Page 6 - Hawaii Island MidWeek - Dec 15, 2021

6 HAWAI‘I ISLAND MIDWEEK DECEMBER 15, 2021
Whether in global financial markets or on baseball fields, businessman Dustin Shindo has proven that he’s got game.
before,” he explains. “But a couple of years ago that changed and it started to become well-accepted on Wall Street with compa- nies like DraftKings.
A s prominent a business lead- er as Dustin Shindo is, even he gets lost in the shadows of
12-year-old son, Tyler — the switch-hitting ambidextrous pitcher who excelled on the baseball diamond last summer in leading Honolulu Little League to the West Re- gional championship in San Bernadino, California.
exists solely to raise capital.
It’s a feat that often only investors
technology sector — in the coming months. Although admittedly interested in “blank check companies” for years, Shindo resist- ed taking the plunge into SPACs because turning private ventures into publicly traded
others at times.
This includes the eclipse cast by his own
In recalling those summer days that over- flowed with baseball and business highs, Shindo says, “I’d go and watch Tyler’s games during the day, then I’d stay up all night working on this SPAC. We finished the initial public offering the same day that my son was on national TV.
companies wasn’t conventional.
“The best companies wouldn’t use SPACs
But while the youngster was making magic on the baseball field, Shindo was busy accomplishing something quite re- markable as well — just in another field, and without any fanfare.
They do now.
The ambitious Shindo — who also serves as CEO of Junify Corp., a Palo Alto-based startup that specializes in cloud access secu- rity software — has always prided himself in being a difference maker, and this latest accomplishment only cements his standing as a pioneer in the local business communi- ty. But what he’s especially proud of is how
What he did was successfully launch Hawai‘i’s first-ever special purpose ac- quisition company, or SPAC, which is es- sentially a nonoperational company that
By helping to found Pono Capital Corp., Shindo was able to complete its listing on Nasdaq in August and begin public trad- ing under the ticker symbol “PONO.” As a result, the company raised a whopping $115 million — all of which sets up Shindo, its CEO, to finance a merger with a private company — likely one in the disruptive
SEE PAGE 7
within global financial markets can truly appreciate.
“So, everyone knew about him, but no- body knew about the SPAC.”
“Now, it’s used as a more mainstream way to go public.”