George Powell hated his name until he looked it up. It means farmer. In this episode of the Default Profitable podcast, host Matt Nettleton sits down with George Powell Jr., founder and CEO of Exponential Equity Group, an Indianapolis real estate development firm he describes as faith-driven, building affordable housing alongside churches, nonprofits, CDCs, and grassroots groups that have underused land and a vision but not the capital or the capacity to develop it. George spent most of his career in the vacation industry at RCI, working with resort developers and brokers, and toward the end he could feel a shift coming. His dad had planted real estate in him early. George worked for him in his twenties and later partnered with him on a portfolio that by 2020 was in distress, so he founded the company that year as a fix for the family holdings. Dad wasn’t ready for the fix. George asked what lane he was supposed to be in instead, and mentors in community development showed him one: single-family investment, then an affordable housing project in Anderson, then multifamily. The RCI building where he spent lunch breaks walking and dreaming up the company is now being demolished.

Learn more about George Powell Jr. and Exponential Equity Group at https://www.exponentialequitygroup.com/.

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