Robin John has come a long way, both literally and figuratively.
John, now husband to Juanita and father to four children, spent the first eight years of his life in the impoverished state of Kerala in southern India.
The lights would shut off at seven o’clock each night in the bathroom-less house, often beginning a time of prayer and hymn-singing with John’s bedmates – his brother and grandfather, a Christian pastor. John recalls those early years as a foundation for his faith.
“It was a very simple life,” John said. “And I really value that part of my life just because of the time with my grandparents. What I saw in them was generosity, contentment, loving others.”
Today, John leads investment firm Eventide from a 42nd-floor office in downtown Boston.
But his story is far from the typical rags-to-riches arc, mostly because it wasn’t riches that he chased to get there.
Hear how Robin John's story led him to lead Eventide Investments, and the God-glorifying vision behind the firm in our full conversation:
John prayed many times as a young man for God to call him to pastoral ministry like his grandfather had been. The desire came partly because of the pedestal pastors and missionaries had been placed on in his world, and partly because he didn’t know how else he could make an impact for God’s kingdom.
Years later, after multiple professional stops at well-known financial institutions, John still craved direction.
He and his friend Finny Kuruvilla had been leading a house church in Boston for five years. Both held prestigious degrees from top universities, including John’s economics degree from Tufts University and Kuruvilla’s credentials from Harvard, MIT, and Caltech. But both were unsettled.
John had seen the underbelly of the profit-first greed that dominated the financial world, and Kuruvilla had become disillusioned with the Western medical field.
“I started asking myself the question, ‘What am I doing here? Am I just trying to make myself richer? Am I just working to make rich people richer?’ So again, I started praying that God would call me into ministry,” John said.
But the call never came. Instead, through weekly fasting and prayer with Kuruvilla, the pair felt led by God to start an investment firm together.
The two were committed to a Biblical approach to the work from the beginning, agreeing to avoid investments that hurt others in some way, to “avoid ill-gotten gain.” Eventide's slogan, “invest without compromise,” was finalized along with everything else two weeks ahead of the new firm’s official launch.
But a new friend, Tim Weinhold, would quickly challenge how John and Kuruvilla thought about being faithful stewards in their new venture.
“Tim said, ‘That’s great, but why are you only asking the question about what you’re not investing in? If investing is the allocation of capital, should you not be asking the question about where you’re actually investing your dollars?’ Then he asked, ‘Imagine if God were on the earth investing, where would God invest?’ I think that’s the most important question that Tim or anybody has asked in the history of Eventide,” John said.
“If God were on earth teaching, investing, engineering, whatever it is, is this the way that God would do it?”
And so, John, Kuruvilla, and Jason Myhre, their third founding member, steered the fledgling ship in a new direction.
John points to scripture as the cornerstone of that mission, referencing the creation account in Genesis where humanity is called to be fruitful, to partner with God in good work. Then, he emphasizes the “royal law of scripture” to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The team then formulated who those neighbors are in their investment work: customers, employees, supply chains, host communities, the environment, and society.
“We’re seeking to invest in companies that are creating value for all of these stakeholders, and we seek to avoid investing in companies that are profiting by exploiting any one of the neighbors, these stakeholders,” John explained.
New opportunities quickly came into focus as Eventide honed its screening process to analyze investments to identify God-honoring interests, enabling the firm to do “investing that makes the rejoice.”
About 70% of the S&P 500, made up of the 500 largest companies publicly traded in the U.S., was taken off the board. Additionally, 50% of the Russell 2000, the top mid-sized public companies in the U.S., was eliminated from consideration.
Eventide won’t contribute to anything connected to what they deem to be against Biblical values, such as abortion, pornography, and gambling, nor will they invest in gray areas, or anything that does not directly advance human flourishing and glorify God.
In short, Eventide only invests in what is qualified as clearly good.
The first five years of business were harrowing. The Eventide team scraped and clawed their way to credibility in that time, surviving through the founders risking their life savings and John putting his wedding on a credit card.
But a commitment to Godly investing bore fruit in abundance. In their 18th year of operation, Eventide now has more than $6.5 billion under management for a swelling investor base.
The success reaches beyond profit, John says. Many a Gospel conversation has been had with employees, potential investors or clients, and others in the business world. John has learned to be clear and bold in his explanation of the “why” behind Eventide’s investment philosophy, allowing more opportunity to spread God’s goodness in a world that desperately needs it.
If nothing else, John’s story and Eventide’s success is proof positive that work often seen as “secular” can be an act of worship, a tool for God’s kingdom to bloom, and a light in the darkness.
“Someday when we stand before God, I want to hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ because we are made in the image of a good God and we are called to be good in our work,” John concluded. “My biggest prayer is that this message would reach the Church, that it would reach the marketplace, that we can invest to make the world rejoice.”
John tells his story and further details the vision behind Eventide in his book “The Good Investor”, which was released in 2025.
For more information on the book or tools on faithful investing, visit the Good Investor website. To learn more about Eventide, click here.
