Christian Hiss has a background in farming, as his father pioneered organic farming by starting a farm in Eichstetten near Freiburg in the 1950s. Christian did an apprenticeship to become a gardener and later started his own organic market garden. When trying to enlarge the business he was unable to secure bank financing and considered alternative options. In 2006, with the family farm he inherited and his market garden as capital stock, he started Regionalwert as a joint stock company. Christian persuaded an increasing number of people to invest in the company, while lobbying politicians and decision-makers to foster a paradigm change in farming and regional development policies. In 2007 he began a Master's in Social Banking and Social Finance at the University of Plymouth (UK) and graduated in 2011. Christian was chosen as an Asoka Fellow in Germany in 2009.