Rodney Williams, Changing Access to Capital with SoLo Funds

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Moving the Needle

Christopher Gergen & Johnathan Holifield

37 episodes

1 month ago

Highlighting innovators doing needle moving sh!t to create generational wealth and inclusive competitiveness. Communities worldwide are at an inflection point. In the devastating wake of COVID, there are unparalleled opportunities to move the needle on realizing truly inclusive prosperity, fueled by dynamic economic growth. In this moment, communities can make bold, strategic, and equitable investments. Needle moving investments not only generate catalytic and sustained community impact, but also provide meaningful financial returns for the impact investors behind them. Moving the Needle is a podcast series featuring conversations with a globally curated mix of policymakers, philanthropists, private investors, and social innovators who are driving break-through investments that move the needle. Hosted by Christopher Gergen and Johnathan Holifield, an uncommon pairing who arrived at the common need for “doing needle moving sh#t” from very different lived experiences. Through the podcast, Gergen and Holifield invite guests to share their own lived experiences and what led them to their transformative investment theses. Designed to be highly interactive, energetic, and personal, the conversation will leave listeners with a deeper understanding of how investment can be channeled for the greater good, inspired by the stories behind the innovation, and excited to learn more about each guest.

Investing

Business

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All content for Moving the Needle is the property of Christopher Gergen & Johnathan Holifield and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Investing

Business

Rodney Williams, Changing Access to Capital with SoLo Funds

Moving the Needle

52 minutes

1 year ago

Rodney Williams, Changing Access to Capital with SoLo Funds

SoLo Funds is the outgrowth of co-founder and chairman Rodney Williams’ lived experience of a mother who regularly needed access to short-term cash to stay current with bills and to maintain household cohesion. Such loans were very limited and costly in his neighborhood. Rodney wanted to develop a community-based lending marketplace for small dollar amounts as an alternative to banks, high-interest credit cards, and predatory lenders that impose unfair, deceptive, or abusive terms on borrowers.

SoLo Funds operates a community peer-to-peer lending platform. The company announced 1 million registered users as of 2023, making it reportedly the largest black-owned financial technology company in the U.S. Let’s explore how Rodney and SoLo Funds are aggregating the power of community to change the game for short-term borrowers in lower-income neighborhoods.

Moving the Needle is hosted by Christopher Gergen & Johnathan Holifield, and is produced by Earfluence.

If you like our podcast, you'll also like our books:

The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness: How Demographic Trends and Innovation Can Create Economic Prosperity for All Americans, by Johnathan Holifield
Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives, by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek

Thank you to our sponsors:

Live Oak Bank is on a mission to be America's small business bank and has the privilege of helping thousands of passionate, driven entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality. These small business owners aren’t in it for the fortune or the fame. They’re in it to make a difference, just like Live Oak.
SHRM has created better workplaces by supporting diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the world of work and society. It’s why they developed the Together Forward@ Work initiative to drive racial inequity out of the workplace. It’s why SHRM made a capital commitment to support minority-owned business enterprises.

If you like our podcast, you'll also like our books:

The Future Economy and Inclusive Competitiveness: How Demographic Trends and Innovation Can Create Economic Prosperity for All Americans, by Johnathan Holifield
Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives, by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek