Hello,

I want you to flourish. That’s why I invest and build companies at Learn Capital, tell stories about entrepreneurs at The Arena, and build communities with bold hospitality for those who love what I love.

My Bio.

 

Evan Baehr is a venture capital investor, serial founder, best-selling author, community builder, university professor, and father to four—so he’s often tired and/or caffeinated.

Baehr is managing partner of Learn Capital, a venture capital fund that backs and builds companies that drive human flourishing. He’s Founder of Teneo, a national leadership organization, author of the best selling book Get Backed from Harvard Business Press, and host of the Arena, a TV show celebrating bold founders.

Baehr’s book, Get Backed, equips entrepreneurs with the key skills to build a pitch deck and then raise capital to launch a business. Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran calls the book a ‘must read’ before pitching on the show. It has equipped over 1 million entrepreneurs.

Previously he cofounded Able, a financial technology company backed by Mike Maples and Peter Thiel, which sold in 2017. Able served the ‘fortune 5,000,000’—the millions of small businesses that create two-thirds of all jobs in the United States—with low interest loans to help them grow. Forbes called Able “capitalism at its best.”

Another previous venture, Outbox, was a startup designed to disrupt the United States Postal Service. After being shut down by the federal government, Baehr was profiled in the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Interview titled “A Case of Uncreative Destruction,” written by Bari Weiss.

He has worked for Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund, the U.S. House of Representatives as a legislative aide and staff director for the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and the White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives. He founded the first chapter of the the Adam Smith Society, the largest organization of MBA’s committed to capitalism.

He is an honors graduate of Princeton University (Woodrow Wilson School), Yale University (MA, Ethics), and Harvard Business School (MBA).

He is married to Kristina Baehr, founder of Just Well Law and previously Assistant U.S. Attorney and Partner at McKool Smith, the most-winning patent litigation law firm in the country. She is a graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School.

My Projects

  • Get Backed (#1 Seller)

    Get Backed isn’t just about startup fundraising. It’s a handbook for anyone who has an idea and needs to build relationships to get it off the ground. Go buy a copy of it on Amazon. It was so fun to coauthor this with a dear friend Evan Loomis.

  • Learn Capital

    We believe learning is the foundation of a thriving society. We're driven by the conviction that the next wave of societal advancement will be realized by forward-thinking companies that are creating products and services that empower individuals with the capacity, knowledge, and tools to thrive.

  • Flourish Together

    If we believe this - “In a very strong sense, networks are the actors on the intellectual stage,” argues Randall Collins - then we have to get serious about building communities and networks. This is my manifesto on the topic. It is like Max Weber meets Michael Porter.

My thesis: America faces many challenges. It as a nation—and the system of Democratic Capitalism it fostered—is the most important experiment in the history of the world because it has led to the greatest elevation of human flourishing in history. Today, the most powerful agents for human flourishing are founders of for-profit companies, not because they use their wealth to support non-profits but rather because the very scalable companies they build are the agents of change. I want people to flourish. That’s why I’m a builder, backer, and evangelist for for-profit companies. Care about humans? Build a company.