Twenty months of nothing, then a rhythm that held
How four independent entrepreneurs from the same extended family found a practice that actually stuck
“Mom has an idea for how to make progress, especially in areas outside of a project owner's competency: the idea is for each of us to operate as a solo entrepreneur for our own projects and then as contractors for each other's projects.”
— Derek Scherer, relaying Julia's idea, September 11, 2020
Ed, Julia, Derek, and Jason agreed the same day. Ed's own reply named what he'd need most — accountability holding, sanity checks, “big picture” reviews, enthusiasm building — four of what later became Stewardship's five kinds of support, two and a half years before that word existed.
What followed was not a success story right away. For the better part of two years, the agreement produced frequent conversation and almost no recurring practice — an honest start, not a triumphant one.
The rhythm that actually stuck arrived in 2022: a standing Monday meeting, proposed in May, that members started calling the Heartbeat within weeks. A monthly in-person gathering — Demo Day — followed within a month, first held in August 2022 (a week late; Derek was sick).
Since then, it has held: Heartbeat activity almost every week since August 2022, and an unbroken monthly Demo Day thread since October 2023. Discord infrastructure, a charter, and a running annual theme (2025's was "No Excuses!"; 2026's is "Align!") grew up around the two meetings over the years that followed.
In their own words
In February and March 2026, all four members independently wrote their own purpose — five months before Kinvergence had a name
“To connect people to beauty, creativity, and truth so that, working together, we all flourish.”
— Julia Scherer“Use my analytical insight, empathy, and optimism to solve consequential problems — so others may flourish.”
— Ed Scherer“Equip the Worthy to Thrive.”
— Derek Scherer“…doing something as significant for the world as possible.”
— Jason Frailey“I hate meetings. but I look forward to FV meetings... I'm perfectly comfortable hanging out, saying anything. no stress about how people will judge me.” — Derek Scherer, 2026
In August 2026, we separated the general pattern behind that practice from the four of us specifically, named it Kinvergence, and published it so another family could run it too. This page tells SFV's own story; Kinvergence is where we wrote the pattern down.
