Invest Fest 2025 In Atlanta Merges Pop Culture And Financial Literacy

Invest Fest 2025 Merges Pop Culture And Financial Literacy

Photography by @Caligrafist

I recently attended Invest Fest 2025 in Atlanta, a three-day financial and cultural event created by Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, founders of the Earn Your Leisure platform. The festival drew more than 25,000 attendees daily, offering a unique blend of pop culture and financial literacy. The event’s impressive lineup of performances, panels, keynote addresses, and a pitch competition all served to make financial education more accessible.

A Different Approach

“That’s the thesis: pop culture meets business,” said Bilal in an interview, talking about Earn Your Leisure and Invest Fest. He added that people were often excluded from financial literacy and business conversations, not because they are bad entrepreneurs, but because of the language and the access. He said the intersection of pop culture and business that Invest Fest fosters is a way to “democratize” access to business and financial literacy.

“We go to conferences, we go to different types of summits, but none of them have mixed business and culture together. We like entertainment, we like business, we like food, we like having places to patron with each other,” added Millings about the idea for Invest Fest. “So rather than have a conference that’s in a traditional conference room in a hotel, we said, ‘Let’s get a convention center and we can combine all those things.’”

Star-Studded

Now in its fifth year, Invest Fest did just that —combining various elements that entertain and inform.

The main stage hosted a lineup of notable figures from business and culture, including Magic Johnson, Jack Dorsey, Issa Rae, Steve Harvey, Ian “The Master Inventor” Dunlap, Charlamagne tha God, and Matt “The Mortgage Guy,” who is also a co-founder of Invest Fest.

One of the weekend’s most discussed moments was a candid conversation between Steve Harvey and Charlamagne tha God, who discussed topics related to wealth, legacy, and cultural accountability.

Helping Entrepreneurs

A key highlight of the festival was the pitch competition, which awarded a combined $250,000 in seed capital to two businesses. Lola Vision Systems, an AI chip company that also provides STEM education, and Swish Vo, a holistic healing platform, each received $125,000.

“This funding accelerates development of our AI chiplets for drones, defense, and autonomous systems – proving U.S.-designed semiconductors can deliver world-class performance in contested environments while staying power-efficient and secure,” said Tayo Adesanya, founder and CEO of Lola Vision Systems. “For us, it’s not just about scaling a company – it’s about strengthening the technological backbone for national security and future autonomy.”

The pitch competition was sponsored by Paul Judge and his company, Open Opportunity Fund. It was judged by a panel that included Bilal and Millings, as well as rapper 2 Chainz, entrepreneur Angela Simmons, and Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown.

“Serving as a judge at this year’s Invest Fest’s pitch competition was truly inspiring and insightful. Hearing so many bold ideas and seeing the impactful work contestants are doing to shape the future was powerful,” said Brown in an online interview. “The culture Earn Your Leisure is creating with Invest Fest is special, one that embodies community, education, and creativity, and is setting the stage for the future,” he added.

The Heart Of The Festival

Beyond the main stage and pitch competition, the festival’s Vendor Marketplace featured more than 400 small businesses. Event organizers described the marketplace as the heartbeat of the festival, highlighting its role in fostering networking and deal-making.

“People come here to network. They come to get ideas. They come to hopefully get capital. But most importantly, they come to commune with people who are like-minded,” said Millings.

Aside from the pitch funding, the festival distributed an additional $25,000 in grants by Bevel, bringing the total direct capital awarded over the weekend to $275,000.

There was also a focus on topics such as AI, cryptocurrency, investing, and content creation, which were highlighted as key jobs of the future. The festival also contributed to youth empowerment by providing an all-expenses-paid trip for 40 middle school students from the Roads to Success program in the Bronx to attend the event.

On With The Mission

The festival, which began with 5,000 attendees in its first year, has seen significant growth. “Every year it’s growing. This is our biggest one yet,” shared Millings. “We are truly blessed to be in a position to provide a place. One of the speakers said earlier: ‘Somebody needs you to become who you are, so they can become who they are,’ and so that’s what it feels like we’ve accomplished.”

Earn Your Leisure’s mission to extend financial literacy education continues this fall, with a brand new Hulu series called “Foundation Forward,” where Bilal and Millings answer money questions and provide mentorship to young adults and Gen Z. The series is produced by Mass Appeal in partnership with Chase Bank.