Hal Cato and Michael Burcham on Leadership, Partnership, and the Future of Nashville

In a special live recording of re:Purpose, Hal Cato and Michael Burcham sat down together publicly for the first time to reflect on leadership, entrepreneurship, nonprofit work, marriage, and the future of Nashville. 

What emerged was more than a conversation about business or philanthropy — it was an honest look at purpose, partnership, and what it takes to build a city where more people feel seen, valued, and connected.

From startup failures and nonprofit challenges to belonging, purpose, and partnership, the conversation reveals what happens when two leaders from different worlds share a common commitment to community.

The Tailspin:

For Michael Burcham and Hal Cato, leadership has never fit neatly inside a single lane.

Michael built his reputation as an entrepreneur and investor, helping shape Nashville’s startup ecosystem and founding the Entrepreneur Center after struggling to raise capital for his own companies in the early 1990s.

“I was either too young, or never done it before,” Michael shares. “I wasn't from the right family and it was hard to find advisors.”

That frustration eventually became fuel.

“I had promised myself after I sold my second company and I had some time that I would do it.”

But starting the Entrepreneur Center taught him something unexpected.

“Boy, did I ever learn how hard it is to run a nonprofit,” he jokes. “Because I was used to being in charge, and if there's anything you are not when running a nonprofit, it is in charge.” 

Hal, who has spent decades leading organizations like Oasis Center, Thistle Farms, and now the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, immediately understood the difference.

“Running a not-for-profit and running a business, they're two different sports,” he says.

For Hal, nonprofit leadership starts somewhere many businesses don’t.

“Presence has to proceed strategy in a nonprofit,” Hal shares. “Until they know that you care and until you've built that trust, you're not going to go anywhere together.”

That lesson traces back to childhood. In fourth grade, Hal visited a senior citizens home during the holidays carrying cupcakes he had baked for residents. The woman assigned to him was diabetic and couldn’t eat any of them.

“I remember thinking, I got nothing to offer her,” he recalls. “But she was so glad that I was there.”

That moment stayed with him.

“The cupcakes didn't matter. My presence was the gift.”

Meanwhile, Michael’s understanding of purpose was shaped by entrepreneurship itself.

“I view entrepreneurship as the great liberator of anyone,” he says. “I grew up on a dirt farm in Mississippi with my grandmother. Entrepreneurship was a ticket for me out of poverty and to have opportunity.”

Those early experiences would eventually guide both men toward leadership rooted less in titles and more in service.

The Work:

Though they operate in different sectors, Hal and Michael have spent years wrestling with many of the same questions: How do you build trust? How do you scale impact? And how do you keep people at the center while navigating growth and pressure?

Michael learned quickly that nonprofit leadership demanded a very different skill set than business. Hal agreed.

“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Hal shares.

That philosophy shaped his leadership at Oasis Center and later at Thistle Farms, where he intentionally spent nearly a year learning the culture before trying to make major changes.

“They handed me an org chart in the shape of a flower and I wanted to immediately start fixing it,” he recalls. “I knew if I'd tried to start fixing it, it wasn't going to work. So it was 11 months of learning how to pour candles and mowing grass and sitting in a circle and all those things — that presence so they could trust me.”

Trust, he says, can’t be rushed.

“Once they trust you, they've handed you a glass ball literally that you cannot break in this sector.”

Michael’s work building the Entrepreneur Center came with its own moments of near collapse. At one point, he was down to “about two months of cash,” personally funding much of the organization while trying to convince Nashville to believe in entrepreneurship.

Then came a devastating lawsuit threat from a national publication over the word “entrepreneur” in the organization’s name.

“That was probably my single lowest moment at the Center because it's like I can't even get local attention, and now I got a national player wanting to sue me because I've got the word entrepreneur in my name and it was just devastating.”

Desperate, Michael cold-called AOL founder Steve Case fourteen times before finally getting a response.

“He flew his plane down, spent the day with me and the governor and the mayor.”

That connection eventually helped secure a $1 million investment from Google and turned the organization around.

For Hal, one of the defining moments came during the 2008 financial crisis, when Oasis Center’s building campaign looked doomed before it even started.

Instead of retreating, he partnered with multiple nonprofits to launch a shared capital campaign.

“What if instead of trying to send young people out to the mountains, we brought the mountains to one place.”

Together, the coalition raised $7 million in seven months during the worst recession since the Great Depression.

“What happens when we come together to do what no one individual can do on their own,” Hal says, “magic happens.”

The Tailwind:

Today, both men remain deeply invested in Nashville’s future — and deeply aware of the tensions shaping it.

Michael does worry about exclusion and division.

“I think the table's big enough for everyone,” he says. “It bothers me when individuals are marginalized because of who they are, the color of their skin, who they love. It just bothers me because our country's bigger than that and our city is bigger than that.”

For him, Nashville’s strength comes from its diversity of ideas, backgrounds, and experiences, but the city’s future depends on its willingness to listen.

“This is a melting pot of humanity in Nashville,” Michael argues. “Well, let's get together and write Nashville's story together. I think that is a perfect metaphor for Music City.”

Hal also sees a city still full of possibility — but increasingly divided by affordability and access.

“I don't want to live in a city where you've got two classes of people,” Hal says. “And I increasingly see that growing — where those who are living their best life and can't wait for the next restaurant opening and those who don't know how they're going to fill their car up with gas so they can get to that restaurant and serve the other.”

The challenge, he argues, isn’t a lack of caring or resources.

“We have a coordination problem. And it’s going to take philanthropy and business and government to sort of open the kimono a bit and talk about where we're each struggling and that's hard,” he suggests. “Leaders don't like to talk about what they're not good at and to share power and to say, ‘I need help,’ but we have got to get there.”

And yet, both remain hopeful because of how Nashville responds when people need each other most.

“What gives me hope about Nashville,” Hal says, “is the way we continue to honor and lift up diversity in this town — no matter the noise that comes in that says you can't talk about that — we do and we take care of one another and we look out for one another and make sure that it is a city where people belong.” 

For Michael, hope lives in the light of helping one another.

“When there's trouble, we show up,” he says. “The most hopeful part of our spirit is let's keep showing up. But let's just don't wait for the next disaster. Let's deal with what we have today rather than being disaster focused, let's be one another focused.”

In the end, our conversation wasn’t just about business, nonprofits, or leadership. It was about partnership — in work, in marriage, and in community.

“When I step back and look at it from this viewpoint this morning, I don't think either of us would be here without the other,” Hal offers. 

Without hesitation, Michael agrees. “That was a perfect answer.”

To hear more from Hal Cato and Michael Burcham on entrepreneurship, nonprofit leadership, Nashville’s future, and what it means to lead together, listen to the full episode of re:Purpose with Buddy Teaster.