The Legacy Movement

My name is Aaron Gray and I am an alumnus of Leadershape from Summer 2000. I still remember the vivid day in Champaign, IL when I embarked on a mission for a week to identify what my true passion is in life and chart out a plan to execute it. At the time, I wrote that I wanted to take all of the knowledge that I would obtain over time and teach people in low-income communities so they could lift themselves out of poverty. I have broadened out my vision over time and I am ready to go for it.

I am willing to swing for home runs and develop game changing models. Often times, that entails going after huge billion dollar opportunities, but what I am attempting to accomplish, is much more important than money. I am trying to save communities. 

I started The Legacy Movement to change the conversation about success and entrepreneurship in under-served communities. Our global economy is in crisis, and people are starving for knowledge, tools, resources, and people to help them improve their economic situations. The Legacy Movement addresses this problem by providing all of the above via our technology platform and access to an ecosystem of individuals and organizations who have similar goals. A good way to draw an analogy for our technology platform is that we plan to be the LinkedIn for doing deals. Anyone interested in buying a company, selling a company, or starting a new venture, (for-profit, non-profit, or social enterprise), this will be the premier destination for you.

Additionally, we have a focus on under-served communities: women, military veterans, and minorities. Our platform will be open to EVERYONE, but we want to focus on increasing entrepreneurship and business ownership in communities that are sometimes not direct beneficiaries of mass amounts of wealth being created in the U.S.

This point is extremely important, as we know that our nation’s public schools are in crisis, where minorities are only graduating 50% of the time from high school. Our military veterans come home and are offered subprime loans. Women, even with the tremendous strides they have made in terms of college graduation and upward mobility in the workforce, continue to hit glass ceilings and struggle to raise capital for their businesses. The Legacy Movement is attempting to improve on all of these problems by offering high quality education materials and a phenomenal network of people that will help create billions of dollars of wealth in the U.S.

There are THOUSANDS of business and social problems that need to be solved and emerging entrepreneurs are eager to create profitable businesses models around solving those problems. Innovators are innovating on innovation and it is truly exciting. The opportunities are ENDLESS. The cost to start a business is now cheaper than ever, and funding has become more accessible to the average person. However, one has to know where to look. Additionally, being part of an ecosystem of like-minded peers and those with experience who have had success and failure as entrepreneurs offers extreme value, and our platform will offer that. We plan to offer not just access to capital, but also access to education and people who can help one achieve his/her goals.

I have had an amazing 10-year career in finance and technology, having worked for some of premier companies in world, including the Florida State Board of Administration, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Greycroft Partners. The Legacy Movement will be announcing several outstanding partnerships with top-notch academic institutions this Fall so stay tuned. For more information, please visit www.legacymovement.net.