They Offered Me a Raise to Hide My Faith: Andrew Crapuchettes on Faith, Freedom, and Standing His Ground

What happens when the company you helped build tells you that your personal beliefs are no longer welcome in the workplace?

For entrepreneur Andrew Crapuchettes, that question became a reality. After nearly two decades helping build a successful business, he says he was given an extraordinary choice: keep his Christian faith out of the workplace and receive a raise, or risk losing the leadership position he had worked so hard to earn.

He refused to compromise.

In this episode of Nothing Left Unsaid, Andrew joins former NFL player and bestselling author Tim Green and his son Troy Green for a candid conversation about religious freedom, workplace discrimination, corporate culture, and what it means to stand by your convictions when everything you have built is at stake.

From his controversial departure from Emsi to founding the hiring platform RedBalloon, Andrew shares the personal and professional experiences that shaped his views on faith, leadership, and the future of work in America.

When Faith and Career Collide

Andrew Crapuchettes was not a struggling executive looking for a way out.

As CEO of Emsi, a company specializing in labor market data and economic analysis, he says he oversaw a business growing approximately 25% annually with profit margins around 40%.

But during the political and social upheaval of 2020 and 2021, Andrew says his relationship with the company's ownership began to change.

According to Andrew, the board wanted him to make public statements concerning George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, the presidential election, and COVID. He believed that taking positions on contentious political issues was unnecessary for a software and economic data company.

He also believed that his Christian faith was becoming a source of concern among company leadership.

Andrew recalls being told that a conservative Christian CEO was not the image the owners wanted for a large technology business.

The proposed solution, according to his account, was simple: leave his Christianity at home during the working week.

In exchange, he says, he was offered a raise and the opportunity to continue leading the business.

But Andrew could not accept the conditions.

For him, faith was not something that could be switched on and off depending on the day of the week. His Christian convictions informed his approach to leadership, his relationships with employees, and his understanding of responsibility.

The situation ultimately contributed to a major turning point in his career.

Did Andrew Crapuchettes Get Fired for Being Christian?

One of the most revealing moments of the interview comes when Tim asks Andrew to clarify the circumstances of his departure.

In 2021, Emsi merged with Burning Glass Technologies, eventually becoming Lightcast.

Andrew acknowledges that the official account of his departure differs from the way his experience has sometimes been described.

He explains that the objections to his religious beliefs came from the company's previous ownership, before the merger.

When the business was acquired, the combined organization retained the existing Burning Glass CEO. Andrew was offered a different role, which he considered a substantial demotion.

He ultimately resigned and received severance, later serving as an adviser during the transition.

Although he describes the earlier pressure over his faith as central to the events leading up to his departure, he acknowledges that he was not technically fired by the new owners.

His wife subsequently described the experience in an article with a memorable observation:

"My husband wasn't fired, he was redeployed."

Andrew says leaving was emotionally difficult. He loved the company, the people he worked with, and the business they had built together.

Perhaps the greatest challenge was discovering how much of his identity had become connected to his professional success.

After nearly 20 years, he found himself wondering whether he could ever build something equally successful again.

Starting RedBalloon: A Different Approach to Hiring

Andrew's departure eventually inspired his next business venture.

After leaving Emsi, he began thinking about other Americans who might face similar conflicts between their personal convictions and their careers.

Unlike Andrew, many would not have the financial security to risk losing their jobs.

That realization helped inspire RedBalloon, a hiring platform designed to connect employers and job seekers around shared workplace values, professional skills, and an emphasis on merit.

Initially, RedBalloon was little more than a website Andrew built with his brother.

But an appearance on Fox & Friends dramatically accelerated the business.

Andrew recalls that during the few minutes he appeared on television, approximately 1,000 employers and 40,000 job seekers signed up.

What began as a small personal project suddenly became a business requiring staff, infrastructure, and a long term strategy.

Today, RedBalloon has expanded beyond job listings into recruitment services, helping employers identify and evaluate candidates.

Andrew argues that hiring should involve more than comparing qualifications on a résumé. Employers should also consider evidence of character, teachability, and how a candidate approaches work.

Can Employees Disagree With Their Employers?

One of the most important questions Tim raises concerns the potential contradiction in Andrew's approach.

If Andrew believes people should not face professional consequences for their religious or political views, how can businesses emphasize hiring people who share their workplace values without excluding those who think differently?

Andrew acknowledges that the distinction matters.

He argues that businesses should identify a small number of principles that define their culture rather than insist that everyone shares the same political, religious, or personal beliefs.

At RedBalloon, he describes three guiding priorities:

1. Bless the customer.

2. Bless the employee.

3. Bless the shareholder.

In that order.

Andrew also acknowledges that people naturally gravitate toward those who share their backgrounds and experiences, and that this tendency can undermine business innovation.

Although he remains critical of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, he concedes that some initiatives encouraged employers to consider candidates they might otherwise have overlooked.

The conversation raises a larger question affecting workplaces across America:

Where should employers draw the line between protecting their company culture and respecting the freedom of individual employees?

Tim challenges Andrew to confront that tension directly, making this conversation about more than one man's experience.

Is Artificial Intelligence Making Hiring Worse?

The interview also examines another major transformation in American employment: the growing influence of artificial intelligence.

AI is increasingly used by both job seekers and employers.

Candidates can generate customized résumés and cover letters in seconds, while businesses use automated systems to screen large numbers of applications.

But Andrew questions whether this technology is always helping employers find better people.

He recounts a conversation with an employer who received approximately 4,000 applications for a job opening.

An AI screening system identified the 20 most promising résumés.

According to Andrew, the employer spoke with those candidates and found that none was suitable.

The anecdote highlights a potential problem with automated recruitment: an impressive application does not necessarily indicate that someone will perform well in the role.

Andrew believes AI can be useful, but argues that it should support rather than replace human judgment.

RedBalloon's approach emphasizes open ended, evidence based interview questions designed to reveal how candidates have actually behaved in previous situations.

For Andrew, the future of recruitment should not simply involve processing more applications faster.

It should involve understanding the people behind them.

From Learning Difficulties to Business Leadership

Andrew's career story becomes even more remarkable when he discusses his childhood.

He explains that he struggled with dyslexia and significant allergies, and was removed from kindergarten because educators believed he had substantial learning difficulties.

His mother decided to homeschool him rather than accept those limitations.

Despite never earning a college degree, Andrew began working at a technology company in California at just 16 years old.

He moved from shipping and receiving into management, software training, and eventually sales engineering.

After relocating to Idaho, he became involved with two economists developing labor market models.

That opportunity became part of the story of Emsi, the business he would help grow into a major provider of employment and economic data.

His experience challenged the assumption that academic credentials necessarily determine professional ability.

For Andrew, initiative, technical knowledge, hard work, and the willingness to seize opportunities were crucial to his success.

The Business Decision He Still Regrets

Despite his achievements, Andrew is candid about mistakes.

Asked about the business decision he most wishes he could reverse, he points to the company's decision to sell a majority stake to private equity.

The transaction involved selling 67% of the business.

Looking back, Andrew wishes he had better understood how to structure financing that might have allowed the original leadership to retain greater ownership.

He believes giving up majority control fundamentally changed the company's future and ultimately affected his own position.

It is an important lesson for entrepreneurs: building a successful business and maintaining control over that business are not the same thing.

Andrew's reflections on ownership, leadership, and regret offer a different dimension to the story of his departure.

Faith, Family, and What Really Matters

Beyond the business and political debates, the conversation returns repeatedly to family.

Andrew discusses the importance of being present for his wife and five children, even while managing demanding professional responsibilities.

During his years as a CEO, he deliberately limited business travel because he did not want professional success to come at the expense of time with his family.

Later, during the episode's rapid fire questions, Andrew reveals one of the most frightening experiences of his life.

Two of his sons nearly died from a blood disorder.

He remembers watching medical teams rush his children for emergency blood transfusions.

It was a moment that placed everything else in perspective.

For someone whose career had involved major business decisions, financial risks, and public controversy, the experience reinforced what mattered most.

Andrew's Christian faith remains central to how he understands those challenges.

He speaks about accepting setbacks, appreciating his family, and using whatever opportunities he has to make a positive difference in other people's lives.

What Does It Mean to Stand by Your Beliefs?

Andrew Crapuchettes' story raises questions that extend far beyond Christianity, politics, or corporate leadership.

Should employees be expected to conceal their personal beliefs at work?

Can employers create a strong company culture without demanding ideological agreement?

What happens when professional success conflicts with deeply held convictions?

And how can businesses preserve human judgment in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence?

Throughout this episode of Nothing Left Unsaid, Tim and Troy Green examine these issues through Andrew's experiences as an entrepreneur, Christian, husband, father, and business leader.

Whether viewers agree or disagree with Andrew's positions, his story invites a broader conversation about freedom of conscience, fairness, and the relationship between personal identity and professional responsibility.

It also offers a reminder that some of life's most consequential decisions cannot be measured purely in financial terms.

Watch the full episode of Nothing Left Unsaid with Andrew Crapuchettes on YouTube, and hear his account of the moment he was asked to choose between his career and his convictions.

Subscribe to Nothing Left Unsaid for more honest conversations with people whose experiences challenge, inspire, and encourage us to think more deeply about how we live.