that took months to get to, you know? Sometimes it really is that. Your , best laid plans go out the window. Because you didn't fully understand what the customer wanted or how the customer was going to react.

Jeanne Gray: I think it's funny that you mentioned the International Gift Fair because that's exactly what my very first venture was also. And that's, that's, that's exactly what we learned in the first year. It took, you, you were sharp because the, the, the gift fair, I think lasts like a few days or a week. It only sunk in after a few days that we totally had missed the market.

But you're in your twenties, you're like giving it a go. But I just I just think it's funny what you shared. It's such a learning experience about what you don't know about what you think you do. So then the next question comes out of this, given my experience is. Have you had business partners?

Cause there's the older model was, you know two people get together, they form a business and it's 50 50. And now people are saying that model really doesn't take into account the difference in skill sets between the two founders that plays out over the first, say two to three or five years. And that's where a lot of friction comes up.

So, have you always or not used business partners to, to do your startups?

Byron Bennett: Good question. Now, I've had partners and I haven't had partners. And, I've had challenges with both situations. I'll give you, One example.

I built a luxury wine store in the East Village of Manhattan. And for that I had partners. Partners that I brought on because they knew about wine. But when we needed to pivot, they were more focused on the wine side than the business side. So it did create some friction. So if you're gonna have partners, you have to make sure you know each other well or you delineate well and that it's something that can be maintained over the long term.

, Yeah, now for the last Few businesses have gone for the non partner structure. Where you have other executives that are key to the business, but you're the final decision maker. So that it's a little bit easier to navigate. 

Jeanne Gray: , when you have a partner, my understanding is the shareholder agreement becomes very important.

To spell out, you know each person's role and the percentage of the company. When you're taking the approach that you just mentioned about having key executives, is there still something that you have put on the table that incentivizes them or you're able to pay them full salary in a startup?

How did you navigate that? 

Byron Bennett: Yeah You do have to have those agreements and those understandings in place. And you have to have a structure that works. Now, As businesses move forward and as you deal with challenges, people are going to have different opinions, or differing opinions. So you have to have a process by which you address those opinions.

Even if it's a heated discussion at the During the day, you move on and agree to move on in the morning, but you have to have a process or a structure that works. Now, What I've tended to do more recently is structure roles and responsibilities and compensation related to execution of those roles and responsibilities and bonuses related to performance.

So, Everyone kind of understands not just how they fit within the organization, but what they need to do and what the team needs to do to get from point A to point B. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, I imagine you're, you're able to do that if you are bringing the capital into the company, whether or not it's your own money or you're confident in bringing in some early investors.

But, you know, so many other people are not. Ready to have a fundable startup. And they just end up focusing on sweat equity and asking other people to join them and, and figure out from there, which, like I said, in the past 50, 50 always seemed to be the easy answer, but it was only putting off a problem for a later date.

When the skill sets ended up being quite different. So, well, we've covered a lot Byron, I really appreciate you sort of navigating me through the, the companies that you've had in your most recent one, which is completely A sizable challenge for sure. 

Byron Bennett: It'll be history making if we can get it done.

when we get it done, I 

Jeanne Gray: hope you'll fly me down to Columbia for when we hit the champagne bottle against something. 

Byron Bennett: Would love to. 

Jeanne Gray: So, well, again, it was a pleasure talking to you about your, your entrepreneurial experience and being so forthcoming. So thank you for being a guest on Experienced Voices.

Byron Bennett: Thank you very much for having me. As I said, I love the fact that I'm talking to another serial entrepreneur that understands and gets it. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, you've been very complimentary to me. It was easy when we shared so many pain points. 

Byron Bennett: Well, yes, as a serial entrepreneur, you develop a lot of pain points. 

Jeanne Gray: You have been listening to the podcast series, Experienced Voices. To hear more and subscribe, visit AmericanEntrepreneurship. com forward slash podcast, where you will also find a form for listener feedback.