Brian Hamilton
/NET WORTH: Unknown
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Sageworks
FUNDING AREAS: Entrepreneurship
OVERVIEW: Brian Hamilton launched Inmates to Entrepreneurs, which seeks to assist people with criminal backgrounds in starting their own business by providing resources and mentorship. He recently started the Brian Hamilton Foundation to continue his work empowering entrepreneurs.
BACKGROUND: Raised in a working-class neighborhood in Connecticut, Brian Hamilton graduated from Sacred Heart University, and received an MBA from Duke University. In 1998, he founded Sageworks, the country’s first fintech company. After 20 years of growing the Inc. 500 company into the largest provider of software to U.S. banks, he sold his stake to a leading private equity firm in 2018.
ISSUES:
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: In 1992, Brian Hamilton and his good friend Reverend Robert J. Harris, started working at prisons to teach inmates how to start their own small businesses. On the heels of this work, Hamilton started Inmates to Entrepreneurs (I2E), whose mission is to assist people with a criminal background in starting their own business by providing resources and mentorship. I2E hosts an in-person course for anyone with a criminal background who has started or is interested in starting their own small business. The program also visits correctional facilities and teaches currently incarcerated individuals the basics of building a business.
The Brian Hamilton Foundation, meanwhile, expands Hamilton’s work through I2E to also focus on Youth Entrepreneurship, Military Transition Readiness, and Main Street Businesses. The Brian Hamilton Foundation also runs Starter U: How to Start and Grow a Business, a free, self-paced online course teaching everything you need to know to start, run, and grow a business.
LOOKING FORWARD: With the recent launch of a formal foundation, expect Hamilton to continue to dig into his established interest area. It’s also possible that he develops new interests has his philanthropy deepens.
CONTACT:
(866) 753-3726
info@brianhamilton.org
