Founder

Brian Hamilton

Founder, the Brian Hamilton Foundation

Co-Founder, Sageworks

Brian Hamilton is an entrepreneur who has decades of experience starting businesses across a range of industries, including landscaping, real estate, and technology. Raised in a working-class neighborhood near Bridgeport, Connecticut, Brian has first-hand knowledge of the challenges that people face in breaking out of the socioeconomic categories into which they are born. He uses this first-hand knowledge and his entrepreneurship experience to help historically disadvantaged groups create and grow businesses. The son of a Marine, Brian’s work ethic developed early. Brian ran a landscaping business to pay for his undergraduate degree, allowing him to become the first in his family to attend college. He graduated from Sacred Heart University, where he later served on the Board of Trustees, and received an MBA from Duke University.

After graduating from Duke in 1990, Brian was the minority business consultant for the SBA in the state of North Carolina. While there, he met his friend, Reverend Robert J. Harris, who he would eventually work with to help people in prison start their own businesses. This work became the basis for Inmates to Entrepreneurs. During this time, he also started a chain of coin laundromats in inner cities that were designed specifically to improve the laundry experience of people by developing community and providing better services. Some of these services included Mom’s Day Thursday, Free Dryer Wednesday, and Bible study groups. Brian co-founded Sageworks in 1998, the country’s first fintech company. After 20 years of growing the Inc. 500 company into the largest provider of software to U.S. banks, he sold his stake to a leading private equity firm in 2018. During his time building Sageworks, Brian earned multiple patents for his work in automating financial analysis. He is a regular guest on CNBC and Fox and frequently writes for and is quoted in all major national media publications. Brian is also a contributor to Inc. and Entrepreneur magazines. Brian’s work has earned him awards and recognition from organizations including Duke University, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and George H.W. Bush’s Points of Light. Most recently, he started the Brian Hamilton Foundation, which is based on the belief that entrepreneurship is for everyone in America, not just the people who were lucky enough to be exposed to it or to the privileged. Brian enjoys spending time with his two sons, fishing, and hanging out with his little brother, Ryan, and; of course, his two dogs, Sean and Stacey.