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Find impact work happening in your community, or list your own: https://sowonegoodseed.com/

Steve Cinelli grew twenty acres of industrial hemp. The farming was a bust. The research survived: every use case for a crop shut out of the US market since 1937. Then the harder problem. The material performs, and the industry around it barely exists.

Steve is the founder and chairman of Renaissance Park, a nature-based materials ecosystem. Three decades in banking and private equity came first. In 1999, he co-founded OffRoad Capital and got the SEC to allow online fundraising, twelve years before crowdfunding became law. He is running that same play on hemp, hempcrete, and natural fiber composites.

In this episode, you will hear how to move an institution that resists change, and why the category has to grow before the company can.

"So it's really playing cards to the game that they want to play. They're setting the rules, they're the regulator. Well, can we improve the way the game's played?" - Steven Cinelli

🚀 Key Takeaways:

Read the charter before you pitch: Read the gatekeeper's founding rules before you pitch them, then show how your version delivers the outcome they exist to protect.

Map the process before you automate it: Map every touch point in the existing process by hand before automating it, because technology accelerates whatever workflow you hand it.

Grow the category, then compete in it: Competing for share makes sense in a mature market, but in a category this young, the work is growing the category itself.

Lead with the spec sheet: Lead with performance rather than mission when selling a sustainable alternative because parity on the spec sheet is what moves a buyer.

Decide the leave-behind first: Value that stays in a community requires a plan for who owns the asset at the end, decided before the first job is created.

⏳ Chapters:

- Introduction to Steve Cinelli and Renaissance Park

- Founding OffRoad Capital to digitize private fundraising

- The patterns behind fintech and nature-based materials

- The SEC said you cannot do that

- What finally unlocked FINRA and the SEC

- Why hemp

- Hempcrete, fire resistance, and the cost of rebuilding

- Building an ecosystem instead of a company

- Why build a new industry instead of joining an existing one

- Campuses, ESOPs, and what gets left behind

🔗 Connect with Steve

Renaissance Park Website: https://renaissanceparkcorp.com

Steven Cinelli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevencinelli/

🔗 Two ways to join the community

The GrowGood Playbook newsletter, field-tested insights from the impact founders and leaders we interview: https://sowgoodtogrowgood.substack.com/

Find impact work happening in your community, or list your own: https://sowonegoodseed.com/

🎙️ About SowGood to GrowGood: Hosted by John Kane Gonzales, entrepreneur and innovator. We explore how change-makers and innovators are building sustainable systems for a better future, turning ideas into solutions that serve communities.