Recently, we were able to sit down with Dick Blanc to discuss how the Beyond Angel Network at Cedarville University is preparing future Faith Driven Investors and Entrepreneurs. Amanda Lawson captured their story below.

by Amanda Lawson

Would you be surprised to find out that some of Jesus’ disciples could’ve been as young as 13? So was I.

While we can’t completely confirm the exact age of the disciples, we know they were young. When you look at the responsibility Jesus gave them, it’s surprising to think about how modern society often neglects the insight and ideas of our youth due to their lack of experience on a resume. 

Jesus saw power, potential, and passion in the young men and women that surrounded Him. 

So, it shouldn’t be surprising that Christian universities across the country are taking Jesus’s discipleship model seriously—encouraging and enabling their students to participate in making world-changing decisions. Cedarville University is one of the newer schools to join this movement. Through the Beyond Angel Network, they are giving college undergraduates the power to influence major capital investment decisions and shape the real-world economy. 

After talking with the students, faculty, and leaders of this program, these five life lessons continued to arise in our conversations.

Education that Empowers is Education that Endures

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12

Cedarville’s VCAT (Venture Capital Analyst Team) members are chosen after a rigorous application process. The eight students who are chosen are tasked with engaging in a deep dive of due diligence practices to evaluate a variety of companies seeking funding from their angel network. After substantial research and evaluation of the company, student teams narrow the pool of applicant companies to the top four which present to angels at an annual pitch competition. 

VCATs prepare lengthy executive summaries with their recommendations for the angels in preparation for the pitches. They maintain communication between the angels and the founders, serving as liaisons throughout the process. This hands-on experience not only gives students the practical skills of research and communication but empowers them to make recommendations to angels who are investing significant amounts of money based on the VCAT reports. The students become the experts and their wisdom results in lasting, real-world impact. 

Community and Mentorship Make a Difference

The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 2 Timothy 2:2

Scripture points to community as including peer and mentorship relationships. Beyond Angel Network does as well. The eight students on VCAT are divided into four separate two-person teams. Each team is intentionally paired to match an underclassman with a senior, therefore encouraging peer-to-peer work as well as a mentorship model within each partnership. Younger students learn from their senior partner and together, they are matched with an angel mentor from Beyond’s network, further extending the discipleship model. 

The goal of this structure is to bring encouragement and wisdom from senior students and angels who are able to speak to their own experience and history as Christian investors learning to navigate different situations that arise in faith-driven investing. This model provides students with leadership experience (in their second year) and invaluable wisdom and encouragement as they venture into their own careers at the end of their tenure as a Beyond Angel Network VCAT.

You Have to Measure What Matters

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for men.” Luke 5:8-10

Beyond VCATs have to prepare summaries for angels, recommending for or against making an investment, so having quality financial analysis is a necessity. But financials are not the only important measurement. Beyond teaches students to evaluate companies on a set of qualitative and “soft” quantitative measures that they explain are rooted in the Great Commission and/or the Great Commandment. 

This means that some measures are explicitly connected to the message of the gospel (gospel proclamation) while others more deeply emphasize the command to love God and others (action-driven). These may include how the company treats its employees, general conduct of the leadership, consistency across the words and actions of the company and its leadership, and/or if the company employs typically marginalized people. In this way, VCATs are trained to evaluate companies through both qualitative and quantitative, kingdom-focused, measurements. 

Opportunities Exist to be Seized

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38

Cedarville University recognized the opportunity to involve students in real-world financial analysis and participate in the growing global movement of angel investing networks. The founders of the Beyond Angel Network recognized an opportunity to engage students in this space and teach them to recognize and evaluate opportunities of their own. 

While only four companies pitch at the annual event, that number is whittled down from twelve at the discretion of the student analysts. There is an abundance of funding-seeking ventures. The responsibility of the VCATs is to recognize the best ones and put those forward for funding. College students are the business leaders of the future, so training them in due diligence financial analysis and opportunity evaluation rooted in biblical principles is a crucial step toward developing a strong and successful entrepreneurial economy for years to come. 

Money-Making Can Create Ministry Opportunity

Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. Acts 6:3-4

Everyone has unique and purposeful gifts and callings. Very few senior pastors could or should be financial analysts, arguably by design. But when there are investment dollars and entrepreneurial passions in the hands of Christians, sound biblical wisdom needs to be a part of the process. Beyond Angel Network provides that in every facet of its program: from assembling and developing VCAT students, to training them to recognize and evaluate important factors for investing, to offering recommendations to angels with humility and confidence. 

In doing so, these students are participating in marketplace ministry, incorporating their faith-driven values with real-world situations. At the pitch competition, students lead the Question and Answer sessions, facilitate presentations, and get to see the early fruits of their labor. As Christian funders come together with Christian founders—built on the efforts of eight college students—the market begins to change and the message of the gospel is furthered in industries that pastors often struggle to reach. Showing these young leaders that their efforts are valuable and can affect change for the gospel and the glory of God in the business world empowers them to pursue the giftings and callings God has given them, regardless of their industry. 

Taking Jesus’s model of discipleship and scripture encouraging young leaders, Cedarville’s Beyond Angel Network has, even in its infancy, developed a program that brings significant value to its students and angels for the sake of the gospel and the glory of God.

So, why would an undergraduate university engage their students in this kind of program? Because Jesus did.

Article originally posted here by Dayton Business Journal

by Jacob Fisher with The Beyond Angel Network

The entrepreneurial arm of Greater Dayton’s second-largest private university is betting big on startups.

The Beyond Angel Network, the capital component of Cedarville University’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, recently invested more than $800,000 in exchange for equity interest in two startup companies: KiwiTech and Soteria Battery Innovation Group.

KiwiTech, an IT services and investment company, develops software for startups in exchange for cash and equity. Soteria, a technology development and licensing company, develops material architecture to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries.

It’s the first-ever investment for the angel network, which launched in early 2020 and bills itself as the Midwest hub for faith-driven entrepreneurship and capital investment. Composed of 30 investors, the network invests in early-stage, Christian-led, for-profit companies that have scalable growth, a clear exit strategy and are post-revenue.

Preferred businesses include technology and platform business models, as well as those with a path to profitability of 18 months or less. The network invests in various industry sectors through preferred equity, convertible preferred debt and warrants.

“Our accredited network invests specifically in Christian entrepreneurs who are seeking to grow their businesses and live out their faith in the marketplace,” Sarah Jennings, assistant director of the Beyond Angel Network, said in a release.

KiwiTech and Soteria were selected from a pool of 20 startups screened by the network last year. Both were invited to virtually pitch their companies to investors at the network’s October 2020 pitch event.

Entrepreneurs interested in pitching to the Beyond Angel Network may apply online. A $100 application fee allows for two attempts at the network’s funding cycle.

The next pitch meeting is slated to take place at 9 a.m. on Jan. 29. Other quarterly pitch meetings are scheduled for April 16, July 16 and Oct. 15, 2021.

Augmenting the Beyond Angel Network is the Yellow Jacket Fund 1 — a sidecar fund capped at $5 million that aims to invest in 30 portfolio companies. It’s the first in a series of funds, and a new fund is slated to launch every three years.

The Beyond Angel Network is just one component of the university’s Beyond program, which plans to launch its newest segment — the Beyond Business Accelerator — in April 2021. Participants will receive scholarships to attend the 15-week virtual and onsite business accelerator, and each will receive a $50,000 investment upon completion of the program.

RECOMMENDED

TECHNOLOGY

Angel network aims to put Boerne on startup radar

TECHNOLOGY

Birmingham entrepreneur named CEO of Alabama Capital Network

EDUCATION

Wright State University lands two grants totaling nearly $500K

“We’re helping entrepreneurs launch their businesses and then we’re coming up a little bit later and helping them to fund their businesses and continue to grow,” Jennings said. “We’re doing both sides of the coin.”

Founded in 1887, Cedarville University is a private Baptist institution located 25 miles east of Dayton. It is one of the largest colleges in the region with 4,465 enrolled students and more than 600 workers, according to DBJ research.

KiwiTech, an IT services and investment company, develops software for startups in exchange for cash and equity. The business holds more than 250 portfolio companies across 15 industries, and it recently Graphite Financial — a New York-based finance and accounting firm that works with venture capital-backed startups.

Soteria Battery Innovation Group, a technology development and licensing company, develops material architecture to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

Christians may agree with some tenets of ESG. But very little effort has been made to develop a uniquely faith-driven approach to investing.

Estimates indicate, for example, that while Christian individuals or institutions likely fund or control more than $30 trillion in investments (through 401(k)s, individual shareholdings, insurance general accounts, public pensions, foundations, and other sources), only around $260 billion is currently deployed in explicitly faith-aligned strategies, and that is principally through basic “negative screens,” which eliminate offensive products and services from portfolios.

In the rest of their investments, Christians tend to delegate the influence of their shares to mainstream firms that may or may not share their values.

The Christian faith has, at its best, always been more about what it is for than what it is against. And Christians have an opportunity to serve others through their investment dollars while shaping companies and culture in a way that reflects the good news of the gospel.

But how? There are a multitude of potential frameworks—each of which is incomplete in its own way. But I’d propose a very simple framework for Christian individuals and institutions who want to explore the alignment of their investing with their faith.

This piece originally appeared in Christianity Today.

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests what they have been experiencing with God. Here’s Mike Arrieta with his lesson from the book of Daniel.

by Mike Arrieta

I remember when I first moved to Silicon Valley, one of my friends and mentors, Joie Chen, told me he was a venture capitalist. And he told me every single day he leaves the office around 5:30. And the reason why he leaves the office of 5:30 is because he’s exemplifying exercising his faith. It takes faith to leave the office at 5:30, go home to dinner with your family and then get back on at 9 or whatever else it is. And I asked him: How in the world can you do that, you know, like how can you get the best deals and still provide the best returns? He goes: Well, if I’m only working just as hard as everyone else, but I’m saying that I’m a believer, God’s basically just like a cheerleader for me. But I’m not truly trusting in what faith does it take for me to try to be the best investor but to work just as hard as everyone else?

So he pointed me to Daniel, and I never really studied Daniel, ever since then and probably never spent some time in it, until last week. We had a company that we were about to go into LOI with, and last minute he tells me he gets an offer that’s significantly more than ours. And I had a moment to realize what to do. I could either be like the rest of the world and compete on price alone, which the price is all predicated upon debt. If you’re competing as a secular buyout investor, or I exercise my faith and I trust wholeheartedly on God. And so I’ve been eating the book of Daniel like crazy over the past five days. I’ve been studying it in such a way of how a man trusted that God would legitimately save him multiple, multiple, multiple times, and how he eagerly prayed for God to intervene in his life and all the circumstances that he found himself in. So I am currently in the season of Daniel and just trusting the Lord like I never have before to get a place to trust.

Daniel 6 (NIV)

7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. 8 Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing.

10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”

The king answered, “The decree stands—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

13 Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.” 14 When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed; he was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him.

15 Then the men went as a group to King Darius and said to him, “Remember, Your Majesty, that according to the law of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.”

16 So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”

17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel’s situation might not be changed. 18 Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating and without any entertainment being brought to him. And he could not sleep.

19 At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?”

21 Daniel answered, “May the king live forever! 22 My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty.”

23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. And when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

24 At the king’s command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions’ den, along with their wives and children. And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

25 Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth:

“May you prosper greatly!

26 “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.

“For he is the living God
    and he endures forever;
his kingdom will not be destroyed,
    his dominion will never end.
27 He rescues and he saves;
    he performs signs and wonders
    in the heavens and on the earth.
He has rescued Daniel
    from the power of the lions.”

28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus[b] the Persian.

Article originally posted here by Eventide

by Jason Myhre