Faith Driven Investor

In 1969, Tom Kehler was hunched over a Model 33 Teletype connected to an IBM mainframe developing a program to learn a function from data. Today, he’s here to talk about the future of artificial intelligence. A lot has happened in the in between decades, both in society and in Tom’s life in Silicon Valley. As the CEO of CrowdSmart, a business using AI & Collective Intelligence software platform to improve the accuracy of predicting investment success while reducing ingrained bias, he’s seen it all. Tune in and hear where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going...

Faithful listeners of the show might recognize the voice of Tim Macready on today’s episode. Today, he’s going to talk to us about a topic we haven’t really covered yet—investing with environmental care in mind. Tim took us from the Garden of Eden to Narnia to Middle Earth and explained why the creative vision that created all of these places focuses on the beauty within them, and how it’s our responsibility as image bearers of God to take care of what we’ve been given to cultivate and care for.His work as CIO of Brightlight has given him a unique platform to lead this conversation, and we can’t wait for you to hear the investing opportunities he’s seeing that have environmental stewardship at the forefront.

In 1998, Mart Green took a transformational trip to Guatemala that changed the way he thought about return on investment. Since then, he has been involved in Bible translation and distribution efforts from the launch of the YouVersion Bible app to the establishment of a collaborative partnership among 10 of the world’s largest Bible translation organizations, called illumiNations. In today’s conversation, Mart shares where his passion for Bible translation started, the encouraging steps he’s seen in the effort to eliminate Bible poverty, and the power of what happens when competitors become collaborators.

If you’re involved in Private Equity, you simply have to listen to today’s guest. And if you’re not involved in Private Equity, well, you’re still going to want to listen to Brent Beshore because in addition to taking an alternative approach to private equity, he’s an all around interesting person. When it comes to PE, Brent doesn't want to replace the founder. He doesn't want to run up debt. And he doesn't have a timeline for when he wants to sell. How does that work in practice? Hear the CEO and Founder of Permanent Equity tell you himself...

David Batstone’s entrepreneurial journey begins at his favorite restaurant in San Francisco. As he recalls, he loved the tandoori chicken, but he didn’t realize that he was eating in the center of a human trafficking ring that had brought over 500 teenagers from India into the United States for the purpose of forced labor. A journalist and venture capitalist, David couldn’t reconcile the fact that human slavery was happening in his own backyard. So, he decided to do something about it. The result is Not for Sale, a book where he breaks down how business can fix the $31 billion human trafficking epidemic.Today, he’s with us to share that journey of how God opened his eyes to the brokenness in the world and gave him a vision for how to fix it.

When we say, ‘bring your whole authentic self to work,’ what if faith is your number one identifier? Can you still bring your authentic self to work? That’s the question Sue Warnke is asking. Sue works for Salesforce as the Senior Director of Content Experience, and she was part of the team that started Faithforce San Francisco at Salesforce—an interfaith employee resource group. It’s one of the newest and the fastest growing Equality Groups at Salesforce with over 3200 members in over 20 regional hubs across 5 continents. In addition to sharing her best practices on her blog Leanership.org, today, Sue will share how Faithforce got started, how her personal faith influenced her involvement, and what it takes to start a successful Employee Resource Group.

Collin Timms is the Founder and Chairman of Guardian Bank in Bengaluru, India. In a city and country where loan sharks prey on people every day, Guardian Bank is a bright spot. While banking is a largely impersonal system set up to avoid risk by tying creditworthiness to capital instead of character, Collin and his team take a different approach. Inspired by faith that sees the infinite worth of each person, Guardian Bank provides a more humane view to the money lending process that provides hope for everyday households and commercial customers.

Not every Faith Driven Investor is called to a Christian-based investing fund or job. In fact, many of the people listening to this podcast work in secular markets, which is exactly why we talked to Andrew Manton today.Andrew is the Portfolio Manager for the Shelton International Select Equity strategy. We had an interesting conversation with him about how he is operating in a non-Christian company but is now evangelizing the firm and the salespeople based on how he is managing his fund. Today, you’ll hear him describe how rather than joining a Christian-specific fund, he sees his current work as an opportunity to live out his faith.

Today’s guest is David Beatty, co-founder and managing partner of Veriti Management. On today’s episode, he is going to share the value of Direct Index for helping Faith Driven Investors screen for deals that reflect the investors’ Christian values. You’ve heard of positive screens and negative screens, but Dave joined us to explore how Faith Driven Investors can invest at a high degree of excellence using both positive and negative screens, as well as using direct indexing to customize their filters. If you’re interested in public equities, or already involved, today’s episode is for you...

Ross Baird co-founded Village Capital in 2009 with the goal of investing in entrepreneurs building successful businesses, and also making a difference in their communities. After making some initial investments in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he realized something: local businesses built by local capital have a great effect on local communities. Today, he’s the Founder and CEO of Blueprint Local where he’s working to create the best way for people to thoughtfully invest in their communities. On today’s episode, he’s going to teach us a new word—topophilia—and why that concept motivates his work.

If you’ve been following this podcast for a while, you likely know that last year we had our first ever Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Faith Driven Investor conferences that included guests like Andy Crouch, Jewel Burks Solomon, Chip Ingram, Lecrae, Phil Vischer, Jessica Kim, and many more. Thousands of you attended, making it one of the most encouraging days since the start of the FDE and FDI movements. Well, if you missed last year’s event, don’t worry. Because we’re doing it again. Today’s episode is all about what you can look forward to at this year’s event, and the unique twist that’s going to make 2021 even better…

Today’s guest is Alan Clayton, who is, get this—a Global Roaming Mentor. Is that a cool title or what? After 10 years in marketing/logistics at WalMart UK, Alan co-founded an international coaching consultancy, turning vision into action for leadership teams, including managers at Motorola, Unilever, ATT&T, and others. ​Following that, Alan embarked on 20 years​ of startup​ experience ​working on his own ventures, culminating in what he does today as a mentor for SOSV. Today’s episode will capture his story and his passion for mentoring the whole person. 

October Baby. Mom’s Night Out. Woodlawn. I Can Only Imagine. What do these movies have in common? They’re all creations from the Erwin brothers. Jon and Andrew have had a passion for creating and making movies since they were young, and while we could talk shop about movies we love all day long, we asked Jon to pull back the curtain into the economics behind the big screen. How do filmmakers raise capital? Where do investors looking to get involved in entertainment? And of course, how does our Christian faith play into all of this? Listen in to find out...

Money is a fact of everyday life. We earn it, spend it and save it. We’re tempted to worship it and to trust it to provide for our needs. While much has been written about the power, danger, and stewardship of money, little has been said about what money actually is and whether or not money itself is moral. Today’s guest is here to change that. Jimmy Song is a bitcoin advocate, developer and author who has been contributing to open-source bitcoin projects since 2013. On today’s episode he explores the ways in which the current monetary system is broken, what can be done to fix it, and how the ongoing transition to sound money may be a source of hope for a broken world.

Hear Aimee Minnich, CIO, Founder, and General Counsel for Impact Foundation, share about how her personal history led her to a career dedicated to helping families steward resources for the glory of God. In this episode, she challenges the common understandings of risk, reward, and time horizon in investing and posits “the only meaningful risk we can take is to disobey God’s commands or ignore His invitations.”To hear more talks like this, join us this year at the 2021 Faith Driven Investor Conference on September 9th.

Jewel Burks Solomon is the Founder of PartPic, which raised over $2million before being acquired by Amazon. And that was just the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey. Now, she’s a managing partner at Collab Capital—a group working to provide a viable pathway to sustained wealth for the black community. She’s an incredible story, a fascinating entrepreneur and investor, and someone we can’t wait for you to hear from...

Derrick Morgan, former Tennessee Titans linebacker and founding partner of KNGDM Group, believes that community roots are incredibly important. That’s why after retiring from his career in the NFL and beginning an impact-focused fund, Derrick Morgan and KNGDM Group sought to be an example of giving back and building resilient communities. Hear him describe the importance of hope and resilience for life as a faith driven entrepreneur and investor.

Before starting Access Ventures, Bryce Butler was the Executive Director of the BlueSky Network, a venture philanthropy family office in Southern Indiana with activities around the world in microfinance, clean energy, sustainable agriculture, mobile payments, and entrepreneurship/innovation. Bryce was also the Executive Producer of a documentary about poverty, gang violence, and those trying to chart a new path through dance set in Guatemala City that premiered at the United Nations in April 2014 called BBOY for Life.Today, he joined us to talk about one pocket investing, solving access problems, and defining what Faith Driven Investing really means...

These are the 3 beliefs that drive Kwami’s passion. (1) poverty is an injustice, (2) we have a responsibility and a joy to solve this man-made problem, and (3) every problem presents an opportunity for business. If that doesn’t get you excited to hear about what Kwami has to share, then we don’t know what will. Listen in to hear how Kwami Williams is discovering entrepreneurial solutions that tackle the challenges faced by the poor and marginalized in our world today, especially on the African continent.Useful Links:Our Resilience StoryUp Close with Kwami WilliamsForbes 30 Under 30 2017: Social Entrepreneurs

Ray Barreth is a serial entrepreneur and dynamic visionary. He has spent over thirty years creating, directing, and leading new ventures in the U.S. and the U.K. Ray has broad experience in bringing companies from product inception to funding and launch. Today, Ray is going to join Reuben Coulter, Director of Ecosystems for Faith Driven Investor, to share a bit about his passion of coaching extraordinary entrepreneurs to create legacies that go far beyond themselves. And together, they’re going to walk us through what it means to create networks of trust through the use of light touch due diligence—all the way from New York to Nairobi.