Interview with Brian Cayce, Co-Founder and Investment Director, Gray Matters Capital

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GMC is an $18 million social venture investment fund based in Atlanta Georgia, where Brian lives.  Brian says that his work in SE investing is as much driven by social concerns as by a profit motive. 

He defines a "social entrepreneur" as person who is looking for an innovative way to make money in a market based process and do good at the same time.  To that end, he feels that true social entrepreneurs use solid indicators that chart both the social value and the progress of their organization's work.  He describes these indicators as being unique for each enterprise but always integrated with the progress the organization seeks to make toward reaching its business and social impact goals.  

He served in the private sector as a management consultant at KPMG while he worked on his MBA at night.  The degree enabled him to build technical skills to measure quantitative impacts of businesses and non profits.  He went from consulting to a start up social enterprise in Georgia.  He says working in a start up is a great experience tied to watching how a passionate entrepreneur can grow a business from nothing.

Gray Matters Capital is one of a series of sister enterprises, including an operating foundation as well as a for profit investment fund and a grant making foundation  – separate entities that work together.  He invests in hybrid organizations and in sustainable, economic activities within NPOs.  He recognizes that NPOs introducing for-profit activities is controversial but GMC supports these ventures because nonprofits benefit from a diverse source of income. GMC invests amounts from $250,000 to $2 million.

The sister enterprises are the Gray Ghost Microfinance Investment Fund and the Rockdale Foundation, which both invest in micro finance organizations. Specifically, Gray Matters Capital invests in the supporting infrastructure which accelerates the microfinance industry’s efforts to reach greater scale and efficiency, a critical area most investors ignore.

He entered the Peace Corps after he graduated from college as a way to move on with his career and as way to learn either Russian or Chinese (he speaks Russian as well as a bit of the local Turkic language where he served).  The Peace Corps taught him how to do a lot with a little, lessons that have remained with him.

He advises people who want to become Social Entrepreneurs to be creative, patient and persistent.

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