Welcome to The Compassionalist Academy™
- Many people simply don’t know they can invest in entrepreneurs before companies go public or are acquired.
- There is little practical education to help new investors evaluate opportunities with confidence.
- Tools and resources that exist for other asset classes—stocks, real estate, crypto—are still lacking for private company investing.
The Compassionalist Academy is my response to these challenges.
- To close the gap between wealth creation and access to capital by empowering and equipping more people to invest in entrepreneurs.
- Open the doors to opportunity and provide a seat at the table where the next big thing is discovered and funded to solve a problem that can improve our world.
We exist to democratize access to knowledge and training so that aspiring investors—particularly young professionals, women, and BIPOC communities historically excluded from wealth-building opportunities—can learn how to invest wisely and confidently. We also serve active angel investors who want to sharpen their skills, diversify their portfolios, and embrace best practices.
Our growing library blends my own instruction with insights from industry experts, seasoned investors, and entrepreneurs. Alongside structured learning modules, students will benefit from exclusive podcast interviews, guest lectures, case studies, and other on-demand content. This ensures that the Academy remains dynamic, relevant, and accessible to anyone ready to learn—whether you are making your first $500 crowdfund investment or structuring six-figure angel deals.
At its core, Compassionate Capitalism is about more than returns. It’s about creating impact: funding innovation, driving inclusion, and empowering communities. When investors understand how to align their dollars with their values, they can help entrepreneurs succeed while also building their own path to financial independence.
We welcome all who are ready to learn—new and experienced investors alike, as well as entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, and advocates for financial inclusion. Together, through knowledge and action, we can change who gets to build wealth and who gets to bring ideas to life.
The Compassionalist Academy stands on this ethos:
- To expand financial inclusion by making early-stage investing accessible and approachable.
- To increase gender and racial equity by equipping underrepresented groups with tools to invest and grow their household wealth and leap the generational wealth gap.
- To inspire the ‘next generation’ of strivers to embrace investing in innovative entrepreneurs to main street businesses so that they are hopeful they can create a better future and fully participate in the ‘American Dream’.
- To create lasting impact by channeling more capital into the businesses and innovations that will shape our future.
Frequently Asked Questions
About The Compassionalist Academy
The Compassionalist Academy
The Compassionalist Academy was created to answer the growing need for accessible tools and practical education for new investors who want to participate in the wealth-building potential of investing in entrepreneurs. Too often, the world of private investing feels like an exclusive “insider’s club.” The Academy was designed to remove that intimidation barrier by equipping aspiring investors with the knowledge, confidence, and resources required to make smart, informed decisions.
Drawing on the proven principles outlined in Inside Secrets to Angel Investing, the Academy brings the book’s insights to life through courses, interactive resources, and curated content that demystify the investing process. Beyond training, the Academy creates a learning community where investors gain step-by-step guidance, hear from industry experts, and connect with peers equally committed to creating wealth while making an impact.
Mission
The Compassionalist Academy’s mission is to democratize wealth creation by fostering financial inclusion in private markets. By empowering individuals with the tools to evaluate opportunities, align investments with their values, and build diversified portfolios, the Academy helps investors grow their wealth while fueling the success of innovative entrepreneurs. In doing so, it advances the broader vision of the Compassionate Capitalist Movement: more capital for aspiring entrepreneurs, more wealth for striving investors, and a stronger, more equitable economy.
Academy Structure
The lessons offered in The Compassionate Academy are available as courses and modules.
Courses are offered as Beginner level to Advanced level, with additional content that takes a deeper dive into specific topics and offers business fundamentals.
Modules are offered that bundle topics that bridge the need for knowledge between Beginner and Advanced level courses. All the lessons are available for individual purchases.
The Academy is designed to be flexible to the specific educational needs of each student. The content is delivered through video lessons. Many have additional documents or refer to documents found in the Resources section.
The Resources Portal was first developed to supplement the step-by-step instruction for new investors found in the pivotal angel investor how to book: Inside Secrets to Angel Investing and is referenced throughout the lessons. Key Resources are also foundational to lessons shared in the 2nd book in the series Inside Secrets to Crowdfund Investing. Both books and the Resource portal are included with your subscription to any course.
Karen Rands is the primary instructor. She shares her experience and knowledge as an angel investor, a trusted advisor to angel investors, and the hundreds of angel investors and venture capitalists she has interviewed on her podcasts. Many of those interviews are offered as bonus material.
We intend to partner with qualified thought leaders to offer their training modules on the platform as well. A certification process is being developed for students to validate their gained knowledge and gain confidence of their mastery of the topic.
Student Profile
The Compassionalist Academy will benefit the following:
- Individuals seeking to learn how to invest in entrepreneurs – startups to growth stage companies – with confidence and competence.
- Angel clubs and networks, new and established, that wish to accelerate the educational onramp for new members and to increase the capability of the group as a whole.
- Entrepreneur Support Organizations – incubators, accelerators, economic development departments, and chamber of commerce groups – seeking to build a community of angel and crowdfund investors to fund the companies they are preparing to seek capital
Proficiency Tests
It is proven that proficiency tests are a tool to help the student validate that they understand the material being taught. Tests are optional at this time. By completing the proficiency test at the end of the lesson, the student will demonstrate their mastery and gain confidence they have a good working knowledge to begin investing or to accelerate their investing strategy.
At this time there is no official certification or regulatory test to be an angel investor. Therefore, the proficiency tests offered as part of The Academy will lead to a Certificate of Completion. As the US regulatory bodies develop guidelines for certification of skills for non- accredited investors to be eligible to invest like accredited investors without the financial qualifiers, we intend to follow those guidelines.
Course Books and Syllabus
Currently there is no overall syllabus for The Compassionalist Academy. This is for several reasons:
- The Academy is designed to be flexible to fit the individual needs of each student as they enter the coursework with different experiences and for different reasons.
- The structure of the courses and bundles are intended to be like a syllabus in the overall content offered for the student to comprehend.
- The content is not static. It is very dynamic with new lessons added at a steady state and therefore a syllabus would need to be dynamic as well.
- Through monitoring the consumption of course content, completion rates, and feedback on the value of the content, we will adjust and provide outlines and roadmaps to follow through the library of lessons.
Learning Management System
The Compassionlist Academy enhances the learning process through
- Content Consumption – tracking the progress and completion of lessons, modules and courses.
- Feedback to the student on next lessons or recommended next lesson or module
- Comprehension with the proficiency tests.
- Topics covered at different levels from beginning to advanced, with shorter videos covering specific aspects of the investment process to meet the needs of the full spectrum of students that may come from all types of backgrounds and level of knowledge of core concepts.
- Online learning to be available at the convenience of the student.
- Opportunity for students to participate in group educational events and meetups to deepen their personal knowledge through the knowledge and experience of other students.
- Opportunities for leveling up and customization of coaching and tutoring on specific topics and assistance with discerning the value of opportunities under consideration.
- Most lessons come with an outline of the takeaways for the key points of each video lesson that the student will master.
- Addressing the cognitive way that people learn and the natural apprehension that new investors experience when starting to invest in private small businesses, the curriculum uses “affective learning” to deal with feelings, values, and unique reactions to new information based on past experiences and perception. Key elements of The Academy, such as the Angel Profitability Blueprint, are designed to help a student move their their fears to persist in building a portfolio that is more likely to reach their financial goals.
What if I’m brand new to investing?
No problem. The intro course, and optional add-on of expanded content, encourages you to build your learning journey as it best fits your needs. We recognized that people come from all types of backgrounds and experiences. Therefore, we have added lessons for a Deeper Dive into Topic that you may want to know more details about and cultivate your understanding in that aspect of crowdfund or angel investing. There is even a Business Basics section for those that may have only taken a Business 101 course in college or not at all. Our goal is to meet your needs where you are today and provide the content you need to grow your confidence and increase your likelihood of success when you build a diverse portfolio of investments in private companies across the spectrum of stage, industry and type of offering.
How is this different from other angel investing schools?
- The short answer is this: The existing educational platforms for angel investing are typically static content, assumes business and investing acumen to build upon, and not generally available to the public. By contrast The Compassionalist Academy is:
~ From the get-go this platform has been designed to be flexible and dynamic to customize your journey, be available when you are 24/7, and ever evolving with new content added on a regular basis.
~ The other courses are designed for investors already familiar with angel investing and want to get better. It is like joining a conversation and missing the first half of it, trying to catch up, and wondering what you missed – or not even knowing what you missed.
~ They do not cover crowdfund investing as an entry point or even at all. They assume every investor is a millionaire investing a hundred thousand dollars. Crowdfund and Angel investing are different and need to be taught differently.
~ They assume everyone knows business fundamentals, ignoring that working class people work in business but may not well versed at business financials and operations
~ This content is primarily instructor led, with supporting documents, rather than conversations and interviews. Bonus content of Karen’s interviews with experts in specific areas of the scope of knowledge you may want to know more about is included too. - ~ When you sign up for a course, you get access to Karen’s bestselling books AND the Resource Portal of checklists, worksheets, sample agreements, and more – Thousands of dollars of content that every experienced angel investor is familiar with, but some of the names and terms have never even been heard by a novice.
Are there free resources available?
Are there Guarantees?
There is a limited time guarantee that once you are inside The Academy and you decide it is not for you, you can cancel your subscription and get your money back. This is available only if you have not downloaded any documents or videos.
What was the motivation and vision behind The Compassionalist Academy?
Here is the thing that Karen Rands has learned from her decades of working with angel investors – most of them got good at angel investing, not because of the training that was out there, but by the hard way – losing money and learning from their mistakes. Karen started the journey of writing books and creating this educational platform because she KNEW that most people would never keep investing if they lost money on their first 1 or 2 deals because of avoidable mistakes.
An investment advisor first asked her to find something he could take to his client because the SEC told his employer that if he advised them on investing in THIS asset class, private companies, not also a client of his broker dealer, they would take his license away. WOW, unbelievable right – the very people that should help investors, couldn’t. And at that time there wasn’t ANY Training, and no books about how to angel invest. Karen started with a few eBooks that she gave to new members of her angel group. That evolved into her first bestseller: Inside Secrets to Angel Investing. She tried to bring the powerful lessons to life with webinars, but working people didn’t have the flexibility to join during working hours. Then came the Compassionate Capitalist Wealth Maximizing System – complicated title and turned out not to be enough for the new investor not a millionaire. Karen realized two things were missing that she had to get done in order to realize her vision of disrupting the status quo of who invests and in what.
She decided to write an easy to follow, story driven, book for those wanting to get started with Crowdfund Investing – Inside Secrets to Crowdfund Investing. Follow Jane’s Journey: See How a New Generation Builds Wealth with Purpose, Passion and Profit, and expand the digital learning platform, more than tripling the content from beginner courses to advance – and deep dive focus content, business essentials, and bonus content from the experts she has interviewed over the years.
Karen Rands is a leading advocate for democratized investing and inclusive entrepreneurship.
She is the best-selling author of of the Inside Secrets series
- Inside Secrets to Angel Investing – Step-by-Step Guide
- Inside Secrets to Crowdfund Investing. Follow Jane’s Journey
As the founder of the Compassionate Capitalist Movement, Karen’s mission is to unlock the wealth-building power of investing in entrepreneurs—for everyone. To grow awareness about this ‘secret’ way to invest and leap the wealth gap, she hosts of the top-rated podcast The Compassionate Capitalist Show, and created The Compassionalist Academy, a platform dedicated to financial empowerment through education.
