Breakthrough Builders
A community of social venture founders, visionary philanthropists, mentors, and advisors dedicated to advancing human freedom and flourishing by supporting breakthrough ideas.
The Problem
The seed capital required to launch and scale bold new social initiatives is often insufficient and arrives too slowly. The dominant model of “strategic philanthropy” strongly favors multi-year plans, theories of change, KPIs, long-standing relationships, etc.—the domain of established institutions. In contrast, new social ventures require “venture philanthropy” that embraces risk and focuses on developing the founders who demonstrate they can produce breakthrough results.
Our Solution
Breakthrough Builders creates a new path for social ventures and venture philanthropy—identifying and investing in early-stage, breakthrough ideas that advance human freedom and flourishing. Click here to read our Breakthrough Builders Vision & Strategy.”
What Is Breakthrough Builders?
Principled Business, a 501(c)(3) organization, in partnership with The Athos Group, is building a national community of social venture founders, visionary philanthropists, and experienced advisors.
Breakthrough Builders identifies projects with transformative potential, provides the seed grants needed to launch them, and—through a cadre of mentors and a syndicate of philanthropists—helps turn bold ideas into real-world initiatives that advance human freedom and flourishing.
Our Approach
Social Venture Founders
We help entrepreneurs, innovators, and institution-builders pursue breakthrough ideas by providing seed grants ($10k-$50k per idea), strategic advice, and a network of philanthropists to help launch and scale their initiatives.
Visionary Philanthropists
Join a syndicate of philanthropists working together to support bold social venture founders with breakthrough ideas — aimed at building the institutions of a freer, more flourishing future.
Mentors
Our cadre of experienced mentors play a vital role by providing strategic guidance to founders and emerging ventures.
Leadership
Dr. Pano Kanelos
Founding and former president of the University of Austin (UATX), former president of St. John’s College, founding partner of the Athos Group
Chad Thevenot
Former executive director of the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), former senior vice president for advancement at UATX, and founding partner of the Athos Group
Alexander McCobin
Founder and president of Liberty Ventures, Principled Business, Conscious Capitalism, and Students for Liberty
Advisory Board
David Kirby
David Kirby is an entrepreneur, developer, school founder, and scholar. He is the founder of Acton Academy of Washington, DC, and serves as the executive director of the Acton Academy Foundation. He is also an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, where he conducts field experiments, studies governance, and researches public opinion.
Currently, David is working to develop walkable towns in school-choice states where families and innovative schools can flourish. He is an occasional public speaker, and his views have been featured across print, podcasts, and video media.
Tony Woodlief
Tony Woodlief is a Senior Fellow in State Policy Network’s Center for Practical Federalism, and President of Federalism in Action, which equips state and local leaders to push back against federal agency overreach. Previously he was an internal consultant in Koch Industries’ Market-Based Management Team, and President of its Market-Based Management Institute, where he led efforts to teach that management philosophy to students and business leaders, and help organizations apply it to elevate their performance.
Tony’s essays have been published in The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Washington Post, and elsewhere, and he has appeared on Fox News, CSPAN, The Scott Jennings Show, and radio programs across the U.S. He is the author of the book “I, Citizen: a Blueprint for Reclaiming American Self-Governance,” and the novel We Shall Not All Sleep. An alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tony holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Wichita State University.
David Scrymgeour
David Scrymgeour is an Executive in Residence at Saïd Business School and a Business Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment, Oxford University.
He is also currently appointed as an Adjunct Professor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Schools of Management and Engineering, University of Toronto.
For the majority of his career, David engaged as a trouble-shooter, consultant and founder of over a dozen organisations including, most recently, Green Standards Ltd; an award-winning move management company that provides circular economy solutions for corporate waste that benefit both community and environment.
Politically, David has served as National Director of the Conservative Party of Canada, start-up advisor to the Green Party of Ontario and election readiness trainer in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
He has also served on numerous boards and community organisations including Venture for Canada, The Cansbridge Foundation, Canadian Executive Services, MaRS Discovery District, The Belinda Stronach Foundation, The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust and the Anglican Church of Canada.
Jamie Jones
Jamie Jones is an oil and gas investor and entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of free markets and private enterprise to create broad-based prosperity and solve societal challenges traditionally left to government—such as education and economic development. He resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife Jandri and daughter Ellie.
Jamie graduated summa cum laude with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and earned an MBA with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. He began his career at American Airlines, followed by a stint at McKinsey & Company, before joining American Land and Minerals LLC as president in 2002. He acquired the company outright in 2004 and has led it ever since, building it into a firm that has acquired oil and gas mineral interests spanning all major producing basins in the continental United States.
Since 2010, Jamie has dedicated significant time to advancing economic liberty in Texas. He has founded, led, and collaborated with fellow business leaders on multiple initiatives to promote free-market solutions and reduce government overreach where private innovation can deliver better results.
Having seen firsthand the transformative impact of entrepreneurial effort in areas long considered the exclusive domain of government, Jamie is determined to accelerate more market-driven solutions by connecting groundbreaking companies with top-tier investors, donors, and family offices.
John Chisholm
John Chisholm Ventures advises and invests in entrepreneurs who are passionate about making the world a better place, and helps create market environments conducive to entrepreneurship worldwide. The firm is composed of technology entrepreneurs who have experienced firsthand the challenges, personal growth, and liberation that come with entrepreneurship, as well as the economic growth and improvements in quality of life it drives globally. They serve other entrepreneurs through consulting, angel investing, and mentoring.
Globally, John Chisholm Ventures promotes entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth in the developing world and improved quality of life in the developed world. The firm does this by advising global leaders and policymakers, promoting freedom and free markets, and raising concerns when regulation stifles entrepreneurship and innovation, reinforces the positions of entrenched market players at the expense of new entrants, or increases incentives to shift jobs elsewhere.
Examples of Breakthrough Ideas
Powering a bottom-up K–12 revolution that has supported 5,000+ micro-school founders in all 50 states, collectively reaching 5.5 million learners.
VELA Education Fund
Scaling the Apprenticeship Degree to help millions of working adults earn accredited B.A.s through their jobs, creating mass economic mobility.
Reach University
Unlocking innovation in higher education by addressing the primary choke point: accreditation. GAP is building the "Bitcoin of accreditation": a borderless, outcomes-based alternative to the Carnegie Unit.
Global Accreditation Project (GAP)
Breakthrough Builders Launch at
FreedomFest
July 8-11, 2026
Las Vegas
FreedomFest brings together thousands of leaders, entrepreneurs, thinkers, and philanthropists committed to the principles of freedom and human flourishing. Throughout the conference, Breakthrough Builders will host conversations, connect with founders and philanthropists, and share more about the vision behind this initiative.
If you will be attending FreedomFest, we would love to meet you there!