ChristianAlts

What if the financial system isn't broken, what if it's working exactly as designed, just not for you? Paul Musson spent over 30 years in the finance and investment industry, managing billions of dollars before leaving to write Capital Offense — a book and blog dedicated to explaining what's really happening inside the money system, and why most people are falling further behind des...

Itamar Novick has spent his career spotting opportunities before they became obvious. As an early executive at Life360, he helped scale the company from seed stage to IPO. Today, as founder of Recursive Ventures, he backs AI startups at the pre-seed and seed stage, often when the product, market, and business model are still taking shape. In this conversation, Matt Johns and Itamar explore why inv...

Most investors spend serious time on financial due diligence. Almost none add the layer that can hit hardest, especially for Christian investors. In this solo episode, Matt Johns introduces a practical framework called moral due diligence: a repeatable three-step process for evaluating whether an investment aligns with your values before your capital is already committed. Matt walks through a real...

What if one of the most powerful ways to build a startup community was not another pitch event, investor panel, or networking happy hour but a dinner table? In this episode, Matt Johns sits down with Jon and Cherie Werner during the Texas Venture Gala and Forum to talk about how they helped build FIESTA, a monthly gathering in Austin that has connected thousands of founders, funders, entrepreneurs...

What does wealth reveal about a person’s character, family, and faith? In this episode of ChristianAlts, Matt Johns sits down with David Sebastian, a family office advisor to wealthy families and author of Infinite Returns , to discuss wealth, Scripture, stewardship, family governance, and what money reveals about the heart. David brings a unique perspective from working closely with high-net-wort...

In this episode of ChristianAlts, Matt Johns sits down with Bob Fraser, Founder & CEO of Aspen Funds and author of Invest Like a Billionaire , to explore why wealthy investors often think differently about risk, private markets, and alternative investments. Bob shares how losing everything through major market cycles shaped the way he thinks about capital preservation, private credit, real est...

Are smartphones and social media simply tools or are they intentionally designed to keep us addicted? Matt Johns speaks with Dr. Johann D’Souza about technology addiction, dopamine, social media, pornography, and the business models driving the modern attention economy. The conversation explores how companies use behavioral psychology, notifications, infinite scroll, and reward systems to capture...

Why do so many families build wealth, only to lose it a generation later? Matt Johns sits down with John Knowlton to explore the real reason generational wealth so often disappears, and why the problem usually goes far deeper than investing. John brings a rare mix of experience to the conversation. He has served as a pastor, built three registered investment advisory firms, and spent years thinkin...

What happens when a successful hedge fund investor begins to question whether returns alone are enough? In this episode, Matt sits down with Peter Lupoff , former hedge fund founder, family office investor, impact investing educator, and Partner at Beatrice Advisors to explore how his view of capital changed over time. Peter shares the personal and professional turning points that led him from tra...

Why do so many families struggle to preserve wealth across generations? In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , Matt sits down with Josh Kanter , founder of Leaf Planner and longtime advisor to multi-generational families navigating the complexity of wealth, governance, and legacy. After building his career as a lawyer and helping manage a complex tax litigation battle that reached the U.S. Su...

Is capitalism broken or misunderstood? In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , Matt sits down with Alexander McCobin , founder of Liberty Ventures and former CEO of Conscious Capitalism, to explore one of the biggest economic debates of our time: capitalism vs socialism . Alexander argues that capitalism, when practiced through the lens of value creation, voluntary cooperation, and individual...

Join Matt's conversation with finance and real estate guru, Kevin Staman, to dive into the effects of COVID and subsequent market shifts that reshaped commercial real estate. They discuss why retail, coworking, and mixed-use have rebounded while many outdated 1980s office buildings may be uneconomic to retrofit and instead be redeveloped. The conversation turns to housing, arguing a growing d...

What does it really mean to invest with the Federal Reserve instead of against it? In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital, Matt sits down with John Pennington Jr., co-founder of a $28 billion investment fund, to explore the deeper forces shaping global capital markets. After more than three decades operating inside institutional investing, scaling private funds, and taking a platform public on...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital, Matt sits down with Denny Chared, founder of DC Finance, to explore what it truly takes to earn the trust of family offices and ultra-high-net-worth families. Founded in 2003, DC Finance has grown into one of the world’s largest global family office communities, representing more than 6,000 families with a combined investing power of approximately $1.2 tr...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , Matt Johns is joined by Carter Hall, a senior at Liberty University deeply involved in student-managed endowment investing, institutional capital screening, and faith-based finance. Together, they explore the idea of capital stewardship, the belief that money is never neutral, and that ownership carries responsibility, influence, and long-term consequenc...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , Matt sits down with Jeff Schiefelbein to explore what it really means to live and work with integrity in a world that constantly pulls us in different directions. Jeff shares the idea of the “undivided life” , the belief that when our values, work, faith, and decisions are fragmented, both people and businesses suffer. Drawing from his experience as a fo...

Former NFL athlete Walter Mendenhall shares how he traded football stadiums for a much bigger mission: building legacy, leadership, and wealth in underserved communities. In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , Walter sits down with host Matt Johns to unpack his journey from overcoming childhood poverty and a learning disability to launching the Male Mogul Initiative , a Chicago-based movement...

Franchise investing is more than buying into a brand, it’s about building wealth with purpose. In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , host Matt Johns speaks with Jackson Roberts , founder of Beta Capital Group , a holding company inspired by the Berkshire Hathaway model. Jackson shares his journey from accounting and real estate into multi-unit franchise ownership , and how his team is scalin...

Richard Lackey spent decades in finance and hedge fund management, mastering the art of finding inefficiencies. But when he turned his attention to food systems, he discovered what may be the world’s most inefficient market. That discovery became the foundation of the World Food Bank —an innovative hybrid model designed to fight hunger, empower farmers, and transform agriculture into an investable...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , host Matt Johns sits down with Charles Beyrouthy , founder and managing partner of Forma Prime , a venture capital fund focused on deep tech and core infrastructure. Charles brings a unique perspective shaped by his background in research, technology development, and national security applications. The conversation covers the CHIPS Act and how it is resh...

What is money, really? In this special solo episode of the Purpose Driven Capital Podcast, Matt breaks down one of the most overlooked questions in finance: what money actually is beneath the currency, the numbers, and the systems we use every day. To explore the deeper meaning of money, Matt brings together five powerful perspectives from some of the most influential financial thinkers of our tim...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , host Matt Johns sits down with Sean O’Dowd , Managing Partner of Scholastic Capital , to uncover the strategy behind building a private equity real estate portfolio focused on single family homes in elite Midwest school districts. Sean’s journey began at Boston Consulting Group before launching his own consulting firm, and eventually testing his real est...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , we sit down with Bob Giles, Chairman and CEO of Giles Automotive, and 2022 Time Magazine Dealer of the Year. But Bob wasn’t chosen out of 16,000 car dealers just for business success. His recognition came because of something far deeper: a life built around giving, purpose, and community impact. Bob’s story begins with risk-taking in his twenties, launch...

In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , host Matt Johns sits down with Chris Karagouzian , Co-Founder and CEO of Help With My Loan, a fintech company that’s reimagining how borrowers, brokers, and banks connect through AI-powered automation. Chris shares his journey from working at major institutions like Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank to walking away from the traditional system to...

What does corporate philanthropy really look like inside the world’s largest company? In this episode of Purpose Driven Capital , Matt Johns sits down with Brooks Nelson of the Walmart Foundation to explore how business can be a force for systemic change. From his early experiences in 4-H to his leadership role today, Brooks reveals how philanthropy has evolved beyond writing checks into a strateg...