Karen Rands - Compassionate Capitalist

Millennials ask - How to I get Started with Investing in Companies that are Crowd Funding their opportunities.  Karen answers.  Billions of dollars are being invested in companies raising capital directly from the public in legal equity based 'crowdfunding' methods -- Still far under the total capital raised from angels and VCs...(2022 numbers about the same number of accredited investors participated in their private clubs as partcipated in the direct public offerings - Reg CF -- 350,000!!) Why the surge?  90 years to get to 350,000 in angel groups and 7 years to get to 350,000 in Reg CF Crowdfunding?  PSST: It is the scope of the Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizer System - the why, how, and what of angel / crowdfund investing - details below Part of the surge and attraction for investor involvement for 4 reasons: Location  Time Exclusivity Accredited Status.  Yet, those investor are the least informed about budgeting for investments and conducting due diligence to validate the investment opportunit

According to the SBA, the number of Hispanic business owners has grown 34% in the last 10 years. Making Latinx the fastest-growing segment of U.S. small businesses, with an estimated 4.65 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. The growth of Hispanic consumers in the last decade in the US is unprecedented.  Businesses are waking up to the economic power of Latinx business owners and consumers for B2B and B2C business models. This episode explores the nuance of scaling a business, growing the brand and what is needed to tap into this growing demographic segment. Karen Rands is joined by Gabriela Pulido, CEO and founder of Scalto, a Creative Consultancy firm. Scalto helps Hispanic and Latin American B2B service businesses build scalable business models to grow over time which starts with their proprietary ScaleX Program. In this episode you will learn:  What is a brand?  What it is not? Why it is important to emotionally engage customers (and would be investors) How to define a brand and a corporate cult

Karen Rands is joined by Eric Hazard of Vested Ventures to discuss what “financial literacy” really means and why "fintech" is uniquely qualified to help provide it -- and how Compassionate Capitalists, angel investors, can make money while investing in companies that are solving social and economic inequality.  The lack of financial literacy has created a market ripe for predatory consumer lending abuse with payday lending schemes and the structure of private student loans.  You can trace the greed of certain financial institutions whom preyed on the financial naivete of people of color and first time home buyers with those crazy no money down balloon mortgages, leading to the real estate bubble and great recession 20 years ago.  In this podcast / video cast you will learn:  The basic definition of FinTech and how it has evolved Why financial literacy begins with financial access How FinTech can strengthen relationships between businesses and their employees & customers, and be a force for good Why Vest

Brandon T. Adams joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to discuss the meaning of success, overcoming setbacks, and the power of possibility when you use video to share your story and connect with your target audience. This episode is geared toward entrepreneurs and the mindset they need to persevere to reach the culmination of huge success. Hear how Brandon faced bankruptcy at one end of the spectrum to winning Emmy's and closing 7 figure deals at the other end, and the journey along the way. Key take aways: Why going all in is critical to success How to get a TV Show on the air and funded Using business challenges to unlock your super powers Brandon grew up in an entrepreneur family and gained the foundation he would use to build his successful branding business. Brandon is a multiple Emmy Award Winning Producer and Host of the TV Series -- Success in Your City. He uses his knowledge of branding, promotion, and ability to scale and pivot for his clients. He is an expert in video production

Getting started investing in entrepreneurs is very similar to investing in real estate. Karen & Heather delve into the innovative ways real estate investors can use different types of funds to get started in investing with a predictable return, and without all the hassles of searching for good real estate investments and managing those assets directly. Karen introduces the conversation reminding listeners of how she discusses this strategy for those getting started with investing in entrepreneurs in her book, Inside Secrets to Angel Investing, and how that relates to investing in real estate. Hear in this episode: The difference in direct investing and investing through a fund Untapping the financial power of your 401K and/or Roth IRA to invest in real estate Heather Dreves, the Director of Funding at Secured Investment Corp., oversees the management of two funds: High Yield Fund II for Accredited Investors, and the Circle of Wealth Fund III, open to all levels of investors with a minimum in at just $10

Yaniv Sneor, co-founder of the Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (MABA), a life science angel investor group, joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show to discuss the purpose and process of the investor network. The life cycle and milestones used to measure progress and assess risk of Life Sciences companies as an early stage, pre-revenue company, are different than tech or consumer product companies. Often there isn't a tangible MVP (Minimum Viable Product), a prototype, or a beta to validate that the innovation works. Yet MABA seems to have broken the code and figured out how to evaluate, invest, and create a return on investment in the biomed, med tech, life sciences segment. Investors committed to bringing bio and medical innovations to the market are the minority in the broad scope of angel investors and angel investor groups. Learning from those investors that have figured out how to invest wisely and profiably in this complex sector is incredibly valuable. Yaniv and Karen talk about: Key Milestones

Investing in Tech Startups is not like investing in Med Tech or Bio Med or Life Sciences.  Listen to hear the best practices for investing in innovation that can change the way we live and thrive.  Karen Rands interviews Tico Blumenthal, Life Science Angels, to share with her Compassionate Capitalist Podcast audience the journey from innovation corporate exec to innovation investor. Tico demonstrates how he is a Compassionate Capitalist as he shares his passion, putting his investment capital to work with the intent of serving the aim of better health, globally.  To that end he advises and invests in a diverse portfolio of early stage ventures, including implantable diagnostics, cardiovascular devices and digital health.   Listen to learn about Tico's passion about innovation and some best practices for assessing deals ripe for investment.  Tico Blumenthal, formerly, the head of Global Strategic Marketing at Cardinal Health's Cordis interventional vascular division, and is currently the VP of Product at Eko s

There are many aspects of a business's ability to thrive that are predictable.   Just as in life, businesses can be negatively impacted by things that can't be predicted and even preventive.    There are legal documents like Buy-Sell Agreements, and insurance products like Key Man Insurance, and technology protocols like continuity and redundancy services. The 831(b) is little known tool that businesses can use to 'self-insure' with pre-tax dollars. Much like the 401(k) tax code allows an employer to set aside tax-deferred dollars for retirement, the 831(b) tax code allows a business to set aside tax-deferred dollars for underinsured and/or uninsured risks. The similarities are clear and business owners should consider the risk mitigation advantages, before the next pandemic, natural disaster, or global supply crisis. Ed Bryan of SRA 831(b) Admin joins Karen to discuss this critical, and little known, element of the tax codes that benefit businesses, large and small.    Ed Bryan has more than 20 years of sale

When business owners focus on the strengths of their employees, rather than their shortcomings, they will understand how to boost performance and profit.  'No one wakes up and says I want to be an average employee today (sic)', Brandon Miller during the show.  When you  empower employees to  become peak performers, everyone wins, including the owners and investors in that company.  Brandon Miller shares with Karen how he works with Executive Teams to find the strengths of the management and employees, as individuals, an integral part of the human machine of the company to be fine tuned.  You will hear how to identify and fix these growth killers: disengagement, disappointment, and generational silos to build a thriving corporate culture that achieves its objectives.  Brandon Miller is the Founder and CEO of 34 Strong. Brandon is one of the FIRST 7 Certified GALLUP Clifton Strengths Finder Coaches in the world.  34 Strong is a coaching and consulting firm dedicated to improving employee engagement. Brandon has

The old, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. isn't a good business strategy. Not 'fixing something in you business could mean that there are hidden expenses and inefficiencies that prevent you from growing at the pace you would like, and potentially create friction with your customers that effect retention. It takes courage to make the bold choice to transform your brand, product, or service to the next level by venturing into automating a manual process or figuring out how to use a mobile / web app to improve your operations. Karen Rands speaks with AJ Aluthwala, Co-founder of KallistoArt and ElleApps about the decision process companies should uses when deciding to build or buy software.  AJ shares the 8 elements companies must consider when deciding to move forward with application development:  customer experience, brand recognition, engaging customers, increasing customer loyalty, improving customer service, unique function/features, consumer trends,and marketing tools.          AJ's Free gift  -- What

The Legalization of Equity Crowd Funding was the catalyst for the great Economic Democratization of the Capital Markets.   Although crowdfunding started with reward based, the advent of the JOBS Act in 2012 introduced 4 ways to raise equity capital from the crowd.  The expanded pool of additional investors are not your typical angel investors.  These 4 methods remove the invisible wall between entrepreneurs and their potential investors.  There is still great confusion on how to best use equity crowdfunding to raise capital, and even more so, how traditional retail stock investors can get involved in a low risk way and start investing in the entrepreneurs with 'unicorn potential' or the small business owners that are well established and are seeking an amount of growth capital that is not available from their bank and they don't fit a Venture Capitalist or Private Equity Fund criteria. They can be as solid of an investment as a retail stock, but with much greater upside potential.  The 4 methods to solicit fr

In this segment of The Compassionate Capitalist Show(tm) Podcast, Karen Rands responds to an entrepreneur's question:  What is an Angel Investor?  Since 2012, the definition and the game to attract angel investors has changed.  Once considered only an activity available for an exclusive group of entrepreneurs turned investors, the access to capital and those who can invest in an entrepreneur's success to share that wealth all changed with the passage of the JOBS Act to stimulate the economy. Angel Investing is the 2nd best source for creating generational wealth, but less than 5% of the US public knows about it. Karen explains the history and evolution of angel investing and the good news: the wall between entrepreneurs and would-be investors has been removed, creating opportunity for financial success through entrepreneurism for the founders and the investors. Listen and learn the 4 ways entrepreneurs can solicit for investors from the general public of potential investors outside of the structured angel net

In this very personal and direct video/podcast message, Karen Rands shares the financial and emotional benefits of being an Angel Investor -- whether you claim it as a Compassionate Capitalist, Silent Partner, Right Quadrant Business Owner & Investor, or Crowdfunding Investor.    Karen shares her 'aha moment' of realizing that 7 Million people in the USA collect a pay check that easily puts them into the income bracket to invest and own small amounts of other entrepreneurs' businesses in order to share in their financial success without all the risks of starting and owning that business themselves.   The average rate of return for the angel investor, that takes time to learn how to evaluate the merits of an entrepreneur's opportunity and develop a diversified portfolio, far exceeds that of real estate and the stock market.  Watch the video of this episode: https://youtu.be/2p-LM3g3CdQ Karen offers a special program to learn and collaborate (and get your deals vetted) with other investors - for those inves

Listen to learn how to develop software according to what an Investor really wants - Prototype, Requirements Document, Wireframe, Figma or MVP - Minimum Viable Product. Edie Woelfle, Founder of KeiBoarder, joins Karen Rands on this episode of the Compassionate Capitalist Show(tm) to share her insights to help eliminate some of the confusion on the value and functional purpose of these 5 elements of the design and development of a software solution. Edie and Karen also delve into the value of software to automate internal processes for established companies seeking to remove bottlenecks, improve efficiency and increase profit. Stick to the end to hear their fun banter over 'Scrum Ceremony and Backlog Grooming'. Edie Woelfle graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Game Design and Development from Rochester Institute of Technology, and started her career as a game developer. With experience large corporation application development, Edie's experience includes software development and project management for ground

Neeti Dewan joins Karen Rands on the Compassionate Capitalist Show to talk about leadership impact on the financial bottom line of business.  We are familiar with these 5 styles of leadership: Authoritarian | Participative | Delegative | Transactional | Transformational Neeti introduces the impact of Joyful Leadership on employee retention and productivity and developing your Power of Silence as an effective leadership tool. Neeti Dewan is an Author, Key Note Speaker, Global Finance & Tax Leader, and Seasoned Board Director. She is a  Founding Member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Private Directors Association and currently is the Global Tax Leader for ClubCar.  Neeti has been the recipient of numerous awards, and most recently named "The Most Successful Businesswomen to watch, 2021" with a feature in the magazine, CIO Views. Neeti's latest book, as discussed in this podcast is:  “High Level Leadership, Low Level Stress”. Learn more and get in touch visit: www.neetidewan.com Karen Rands, is the leader of t

Compassionate Capitalist Show is about wealth creation - 1st as a successful entrepreneur; 2nd as an investor in a successful entrepreneur.  Real estate investing has many parallels to angel investing into entrepreneurs. They can often interchange to be the starting point for creating additional wealth for investing in the other asset class. There is an ongoing debate as to which is riskier; which requires more capital to get started and have available to maintain the asset; and even which produces the greatest average return. In this episode of The Compassionate Capitalist Show, listeners will learn about a way to create wealth that when done correctly, to create wealth and do social good, also sets the stage for extra cashflow to be put toward investing in entrepreneurs as a crowdfunding investor or angel investor.  Martin Saenz joins Karen Rands to talk about Mortgage Notes investing as a niche investment strategy that offers the hybrid of 'investor as a bank' and real estate backed security.  Martin Saenz

Entrepreneur Founders, Angel Investors, and VCs all want to maximize their Return on Investment, their realized gain, when it looks like there is potential for an IPO with the company. It is hard to predict which startups will navigate the treacherous journey from start to finish of an IPO when the race isn't a sprint, it can have many twists and turns and obstacles to over come, to reach the pinnacle of an IPO rather than acquisition or merger. Many of the ways to avoid taxes on capital gains and even 'phantom earnings' need to be dealt with at the start of the incentive or in the early days of the company starting up, not in the final stretch to an IPO. Host Karen Rands is joined by Aaron Rubin, JD, CPA, CFP, partner with Werba Rubin Papier Wealth Management, LLC and author of "Financial Adulting", a guide for young professionals navigate tax, investing and estate planning. Aaron works with pre-IPO executives and early employees at late-state tech companies to help them minimize their tax liability and keep

Just 1.2% of the record $137 billion invested in US startups in the first half of 2021 went to Black entrepreneurs, and only 2% went to women-founded companies, according to a blog post from Crunchbase. If you aren't familiar with the challenges non-white, non-male founders of startups face getting capital in the United States, these numbers are actually better than they have been in the past. There was a great wakeup call in 2020 to the barriers to capital diverse founders face. Zane Ventures is not new to the party, but they are using this new found corporate and traditional investor consciousnes and awareness momentum to be a disrupter in the capital market place. Through their long-standing Zane Access program they have mentored 1200 startups with diverse founders.  With the launch of their venture fund they are able to invest in bold founders who have innovative business models and are building early-stage technology solutions with early traction, whether in dollars or data. Shila Nieves Burney is the Fo

Did you know? 44% of the American workforce makes less than $20 an hour and are living paycheck to paycheck. Much of that hourly wage employee sector is considered essential workforce to keep our economy humming, as evident in the pandemic triggered shut down and in the current supply chain crisis. For this Compassionate Capitalist Show, Karen Rands is joined by Sabina Bhatia, Chief Customer Officer at PayActiv, to talk about the impact 'financial insecurity and well being' of hourly wage workers have on the profitability and scalability of businesses. Earned Wage Access is rapidly becoming the #1 way for companies to attract and retain their non-salary employees. Understanding HOW high turnover and job vacancies, and how distracted and anxious employees effect quality control and customer experience, is critical for both founders and investors. The soft dollar impact on the financial performance of a company and stagnation of a company to reach their growth targets directly correlates to the ROI of an invest

Siena Dexter joins Karen Rands on The Compassionate Capitalist Show(tm) to talk about the data science of connecting with consumers to choose your brand, your product over a competitor.    How do you create brand loyalty?   How do you garner interest in a new product or brand so that your target consumer knows what the value is in just 3 seconds?  Siena calls it the 3 Second Decision.  Listen and learn how the BIGGEST names in Consumer Packaged Goods use behavioral economics to trigger the consumers' consciousness logic, and subconscious emotion all at once to make a buying decision and how that turns into brand loyalty.  Siena and Karen dig into the market adoption of meat alternatives and the evolution of the 'women' personal care market.  Siena is the Director of Brand Strategy and Associate Partner at  Smashbrand, where she helps Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands win on shelf through quantified consumer metrics.  Siena’s educational and professional journey brought her to Smashbrand where her main inte