Most sane people have given up hope that the finance industry can be a catalyst for positive change, but not Sloane Ortel and Ashby Monk.
Since Free Money launched in 2019, they have helped listeners understand the true power (and immense potential) of long-term investing through accessible, authoritative, and deeply irreverent conversations with others pushing for progress.
In the process, they’ve helped literally dozens of listeners understand root causes of the industry’s misalignment with the modern world and radicalized them into pushing for positive change. And shared lots of good gardening tips (seriously).
Today we're joined by Bill Burckart and Megan Kashner of Colorful Capital, both of whom are professors of impact investing (Columbia and Northwestern) as well as co-founders of the venture firm focused on the LGBT community.
We hear from them on why the firm is necessary, how they've gone about trying to access the people they're trying to reach, and then discuss the role they see for Colorful Capital going forward. For a deeper exploration of the topics we discussed and links to various resources mentioned, check out our blog post on this episode.
Don't forget our typical helping of banter - this episode's topics feature new sovereign wealth funds, guns, and a roast of burning man. Ya know, the usual.
Sloane Ortel is the founder of Invest Vegan, a Utah Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) dedicated to helping clients access sustainable long-term investment management that avoids preventable harm to living things with deposits as small as $1.
Sloane is also a co-founder of the Woodcache Public Benefit Corporation, a carbon removal project developer committed to delivering the most measurable, least speculative, highest yield carbon removal solutions with minimal delay and maximal positive impact. She also serves on the board of directors of Responsible Alpha, a global ESG integration consultancy, and Let’s Own This, a private foundation dedicated to helping friends, families, and organizations understand, reduce, and counteract their emissions.
Prior to starting her own firm, Sloane joined the staff at CFA Institute as a sophomore in college and spent close to a decade helping the global investment community adapt to a changing investment landscape as a collaborator, curator, and commentator.
Sloane holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Fordham University, and can usually be found perusing thrift stores, skiing, or gardening when not doing finance things.
Dr. Ashby Monk is currently a Senior Research Engineer, School of Engineering at Stanford University, and holds the position of Executive Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing.
Ashby has more than 20 years of experience studying and advising investment organizations. He has authored multiple books and published 100s of research papers on institutional investing. His latest book, The Technologized Investor, won the 2021 Silver Medal from the Axiom Business Book Awards in the Business Technology category.
Outside of academia, he has co-founded several companies that help investors make better investment decisions, including Real Capital Innovation (acquired by Addepar), FutureProof, NetPurpose, D.A.T.A., ThirdAct, Growthsphere, SheltonAI and Long Game Savings (acquired by Truist). He is also a member of the CFA Institute’s Future of Finance Advisory Council and was named by CIO Magazine as one of the most influential academics in the institutional investing world.
Ashby received his Doctorate in Economic Geography at the University of Oxford, holds a Master’s in International Economics from the Université de Paris I – Pantheon Sorbonne, and has a Bachelor’s in Economics from Princeton University
We love listener questions! Ask us something and we'll discuss it in the "Dear Ashby" segment at the end of the show!