Episode Title: Marks on the Market: What’s Really Going On in Private Credit? | Kyle Brown

Hosts: Richard Cunningham, John Coleman, Luke Roush Guest: Kyle Brown, CEO, Trinity Capital (TRIN)

Key Topics:

• The private credit market has grown 6X in the last decade — but headlines conflating software-sector turbulence with systemic credit risk are getting the story wrong
• How 90% of institutional allocations have flowed to just 12 companies and 50 funds, creating compressed spreads, race-to-the-bottom pricing, and concentrated risk in mega-cap private credit
• Why Trinity Capital's ~20% loan-to-value and ~1x ARR attachment rate on software leaves them well-positioned compared to over-leveraged competitors
• The AI infrastructure picks-and-shovels play: how Trinity is financing GPUs and power-generation equipment on 24–36 month fully amortizing loans to sidestep speculative overbuild risk
• Software incumbency in the age of AI — why enterprise systems of record are far more resilient than headlines suggest, and where the real vulnerability lies (point solutions)
• The US macro outlook: GDP at 2%, unemployment near long-term average, global capital flowing to America — and why all three hosts remain constructively bullish

Direct Quotes from Kyle Brown:

"Private credit over the last 10 years has grown 6X. It's projected to continue growing at a rapid pace. It's being confused as one big monolith and it's really not that at all. It's a massive and robust diversified marketplace now."

"The thing that we're missing out on and that we need to add to that balance sheet is our oodles... Because when you're on your deathbed, you're not talking about that great IRR you made on that stock investment or what you did in your IRA. You're telling stories."

"We're in the middle of a technological revolution and it's just a shame that culture wars and some of the stuff that is going on is getting in the way of what is really an amazing opportunity for anybody who wants to go and do something, who has an idea, who wants to build."

Episode Description:

Kyle Brown, CEO of publicly traded Trinity Capital (TRIN), joins Richard Cunningham, John Coleman, and Luke Roush for the May edition of Marks on the Market — and he brings a clear-eyed diagnosis of what's actually driving private credit volatility, what the headlines are getting wrong, and how Trinity has navigated one of the most turbulent environments in the asset class's short history.

The conversation opens with a deep dive into the structural forces reshaping private credit: a 6X decade of growth, 90% of institutional money concentrating in fewer than 50 funds, zero-interest-rate-era cost of capital that no longer exists, and a retail investor base encountering alternatives market gates for the first time. Brown explains why software-sector fears — while not entirely unfounded — are being misread as a system-wide credit crisis, and how Trinity's conservative underwriting (averaging ~20% LTV across the portfolio) positions them very differently from over-leveraged peers.

From there, the conversation pivots to AI infrastructure investing, the US macroeconomic outlook, the US-China summit, and — in a closing rapid-fire segment — what God has been teaching each host and guest in His Word. Brown closes with a meditation on "oodles," his invented economic unit of enjoyment, drawn from the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12 — a reminder that no balance sheet is complete without the investments we make in the people we love.

Host Luke Roush sits down with Kyle Kutz, Private Family Office Director, Senior Family Office Advisor, and Senior Partner at Blue Trust — a faith-driven wealth advisory firm managing $60 billion in assets across 11,000 client families nationwide. Together, they unpack what it looks like to build wealth with an eternal purpose, define a financial finish line, and break the cycle of anxiety that wealth can bring.

Key Topics:

• What it means to have a "financial quarterback" and why every wealth-building family needs one on their team
  
• The "financial finish line" concept — defining how much is enough so generosity can take the lead
  
• Why financial independence can become spiritually toxic, and how biblical wisdom offers a better framework
  
• Navigating wealth across generations: how every family member can be "Gen 1 in something"
  
• How Blue Trust celebrated over $450 million in collaborative client giving in a single year — and their goal to reach $2 billion annually by decade's end

Notable Quotes:

"A lot of times our clients will describe us as their comprehensive financial quarterback — someone who steps in with families who've experienced wealth and complexity and have a lot of moving parts." — Kyle Kutz

"People can spend so much of their time and life growing the financial capital side of their balance sheet, but ignoring the non-financial capital items — the spiritual capital, the social capital, the intellectual capital, the relational capital." — Kyle Kutz

"Financial independence in its truest form is independence from greed, independence from being complacent, independence from fear." — Kyle Kutz

About Kyle Kutz: Kyle Kutz serves as Private Family Office Director, Senior Family Office Advisor, and Senior Partner at Blue Trust, a faith-driven financial advisory firm founded by Ron Blue in 1979. With $60 billion in assets under advisory, 20 offices nationwide, and over 11,000 client families, Blue Trust is one of the preeminent faith-driven wealth management firms in the country. Kyle works with high-complexity entrepreneurial families, helping them move through a process of Clarity → Alignment → Peace of Mind while stewarding their financial, spiritual, and relational capital with intentionality.

Description:

What happens when the advisor sitting across the table from you doesn't just understand your estate plan — but also your eternal purpose? Kyle Kutz of Blue Trust has spent his career as a "comprehensive financial quarterback" for families navigating the complexity of significant wealth, and in this conversation with Luke Roush, he unpacks what that actually looks like in practice. From defining a financial finish line to equipping next-generation inheritors with identity and calling, this episode is a masterclass in faith-driven stewardship.

Kyle and Luke explore the idea that financial independence — properly understood — isn't about accumulating enough to need nothing; it's about independence from greed, fear, and complacency. They also dig into the tent analogy for multi-generational giving, the home-going plan Blue Trust uses to prepare families for legacy, and why encouraging clients to give generously has only deepened relationships and grown the firm.

Whether you're a first-generation wealth creator, a next-generation inheritor still finding your footing, or an advisor trying to serve families with both technical excellence and biblical wisdom, this episode will challenge and equip you for the stewardship journey ahead.

Faith Driven Investor Podcast | Ep. 221 | Marks on the Market: The State of Faith-Based Investing in Public Markets — with Tim Macready of Brightlight

Key Topics:

• The mixed performance picture for faith-based funds in 2025 — the average faith-based fund underperformed by just under 2.5%, driven largely by exclusions of Magnificent Seven stocks — and why that context matters for long-term investors
• How a $140 billion market representing less than half a percent of the broader ETF/mutual fund landscape signals an enormous untapped opportunity for faith-driven capital
• The shift from product-focused exclusionary screening toward engagement and "embrace" strategies — and why shareholder proxy voting and active engagement are now the frontier of faith-based investing
• The growing need for theological clarity in fund screening — from the "big five" traditional screens to harder modern questions around online child safety, human trafficking, and Mag Seven holdings
• The "core satellite" portfolio framework Tim recommends: low-cost, passive, well-screened exposure at the core, with active engage/embrace strategies at the satellite — and why this approach is now achievable with ETFs alone

Guest Quotes:

"I think two things can simultaneously be true as believers. I think we ought to be willing to make sacrifices in order to express our faith in the way that we live. And at the same time, in the faith-based investing space, I believe we ought not need to — that there should be excellent products that are delivering performance that is kind of aligned to the broader market." — Tim Macready

"The variety in the decision-making around screens is a strength of the market rather than a weakness." — Tim Macready

"Watch this space, I think, for more developments there." — Tim Macready (on the emerging "nutrition label" approach to faith-based fund disclosures)

Episode Description:

What does the state of faith-based investing in public markets actually look like heading into 2026? Tim Macready, Head of Global Advisory at Brightlight, joins Richard Cunningham and Luke Roush for the April edition of Marks on the Markets to break down Brightlight's third annual research report — the most comprehensive institutional analysis of faith-driven public markets investing available.

Tim unpacks a nuanced performance picture: the average faith-based fund delivered 16% returns in 2025, but underperformed its benchmark by nearly 2.5% — primarily because many funds excluded several of the Magnificent Seven companies that drove outsized market gains. He explains why this underperformance mirrors patterns seen in the early 2010s, and why history suggests a more favorable environment may be ahead as markets broaden beyond mega-cap growth stocks.

Beyond performance, this conversation is a masterclass in the evolving structure of the faith-based investing market — from the ETF product explosion and the "core satellite" portfolio approach, to the theological questions fund managers must answer about screens, engagement, and what it truly means to invest to the glory of God. Whether you're a financial advisor navigating client conversations or a faith-driven investor trying to align capital with conviction, this episode delivers both the data and the framework.