Founder

.... I was sitting with a woman in Bangladesh, and asked the question, “What are some of your dreams?” She started talking about her dreams for her children, for her relationship with her husband, and for more of a say in family decisions. Her head picked up with pride that her country has more UN peacekeepers than any other. Then she asked: “Well, what are your dreams?” And it hit me that I have the same dreams that she does...dreams for my family, my community, my country, my purpose in the world. Achieving her dreams through her work lifted her up beyond survival; she was beginning to thrive. It hit me: the money is secondary. It is her human capital that is powerful, her spirit. Imagination, trustworthiness, and courage. This isn’t a ten percent return, this is a ten times return. And I wanted to be part of it.”

Bob Pattillo

founder of Gray Matters Capital

Bob’s mother, Betty, was a teacher from Mississippi. His father, HG, was the son of a sharecropper born in a dirt-floor shack with no plumbing or electricity. HG became a contractor, then a real estate developer, then gave every penny away. His parents’ model of spiritual capitalism guides Bob to this day.

Bob’s first entrepreneurial venture was a curbside melon stand at age 6. After graduating from public high school, Bob attended Dartmouth College. He then started his career in sales in the family business, becoming president at age 27, and leading a turnaround later valued at $1B. In 1994 Bob branched off and started his own company where innovations in location and design landed customers like Dell, Hershey’s Chocolate, Kellogg’s, and Amazon. Robert Pattillo Properties quickly became the 8th largest industrial developer in the US.

In 1998 after a pool game with a friend, Bob ventured into the microfinance industry. Starting on the board of a small fund, the manager Asad Mahmood, encouraged him to go visit borrowers in the field. So, Bob and a colleague took a microfinance trip around the world.

Bob was sitting with a woman in Bangladesh, and asked the question, “What are some of your dreams?” She started talking about her dreams for her children, for her relationship with her husband, and for more of a say in family decisions. Her head picked up with pride that her country has more UN peacekeepers than any other.

Then she asked: “Well, what are your dreams?” And it hit Bob that his dreams were very much the same for his family, his community, his country, his purpose in the world.

Her work lifted her up beyond survival; she was beginning to thrive. It hit Bob: it is her human capital that is powerful, her spirit more so than her new income. Her imagination, trustworthiness, and courage. This isn’t a ten percent return, this is a ten times return. And Bob wanted to be part of it.

In 2001, Bob founded the Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund (GGMF), a $69m fund that focused on regional equity funds providing start-up and expansion capital to microfinance institutions around the world. According to a report by BCorp released in 2016, three of the top five impact funds in the world were founded by investments from GGMF. Read the GGMF 10 year review here.

In 2003 guided by a conversation with his 11 year old daughter, Bob sold off his entire real estate business to focus solely on impact investing. The Gray Ghost Microfinance Fund became the world’s largest private impact fund of its day. Forbes named Bob one of “The Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs” in the world. Assessed with Asperger’s (his “super power”), he started 70 ventures by age 61, with a ripple effect launching 3 industries.

According to Bob, “The world’s future rests in the emergence of investable enterprises that serve the 4 billion people living on $2 a day. The customers of these enterprises require goods and services they value at a price they can afford. The work brings out the best in people, the most creativity, relentlessness, and care, from the founders to the folks working in the marketplace to the investor putting her capital at risk. And, it so happens that the human capital drags the financial capital along for a surprisingly profitable ride.”