Karen Rands, Compassionate Capitalist

Listen to Karen Rands and Teresa Esser talk about helping entrepreneurs apply best practices for raising capital from Angel Investors AND Venture Capitalists.  Private capital seeks opportunities that are unique with a strong market potential and validated business model.  Those are the tangible requirements.   The intangible, the subjective side of the process to raise capital is harder to define, but just as with a successful sales strategy, there is trust and relationship involved. With her first hand knowledge of what it takes to build and exit a successful tech startup and her experience as an angel investor in 40 early stage companies with nine exits which provided investors returns between 2X and 20X their initial investment, Teresa Esser knows the inside secrets to building strong companies that can go global and get funding from angel investors through to VCs.   As the author of The Venture Cafe, and founder of a global foundation that hosts weekly networking events in eleven cities around the world

From the archives of The Compassionate Capitalist Podcast show with host Karen Rands, we present the golden nuggets on over coming procrastination...how it is a success killer and strategies to overcome it.  As you listen to Karen's special guest Kristopher B Jones, you'll hear many references to Napolean Hill and Tony Robbins.  One such tidbit that Kris shared from his time training with Tony Robbins:   "The way that you take action in life is to start with the outcome; to really remove the in decisiveness about what it is that you're truly going after in life." And as Napolean Hill teaches - the opposite of procrastination is decision. Failures come from the attitude and behavior of waiting for the "time to be right" or lack of belief in the ability to reach a goal, and burning desire to overcome a fear of failure.   Enjoy this gem of a conversation between Karen and Kris because Kris, with his accomplishments is clearly a man who has conquered procrastination on his journey to success. Kris is the forme

Karen Rands wraps season 12 of the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast Radio with a fresh take on goal setting.   New Year's resolutions are notoriously set and usually broken in the first 30 days.   When it comes to business, goals are rarely achieved when you are flying by the seat of your pants with no road map to achieve those goals.   For entrepreneurs, often times business goals are co-dependent on personal goals.  It can be very challenging to achieve one without sacraficing the other.  Karen will dig a little deeper on aligning your personal and business goals, because when it comes to setting goals, that is easy.  Writing a goal down on a piece of paper is the first step but it won't be achieved by magic.  Setting goals is easy, achieving goals is hard.  It takes motivation, yes, but really wanting a goal to come true also won't make it so.  If you have dealt with failure in your pursuit of your goals, you need to get rid of your stinking thinking.   You must have clear intent and purpose, which requir

During this entertaining segment of the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast, Bob Circosta shares the lessons learned during his legendary career as "TVs  Billionaire Dollar Man" who has sold over $6 Billion in merchandise.   Karen and Bob explore the similarities between selling customers on why buy a product and selling investors on why invest in the company.  A clear message creates the foundation for the story to be presented, and knowing your target and how to get the opportunity in front of them produces the outcome a CEO is seeking.   Today, Bob helps entrepreneurs create an impactful and profitable pitch to maximize their sales and marketing on various marketing platforms. Bob also co-hosts a live shopping channel called “WHAT A GREAT IDEA with Bob & Chad” and quarterly workshops to help entrepreneurs break through to massive sales growth.  To learn more visit http://bobandchad.com  Karen Rands helps entrepreneurs get the capital to fuel their growth through the Launch Funding Network and Access to

Cannabis Capitalism segments of the Compassionate Capitlist Podcast explore the entrepreneur and investor interest in the trends in legalization of marijuana, cannabis & hemp derived products and the developing supply chaing.  Georgia's history with the criminalization and legalization of marijuana is full of twists, turns, and technicalities.  Dar'shun Kendrick is a Georgia native, a business master, a elected official, a practicing attorney and a series 65 security license holder.  Her firm Kendrick Advisory and Advocacy Group (http://kaag.co) works with entrepreneurs to understand the legal issues and capital requirements for setting up a Cannabis business in Georgia.   Dar'shun joins Karen to discuss the capitalist, making money as a founder or investor, aspect of capitalizing on the legal cannabis and hemp industry in Georgia.  Georgia took a bold step in 2015 with HB1, Haleigh’s Hope Act, to legalizecertain cannabis extracts for medicinal use with very specfiic ailments. It wasn't until 2019, thou

Compassionate Capitalism is about strategically investing to maximizing impact through the growing of wealth for the investor and the entrepreneurs that recieve those investment dollars to grow their business to create their own wealth.   An important part of creating generational wealth and to maximize the dollars you have to invest is in entrepreneur endeavors as a crowd fund or angel investor is to understand the tax advantages of using certain products and methods to shield your wealth and income from the tax man.  Karen Rands is joined by Charles Theisen on this episode to talk about an Inside Secret the ultra wealthy use to preserve their wealth for future generations and to maximize their retained income.   Charles Theisen is a sought after speaker, wealth strategist and a business maverick. Charles business philosophy  empowers his clients to “Keep” more of what they earn and to follow the quote from John D. Rockefeller…”The Path to Success is to Own Nothing and Control Everything” through his one of

Blockchain is a technology platform best known for the application and use within the cryptocurrency industry.  However, it is so much more than crypto and ICOs.  It is a platform technology that is set to disrupt many industries including contract & records management, supply chain management, identity tracking and validation, and more.  Eddy Travia is a pioneer investor in blockchain technology startups and the Co-founder and CEO of Coinsilium, a London-listed venture builder, investor and advisor of early-stage blockchain technology companies.    On this episode of the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast, Karen and Eddy explore the evolution, impact and future potential of Blockchain, with insights offered for both entrepreneurs and investors.  For more info and to connect to Eddy, visit https://www.coinsilium.com/  Karen Rands is the best selling author of the financial investor primer: Inside Secrets to Angel Investing, and has been helping to funding innovation and creating wealth through entrepreneu

This episode of the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast brings a live conversation with Karen Rands and Max Mrho Learn about Lean Startup processes in practice.  Max Mirho works with young entrepreneurs to teach them how they can validate their business idea with tools readily available and identify their authentice customer before spending all the money, and investors' money,  to start-up.  Max Mirho is the host of a weekly live stream series called EntrepreNerd, where he conducts experiments live to educate on the accessibility of entrepreneurship through no-code tools and customer discovery. Max's philosophy: there's a process to entrepreneurship.  To prove that, he experiments with it every saturday, (6:30-8:00pm EST) live on LinkedIn and Twitch, by building mini-startups, side hustles, and lifestyle businesses all on camera. https://www.entreprenerd.blog/ On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxmirho/ Karen Rands is the founder of the Compassionate Capitalist Movement and nationally renowned expert i

Karen Rands is joined by Dr. Calvin Goforth on this episode of The Compassionate Capitalist Podcast Radio to discuss their approach to identifying breakthrough innovation to build and fund companies around R&D from Govt and Universities. As the co-founder and CEO of VIC Technology Venture Development, Dr. Goforth has extensive experience in start-up company development.  To date, VIC has formed 14 portfolio companies based on promising technologies, raised over $140 million in capital, and is expanding to additional sites across the United States.  By 2020, VIC will be forming ten high impact healthcare technology companies each year.  While VIC’s main focus is on forming healthcare related companies, they also have founded companies in high impact areas such as clean water, food safety, and automotive crash safety. Listen & learn about the VIC's formula for success for assembling the teams that can take an idea, validate it, commercialize, and generate profitable operations from it.  Both entrepr

Karen Rands, host of the Compassionate Capitalist Radio Podcast, highlights the business trends in the legal Cannabis Industry with Cannabis Capitalist Radio segments.  This episode has been edited for re-broadcast of a highly popular segment because this topic is under represented and so important to understand.  Kristen Yoder is trusted advisor in the Cannabis Industry and Veteran BS Detector with over 13 years in the rapidly growing industry.  She is an acclaimed Speaker & Terpene Educator.  She hosts her own very successful Podcast- The CannaBS Detector Podcast. Her company, Soil to the Oil, advises investors and investment firms entering the Cannabis Industry.  Learn more: https://www.soiltotheoil.com/cannabsdetector There is a fallacy that permeates the industry. Cannabis is marketed with cute names with claims of euporia, or relaxation, or pain relief, and although that may be true in many cases, due to the nature of how the cannabinoids interact with the human CB1 & CB2 receptors, it is not

Women find themselves a minority in tech companies, even in Silicon Valley.  Fewer find themselves in as co-founders of companies that go through multiple rounds of venture capital and scale successfully to be an acquisition target, or with potential for an initial public offering.  Minnie used her success to become compassionate capitalist and invest her time, knowledge, experience and money into other startups, first as an angel investor then as a venture capitalist.    Minnie Ingersoll has done all of this and has valuable insights to share with Karen's Compassionate Capitalist Podcast audience.    Minnie Ingersoll is s partner at TenOneTen Ventures and has quite an impressive resume; she was an early product manager at Google for over a decade before she co-founded (and became COO of) Shift, an online marketplace for used cars that she scaled to $100M. Minnie combines her expertise as an investor and in building and scaling startups to educate and support the entrepreneurs who are shaping the future.  K

Karen Rands is joined by Rashaun Williams to discuss strategies to diversify a portfolio of investments which include private equity as an angel investor. Rashaun Williams is a former investment banker on wall street turned angel investor with venture capitalist approach focused on tech, consumer products & media companies. With over 100 investments under his belt and more than 20 exits, Rashaun Williams has keen insights to share on this episode of the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast Radio.  Karen and Rashaun will talk about his journey to become a profitable angel investor and how he has learned to align with venture capitalists. They will also discuss getting in on later stage angel investing with Pre-IPO secondary markets.  Mr. Williams is currently a general partner in the MVP All-Star Fund which is a late stage tech fund. Previously he founded venture capital fund Queensbridge Venture Partners where he invested in companies like Coinbase, Ring, Lyft & Dropbox.  With a passion for financial lit

Karen Rands is joined by Michael Sakraida to discuss the evolution of "Sustainable Investing". SRI or Sustainable Investing can mean Sustainable, Responsible, Impact investing or Socially Responsible Investing, but few really know what qualifies as SRI. Mainstream investment philosophy creates confusion as if there is a trade off between investing to do good or investing to make money. Compassionate Capitalism and Sustainable Impact Investing align -- as both intend to put their money to work in investments that have positive impact.  However CC's approach is broad, focused on funding innovation and job creation.  SRI seeks investments where the culture, operations and outcome of the investment will have a lingering positive impact.  We will discuss the gap between Sustainable Investing that even Sustainable Unaware" and "Sustainable, I Don't Care" investors and advisors want to be a part of because they can make money while they are doing good. Michael, founder of FAN - Financial Advisor Network (fanresourc

Direct Public Offering or DPO was a legal way for entrepreneurs to directly solicit investment from the public withough filing with the SEC to become a public entitity.   It was rarely used.   Then Crowd Funding came along.   Crowd Funding as a label is very confusing in the market place.  You usally have to add a slew of other words in order to explain what type of crowdfunding you are talking about -- there are 5 ways -- and depending on who you talk to, they may have a negative impression of it.   So what is the difference and why didn't entrepreneurs just continue to use the long standing Direct Public Offering vehicle? This episode of the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast with host Karen Rands will explore this timely topic.   Entrepreneurs will gain greater insight into how to use the different methods for raising capital from the general public and investors will learn how they can invest in companies at different stages, using the different methods, to match their own risk/reward profile.  Karen is t

As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote; and recognize it has been 47 years for women to have equal right to education and 30 years since women were given the authority to obtain a loan without a male cosigner, it is interesting to observe the next wave of independence. As with most long term suppression; the outcome of decades of activism, perseverence, and determination is rarely sudden or suprising.  Women have fought for equality in the workforce for decades.  While women are gaining ground in c-suites and boardrooms, where we see the most growth is the surge of women starting their own businessies---58% growth since 2007.  While 40% of the private small businesses in the US are female led, the percentage of jobs offered, revenue contribution, and economic impact on exit is substantially less.  Why is this? Is there a systemic cause and what can be done about it? Influencer, Jacque Rushin joins Karen Rands on the Compassionate Capitalist Podcast Show to talk about her upc

Global warming, green economy, sustainability, carbon credits, carbon tax...buzz words that are being discussed a lot more lately than they were in 2013 when Karen first recorded this interview.  It is amazing to consider, the progress we have made on a global basis to acknowledge the threat before us, as climate change becomes undeniable, even if you are a science denier. Yet on the other hand, the powerful special interest groups and the political establishment continue to resist any conversation about the deterioration of our climate and the impact it will have on our economy and the way of life as we know it in the next 20 years.    Karen listened the original legacy podcast and discovered the simple, yet quite clear, definitions and explanations she and her guest discuss is VERY relevant for even today's audience.  By educating yourself, you can help to make sure the 'green economy', that many are promoting, becomes a way of strengthening businesses to move in a positive direction, not hinder business g

eSports, traditionally a term for playing video games in tournaments, has evolved to be so much more. Listen as Karen Rands talks with industry insider & investor, Ben Godfrey, about how block chain and tech is transforming the sports fan experience and the opportunities ahead.  Since the first electronic video game tournament in 1972 at Stanford University, eSports has grown steadily.  Yet the growth in the last 5 years has been astonishing.  In 2015, eSports revenue was estimated to be $325M, with 235M participants, roughly $1.40 per.  In 2020, eSports is expected to generate $1.4B with 589M participants, translating to $2.37 per.  Fan enthusiasm is clear and profitable as a whole industry has grown around this.  The advancement in electronics, connectivity, and digital tracing has helped fuel its growth.  With growth comes problems and opportunities.   The development of block chain technology is a contributing factor.  Also the revelation that most sports fans have a digital footprints, traditional s

The Compassionate Capitalist show, with host Karen Rands, is dedicated to helping Investors and Entrepreneurs understand the rules of the game when creating generational wealth.  With the advent of Direct to the Public offerings via the REG D 506c and REG A+, investors have great freedom to gain access to private company stocks in a 'retail' like environment, but with the added benefit of similar upside potential as with a pre-IPO company.   However with great Freedom comes great Responsibility.   Investors must have the discipline to consider only stocks from companies that embrace the concept of transparency and full disclosure.  Furthermore, they must be willing to increase their business savviness and financial IQ in order to make their own investment decisions rather than rely soley on a financial planner to make recommendations.   With the dynamic of Transparency, Entrepreneurs must also realize that unlike the situations they may experience with traditional angel investors, venture capital firms, and

Board of Advisers and Directors can be critical to the success of a company...in attracting investors and maintaining investor confidence. When you don't have the money to hire the best, you may be able to convince the best to help you--- with the opportunity to become part of the team when you have the capital and start to grow.  When you don't have the talent on your team, investors expect to at least see mentors and advisers that represent the key areas of your business in marketing, sales, operations, and industry insiders. We'll hear from experts on this topic: Famed Author, Calvin K. Clemons, and Industry Experts, Marjorie Singley-Hall and Rona Wells. And as usual a lively discussion ensues. This podcast was taken from the podcast archives and remastered for you today because this topic is timeless and critical.  Karen wrote the definative guide for learning how to be an angel investor. Learn More: Inside Secrets to Angel Investing You can also learn more about Karen Rands and the services she offer