WealthForge Press Release

WealthForgeOnline.com Forges Ahead With Launch Despite Young Founder’s Deployment to Middle-East

By: Josh Eure

A successful business requires capital, legs to stand on.  Certainly options abound—from angel investors to venture capital funds—when the required amount exceeds $1-2 million, but for anything below, outside support can prove difficult to find.  And it is with this in mind that University of Richmond Business School graduate Fred Bryant conceived of WealthForge, a social online platform designed to connect limited entrepreneurs with potential investors.  Through www.wealthforgeonline.com, CEO Onnie Carr and the rest of the WealthForge team are poised to change the start-up investment game forever.  But there is more to this story.

            WealthForge founder 2^nd Lt. Fred Bryant currently serves in the U.S. Army Reserves, and is being deployed to Afghanistan for a one year tour, despite the fact that his company is set to launch in Q3 of 2011.  Bryant served with the Reserved Officer Training Corps (ROTC) while attending the University of Richmond, and says that “although I have stepped aside from day-to-day activities to focus on my number one priority, serving the nation, the culture of WealthForge is built on integrity, determination and respect.”

            Perhaps it is Bryant’s overwhelming sense of duty and patriotism that initially inspired Carr—a business owner and securities expert thirty years Bryant’s senior—to join WealthForge.  Due to Bryant’s absence, Carr will guide the new company as its CEO into the public this fall. 

            “Fred is so patriotic,” Carr said.  “He ran a marathon in full army gear this past spring.” 

            Bryant’s great-great uncle Edward Pfeiffer was one of thousands killed in the Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese during WWII.  So Bryant ran in the 22^nd annual Bataan Memorial Death March Marathon at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on March 27^th in honor of his family’s service. 

            “It was a great experience to participate in [the] race,” Bryant said, “but especially thrilling for me as there were 15 Bataan survivors who attended.  They greeted the runners, and it was a great honor to meet them.”

            A 23-year-old U.S. serviceman with a sharp sense of civic honor and determined entrepreneurial spirit seems almost too good to be true.  But Fred Bryant is unwavering in both his military pride and his resolve to open the gates for increased investment for small start-up businesses. 

            “Think of WealthForge as a social medium, like Match.com or Facebook,” Carr said.  “Only we’re connecting ideas with potential capital.  Before, if a person’s family wanted to invest in their business concept, there were countless hoops to jump through.  WealthForge solves that problem.” 

            With federal taxes being levied on gifts exceeding $13,000, this transparent and public engine will offer comfort and a well-detailed paper trail, a decided benefit to any risk-oriented endeavor.  The usability of www.wealthforgeonline.com is another bonus, with readily available information, and a seamless interface to get the entrepreneur or investor started.

            Today’s economic climate is uncertain and ever changing, to be sure, so it is companies like WealthForge that are desperately needed.  An online social network designed to nurture small business ventures and investors reads like some distant beacon of economic hope.  WealthForge, however, can and will foster small business growth, creating countless job opportunities along the way.

-Posted with permission from Rebecca Antonelli