I'm fascinated by the role that capital plays within both established and challenger businesses. Having spent 3+ years in an operator seat within startups, I've experienced first-hand the challenges of limited capital budgets. Following those roles, I've since learned what it looks like to be on the capital provider-side, first as a lender, and currently as an equity investor. In both roles, I have enjoyed partnering with our operating partners to better understand their business, its needs, and how capital resources can align to provide opportunity for growth. I currently work at Elevance Health (fka Anthem, Inc.) within its Corporate Development arm where I support the firms strategic M&A goals. In my role, my primary responsibilities include identifying and executing on strategic acquisitions, equity investments, joint ventures and other strategic relationships in order to help Elevance acquire assets, invest in companies or obtain relationships to grow revenue and profitability of the company.I previously worked at BMO Financial Group as a Corporate and Commercial Associate providing strategies and lending solutions to achieve the financial needs of private and publicly traded companies. I supported multiple deal teams throughout the Midwest region and have been involved in asset purchase transactions, dividend recapitalizations, capital expenditure financing and acquisition financing. In 2015 I joined DATTUS, an industrial IoT startup, as the Director of Finance and Operations. In that role, I provided financial and accounting oversight to guide hiring strategy, capital structure, financing needs and development of performance metrics and tracking. During that time we were able to grow from a team of 6 to 15. In 2015 and 2016 we were awarded by Tech Point as Best New Tech Product of the Year. In 2018, DATTUS was acquired by Plex Systems. In 2012, I founded Signature Settings, an e-Commerce platform for designing custom table-settings for events. After raising $170k in Seed funding, our team was able to progress from ideation to commercialization to exit within 3 years. During that time, I created the business strategy, developed the capital structure, and led sales and marketing efforts that resulted in a sale to The Waddington Group at 4.5x annual revenue.If you'd like to discuss a new business idea, great SCUBA diving sites or your favorite backpacking trails, feel free to reach out at stephen.ryan.christopher@gmail.com.