Chris Fredericks founded Empowered Ventures, serves as president & CEO, and is a member of the board of directors. Chris has a diverse background in management, accounting and finance, business valuations, mergers and acquisitions, operations, people development, and strategy.

In 2010, he proposed and led the acquisition of TVF (www.tvfinc.com) on behalf of the employees using an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which enabled a successful ownership transition for the founder. After overseeing a decade of success as an employee-owned company, Chris and TVF launched Empowered Ventures (www.empowered.ventures) in 2020 to grow and diversify the ESOP through acquisition. Inspired by TVF’s transformative employee ownership experience, Chris led Empowered Ventures to define its purpose which is to perpetually create life-changing financial and personal wellbeing outcomes for its employee owners.

Chris resides near Burlington, Vermont, having relocated from his home state of Indiana in 2022. He is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington’s Kelley School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. A former CPA, Chris started his career in public accounting in the nonprofit sector before joining TVF in 2005, where he served in various positions including chief financial officer, before serving as president from April 2010 through March 2021.

He's a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington Kelley School of Business with a bachelor's degree in accounting. As a former CPA, Chris started his career in public accounting in the nonprofit sector, before joining the company in 2005, where he served in various positions, including chief financial officer and President from April 2010 through March 2021.

We talked about the differences between a stock option plan and a worker ownership plan. Chris shared the differences between a company being worker owned and being worker managed. In addition, we discussed the differences between that and a co-op. Also, we talked about how he leads with open book management and creates alignment among different leaders and the team in general. And, we talk about what it means for an owner to sell to a worker owned company and what it means for the workers of the company that's purchased.

Connect with Chris on Twitter @esopchris and on LinkedIn

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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.

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Jeannie founded Funding U to provide a responsible loan option for academically achieving, low income students who needed last gap funds to complete college, but for whom the only available options were high interest rate credit cards. Her drive to solve this problem came from a decade of working in education nonprofits in Atlanta and an understanding that a mother’s education level holds the single strongest correlation to outcomes of infant mortality, child literacy, household employment and income, and likelihood to live in poverty.

Today, Funding U has originated $42M in affordable student loans to more than 4000 academically achieving undergraduates, 40% of whom are from families with income of $40,000 or less, and 60% are first generation 4-year college students. In 2020, the Company launched a Platform as a Service product, “Powered by Funding U,” which provides end to end data and technology solutions for organizations that want to provide outcomes based, income share repayment loan options for low income or other marginalized Americans.

Funding U has raised ~$80M in equity and debt financing from investors including Goldman Sachs, Mackenzie Scott and Deciens Capital.

Prior to starting Funding U, Jeannie was the first employee of the Atlanta Girls’ School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she acted as Founding Director of Admissions. She then became Director of Development for Literacy Action and then worked for the Rollins Center for Early Literacy at the Atlanta Speech School as a Strategic Consultant. She is a currently a Trustee of Atlanta Girls’ School, served on the Emory Board of Visitors from 2017 to 2019, was a Founding Board Member of Girls on the Run, Atlanta, 1998-2001, and was the first alumna trustee of The Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, 1994-1996.

Jeannie is a graduate of Princeton University, where she obtained a B.A. cum laude, in English Literature and American Studies.

She has launched three other successful ‘startups’ - her children, Anna, Peter, and Robert - ages 22, 21, and 18.

Jeannie joins me today, we start at a very high level about the industry in this conversation, we get very tactical for early stage founders.

“I feel I fight and resist and tell my team to resist any binary conversations or a binary way of thinking.” - Jeannie Tarkenton

Connect with Jeannie on LinkedIn

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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.

Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.

David Blake operates at the intersection of the future of work and the future of politics. David Blake has spent his career innovating in formal education and lifelong learning. He is on a mission to future proof our workforce and use learning and skills to enable everyone to fulfill their personal missions.

David is the co-founder and CEO of Degreed. Millions of individuals and hundreds of organizations use Degreed’s platform to discover and answer for all of their learning and skills. Prior to Degreed, he helped launched a competency-based, accredited university and was a founding team member of university-admissions startup Zinch (acquired by NASDQ: CHGG). David was selected as a Top EdTech Entrepreneur by the Stanford d.School EdTech Lab, sponsored by Teach For America and NewSchools Venture Fund.

He is the co-author of the book, The Expertise Economy: How the smartest companies use learning to engage, compete, and succeed and the co-creator of the Skills Quotient. He is a sought-after expert on the topic of the future of work and learning, speaking at companies such as Google, Deloitte, and Salesforce and at conferences globally.

David joins me today to discuss the surprising downside of curiosity, how artificial intelligence impacts learning and earning. Also, we talked about the growing skills gap, the best way to hire, how he learned to be a founder, and the book he thinks best captures what it's like to be a founder.

“I find, the best way to get started is to be intentional and to have a goal.” - David Blake

Connect with David on LinkedIn and Twitter or email David at D@davidblake.com. To find out more about David’s companies visit degreed.com or bookclub.com.

Subscribe, Rate & Share Your Favorite Episodes!

Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of Startups For Good with your host, Miles Lasater. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast listening app.

Don’t forget to visit our website, connect with Miles on Twitter or LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes across social media. For more information about Purpose Built visit our website.