By Kim Chen Wiseman
Contributing Writer

South Carolina venture capitalist John Warner, a leading advocate for creating a more innovative economy in South Carolina, has authored Swamp Fox Insights: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in a Time of Profound Change.

The book outlines key steps to creating a high-impact company and includes “war” stories that Warner experienced first-hand as a 23-year veteran in funding and building companies from the ground up.

Warner has been a manager, advisor, board member and investor with companies, universities and nonprofits. He is president of Capital Insights LLC, a venture capital firm based in Greenville.

In Swamp Fox Insights, Warner applied the principles he learned in his work with many high-impact organizations, including Earth Fare Inc., a Southeastern chain of organic grocery stores that grew from one store to 14 that generates $100 million in revenue.

Warner served as Earth Fare’s chairman from 2000 to 2005. The company proved to be Capital Insights’ most successful portfolio company to date.

“We are surrounded by almost unlimited opportunities, and fortunes will be made and lost attempting to commercialize innovations with global impact,” said Warner. “Commercializing innovations does not need to be a crap shoot. Swamp Fox Insights outlines a systematic, risk-managed process to guide leaders in making critical decisions that impact the success of their high-impact companies.”

Warner defined a high-impact company as one that greatly impacts the community, whose revenue grows quickly, is a leader in some segment of the industry, markets beyond the local level and employs people at a higher than average wage.

In Swamp Fox Insights, Warner outlined four key strategies to effectively creating such as company.

First, Warner said, you must visualize an opportunity, something that is typically accomplished by an individual rather than by committee.

Second, you must surround yourself with a team of people who are right for their jobs, not necessarily just successful, but have had success in doing the work you are hiring them to do.

When Earth Fare hired a CEO, for instance, the founders looked for someone who had specific experience in running a multi-store chain. Earth Fare successfully grew to 14 stores.

But in another venture, Warner recalled the management team knew how to grow organically, or from within, but didn’t have the needed merger and acquisition experience. As a result, the company failed.

Third, you must articulate a compelling strategy for entering a market and growing quickly.

The toughest place to enter a market, Warner said, is at the top where it is most profitable. The big companies usually won’t let you in.

Smaller companies should look at the bottom or periphery where the market is smaller, but there is more room.

Finally, you have to execute a well-focused plan.

You can have the best idea, but if you don’t “block and tackle,” said Warner, it won’t make a difference. This includes learning about your customers and building your business up in manageable milestones.

One big mistake companies often make is raising a lot of money and spending all of it early on without knowing the marketplace.

High-impact companies, Warner said, have the ability to create wealth, which gets reinvested into future generations of business and build a training ground for entrepreneurs.

This phenomenon remains missing in South Carolina largely because the state lacks an informal infrastructure to support it, he said.

If someone wants to start a business venture with high impact in mind, they usually don’t know who to talk to or where to turn for help, Warner said.

Harvard University professor Clayton Christensen, who authored The Innovator’s Dilemma, and Geoffrey Moore, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and author of Crossing the Chasm, influenced Warner’s approach, he said. Both are experts in creating an innovative economy.

“I think there will be two main groups of people who will want to read this book. Those people who are interested in starting a high-impact company and those who are interested in supporting them,” Warner said.

“I’ve run a venture capital firm for many years and invested in a large portfolio of companies. We had many investments that were profitable, but a few that weren’t.”

This book, he said, is a sum of his “scars.”

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