Because God Owns ALL of My Business, I Will...
Image by Markus Spiske
This article was originally presented at The Christian Economic Forum 2019.
Check out CEF for other quality content!
The Christian Economic Forum hosts a world-class Global Event each year to connect the top industry leaders and experts from around the world with other individuals who are compelled to act upon the principles of God’s economy. The following paper was presented at CEF 2019.
by Carmen Yuen
I had invested in an early childhood business that operated on a close-knit ecosystem. The accountant, auditor, uniform and food suppliers, lawyer, trainers, and bus drivers were friends of the founders and met regularly at the religious place of worship for weekly prayers.
This impression stuck with me as I sought to find marketplace Faith Giants to ascertain how they deliberately collaborate with each other. Who are the Faith Giants and how are they partnering other Christian businessmen? How do they live out their faith in the marketplace? Who can best influence them to live out Jesus in the marketplace?
Being in the Venture Capital (VC) business, I have the privilege of interacting with founders and hearing their visions and dreams to transform industries. For those who are of the faith, Christian Founders (CF), how can we, as investors and fellow believers, help them integrate faith with business? How can we encourage CF businesses to partner with each other deliberately? The end in mind is for CF to know God owns their businesses and thus they should be multipliers of God’s blessings. [LS1] For the rest of us, we must acknowledge God owns everything we have. In response to this knowledge, we should deliberately offer our God-given resources (money, network, talent, time) to invest into the lives of CF and their businesses.
I shall attempt to share perspectives from different players in this ecosystem: CF, VCs, Investors and business partners.
As a VC Fund Manager
If I were managing a Fund, and I believed God owns my business and allows me “in a time like this” to be a VC, then as a fund manager, my business purpose should be “to make disciples” of CF. As a steward of my investors’ (Limited Partners or LP) monies, I will need to generate financial returns, thus the CF businesses have to be game changing and innovative. They also must glorify God.
As a VC, I walk with CF on their growth journey from startup stage. During this period CF will have fewer investors to account to, hence conversations can be personal. Stress is often high as CF have to prove business traction with limited cash resources. This is a time when CF will need to pray for God’s mercies in stretching the limited funds and in bringing favor on the business transactions. It is therefore the best time to instill in CF that God is their ever-present companion.
At other times as CF grow their business, they may encounter “grey zones” that challenge their faith values. By relying on biblical wisdom, a Christian VC must remind CF to take the path that pleases God. This can involve turning away business opportunities that could yield them chunky revenue. Ultimately, CF must know that God honors those who honor Him (1 Sam. 2:30).
I had witnessed God working (and is still working) in several of my portfolio companies, despite being in a secular venture capital fund. One startup experienced a prolonged fundraising drought even though the business was growing, and this caused strain in the cash position of the company. Even as we prayed and waited on God, we continued speaking with investors, and God showed up! We raised the funds needed after ten months, and the CF shared that despite the twists and turns in the funding process, he sensed God’s hands guiding him with business wins to generate cash to make payments. God was in his business!
Another CF going through similar funding experience commented that “the company experienced the miracle of five loaves and two fish”—God was faithful in granting the company an additional eight weeks of cashflow. We continue to pray and wait with great excitement to see how our creative God is going to work with him and the business.
Some CF, however, were less comfortable when God was brought into the conversation. We may have a ways to go to integrate faith with work, before the CF acknowledge God owns the business. There is much that a Christian VC has to do: praying for CF and bringing God into the conversation before embarking on the discipleship journey where CF will acknowledge God’s ownership of their businesses.
As Fellow Christian Business Founder/ Owner
Even the best startups encounter an (MT)2 challenge: Money, Market, Talent, and Technology. CF-founded startups are no different. Even when Money, Talent, and Technology are present, market access and scaling up is tough as prospects doubt the sustainability of these startups and prefer not to be inconvenienced should they fail.
On the other hand, mature businesses know innovation is eating their lunch; yet the leaders are uncertain how to approach innovation. In Southeast Asia we saw corporate incubators and accelerators being formed, where startups were nurtured by business units within these large corporations. While this is commendable, it is not an exercise Christian businesses will naturally adopt, given that such innovation commitment may not gel with the core business. How can Mature Christian Businesses (MCB) interact with CF startups and indirectly, allow CF to stand on the shoulders of giants by granting them market access into the MCB network?
This is where service providers (brokers, incubators, angel investors, VCs) can jointly provide a platform where MCBs surface issues for which they are seeking solutions; and CF can submit proposals in response. Dedicated Business Development platforms can be established to market CF businesses to MCB. What seems to be in the market now is merely listing sites that do not add significant value.
While such a Business Development platform can take a while to become mainstream, what MCB need to do is to demonstrate their conviction to work with CF startups, and translate this same conviction and commitment to their teams. To define a challenge statement, MCB will also have to look honestly at their businesses and define where they could be disrupted by startups.
When CF pitch, MCB owners have to own the process by taking an interest to sit in on these pitching or sharing sessions. This will signal to the rest of the business that the partnership with CF startups is serious. If MCB owners acknowledge God owns their business, they would be more receptive to partnering and procuring from CF startups, even though this may inconvenience their existing administrative process.
Why is it important to be deliberate in partnering/procuring from CF startups? A Christian businessman once asked me, “If you have $20 to donate, how would you split the donation between Christian and secular charities?” His observation was that if believers do not support Christian charities, why would non-Christians donate to Christian causes? It will be embarrassing if secular businesses were more proactive to do good and help CF startups while MCB owners disregard them. How would we respond to Matthew 25:34–40?
Then there is the question on how much of procurement should be channeled to CF startups. MCB can borrow from the efforts of various governments. For example, in 2016 the Singapore Government awarded more than 80% of contracts to SMEs. Assuming MCB have procured from CF startups, they will also need to be prompt paymasters.
Grab (on demand car hailing decacorn in Southeast Asia) stepped into the (MT)2 role by providing startups access to Grab’s expansive network: talent, expert, and market access. These startups (several by CF) have the unfair advantage of localizing their business and revenue models across the region, thus becoming successful businesses. What motivated Grab to start this was that they had benefited from helpful MCB.
In a small way, MCB can start blessing other CF startups by being deliberate in extending market or partnership opportunities to them. I am excited for one of my portfolio companies as the CF is about to deploy his solutions with a MCB.
Fund of Fund Investors (Limited Partners)
A search on Google on the terms “Christian,” “Faith based,” “Investors,” and “Fund Manager,” yielded topics on “Biblically Responsible Investing (“BRI”),” “Exchange Traded Funds,” and “Mutual Funds.” Funds under management exceeded $3 billion for some of the BRI fund managers, which is excellent. These fund managers steward their investors’ monies into sizeable companies (via mutual funds), whose values resonate with them and their investors.
In the startup world, however, the number of Venture Capital fund managers who express their BRI intention is far and few between. Not to mention the capital under management is below $100 million. Why is this so?
Private Equity/Venture Capital (PE/VC), as an asset class, is deemed highly risky. However, university endowments such as Stanford are deliberate in allocating sizeable (~25%) portions to PE/VC. VCs are the first institutional funds that startups will raise from, and yet there is minimal dedicated BRI-type VC funds targeting CF startups.
Singapore started its VC journey more than 30 years ago, where most of the venture capital funds were contributed by the local government. While we have global companies (Singapore Airlines, DBS Bank), they belonged to Singapore Inc. Two privately run “startups”—Creative Technologies and MediaRing—were founded on capital raised from quasi-government VCs. The VC industry then was nascent and startup was not a career of choice. With little capital, there was little startup depth. Today the region is home to nine unicorns, 150 VC funds, and bubbles with startup activities. Startup investments amounted to $8 billion in 2018.[1] CF Startups can raise monies from these funds, but unless the fund managers are deliberate in bringing God into the CF Startups, they will have to lean into other Christian Business Platforms. Fund managers can disciple, that is make CF only if LPs subscribe to the disciple-making notion and share the same belief/faith.
While VC is deemed a highly risky asset class, Family Offices and Fund Managers of Christian families can participate by taking a small step and sponsoring Christian VC Funds (from profits), with an aim of making disciples in the startup world. Even a 1% or 0.5% allocation can be sizeable to the VC class (Imagine: 1% of $3 billion = $30 million). In so doing, they will be giving a boost to Christian Fund Managers, who will have a much harder time convincing non-believers on the purpose of their Christian Venture Fund.
Beneficiaries of the God-sent Resources
As part of stewardship, CF startups that have benefited from Christian VC Funds have to respond by committing time (discipleship and prayer) and resource (profits) to “pay it forward” so that future CF can benefit from them. This includes committing say, 1% of their net earnings yearly, to fund Christian VC Fund 2. On a cumulative basis, and over a longitudinal time frame, the Christian VC Funds should be self-sustaining, and it will become a Christian Founders Fund.
To build the community, CF who have journeyed further along must disciple a new group of CF. This way, there will be more CF in the marketplace who will acknowledge God’s ownership of their businesses, and this pool will be where we can draw from going forward.
One Christian businesswoman holds Monday morning prayers and devotions at her firm. A prayer list (from her staff) is shared by Friday evenings, and those present on Mondays will break into groups and pray over the items. To me, this is so beautiful as she has dedicated the first 5% of her workweek to praise and petition to God.
Conclusion
We are commanded to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Our business owners must develop a personal relationship with God and His Word, and have fellow believers journey alongside them. Then they can stand firm when the winds of compromise howl at them, and they can be held accountable to the gift (business) God has given them.
“Because God owns all of me and my business, I will. . . .” What will it be given the resources (time, money, relationships, business network) God has put in our hands? How will we choose to glorify Him?
[1] It’s raining mega rounds in Southeast Asia, Pitchbook, 21 Feb 2019 – (https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/its-raining-mega-rounds-in-southeast-asia)