Seedlyng Financial Education

The old saying is that “money makes the world go round,” and many citizens around the world are not getting their piece of the pie due to their lack of financial education. Many also suffer from generational ignorance when it comes to financial literacy, and this has to stop if we are ever to help improve the lives of everyone around the world.

Seedlyng Financial Literacy is the solution to this problem. Our technology products meet our customers where they are mentally, and emotionally. We stress emotionally also, because spending habits are based on emotional needs and wants also. Our ultimate goal is to CHANGE the mindsets of ALL of our customers and teach them to be financially savvy.

United States:

At Seedlyng, we believe financial literacy should be a part of every school district’s curriculum! 

Unfortunately, only 17% of districts offer financial education in the U.S. This is a major problem! Many Americans suffer from generational ignorance when it comes to financial literacy, and this must end. 

According to GFLEC's study, Financial Well-Being of the Millennial Generation, the main factors affecting millennials and more of the population is expensive credit card behavior (61%), difficulty covering expenses (59%), and mismanagement of alternative financial services (43%).

Globally:

Standard & Poor's global financial literacy survey stated, "financial literacy rates differ in important ways when it comes to characteristics such as gender, education level, income, and age. Worldwide, 35 percent of men are financially literate, compared with 30 percent of women." 35% and 30% are very low numbers and signal a major problem that will only get worse if not addressed. 

We are doing our part to address this by working with schools in the US, Middle East, and Africa currently, and we have plans to expand our global reach by partnering with communities in the Philippines in fall 2021. 

Seedlyng Financial Literacy plants the seeds of financial knowledge to help our users understand how money works and grow their bank accounts.

Seedlyng works with schools, banks and nonprofits to provide: 

?? Our award-winning app

??‍? Virtual/In-person workshops

? Year-long curriculum

? Teacher LMS Dashboard

➕ Campus Ambassador Program

We have partnered with Microsoft, the Stash Investment App, Learn & Earn, and Centsai Education to ensure our students have access to all the best financial education possible.

We use a train-the-trainer model and support finance educators in the usage of our technology, we provide lesson plan support, data analysis, and small group support if needed. Our Campus Ambassador Program helps promote financial literacy on the campus and community.

Our target population is low-income schools and nonprofits that support communities in need. Our motto is "Mission Over Money" and we try our best to work within the budget of the institutions we serve.

Our current projects include: 

• 5 Lebanon Schools in the Middle East (1250 students) via the US Embassy
• Middle & high schools (Richardson ISD, Plato Learning Academy)
• 2 non-profits (Twin Falls Boys & Girls Club, The Michael Finley Foundation)

-Working with the schools in Lebanon has been an amazing experience for our team. We partnered with a STEM program that was in need of a financial literacy solution to earn a grant from the US Embassy. 

We have trained over 40 teachers, at 5 different schools, and over 1,250 students. We worked with the teachers to provide creative lesson plans based on their local culture, data analysis based on student content mastery, and also helped support teachers throughout the school year. The student feedback has been very positive, for example, they even said they are enjoying it more than the STEM content.

-In the US we are able to incorporate our partners like the STASH Investment App, and the Learn & Earn App from the creators of Acorns. These partners are very beneficial to our students because it gives our students the ability to apply what they are learning in a safe environment and gives them the chance to earn real money that can be cashed out when they are older.

Our entire business exists to equip everyone with culturally relevant digital literacy skills to enable participation in the digital economy. 

We target low-income communities because these are the communities that need our support the most. 

We do this by first assessing our students' current level of financial knowledge and then our technology creates a personalized curriculum plan for each user.

We also know that some populations have limited access to wi-fi, computers, and other digital resources. So, users can save lessons in our app to their library. We also work with WTAN, they provide a SIM card that works with all domestic cellular carriers and many global carriers that give computers & tablets internet access.

We are a FULL-TURN KEY solution for a community, business, school, or nonprofit. We are a tech company, but we don't just depend on our technology to do the work. We also provide a human component through our training, support, and ambassador program. 

Our current projects include: 

• 5 Lebanon Schools in the Middle East (1250 students) via the US Embassy - this is a paid pilot.
• Middle & high schools (Richardson ISD/60 students, Plato Learning /Chicago, IL - 200 students) 
• 2 non-profits (Twin Falls Boys & Girls Club/Twin Falls, ID/60 students - paid pilot, The Michael Finley Foundation/Carrolton, TX/ 70 students)

Upcoming Projects:

• Edenma.org (Summer 2021)
• Southern University of New Orleans (Fall 2021)
• Galveston, TX ISD (Fall 2021)
• HCSD High School (Fall 2021)
• Golden Aya, Africa (Fall 2021)

Our technology and program are different from our competitors because we create a personalized experience for our users. For example, each user starts by taking a short assessment in the areas of financial psychology, entrepreneurship, saving, and budgeting. 

Our app creates a personalized set of courses based on each students’ individual needs. Teachers benefit from our program because they get access to our year-long curriculum, Learning Management System, and support that includes lesson planning and data analysis.

We have also partnered with Microsoft and have plans in place to create an AI-powered web version of our app that will also allow us to partner with more content creators and finance leaders.

Current - 1,500

1 Year - 50,000

5 years - 2,000,000

We currently track how many students and teachers we are able to support. We monitor student growth and engagement on our platform. 

Teachers provide feedback on the usage of our tools, and students inform us about how much they did or didn't like the content.

These are important metrics for us to track because if students are bored they won't want to learn. If they are learning then their financial knowledge base is growing and they will grow to make wiser decisions. 

1. Derrick Wesley, CEO

2. Richard Ciarletta, COO

3. Ethan Robson, Campus Director

We are a group of educators that saw that the current system is broken, and we decided to do something about it. I'm Derrick Wesley, the CEO, and founder. I have over 9 years of classroom experience, I won TD Ameritrade's Innovation Contest and I am continuing to push my own personal limits to reach my goals.

Our COO, Richard Ciarletta, is also a former educator and school principal. Richard has also served as an edtech consultant and sales rep. Rich and I taught together at my first campus and our time together helped inspire the creation of Seedlyng.

Ethan Robson is our Campus Director, his job is to work with the students on campus and create a finance club to help share financial knowledge with the campus and community. Ethan and I worked together as co-teachers in a low-income, underserved school in Richardson, TX. 

We work well together because we have worked with students, teachers, and administrators together in the school system, and now we are just changing our roles a little. This gives us an advantage because our education partners view us as one of them because we are!

We are a truly diverse and unique team.

1. Derrick Wesley, African American

2. Richard Ciarletta, Jewish

3. Ethan Robson, Caucasian

Our philosophy on diversity is based on our experience as educators. We can't choose the students who arrive in our classroom, and we don't judge them when they do arrive. We enjoy working with individuals who believe in our motto, "Mission Over Money."

Seedlyng Financial Education is applying to Solve because we believe that your organization can help us expand our global outreach efforts.

We are especially interested in connecting with your network of former Solvers and learning from their knowledge and experience. 

Yes, we are a team of educators, but we also understand how important it is to be to be a learner and admit when you don't know something, and we have accomplished a lot but we still have a lot to learn. 

1. Human Capital - We would benefit from your experience in choosing the right team members for our project. Besides technical and work experience, we are looking for teammates that believe in our mission to close the financial education gap for ALL, and agree with our motto, "Mission Over Money."

2. Financial - We do need money to accomplish our goals, because we have to keep the lights on! We would lean on your knowledge of different ways to acquire the funds we need so we can have the global impact that we are envisioning for our company.

3. Monitoring & Evaluation - In the classroom, teachers HAVE to know if their students are learning and growing, and it is the same with a business. We would like your help and support to set up ways to monitor and evaluate our growth so we can reach those who need us the most.

4. Technology - We have a great opportunity in place being members of the Microsoft for Starups program. We have plans ready to roll out for our upgraded web version and your technological expertise can help us make sure we get it right the first time without wasting time, energy, and money.

We believe the following companies can help us achieve our company goals and have the global impact we plan to have:

1. Global Phone Carriers - Partnering with mobile phone companies will allow us to provide low-income families and underserved communities get access to phones and tablets so they can use our products at home, work, or on the go.

2. Banks like Capital One - We would love to parnter with banks because once our students learn from us they will need a trusted partner that can help them apply their newfound skills by managing a checking, savings, and/or investment portfolio.

3. Expand our Microsoft Partnership - We would like to work with Microsoft to develop our web version and incorporate their Project Cortex AI program to create a better personalized financial literacy curriculum for our users.

4. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Seedlyng plants the seeds of financial knowledge to help our users understand how money works and grow their bank accounts.

Seedlyng works with schools, banks and nonprofits to provide: 

?? Our award-winning app

??‍? Virtual/In-person workshops

? Year-long curriculum

? Teacher LMS Dashboard

➕ Campus Ambassador Program

Seedlyng understands MOST teachers aren't financial advisors! Many teachers are passionate about providing students with a rigorous financial education, but they don't have the tools. We provide our teachers with the professional development they need to ensure their students are learning, growing, and mastering the content. 

We have partnered with Microsoft, the Stash Investment App, Learn & Earn, and Centsai Education to ensure our students have access to all the best financial education possible.

Our partnerships are VERY important because it is one thing to pass a test about a topic but it is someting totally different to apply the knowledge. Seedlyng lays the foundation for our students, but STASH & Learn & Earn provid our students with opportunites to apply that knowledge.

For example, STASH created a FAKE version of their investing app for us so our students can practice investing based on real-time stock market information. This 6-8 week project based learning activity allows students to invest in a safe environment and receive coaching along the way. 

We will use the funds to update our web version so our partner companies like STASH and Learn & Earn can easily connect to our system to improve student access and outcomes.

Seedlyng plants the seeds of financial knowledge to help our users understand how money works and grow their bank accounts.

Seedlyng works with schools, banks and nonprofits to provide: 

?? Our award-winning app

??‍? Virtual/In-person workshops

? Year-long curriculum

? Teacher LMS Dashboard

➕ Campus Ambassador Program

Seedlyng understands MOST teachers aren't financial advisors! Many teachers are passionate about providing students with a rigorous financial education, but they don't have the tools. We provide our teachers with the professional development they need to ensure their students are learning, growing, and mastering the content. 

We have partnered with Microsoft, the Stash Investment App, Learn & Earn, and Centsai Education to ensure our students have access to all the best financial education possible.

Our partnerships are VERY important because it is one thing to pass a test about a topic but it is someting totally different to apply the knowledge. Seedlyng lays the foundation for our students, but STASH & Learn & Earn provid our students with opportunites to apply that knowledge.

For example, STASH created a FAKE version of their investing app for us so our students can practice investing based on real-time stock market information. This 6-8 week project based learning activity allows students to invest in a safe environment and receive coaching along the way. 

We will use the funds to update our web version so our partner companies like STASH and Learn & Earn can easily connect to our system to improve student access and outcomes.

Seedlyng plants the seeds of financial knowledge to help our users understand how money works and grow their bank accounts.

Seedlyng works with schools, banks, and nonprofits to provide: 

?? Our award-winning app

??‍? Virtual/In-person workshops

? Year-long curriculum

? Teacher LMS Dashboard

➕ Campus Ambassador Program

Seedlyng understands MOST teachers aren't financial advisors! Many teachers are passionate about providing students with a rigorous financial education, but they don't have the tools. We provide our teachers with the professional development they need to ensure their students are learning, growing, and mastering the content. 

We are also members of the Microsoft for Startups Program. We would like to work with Microsoft to develop our web version and incorporate their Project Cortex AI program to create a better personalized financial literacy curriculum for our users.

Currently, our users complete an assessment and our app builds a personalized curriculum for our users, but it doesn't adapt to their learning as they grow. 

Adding Project Cortex's AI will allow us to take our LARGE content library and create a program for our users that provides on-time lessons, articles, quizzes, and more based on their current spending habits, knowledge level, savings goals, and even their emotional state. 

Learn more about Project Cortex here

Our mission at Seedlyng Financial Education is to plant the seeds of financial knowledge for our students so they can learn and grow. Our students learn the foundational tools they need like budgeting, saving, investing, and more.

BUT, we also make sure our students are up to date with new trends and technologies that will have an impact on their ability to build wealth.

We teach our students about Cryptocurrency, NFTs, Blockchain and MORE:

How would we use the funds?

We currently ONLY have a mobile app version of our solution. We would use the funds to begin development of an AI powered web version of our platform. We are members of the Microsoft for Startups program, and we have plans to implement Microsoft's Project Cortex into our solution. This is important because we focus on the personalization of financial literacy, and our web version will create a personalized learning path based on student age and knowledge level, and grow with the student.

We work with schools and nonprofits and this will help teachers teach more efficiently, and provide on-time instruction to students that need it most. We also plan to expand to Africa, and the Philippines, and provide students there with laptops with built in sim cards through our partner. Having access to these funds will allow us to do more for our future customers. 

Our web version will allow us to scale faster and help more students and teachers in more parts of the world!