Bishop Rodney S. Sampson is the only consecrated bishop to have successfully navigated Silicon Valley and America's startup ecosystem as a founder, operator and investor. He is heralded as the leading inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship and investment ecosystem builder in the world, with a mission to ensure that everyone, everywhere, particularly socially and economically disadvantaged communities, has equitable opportunity in the fourth industrial revolution and beyond as a path to new multi-generational wealth with no reliance on pre-existing multi-generational wealth.
Throughout his nearly three-decade entrepreneurial and ministerial career, Sampson has co-founded technology startups and ministry initiatives that have overcome the odds by raising more than $100 million in angel and venture capital, creating thousands of new jobs, and generating billions in revenue before acquisition or going public.
At the beginning of the 21st century, Sampson was a pioneer in streaming software and social media infrastructure technologies, co-founding Multicast Media Technologies (Streamingfaith.com) and EFactor (EFCT). He was one of three Black co-founders of that era whose high-growth technology startups raised over $1 million in angel and venture capital and were subsequently acquired for eight figures. In October 2021, Sampson and his wife, Dr. Shanterria Sampson, in an unprecedented acquisition, purchased Piksel Americas, Piksel France, Kewego España and Streaming Faith to form Piksel Technology Corporation, the only Black- and Black woman-owned enterprise streaming software and infrastructure platform in the world. Earlier in his career he built Intellectual Currency, an integrated go-to-market, publishing and advisory firm whose clients ranged from major Hollywood film studios, cable networks and global corporates to the United States government, African heads of state and leading Black church denominations.
Since 2007, Sampson has worked closely with high-growth startups, early-stage venture funds and faith-based organizations as a senior advisor, consultant, investor and limited partner. His advisory and investment portfolio includes Fearless Fund, Dr. Lonnie Johnson's JTEC, Cross Culture Ventures, TechSquare Capital, Lead Out Capital, Digit and Plum.io, among others. From 2015 to 2017 he was a Partner at TechSquare Labs, an innovation lab, seed-stage venture fund and creator of the $100,000 Atlanta Startup Battle; its portfolio companies have since raised nearly $400 million in follow-on capital, are valued at over $2 billion, generate more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue and employ over 1,500 people. He remains the largest minority limited partner in the fund.
From 2007 to 2009, Sampson was appointed by Bishop Paul Sylvester Morton to serve as General Overseer of Public and Business Affairs of the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International. In 2010, Sampson was consecrated as a bishop in the International Bishops' Conference of the USA and serves on its College of Bishops. In 2013, he co-founded Opportunity Hub (OHUB) following the release of Kingonomics and its large-scale conferences in Atlanta and Washington, DC. Leveraging the metrics-driven blueprint set out in "Building Inclusive Entrepreneurship Ecosystems in Communities of Color" with the Federal Reserve Bank, OHUB became the world's leading technology, startup and venture ecosystem-building platform. Today OHUB partners with federal, state and municipal governments, institutions of higher learning and communities to deliver technology workforce, startup support and capital formation solutions to the nation's most under-invested populations.
As General Partner of 100 Black Angels and Allies Fund I, Sampson created a new generation of investors to advance venture funds, founders and ecosystem-building companies committed to racial equity in the fourth industrial revolution; key investments and joint ventures include MaC Ventures, SoLo Funds, Goodr, Rheaply, Zirtue and the Harvard Research District. Fund II is a $12 million early-stage venture fund focused on new energy and climate, artificial intelligence and other high-growth technologies. Sampson and his team also manage State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) venture capital programs for several states, including North Carolina, and have fully deployed the Alabama program; together these programs have invested more than $77 million in venture funds and high-growth startups expected to create more than 1,000 upwardly mobile jobs.
Sampson served as a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution for eight years and is a former Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, where he created his Black Technology Ecosystem Investment certificate. He has also held professorships at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University. He previously served as the first Head of Diversity at Mark Burnett Productions, executive producer of ABC's Shark Tank, where he was responsible for increasing the representation of minority founders and guest sharks on the show.
A firm believer in philanthropy and its role in social impact and advocacy, Sampson supports and serves on the boards of OHUB Foundation, Black in AI, AI4ALL, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) and The Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. He was educated at Tulane University, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Keller Graduate School of Management and Virginia Union University's Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, and is a life member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He is the author of Kingonomics and Your Manifest Destiny.
Sampson resides in Atlanta, Georgia, and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, with his wife and six children.