Socioeconomic Empowerment for All!

An Application of Kind Capitalism through Bottom-Up Economics through Heart Intelligent Socioeconomic Education.

Reverse the Cycle of Poverty and Build a More Inclusive Economy through the Power of Empowered Youth

Youthful Savings (YS) believes that socioeconomic empowerment of youth through kind capitalism and bottom-up economics is a solution to the cycle of poverty. Social and economic factors have historically created the current income inequality that exists in every nation in our world. When income inequality reaches a tipping point, social unrest ensues. Our current political, business, and banking systems are causing the wealth gap to increase at alarming rates. Education can be the great equalizer and our goal at Youthful Savings is to make this theory come true!

Poverty is defined as a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.[1] We would also like to introduce the concept of poverty of heart. We define this as the inability to provide for others or have empathy for the concerns of others. This is further aggravated by the need to hoard material goods or wealth. The combination of actual poverty and poverty of heart is the cause of social unrest and a human experience that lacks peace. Simply put, world peace can be achieved if poverty - both actual and of heart - is eliminated. We believe that socioeconomic empowerment education can solve poverty. An education ecosystem must include both economic knowledge and character development that increases heart intelligence. Each youth has the ability to undo the harms of the past generations and create a kinder and more inclusive economy and thus society.

The core of our ethos is a shift from nationalistic and competitive economic systems to a more global and inclusive system. By reaching the hearts and minds of the youth, we believe we can rebuild the human experience to include the 3c’s: Compassion, Collaboration and Contribution. All youth in our learning ecosystem are guided to grow their 3Cs. This is a major shift from the current competitive markets that are driving our global economics; however, one youth at a time, we are seeing a tangible shift in our youth and thus a shift in the future of our world. The youth are the future and investing in the youth will yield to a more peaceful and inclusive society.

More information: https://www.youthfulsavings.com/our-values.html

Youthful Savings is a tech-enabled learning ecosystem dedicated to socioeconomic empowerment through mental wellbeing, economic empowerment, and community development. We focus on young adult education and those needing workforce development (the primary target is 30 years and younger). 

Our EdTech platform, The Learning Marketplace (TLM), teaches relevant self-paced and live instruction courses that match the current needs of the ever-changing economy. From virtual farming, AI, bitcoin/blockchain, arts to entrepreneurship, learners can advance their skills and compete in the current economy. Our platform is meant to fill the gaps that traditional education creates. TLM has a sense of strong character development as we believe character development is a big component of creating the next generation of responsible and kind global citizens. 

We also have a business platform, Youthful Savings Marketplace, that encourages the above-mentioned kind global citizen initiative through our most popular custom program off of TLM, Youth Entrepreneurship for a More Inclusive Global Economy. We believe if businesses can be created with a strong sense of social consciousness and protected by a financing mechanism that encourages buying, selling, and transparency, then perhaps the world can change. More information about our business system change can be found HERE.

Every step of the way, we are incorporating the concept of equality through equity. We want learners in our ecosystem to use their knowledge and skills to create something they can own. Our foundation, Youthful Savings Foundation (YSF), helps capitalize these ideas so we can see a world filled with equality and opportunities for all! We also inspire people to get off the debt economy by offering revenue share term sheets that promote the idea of communities buying and selling and regenerative finance. 10% of all earnings are redeposited to YSF. Business owners receive prepaid Mastercards in our ecosystem that help capitalize their businesses. There is an open accounting policy for YSF's Community Investment Fund, which further inspires accountability and transparency.

We believe in the concept of equality through equity. By providing relevant education that inspires socioeconomic empowerment and financial system change that provides equality, we believe the world economy can shift from one currently filled with opaque systems and bias to one filled with transparency and kindness. We call this kind capitalism through bottom-up economics!

Our tech-enabled ecosystem is meant to serve those needing workforce development and up-to-date education so they can thrive in the ever-changing economy. We emphasize on also working with the historically marginalized - including women and children affected by the war economy (migrants, etc). Historically our modern banking system has profited from war and related geopolitical strategy that allows war and poverty to occur. By instilling a bottom-up approach through youth, we believe we can uplift humanity by uniting all youth to truly understand how best to create from a place of compassion, collaboration, and contribution.

Our solution provides necessary socioeconomic development education and a platform for youth to unite through the power of kind and sincere business. We define socioeconomic development through our metrics below:

Our Metrics: We measure socioeconomic empowerment by three categories: mental well-being, economic empowerment, and community development. We then further break down the categories into the following sub-metrics:

Metrics

Mental Well-Being

Personal mental health

Personal agency

Personal safety

Economic Empowerment

Personal income

Personal savings

Ability to create and sustain a business

Community Development

Sense of belonging

Getting involved in the local community

Ease in making friends in the local community

In short, our pre and post-assessment tests with learners prove that our metrics work and that we are empowering communities through the power of empowerment.

More information about our work can be found on our white paper HERE.

Our team has a deep understanding of the trauma that is historically underserved can cause, whether it's being founded by a woman of color who had to fight every step of the way for equality in the technology and start-up world or team members that come from the trauma of war and poverty.  All of our core team members are from a migrant background (due to displacement from war). We are acutely aware and empathetic to what the term historically underserved really means. As such, we have built our tools to incorporate heart intelligence and equality every step of the way. We also measure the effectiveness of our tools through our socioeconomic metrics. More information can be found in our white paper HERE.

We have enrolled over five thousand learners onto our EdTech platform and continuously double our yearly enrollment. We plan on including adults as well and really honing in on workforce development as a service. Given the high skills gap and related wealth gap, we believe it is crucial we incorporate all eager learners onto our platform so we can create the next generation of world citizens. Our biggest customers are cities that want to provide after-school or summer programming. Since the inception of our EdTech, we have sold to the city of Santa Monica, the city of New York, and the city of Aurora. We are working on expanding to the city of Madison, the city of Cascais, and the city of Los Angeles. 

Most of our revenue is through organizational subscriptions to our EdTech and training and development fees to create custom programs off of our EdTech. Our most popular program is the Youth Entrepreneurship for a More Inclusive Global Economy. Thus far, we have enrolled over three thousand learners into this custom program. We plan on creating more custom programs related to artificial intelligence, vertical farming, and building kind and inclusive cities. We emphasize STEM education as that education creates economic opportunities for our learners.

We want to expand to create physical innovation hubs where our EdTech platform comes to life through live instructors. As we move from just being digital to physical centers of innovation, we appreciate the support of this challenge to help us grow.

Below is the concept we are looking to expand to:

Youthful Savings (YS) aims to create innovation hubs worldwide to increase workforce development and economic growth. YS aims to partner with local community organizations to facilitate local economic development through adult and youth innovation hubs.

Key target areas: Los Angeles, Chicago, Madison, New York, Cascais, Bilbao 

Key features:

1. The Learning Marketplace (TLM) learning lab

2. Youthful Savings Marketplace (YSM) store consisting of artisan products from My Own Business Challenge graduates

3. Art gallery that facilitates arts education through TLM course offerings

4. A vertical farming facility that plugs into TLM course offering and YSM store offering (farmer’s market)

5. Eventual growth into residential housing with a rent-to-own option through Youthful Savings Foundation's Community Investment Fund. Live / work spaces + artist studios 

Key target locations:

1. Venice, CA at 608 Main St.

2. Bilbao, Spain, in partnership with Virtual Q (official TLM tech partner)

3. Staten Island, NY, with CUNY SI Tech Incubator

Key partners:

1. Civic Wellbeing Partners - City innovation partner as the key stakeholder was the Chief Wellbeing Officer of the city of Santa Monica, CA

2. Venice Family Clinic - Art gallery partner

3. Virtual-Q - Technology partner

4. EG Global - Vertical farming partner

5. Advance Business Consultants - Real estate development coordinator. Members have built U.S. Embassies worldwide and consist of current and former diplomates.

Somya R. Munjal is a resident of Earth that makes sure to integrate herself into every community that Youthful Savings (YS) serves. She has dedicated her life to the concept of socioeconomic empowerment for all. She gets to know the key stakeholders of the cities that YS serves every step of the way. She also leads the training and development of local instructors to ensure that the core values of YS are never lost as the company expands.

She is also a woman of color that has worked very hard for everything that she has. She truly empathizes with the needs of women and children and is dedicated to creating a world of equality. She understands what it feels like to constantly be devalued compared to other peers in technology and finance. She wants to build a world where everyone has equal access to skills and opportunities so that the current systemic systems can be eliminated.

The core of our ethos is innovation. We understand that the world economy is changing drastically, and people are being left behind if they cannot afford to gain the skills necessary to compete in this economy. With almost eight billion people on this planet, it is time for system change that truly brings equal opportunities for all. Access to education and capital can change the world. Our learning ecosystem is not just education reform but also finance reform. We also truly believe in entrepreneurship as a mechanism for socioeconomic empowerment. The transferable skills gained through entrepreneurship can help women and children gain the necessary financial and social skills that can greatly impact the trajectory of the world.

More information about our work can be found in our white paper HERE.

We have been working on education and finance reform for over a decade. Since its inception, we have relied on teaching online and in-person at schools and community centers. As we expand our tech-enabled learning ecosystem, we hope to transition into physical innovation hubs. This is our number one goal for the next 1 to 5 years. We aim to first expand in Los Angeles through a city contract and continue east to impact America and beyond! We believe having physical innovation hubs in cities will allow learners a safe space to learn and create. In current schools and community centers, we see systemic racial, gender, and economic issues/biases that are often out of our control. As more and more young people opt out of higher education, we hope our physical innovation hubs can provide sincere socioeconomic empowerment opportunities so that all people can thrive! We hope to fill the necessary gap in skills development between secondary education and higher education. Often workforce development skills are needed, and our innovation hubs are designed to provide that so people, communities, and cities at large can experience safety and economic growth!

We ensure the success of our tech-enabled learning ecosystem by our socioeconomic metrics:

Our Metrics: We measure socioeconomic empowerment by three categories: mental well-being, economic empowerment, and community development. We then further break down the categories into the following sub-metrics:

Metrics

Mental Well-Being

Personal mental health

Personal agency

Personal safety

Economic Empowerment

Personal income

Personal savings

Ability to create and sustain a business

Community Development

Sense of belonging

Getting involved in the local community

Ease in making friends in the local community

We do pre and post-assessment tests with all of our learning exercises and custom programs. Or impact measurement goals for socioeconomic empowerment are clearly defined in our white paper. Please see more information HERE.

Our theory of change is best defined on our white paper HERE. Specifically, we were created to change our current top-down economic system by including the historically underserved including women and children.

An excerpt from our white paper can be found below (best defines our theory of change):

Youthful Savings believes that socioeconomic empowerment of youth through kind capitalism and bottom-up economics is a solution to the cycle of poverty. Social and economic factors have historically created the current income inequality that exists in every nation in our world. When income inequality reaches a tipping point, social unrest ensues. Our current political, business, and banking systems are causing the wealth gap to increase at alarming rates. Education can be the great equalizer and our goal at Youthful Savings is to make that theory come true!

Poverty is defined as a state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.[1] We would also like to introduce the concept of poverty of heart. We define this as the inability to provide for others or have empathy for the concerns of others. This is further aggravated by the need to hoard material goods or wealth. The combination of actual poverty and poverty of heart is the cause of social unrest and a human experience that lacks peace. Simply put, world peace can be achieved if poverty - both actual and of heart - is eliminated. We believe that socioeconomic empowerment education can solve poverty. An education ecosystem must include both economic knowledge and character development education that increases heart intelligence. Each youth has the ability to undo the harms of the past generations and create a kinder and more inclusive economy and, thus, society.

The core of our ethos is a shift from nationalistic and competitive economic systems to a more global and inclusive system. By reaching the hearts and minds of the youth, we believe we can rebuild the human experience to include the 3c’s: Compassion, Collaboration, and Contribution. All youth in our learning ecosystem is guided to increase their 3cs. This is a major shift from the current competitive markets that are driving our global economics; however, one youth at a time, we are seeing a tangible shift in our youth and, thus, a shift in the future of our world. The youth are the future, and investing in the youth will yield a more peaceful and inclusive society.

We offer a multitude of technology solutions in our tech-enabled learning ecosystem. We utilize AI/ ML, custom-coded WordPress platforms, and web apps that are designed with Ruby on Rails. We are always looking to create technology-enabled tools for our learners as we believe technology provides necessary transparency and equity in our economy. 

Our entire tech-enabled learning ecosystem can be examined via our website HERE.

We currently have 8 people in our team, with 3 people working full-time and 5 working part-time. 

Youthful Savings (YS) has been around for over a decade (concept / first customer stated in 2012 and officially incorporated in 2013). The founder, Somya R. Munjal, has been diligently working on the growth of YS and continually remains agile in order to best serve the mission!

Diversity is at the core of who we are at Youthful Savings. We believe in working in different countries with people from different cultures and backgrounds in order to unite the world. Everyone that works at Youthful Savings is dedicated to our culture of inclusivity and service to the youth.

Currently, our technology development teams are in India, Australia, and the United States. We have shareholders in London, the United States, and France. We have team members that are from Europe and the United States. We truly value diversity in cultural upbringing. We believe this yields to diversity of thought, which ultimately leads to more innovation. Everyone at Youthful Savings is an entrepreneur and works collaboratively to create a better world through youth. By creating a team of people that have the freedom to work where they want and when they want, we are creating a culture of freedom and autonomy. 

The better we are as a team, the better we can serve our customers and related mission!

We charge a subscription for our EdTech platform, The Learning Marketplace (TLM), and we take a small transaction fee on Youthful Savings Marketplace. We typically create one-year contracts with reputable organizations as well as governments. The majority of our contracts are with cities directly. However, our learning ecosystem serves and earns from individuals, organizations, and governments. Our ideal contract for TLM is with governments, as they typically have the most people that we can serve. 

We also have a new Live Experience Instructor Program, which allows trained public school educators to expand our content and platform into their communities. We call it the Uber of education. We are diligently working on implementing and deploying this model with our current city contracts.

We are currently in the process of a pre-IPO fundraising round so we can go public in Europe. More information about capital raise efforts can be found HERE.

We are cash flow positive, at break-even, and consistently show a profit year after year.

We only raised less than $300k over the past ten years and have sustained through lean operations and high profitability. We pride ourselves on being a social enterprise that believes in people, planet, and profit. Our goal for going public means that we can be further community based financed and allow our learners and team to be shareholders in our mission. This also allows us to grow wealth for all those that we serve!

More information about how this company got started can be found in the founder's book HERE.