Table of Contents
Mike Beckham's Simple Modern generates $200M+ annually, but he drives a Honda CRV and donated $1M last year—because he discovered giving away money creates more happiness than spending it.
Despite building a $300M tumbler company, Mike Beckham lives on $25K monthly and plans to give away $190M of his $200M net worth, proving that strategic philanthropy can enhance both business success and personal fulfillment.
Key Takeaways
- Mike Beckham's Simple Modern has grown from $10M to $200M+ annual revenue in 9 years, with 40-50% profit margins making him worth approximately $200 million
- He personally donated over $1 million last year and plans to give away 95% of his wealth (~$190M) rather than accumulating for compound growth
- Simple Modern commits 10% of profits to charity and has donated $7 million total, using giving as employee motivation and company culture foundation
- Strategic charitable giving provides massive tax benefits—donating $1M effectively costs only $550K after tax savings, creating government-matched philanthropy
- Driving modest cars and avoiding lifestyle inflation helps maintain approachability and relationships, which Mike considers the core of quality of life
- Company giving structure democratizes philanthropy by allocating equal donation budgets to every employee, creating ownership and engagement across the organization
- Starting small with giving builds "sacrifice muscle" early—Mike bought $7 lunches for college students when it felt financially painful, preparing him for larger donations
- Effective charity evaluation uses business investor skills: finding entrepreneur-led nonprofits with sustainable models rather than traditional aid approaches that fail
Timeline Overview
- 00:00–03:41 — His Start in the Nonprofit World: Growing up with psychologist parents who prioritized helping people, making $18K annually while fundraising his own salary
- 03:41–06:46 — When and Why He Switched to Business: Brother's entrepreneurial success leading to QuiBids partnership, then founding Simple Modern with longtime friends
- 06:46–14:13 — Building Simple Modern's Success: $200K startup capital, hiring 14 friends from decade-long relationships, growing 75%+ annually for 12+ years
- 14:13–18:03 — Why He's Not Interested in Spending on Himself: Driving Honda CRV instead of luxury cars to maintain approachability, spending $25K monthly on lifestyle
- 18:03–22:18 — Why He Gives So Much: Viewing giving as "antidote to self-centeredness," building sacrifice muscle early, and creating meaning beyond wealth accumulation
- 22:18–24:43 — How Much He Donates: Personal giving over $1M annually, company donating 10% of profits, using donor advised funds for tax optimization
- 24:43–35:24 — The Benefits of Giving: Tax advantages making donations cost-effective, business benefits through employee motivation and culture building
- 35:24–END — Advice on How to Start: Beginning with small meaningful sacrifices, evaluating charities like business investments, focusing on time and money together
From $18K Nonprofit Worker to $200M CEO
Mike Beckham's journey to massive wealth began in the least likely place: making $18,000 annually at a nonprofit where he had to fundraise his own salary. His parents, a psychologist and social worker, embedded a crucial message: "We didn't pick the professions we did because we wanted to make money—we did it because we wanted to help people."
This foundation shaped Mike's approach to both business and wealth. Despite his finance background and natural aptitude for numbers, he spent his twenties in ministry work, learning to be "totally okay with having no money" while building relationships and finding fulfillment independent of resources.
"I got this gift in my 20s of kind of establishing a dream for my life and kind of a purpose for my life that wasn't centered around getting more stuff," Mike reflects. This perspective proved invaluable when wealth scaled dramatically.
The transition to business came through his entrepreneurial brother, who approached Mike to help build QuiBids while he was still in nonprofit work. "From my perspective God kind of changed things quite a bit on me and then all of a sudden I was in the business world."
Simple Modern emerged from Mike's desire to combine business success with meaningful relationships. Recognizing that work consumed most of his time, he decided to "intentionally go after people that I actually want to spend my time around." Of the first 15 employees, 14 were people he'd known for over a decade.
Starting with $200,000 in capital—enough to make Mike illiquid but not broke—the company has achieved extraordinary growth: $10M, $20M, $40M, $60M, $80M, $95M, $180M, and projecting $200-225M this year. "Out of the last 14 years through a crazy set of events I would say I've probably spent at least 12 of those growing a company at 75% or more year-over-year."
The Honda CRV Philosophy
Despite his $200 million net worth, Mike drives a two-year-old Honda CRV—a choice that reveals his sophisticated thinking about wealth and relationships.
"The difference between me driving a Tahoe or Tesla Plaid or something and a CRV in terms of the marginal enjoyment I'm going to get is pretty small, but in terms of how it might impact how approachable I feel as a person it might make me feel even less approachable."
This philosophy extends throughout his lifestyle. His wife drives a minivan, and Mike deliberately avoids purchases that create distance between himself and others. "I don't want to use my money to heighten the sense that I'm unapproachable or I'm different if anything I want to kind of decrease that because I want to be connected to people."
The approach reflects Mike's core insight about wealth: "After certain point of liquid net worth it's basically a kind of hypothetical exercise—the marginal utility of another million dollars if you have $20 million liquid is basically zero."
For Mike, that inflection point occurred around $5-10 million in liquid assets. Beyond that threshold, additional wealth doesn't meaningfully improve quality of life, making philanthropy a more logical allocation than accumulation.
His monthly spending reflects these priorities: approximately $25,000 on living expenses, with additional amounts supporting extended family and over $1 million annually in charitable giving. "I think I could live an exceptionally high quality life at $10,000 an expenditure a month I know I could."
Giving as Antidote to Self-Centeredness
Mike's motivation for radical giving stems from deep psychological insights about wealth's corrosive potential. He views charitable giving as preventive medicine against what he calls "the cancer that we have inside of ourselves."
"Our biggest enemy is managing self and specifically our own tendency towards self-centeredness and greed," Mike explains. "I have a little voice in my head that is like it's all about you do whatever you want anytime I intentionally choose to not put myself first... I turn the volume on that voice down."
This philosophy developed early through small sacrifices that felt genuinely painful. During his nonprofit years, Mike would buy college students $7 lunches despite tight finances: "I remember being like man buying this guy a $7 lunch right now feels financially painful but the thought that I had at the time was you don't get a chance to go back ever and take advantage of an opportunity to be generous."
These experiences built what he calls "sacrifice muscle"—the capacity to give away larger amounts as wealth increased. "As the money has scaled up that muscle has been there and has been able to kind of bear the weight of it."
The compound effect shapes identity over time: "I think these little decisions compound and you wake up and you're 45 like I am or you're 60 and you realize that who you are has been a bunch of these little decisions."
Mike's ultimate goal reflects this philosophy: giving away approximately $190 million of his $200 million net worth rather than accumulating for compound growth or family inheritance.
The Business Case for Corporate Giving
Simple Modern embedded charitable giving into its business model from day one, committing 10% of profits to philanthropy even during cash-strapped early years when "every dollar going out instead of into inventory" felt painful.
This decision wasn't purely altruistic—it created powerful business advantages through employee motivation and culture building. "When we do awesome work here you can draw a straight line from the work you're doing and somebody else's life being better," Mike explains to his team.
The company's giving structure democratizes philanthropy through multiple channels: employee committees make decisions on some donations, while every employee receives equal allocation for personal charitable choices. This approach creates ownership and engagement rather than top-down mandates.
The cultural impact translates directly to business performance: "We don't churn people people want to be here and people stay here... business is really a game of how many unbelievably talented people can you get together and how long can you keep them together."
Mike's approach mirrors Walmart's buyer training: visualizing millions of customers whose lives improve through the company's success. "When you're willing to go to the mattresses with a vendor over that three cents of price reduction... you're functionally taking those three cents and putting it into all these million of people's accounts."
The giving mission enables this motivation authentically: "We're not doing it for my third house... we're actually about something that matters and something that's bigger than ourselves."
To date, Simple Modern has donated approximately $7 million through this systematic approach.
Tax-Optimized Philanthropy Strategy
Mike's giving strategy leverages sophisticated tax planning that makes charitable donations extraordinarily cost-effective compared to personal spending.
"If I give away a million dollars it's basically like tax-free or another way of saying it is it's almost like taking whatever $550,000 and being able to give a million dollars away," he explains.
The mathematics are compelling: on $1 million income, paying taxes leaves $550,000 for personal use. Donating that same $1 million provides full tax deduction, effectively meaning "I took that $450,000 that Uncle Sam was going to get and that went to a charity."
Mike uses donor advised funds as his primary vehicle, allowing immediate tax deductions while maintaining flexibility about ultimate distribution timing. "I can write a check to my donor advised fund and I get all the tax deductions but then it can sit in the donor advice fund they can even be invested in stocks and grow over there while I figure out what to do with it."
This approach enables strategic giving rather than impulsive charity while maximizing tax efficiency. The funds can compound growth while awaiting deployment, creating additional resources for future philanthropy.
Evaluating Charities Like Investment Targets
Mike applies business investor skills to charitable evaluation, seeking entrepreneur-led nonprofits with sustainable models rather than traditional aid approaches that often fail.
His partnership with Water 4 exemplifies this approach. Traditional Western water charities "drill you a well and then we're going to throw a big party and then we're going to leave" resulting in "80% of wells being derelict within 18 months" due to lack of maintenance infrastructure.
Water 4's model creates sustainable business loops: "They drill the well they give it to the community but it's a business and it creates jobs and it creates income and that income maintains the well and then pays for future wells."
Mike's evaluation process involves extensive due diligence: "Over the last three or four years I've probably talked to a few hundred charities" through 30-minute phone calls, seeking founders who could "easily run 50 hundred million dollar companies but instead they just feel like hey I'm supposed to address the lack of housing in South America."
His areas of focus align with business expertise and values: clean drinking water (matching Simple Modern's product focus), education, human trafficking, and marginalized communities. The key criterion remains entrepreneurial leadership capable of creating systematic change rather than temporary relief.
Starting Small and Building Sacrifice Muscle
For those inspired to begin charitable giving, Mike emphasizes starting with meaningful sacrifice rather than comfortable amounts. "Giving is the most powerful in terms of the way that it transforms us when we feel some sense of sacrifice."
The challenge isn't necessarily monetary: "It is way more expensive for me to be generous with my time now than my money... when I give away my time that is way more costly and way more sacrificial often."
Mike's mentoring work, speaking with minority and female founders, and hands-on involvement require the scarcest resource: time. "I've got the money for a thousand lifetimes I've got the time for one lifetime."
For beginners, he recommends starting with small donations that create genuine sacrifice: "Even if it's like hey I'm going to find something I give $50 to and I can feel great about it" while building the psychological framework for larger giving as resources grow.
The key insight involves reframing giving from burden to opportunity: "Bias to action... going zero to one is always the hardest part the first two or three donations are going to be the hardest part because it's going to be figuring out hey what am I passionate about."
This approach builds sustainable giving habits rather than one-time gestures, creating compound impact through both donated resources and personal character development.
Legacy Beyond Wealth Accumulation
Mike's ultimate motivation transcends financial optimization or tax benefits—it centers on creating meaningful legacy through impact rather than inheritance.
"When I'm 75 and kind of all this is in the falling action how am I going to feel about how I use my time... I Die Tomorrow what does the funeral look like and what are people saying."
His vision involves strangers whose lives were improved: "I want to be the type of person that it's like hey when I'm 75 or when I'm in the casket there's a bunch of people I don't even know that are like hey actually that person was a part of impacting my life in a positive way."
This perspective challenges conventional wealth-building wisdom focused on compound growth and generational transfer. Mike's approach prioritizes present impact over future accumulation: "You can't be generous when you're dead generosity is when you're giving up the ability to use something for yourself today for the benefit of somebody else."
The philosophy extends to business success metrics. While Simple Modern continues growing rapidly, Mike measures success through relationships maintained, employee satisfaction, and charitable impact rather than pure financial returns.
His story demonstrates how strategic philanthropy can enhance rather than compromise business success while creating deeper personal fulfillment than wealth accumulation alone.
Common Questions
Q: How do you balance being generous in business while maintaining profitability?
A: Create clear mission alignment where business success directly enables charitable impact. When employees understand their work funds wells in Africa, they're motivated beyond personal gain while maintaining competitive edge.
Q: What's the tax benefit calculation for charitable giving?
A: Donating $1M costs approximately $550K after tax savings on high income. The government effectively matches 45 cents per dollar donated, making strategic giving highly cost-effective compared to personal spending.
Q: How do you evaluate which charities deserve donations?
A: Apply investor due diligence: seek entrepreneur-led nonprofits with sustainable business models rather than traditional aid approaches. Look for organizations that create systemic change rather than temporary relief.
Q: Should I wait until I have more money to start giving significantly?
A: Start with amounts that feel sacrificial now to build "giving muscle." The psychological framework for generosity develops through practice, not just increased resources.
Q: How do you maintain relationships while being wealthy?
A: Avoid lifestyle inflation that creates social distance. Drive normal cars, live modestly, and focus spending on experiences and relationships rather than status symbols that make you less approachable.
Conclusion
Mike Beckham's approach to wealth demonstrates how strategic philanthropy can create better business outcomes, deeper relationships, and personal fulfillment than traditional accumulation strategies.
His $200 million journey from nonprofit worker to successful CEO proves that giving away money—rather than hoarding it—often generates the greatest returns in the areas that matter most.
