Jamie D. Elder
Co-Founder
“I was in my 30s before I truly began to understand how capitalism worked. I try to teach young entrepreneurs what I was taught. The different between a capitalist and consumer is that a capitalist will see a brand new product and ask, “How much does it cost to build this?” A consumer will see the same product and ask, “How much does it cost to buy this?” We need to produce more builders than buyers from my old neighborhood.”
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jamie escaped the streets by enlisting in the United States Army after graduating high school. He served two years active, one year in the Wisconsin National Guard, and three years in the Reserve as an Information Systems Operation-Analyst. In 2004, he started his first business at the age of 22 that was the first 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Franchise in Wisconsin. After he sold his franchise in 2006, he started a real estate services company called Landlord Concierge, LLC. In 2009, he returned full-time to the workforce in a business development role with a marketing firm.
In 2012, Jamie was appointed to Governor Scott Walker’s administration at the age of 29 to serve as the Director, Office of Urban Development for the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. The three focus areas for his office were community outreach, economic security, and social education through the department’s programs and initiatives in Milwaukee County. The goal was to strengthen families by reducing employment barriers in education, housing, transportation, incarceration, skill development, and mental health. Jamie was responsible for brokering and managing partnerships with over one-thousand diverse stakeholders locally, nationally, and globally to support the vision in transitioning disadvantaged workers to economic independence. He also researched and wrote strategic plans and delivered presentations to the executive staff and other key stakeholders to inform policy and program development. Jamie’s contributions included the $1.3 million social impact bond pilot; $800,000 per year Community Building Milwaukee initiative; $150,000 urban entrepreneurship accelerator pilot called Revolution Labs; and the $300,000 nonprofit accelerator pilot called Mission Fuel.
In 2016, Jamie relocated to the Washington, D.C. area to serve as a Director of Strategic Partnerships with a venture philanthropy organization called Stand Together Foundation–serving over five hundred wealthy business leaders across the country. He traveled across the U.S. to identify and make investment recommendations for growth-stage nonprofits and social enterprises that had demonstrated success in transforming lives. In this capacity, Jamie brokered many partnerships with innovative organizations addressing issues of chronic poverty to include joblessness, educational failure, trauma and addiction, family breakdown, and community development. Jamie’s efforts resulted in the development of partnerships with over 30 nonprofit organizations across eight states while raising and investing over $10 million in grants, capacity building, and storytelling support. Also, Jamie served as the lead account manager for the Prime 5 initiative in partnership with NFL Hall of Famer Deion “Prime Time” Sanders which set a $21 million fundraising goal to reinvest in impoverished communities across Dallas, Texas.
In 2019, Jamie relocated to Fort Wayne, IN to join Ambassador Enterprises, a legacy-minded private equity firm that has created a network of affiliate companies focused on purpose, people, and performance. Serving as the Director of Economic Development on the Impact Investing team, he focused on prospecting investment opportunities in both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises to build a growth platform that would increase the economic mobility for families anchored to generational poverty. This resulted in a draft strategic framework to leverage the capital return from business investments and acquisitions to create social impact.
Jamie earned an AS in Business Administration from Penn State University. He is currently finishing up his BS in Organizational Leadership from PSU as well. He is also a proud alum of the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executives in State and Local Government and Aspen Institute Socrates programs. In his free time, Jamie serves on the boards and committees for various organizations that focus on entrepreneurship, employment, and education. In his free time, Jamie enjoys reading, writing, basketball, soccer, and all things Green Bay Packers.