Kahlil (KB) Byrd
As a founder, CEO, and board director, Kahlil (KB) Byrd has successfully launched and scaled technology and data-enabled platforms across fintech and national politics. KB is a thought leader and driver in cross-partisan politics, innovation, investment, and social impact. KB leads Invest America, an investment and technology platform leveraging data, research, strategy, organizational design, and product development — taking on the country's hardest civic and economic problems. Its team of strategists, operators, investors, and institution-builders has range to design, launch, run, and scale any level of for-profit companies, nonprofits, and political organizations.
KB is the founder & CEO of Shur. Since launch in 2020, the team has built enduring anchor partnerships with major financial-services companies, cities, and states, and is driving the country's most comprehensive national data program focused on student loan borrowers in the American workforce. The “Shur Powered by…” platform is deployed through partnerships with cities and states and offers leaders and borrowers a suite of innovative credit-scoring, insurance, and financial advisory products and services. Core focus: build wealth for Professionals with Student Loans, pull them into economic and financial prominence, and bring overdue innovation to this moribund sector.
KB emerged as a national cross-partisan reform leader as founding CEO of Americans Elect. The $45 million initiative built the first-ever secure online presidential primary — a technology platform engineered to handle up to 30 million delegates. Under his leadership, more than 8,000 staff, contractors, and volunteers ran the largest signature drive in American history, putting the initiative on the ballot in 29 states with 2.6 million signatures representing 275 electoral votes. AmericansElect.org was awarded the 2012 SXSW People’s Choice Award and two CLIO Awards, and was covered by The New York Times, Bloomberg, and PBS. Americans Elect set the operating template animating KB's work since — civic mission, forward technology, private capital, and disruptive reform to take on national-scale problems.
KB is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he served as an International Affairs Fellow. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and the Harvard Kennedy School. He and his wife Sarah Haacke Byrd, CEO of the national nonprofit Women Moving Millions, live in Brooklyn.
Current Portfolio
The 80 (Founding Board Member) — a national Center-Left infrastructure initiative launching in 2027.
Unite NY (Board President) — a nonpartisan movement to build a stronger New York democracy through structural reform and more voice for the state's citizens.
With Honor (Board Member and Senior Advisor) — a cross-partisan organization fighting polarization in Congress by supporting principled veterans of both parties who serve with integrity, civility, and courage.
Voatz (Board Member and Investor) — a mobile and online voting platform that has served more than 5 million voters across public elections in 7 countries using hardware-based security, biometrics, and blockchain.
Shur (Founder & CEO) — a fintech reimagining financial wealth-building for 30 million Professionals with Student Loans in the US.