Sands Fellowship Forges Path to Purpose
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
As a social entrepreneur, Steven Kutz, ’22 MBA, aims to bridge needs across organizations to help create social change.
“I want entrepreneurs to know that nonprofits need for-profit partners, and I want nonprofits to know that there are entrepreneurs who are dedicated to solving the same problems as nonprofits,” says Kutz.
His latest venture, aptly named Common Good Investments, embodies this mission through its partnership with The Link, a Minneapolis nonprofit focused on ending youth homelessness. Kutz says his path through Minnesota Carlson set him on the trajectory that led him to this impactful collaboration.
From Veteran to MBA
Kutz’s purpose-driven mindset first led him to a career in the U.S. Army. After serving six years and reaching the rank of captain, Kutz enrolled in a dual-degree program at the University of Minnesota to earn his MBA from Minnesota Carlson and a Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Through Carlson’s Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, he learned of the Sands Family Social Venturing Fellowship, a program created by Bill and Susan Sands that awards grants to select Carlson MBA students to support their plans for new social ventures addressing community needs and challenges. As a Sands Fellow, Kutz pursued a proposal to help connect veterans to affordable housing.
“The issue was that I quickly disproved my veterans housing business model in class,” says Kutz. “Yet, instead of calling me a bad bet, the program surrounded me with staff and professors to ideate, gave me a dozen more people to talk to, and told me to find something else.”
Developing a Partnership
That “something else” eventually led Kutz in 2022 to connect with The Link and its Project Live Out Loud program, which is aimed toward youth experiencing homelessness who identify as LGBTQ+. Project Live Out Loud had dreams of owning a building to house youth in the program so they could form their own support networks. However, the program lacked the capital, time, and know-how to do so. That’s where Kutz stepped in.
Over the course of six months, Kutz developed a model that intertwined the needs of Project Live Out Loud (securing private physical space to connect with impacted youth) and private industry (achieving solvency, lowered risk, and returns). This culminated in Project Live Out Loud renting a building from Kutz and like-minded partners. Nine units in the building provide housing for those in the program, and the tenth unit serves as an office and community space to support programming and network-building among the youth.
“The hard work is done by the youth themselves, their case workers, and the program staff,” says Kutz. “Each day, the youth walk a tightrope between what life handed them in the past and future possibilities, if loved, guided, and housed properly. When someone comes homeless, jobless, and without a shower in weeks, and they leave with a full-time job, benefits, and an apartment they can afford, it’s not just a victory for them, it’s a victory for the entire community.”
A New Mission
Looking back, Kutz sees the Sands Fellowship at Minnesota Carlson as the pivotal experience that helped him find his next mission after the military and that paved the way for his work with The Link.
“There is purpose after active military service,” says Kutz. “I’m grateful that Carlson and the Sands Fellowship gave me the network and time to figure that out.”
Kutz is married with two young boys, remains in the Army Reserves, and is seeking new opportunities.