I'm Sam
Brownell
I design solutions to problems. The ones I care most about lift the people with the least and keep working without depending on anyone's generosity. CUCollaborate, the credit union service organization I founded in 2014, is the largest I've built.
Two commitments drive everything I do. The first comes from Rawls: judge any arrangement by how well it treats the people with the least. The second is practical: don't count on altruism to get there. People follow incentives more reliably than rules, so a solution that lasts has to make even the most aggressively self-interested person want to produce the right outcome. Credit unions are the cleanest test I know of the two together, which is why I've spent my career around them. Outside CUCollaborate I invest in and advise founders who share those commitments (Credit Mountain, acquired by MeridianLink in 2026, and Starlight), I'm forming a loan fund to help charter new credit unions, and I'm developing a consumer data cooperative.
What I
Do
Design
Design
Solutions to problems that lift the people with the least, and the ownership and incentive structures that keep an organization true to that mission for the long run.
Share
Share
I write those solutions up here, including the many I'll never have the time or capital to build myself, for anyone who wants to take one on.
Build
Build
When I have the ability, the time, and the capital to execute on an idea, I build it myself. CUCollaborate is the largest so far, and the Credit Union Formation Fund, a loan fund to help charter new credit unions, is in formation.
Back
Back
When someone else is building a product that serves the people who need it most, I help with whatever I can bring: expertise where it's relevant, capital, time, or all three. Credit Mountain and Starlight so far.