Funderburke grew up on the West Side of Columbus in the Sullivant Gardens housing project of Columbus.He credits his escape from poverty to the three B’s – bible, books and basketball. At OSU, Funderburke was a star player and graduated magna cum laude with a finance degree, then played professional basketball for eleven years. Today, he is a speaker, author, entrepreneur including two social enterprises businesses, FunderMaxFitness, Its All Good Cookies, and the non-profit, the Lawrence Funderburke Youth Organization.  His wife Monya, shares the business responsibilities as well as mother to their two children.
Funderburke’s most recent book, Sociopsychonomics: How Social Classes Think, Act, and Behave Financially in the Twenty-First Century tackles the growing wealth divide in America. He explains that sociopsychonomics merges sociology, psychology and economics to explain shared mindsets or predispositions from a monetary perspective. He believes that these mindsets can be changed and he would like
to give others the tools that lead to financial stability by improving baseline deficits.