Part III: Returning to Build the Table

After leaving financial services, I didn’t plan on coming back.

I wasn’t interested in being part of an industry that constantly asked me to shrink—my ideas, my values, my voice.

I didn’t want to play mascot for someone else’s fund, or chase AUM for the sake of optics.

I didn’t want to keep trying to squeeze into systems that weren’t designed for people like me to show up as 100%.

So I built something instead.

What started as a conversation with a colleague became an idea mapped out on paper. Eventually, it became Champion Venture Partners.

And now I can see clearly: it was always more than just a company. It was the accumulation of 15 years of wandering, working, and waiting.

Business breakthroughs start with personal ones

CVP didn't emerge from a brainstorm. It came from a quiet season of reflection.

After years of chasing alignment in other people's models, I finally gave myself permission to ask a different question:

"What would it look like to build a platform that actually made room for people like me to lead, contribute, and grow?"

That question unlocked everything. Being ready was just one part. The bigger piece was the context was finally ready for the ideas that had been with me all along.

The insight, frustration, and friction from that felt like it was working against me for the last decade shifted when my internal question moved from from "how can I fit?" to "what can I build?"

That changed everything. The things that once looked like roadblocks became detours that provided conviction and depth.

Building a platform, not just a company

CVP was born from a simple belief that wasn’t being represented in the market:

Athletes—and people with nontraditional pathways—deserve to be full participants in the investing ecosystem.

Not just as capital and marketing pawns. But as visionaries. Operators. Advisors. Builders.

And to do that, the traditional fund structure wasn’t the answer. A platform was needed — one that:

• offered education and access without condescension

• saw investors as partners, not just check writers

• allowed people to learn by doing—without waiting for permission

CVP was the vehicle. But the real asset was the lens I’d been refining for 15 years.

Integration is the final evolution

I used to think I had to pick a lane.

I’ve spent years and countless hours trying to fit my experiences into a neat box so that people understood my value. Either be the investor, the advisor, the coach, the builder. Stay in one identity. Make it make sense to everyone else to avoid the friction

But CVP gave me a new perspective:

What if my strength wasn’t in picking a lane—but in designing a system that brought all of it together?

That’s what CVP became. It reflects:

• The insight of an underdog athlete who knows what it means to bet on yourself

• The experience of a financial advisor who understands how wealth is built and preserved

• The vision of an executive coach who knows how performance is developed, not just expected

• The discipline of an operator who knows how businesses actually get built

When the dots finally connect

For years, I kept asking myself why none of my ideas seemed to stick.

Why every effort to create change met resistance. Why I kept being forced to choose between authenticity and access. Why the things that made sense to me made others uncomfortable.

And now I know:

I wasn’t wrong. I was just early.

Early in my own development; in understanding how to position the ideas; in realizing that timing is as much a part of execution as vision.

Most people quit in the valley—when things don’t land right away.

But if you keep walking in the direction of your north star, eventually the context shifts.

And when it does, your old ideas feel new. Your instincts become strategy. And the work finally has room to breathe.

Closing Thoughts

This isn’t a story about betting on yourself. It’s a story about staying with yourself—long enough to see the vision catch up to the moment.

CVP isn’t a pivot. It’s a return — To the ideas I couldn’t let go of. To the people I wanted to serve. To the platform I wish existed when I started.

It’s proof that sometimes, the reason it hasn’t worked yet...is because it’s not time yet.

Keep building. Your ideas aren’t wrong. You might just be early.

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