Episode 334: Tech CEO Moves Company to an Avoided Neighborhood | Chi-Ming & Juliette Chien
Podcast episode
Episode 334: Tech CEO Moves Company to an Avoided Neighborhood | Chi-Ming & Juliette Chien
What happens when a successful tech company leaves San Francisco’s financial district for Bayview – a neighborhood most people avoid? Chi-Ming and Juliette Chien share their journey of building Dayspring Technologies on radical gospel principles, including refusing to use marketplace leverage, capping CEO pay at 3x the lowest employee, and maintaining only 3 months cash reserves. Learn how their partnership with Redeemer Community Church birthed RISE – a transformative high school serving first-generation college students – and discover what “prophetic emptiness” looks like in business.
EPISODE NOTES
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In this powerful episode of the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast, hosts Justin Forman and Kevin Kim sit down with Chi-Ming and Juliette Chien to explore their radical decision to relocate their successful tech company from San Francisco’s financial district to Bayview – a neighborhood where 25-30% of children live below the federal poverty line.
Chi-Ming shares how Dayspring Technologies embodies “bearing witness to God’s redeeming of the workplace, marketplace, and community” through unconventional business practices like refusing to use leverage in negotiations, maintaining only three months of cash reserves, and implementing a pay structure where CEO compensation is capped at 3x the lowest paid employee.
Juliette reveals how their partnership with Redeemer Community Church led to the founding of RISE, a Christian high school where 80% of seats are reserved for first-generation college students from low-income families, with a mission of 100% four-year university admission.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction – Video podcasting debut
02:10 Kevin Kim’s history with faith and work movement
08:00 Dayspring video story begins
15:30 Moving from Financial District to Bayview
19:00 “This is a crazy idea, right?”
22:45 Chi-Ming’s sabbatical walks in the neighborhood
26:00 Why place matters for gospel witness
31:00 The unexpected unanimous “yes” to relocating
35:30 Client reactions: “The taxi driver said don’t come back”
39:00 Dayspring’s radical business practices
42:00 No leverage policy – following Jesus’ teachings
45:15 Three months cash reserves only
48:00 Isaiah 40 pay structure – mountains brought low
52:00 CEO pay capped at 3x lowest employee
56:00 The birth of RISE from “prophetic emptiness”
59:30 Juliette’s vision for educational transformation
63:00 80% seats for first-generation, low-income students
66:45 The power of love overcoming educational disparity
70:00 Three-year-old Jeremy and kingdom partnership
73:00 Final thoughts on church-business collaboration
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