An Investment in Social and Economic Change
This article was originally published here by Bethel University
— by Dr. Paul Campbell and Jason Schoonover
Abstract: What if we could take our historical disadvantage, created by systemic racism and artificial poverty, and turn it into our competitive business advantage? What if, by leveraging the platform of technology entrepreneurship, we could bypass many of the cognitive biases which have prevented both economic and human flourishing within our community for centuries? These questions, as well as a biblically informed frame of justice, led my colleagues Dr. Chris Brooks, Jerome Hamilton, and I to co-found Brown Venture Group, a venture capital accelerator focused on technology entrepreneurs of color.
After years of blending his loves of business and ministry, Dr. Paul Campbell(left) co-founded Brown Venture Group along with Jerome Hamilton (center) and Dr. Chris Brooks (right), a venture capital accelerator focused on technology entrepreneurs of color .
After a successful period working for Sprint, I applied for a job at a large telecommunications company. I felt like I checked every box needed to get the role. I had consistently exceeded expectations. I had buy-in from peers. I'd built a strong network of connections that would be beneficial in the job. I also formed a strong 90-day plan for the new role. Moreover, at the time, I had two master's—one in pastoral care with an emphasis on leadership from Minnesota Graduate School of Theology in Minneapolis and a Master of Business Administration from Bethel University of St. Paul, Minnesota.
But I didn’t get the job. It went to someone I had worked with, someone I had objectively outperformed. For the first time, I had to admit that it was likely due to racial barriers. Being biracial growing up, I experienced things, but I always said, “I refuse to be a victim”. But as I reflected on my career, I recognized this had been an issue—for myself and for many others. I realized that my problem was not unique to me.The frustrating experience inspired me to form Brown Venture Group; a venture capital accelerator focused on technology entrepreneurs of color. Based on my research, I believe this effort will build organizations that can produce jobs, solve problems, and help overcome racial barriers through technology.
This is a business opportunity that can make a significant return on investment, and it’s a social entrepreneurial opportunity where I can make a tremendous impact by making generational wealth, creating jobs for people who had a hard time getting jobs, and removing barriers to contribution that existed in these organizations.
— Dr. Paul Campbell
Business and ministry
In many ways, Brown Venture Group blends my callings to business and ministry, of which I have deep family ties to both. My maternal grandfather, Thomas McKee, was born in 1887 and was a pastor for 70 years in the Denver area. My paternal great-grandfather, Columbus Johnson, was also a businessman and minister. Johnson was an "Exoduster" who helped lead former slaves from the south to the Kansas City and Denver areas in the late 1800s looking for opportunities. Years later, my parents did inner-city ministry work in the Twin Cities, and my father, the late Rev. Dr. Bill Campbell, was a highly educated pastor and co-founder of the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology, where I would later earn my first masters and a doctorate in social entrepreneurship. But after experiencing biases that kept him from getting a job, my father joined the Navy as a chaplain in 1989 and moved our family to Virginia.
After my father died suddenly in 1992, I remained involved at Rock Church of Virginia Beach, where I met and learned from many prominent evangelical leaders and eventually became a youth pastor. Though my time at Rock Church was an entrepreneurial experience, as I helped coordinate concerts and largescale prayer rallies, I felt a tension between my call to ministry and my lifelong love of business. Then in 2006, my mother, Dr. Peggy (Campbell) Rayman, and I traveled to Africa to help train pastors. When we arrived, a local pastor, Abraham Maji, took me around the town of Jos, Nigeria, where I noticed signs of past violence. After Pastor Maji told me of past religious warfare between Christians and Muslims, I asked why it stopped, and the answer changed my life. The warfare was causing economic unrest and was hurting businesses. "When they realized they were killing each other's customers, it stopped," he told me. It was kind of this 'aha' moment that business could be used to do tremendous good.
I started seeking ways to blend faith and work and was later introduced to the Theology of Work Project, a program that strives to make work more meaningful and productive through a Christian approach. This connected me to Dr. Ron Soderquist of Cru, who became my mentor and directed me to Bethel's MBA program. At Bethel, I became involved with Work With a Purpose, which helps leaders engage with whole-life discipleship in their workplaces.The experience, connections, and lessons I gained at Bethel helped me to be able to embrace and understand the opportunity to form Brown Venture Group, inspiring me to think critically about solving problems. Chief Advancement Officer Jim Bender met me and asked me to join Bethel's National Alumni Board. Bender notes Bethel's programs combine rigorous business training with a Christ-focused core to prepare students to face issues in a unique way. "Paul carries this out as he takes his business acumen, combines it with his MBA education, and then layers in Biblical principles in serving others," Bender says.
Taking action
After losing out on the job, I sought a solution instead of staying angry and frustrated. I didn't want that to be an issue I had to deal with. I wanted it to be the fact that I was out-performed. My work should speak for itself. My research led me to begin to make connections between behavioral economics and racism, that is, racial economics—and to seek solutions that either neutralize or eliminate the harmful impact of systemic racism. My experience at this company kind of forced me to open my eyes to a larger issue.
I poured over topics around race from issues of today all the way back to reconstruction after the Civil War, slavery, and before. I started seeing patterns that I came to identify as "barriers to contribution" that keep people of color from succeeding and acquiring transferrable wealth. My research revealed a long line of barriers, including states taking measures to keep African-Americans from owning property, voting, and seeking education; redlining policies that kept African-Americans from buying homes in certain neighborhoods—or from buying homes at all; and much more. These barriers were built into education and grew into financial gaps over time. Today, most African-American wealth is in entertainment, sports, music, and similar jobs, but few, I would argue, have transferrable wealth like property.
I wondered why I was able to overcome some barriers earlier in my career, while others couldn't. Then it occurred to me the reason why was because I was able to use technology as a tool to overcome serval barriers. With this in mind, I researched technology companies and startup programs, finding that only 1% percent of venture capital (Cbinisghts) was given to communities of color, even though they have a similar or better success rate. I started exploring ways to bring startup and funding dollars to the African-American community. That led me to found Brown Venture Group in 2018 with Chris Brooks, a thought leader in Biblical justice and racial equality, and Jerome Hamilton, a pastor and successful businessman. We all came together to start a firm that focuses on accelerating bright ideas that have a hard time getting capital. All three of us bring extensive experience in ministry and smart, sound business acumen. We have this intersection of faith and work.
The Opportunity: Our disadvantage has become our competitive advantage.
My colleagues and I think that there is a strong case to be made that entrepreneurs of color are one of the most undervalued and mispriced investment opportunities of our time. As a result of hardships endured under artificial poverty created by systemic racism, our communities are uniquely prepared for the rigorous and challenging life of entrepreneurship. From a deal flow and talent pipeline perspective, there is a disproportionate number of highly educated underinvested entrepreneurs of color with profitable, innovative ideas, products, and services that fail to make it to market due to racial discounting and lack of investment. Moreover, our research has shown that by leveraging technological entrepreneurship, we are able to bypass cognitive racial biases. This is because when solving a problem or meeting a need using technology, the person on the end of the supply chain has no idea as to the color of your skin, all they know is that product works or the service met a need.
One of the reasons we chose the accelerator VC model is that it seamlessly integrates discipleship opportunities within each cohort. From a faith-based entrepreneurship and investment perspective, we are able to help propel businesses to success, but another goal is to make a positive impact on the community. By helping groups that haven't gotten frequent support and opportunities, the entire community will benefit. Our team is fundraising and is already working with six companies as we get ready for a full launch. For example, Brown Venture Group is working with a medical automation and fintech startups Simpli-Fi Automation and MoneyVerbs, respectively. Simpli-Fi Automation already has two provisional patents on hospital bed devices. The first provisional patent, The Auto Prone Array, is a modular patient rotating bed with a built-in ventilator designed to increase lung capacity of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) patients while simultaneously limiting exposure to caregivers. The second provisional patent, The BeBox, is a programable and voice-activated automation medical device which interfaces the components of electric (semi-electric) hospital beds allowing for the automation of functions such as head, foot, and bed height adjustments as well as the integration of a turn assist designed for patients with limited mobility. MoneyVerbs, a fintech startup, created an app that helps Millenials & Gen Z'ers achieve life goals and financial success through gamification, first-person simulations, instructional content, and real-world activities. Moreover, the pioneering research that has gone into the design of the app has been able to quantify the Social Return On Investment (SROI) for active app end-users on the platform.
Brown Venture Group continues seeking ways to bring undervalued assets to the forefront, and the founders have set their sights high for the future. We want to see a Fortune 500 company come through our program, that we would help scale and launch.
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[ Image provided by Dr. Paul Campbell ]