This October was the fall Lion’s Den conference in Birmingham, Alabama.  This year’s event was completely sold out with standing room only during the pitches  It is truly incredible how God has blessed the growth.

With the goal to “Inspire, Educate and Mobilize” people to invest their time, talents, and other resources in the Kingdom through Business as Mission, 2018’s event had more than 300 attendees from 10 countries, 83 cities, and 25 states.

“The Pitch Event featured Chariots Investments, Recovery Tribe (aka RTribe), Turaco, and Jonas Paul Eyewear, who all presented their businesses to 300 attendees and a panel of judges.  Attendees chose R|Tribe as this year’s audience favorite by live voting during the event. Learn more about the companies and see video of the event here. www.thelionsden.us

The Keynote Lunch speaker, Daniel Jean-Louis, addressed almost 200 attendees, sharing his experience in Haiti and the need to move from “aid to trade.” which is the title of his most recent book.

Tom Sudyk, Chairman & Founder of EC Group, was honored as the  2nd recipient of the Operator of the Year Award. His life is an example for every presenter, founder, and entrepreneur who seeks to demonstrate their profession in Christ through their professionalism in the marketplace. His faithfulness has been an instrumental part of the growth of The Lion’s Den and the BAM movement itself.

The networking dinners were incredible with investors and entrepreneurs from across the planet talking about the exciting new things that God is doing in the marketplace.

The summit experience was fantastic with industry breakouts led by experts in their fields and sessions on investing, measuring the impact of Lion’s Den companies, and how business leaders can engage their local church.

We continue to thank God for His provision and allowing us to be a part of Real Businesses finding Real Investors and making Real Impact!

Ronald Blue Trust offers a Whitepaper on Principles-Based Investing that will help you understand the ins and outs of this investment strategy, along with reports and guidelines to help you understand the bigger picture.

Read the whole Whitepaper by clicking on the image below.

Lux Capital partner Renata Quintini wasn’t supposed to be a venture capitalist.

She grew up in Brazil, went to law school, and began her career as an attorney. Quintini was working at a law firm that represented venture capital clients who were backing Brazilian startups.

“It was during a time when the Internet infrastructure was getting laid out in Brazil, and e-commerce, content, and media was all starting to develop,” she told Term Sheet. “I became really curious.”

Quintini decided to try her hand at investing as an investment manager at Stanford University’s endowment, which backs dozens of private equity and venture capital firms. After three years, she made the move to the VC side and joined Felicis Ventures as a general partner. There, she invested in companies including Cruise (acq. by GM), Dollar Shave Club (acq. by Unilever), Bonobos (acq. by Walmart), and Rigetti Computing.

Now, she’s at Lux Capital, a New York-based venture firm focused on deep tech investing. The firm’s guiding philosophy? The more ambitious the project, the better.

Term Sheet caught up with Quintini to discuss her experience as a limited partner, investing in moonshot projects, and the importance of a strong ethical foundation in tech.

Read full article at Fortune

The Lion’s Den mission is to connect companies with investors through a Christian business pitch competition where business leaders can use their wealth and experience to change the world and make an impact, and this is exactly what happened at this year’s conference!  

The 4th annual Lion’s Den Event in DFW was held at the nationally ranked Dallas Baptist University campus on March 22, 2019. At this year’s event there were close to 500 in attendance, representing 25 states and over 70 cities! 

The conference kicked off with Todd Sinelli inspiring the audience with his words and with a little magic! He spoke about being inspired, involved, innovative and the power of being “in”.

There were many incredible breakout sessions including Impact Investing for family offices, private equity groups, venture capitalists, and even through public equities. Panel after panel of experienced business leaders talked to entrepreneurs about how to build a thriving impactful business. For the second year, a panel of successful women entrepreneurs shared opportunities and issues they face daily in the marketplace as women.

We also had the pleasure of Wade Myers joining us once again. He led several sessions where he discussed how to raise money successfully as an entrepreneur and talked about how to implement a successful framework for growth stage companies. Other key breakout topics included sharing your faith at work and what the bible says about business.

This year we had an exceptional Keynote Lunch which completely sold out. Our panel, including Elizabeth Phillips, Executive Director of the Phillips Foundation, Will Thomas, Managing Director of Ambassadors Impact Network, Aimee Minnich, Co-Founder and General Counsel of the Impact Foundation, and Jake Thomsen, Partner at Sovereign’s Capital Management, spoke on the “State of Impact Investing.” 

Our 2019 Pitch Competition was strong, and everyone did an amazing job giving their best performance to win over votes. This year’s pitch companies included:

• AKOLA

• Ideal Impact

• VOMO

• Able

• Next Door Photos

• RAWAY Entertainment

• Micromech

• Martin Bionics

• Bootkik

• Fresh Aquaculture

• Communitas

We are excited to announce the winners:

• Audience Main Event Favorite: Akola

• Audience Rocket Round Favorite: Micromech 

• Audience Most Potential for Kingdom Impact: Micromech

• Judges Main Event Favorite: Akola 

• Judges Rocket Round Favorite: Martin Bionics

• Judges Most Potential for Kingdom Impact: Ideal Impact 

To learn more about The Lion’s Den DFW, pitching, or investing at the next event visit our website at https://www.thelionsdendfw.com/

To see videos and photos of the most recent event go to our membership portal located here: https://www.TheLionsDenDFW.org

Listen to Henry Kaestner talk about the impact of CCA at Bandwidth.com. Henry is the Chairman of Bandwidth.com and is a Cofounder and Managing Principal of Sovereign’s Capital.