Alfredo Mathew III, Founder and CEO of SPCC.1: Making the Jump From Wage Earner to Asset Owner

One way to close the historically large and growing gap in income and wealth in America is for more wage earners to become business owners so they can start building assets. That’s a theory that our WorkforceRx guest, Alfredo Mathew III, has seen working in California using a state-supported community capital fund in under-invested communities. “The big opportunity is to help shift businesses that are sole proprietors to build up to $500,000 or more in revenue so they can hire employees and ultimately grow beyond the labor of the founder. That way, you are creating an asset that is going to grow, which is the foundation of wealth building,” says Mathew, a former educator turned social entrepreneur and systems thinker who was instrumental in launching that fund. He is simultaneously pursuing a shared ownership model through an organization he founded called SPCC.1, that groups small business into cooperatives so that members can enjoy the benefits that scale brings, including higher potential for income growth and purchasing power for insurance and other business needs. In this wide-ranging and provocative conversation with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, you’ll also learn how pre-distribution, micro assets, financial literacy and regenerative lending are essential elements of an alternative approach to building both individual and community prosperity in the U.S.