Redemptive Imagination Studio

a design and innovation studio, Organizing to address the major issues of our time.






The Redemptive Imagination Studio is home to Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) building their next venture, as well as regular sessions for Praxis community members to think, build, and create together at key inflection venture and vocational points.

At different times in history, creative groups have gathered to build together in ways that shaped the society around them, often advancing countercultural ideas and breakthrough innovations through dynamic relationships. Our vision is for the Studio to be one of these environments, rooted in a physical center in NYC that hosts the Praxis community.

We began Praxis because we believed it was vital for Christians to address the major issues of our time—and we believe it more than ever.

Since 2018, Praxis has prototyped programs and content to explore how to do this more directly through ventures. We’ve activated redemptive imagination at the earliest stages of venture formation, led design sprints with Portfolio ventures after their Accelerator program, and supported funders in building redemptive capital allocation frameworks.

During that time, we’ve worked in close partnership with founders to start over a dozen ventures. Our three most recent Studio-launched startups address caregiving, sexual exploitation, and digital discipleship. Collectively, these ventures—two businesses and one nonprofit—have raised over $25M in outside capital, including one we dreamed up with an innovative foundation and recruited a Founder/CEO to lead. Most importantly, they are well underway to shifting the norms and narratives of their respective issues.

The Redemptive Imagination Studio is a design and innovation studio for redemptive entrepreneurship that aims to discover and articulate the major issues of our time and creatively respond with venture-building, community-forming, content-shaping activity. Our initial list of 34 Opportunities for Redemptive Imagination (ORIs) acts as the organizing scheme for the Studio. Our gatherings include the following:

ORI Forums are focused on a single ORI, inviting leaders to learn about active projects in the sector, articulate an ORI Thesis, generate new ideas for ventures and content, and activate collaboration in our community.

Discovery Sessions are for members of the Praxis community who have founded and built transformational businesses and nonprofits and are exploring new ideas that may shape their future vocation or venture. Each 3-day, 2-night agenda is curated around a set of talks intended to generate multi-disciplinary insight around what Christians should build in the world.

Design Sessions provide Portfolio Fellows, Studio EIRs, and other builders in the community with a 24-hour whiteboard sprint with Praxis Partners to help design their strategy for an inflection point in their work as they tackle one of the major issues of our time.
Mel Murray
Praxis is an organic, thriving community of radical believers committed to restoring God’s vision for commerce in our present times—and it has been the catalyst for a growing movement of redemptive entrepreneurs throughout rural, marginalized communities in Asia.

Mel Murray

Partner, Global Community, Praxis

2016 Business Accelerator Fellow, 2019 Entrepreneur-In-Residence

Jessica Kim
Being an EIR in the Venture Lab was unlike any other startup formation process I've been through before. This is my third venture from scratch—but here I built the foundations of our venture by exploring the history, culture, and dynamics of caregiving, with a brilliant PhD scholar, a spiritual director, and expert mentors. It also played a significant role in my healing and intent as a founder.

Jessica Kim

Co-Founder & CEO, ianacare

2018 Venture Lab EIR

Praxis Labs | Jessica Kim

ianacare

Jessica Kim

2018 Entrepreneur-in-Residence

examples from the STUDIO

IANACARE

ianacare is a virtual care team for caregivers of people enduring prolonged illnesses. While caregivers are undeniably the invisible backbone of the healthcare system, they lack adequate structures of support. Our AI-powered care manager, “iana,” helps caregivers navigate the complexities of caregiving by providing much-needed coordination, on-demand clinical and non-clinical guidance, and community with other caregivers.

tether

Peter Court

2021 Entrepreneur-in-Residence

examples from the STUDIO

TETHER

Tether is a new digital platform leveraging technology to develop spiritually mature and deeply connected Christians. We believe that the regular practice of spiritual disciplines with others leads to flourishing and spiritual maturity over time.