RT Hall

Class of 2025

Wabash College
Mathematics

Why did you choose ESTEEM?

I chose ESTEEM for the opportunity to turn my passion for entrepreneurship into a career. In my undergraduate experience, I had the opportunity to work in a number of roles that allowed me to see corporate innovation firsthand. It’s my hope that through ESTEEM’s ability to provide experiential learning and immersive experiences in entrepreneurial ecosystems, I’ll be able to better apply those lessons to the startup world.

What is your capstone project?

Throughout the first quarter of the 21st century, the concern with sourcing investment opportunities that align with one’s ethical and social values has become a prominent aspect of investing behavior. For Catholics, the issue has become front-of-mind.

Since 2011, IWP Capital has found itself on the cutting edge of Catholic-values investing, initially offering investment screening for institutional clients hoping to invest within the bounds of Catholic Social Teaching, but evolving to expand their mission into proxy voting and corporate engagement.

Finding success in the institutional investing space, IWP now looks to democratize this experience, developing a tool for individual investors. This capstone seeks to test the efficacy of this plan with the retail investing app Sanctify. The student will first and foremost seek to quantify demand for screening materials amongst the Catholic consumer demographic. Next, the student will look to identify a specific target market within that demographic and subsequently design a go-to-market strategy. Considerable attention will be paid to better understanding the customer’s previous investment behavior in order to better tailor the product to their needs. 

What do you hope to do after ESTEEM?

Ultimately, my goal post-ESTEEM is to be a founder, whether that insight comes immediately or down the road is unclear. Whatever I’m working on though, I hope to find myself in a role where I get to approach each day with a builder’s mindset, get to consistently see the impact of my work in my community, and am able to work for a mission that makes the world a better place.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Really, I’m just a big fan of getting outdoors whenever I have the opportunity. I’d consider myself a true Hoosier and I’ll rarely turn down the opportunity for a game of pickup basketball or euchre as a result.