LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
Evan Leaphart is the founder of KiddieKredit – a mobile chore tracking app designed to teach kids about the importance of financial literacy. KiddieKredit utilizes chore completion, quality, and timeliness to generate a Kredit Score that helps children learn how to maintain and improve real-life credit. Evan sits down with Chris Snyder to talk about the importance of personal credit at a young age.
Evan Leaphart is the founder of KiddieKredit – a mobile chore tracking app designed to teach kids about the importance of financial literacy. Evan sits down with Chris Snyder to talk about the importance of personal credit at a young age.
Today’s show is sponsored by banks.com – the world's most comprehensive and trusted branding and discovery platform for banks and banking related products & services. Banks.com is aligning consumer core values with trusted financial institutions bringing attention and awareness to leading financial brands.
To learn more, go to www.banks.com/partners or you can send an email to info@banks.com.
Evan Leaphart is the founder of KiddieKredit – a mobile chore tracking app designed to teach kids about the importance of financial literacy. Evan sits down with Chris Snyder to talk about the importance of personal credit at a young age.
[00:00:03] Hello, everyone. Chris Snyder here, host of the Snyder Showdown President at Juhll Agency and founder of Financial Services Platform Banks dot com. On this show, we take a no B.S. approach to business success and failure, told through the stories of the top entrepreneurs and executives who have lived them. Join us today as we get the unfiltered backstories behind successful brands. Today's sponsor is Banks.com, the world's most comprehensive and trusted branding and discovery platform for banks and banking related products and services. Banks dot com is aligning consumer core values with trusted financial institutions, bringing attention and awareness to leading financial brands. To learn more, you can go to banks dot com forward slash partners, or you can send an email to info at banks dot com. OK, our guest today is Evan Leaphart. He's the founder of KiddieKredit. That's two k's in there, a mobile chore tracking app designed to teach kids about the importance of financial literacy and credit. KiddyKredit utilizes sure completion, quality and timeliness to generate a credit score that helps children learn how to maintain and improve real life credit. Evan is here today to talk to us about the importance of personal credit at a young age. Thanks for doing the show today. Welcome, Evan. [00:01:33][89.5]
[00:01:34] Thank you. Thanks for having me. [00:01:35][1.0]
[00:01:36] Excellent. OK, first question's always the same with all of our guests. Tell us a little bit about your upbringing, where you grew up and how you got to where you are today. [00:01:43][7.1]
[00:01:44] Absolutely. I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and diehard Steelers fan. It's pretty upset we didn't get to play this week. [00:01:51][7.5]
[00:01:52] The terrible towel. Yes. All day. All of it. And then I lived it was about seven years old. [00:01:59][6.8]
[00:02:00] We moved to Maryland, had a brief stint in between in Gary, Indiana, or my mom's from and grubbing in in Columbia, Maryland. So it's a city not too far from Baltimore. I just was always a kid, drawn entrepreneurship, had eliminated stands built on computers so I could burn C, D from Napster and some of my friends. [00:02:21][20.8]
[00:02:22] Oh, yeah. You do the Napster. That was a long time ago, man. And Napster livewire. Although. Yeah. [00:02:27][5.3]
[00:02:29] And then I came to Miami for college in 2004 and just fell in love with the city and state. [00:02:35][6.3]
[00:02:36] Yeah, that's that's excellent. So you talked about lemonade stands. What was it about tinkering or building or selling or experimenting or doing these things that you liked them? Like, why did you do that? I mean, some kids, they may have made the lemonade and drink it all themselves instead of making eliminate and going, wait a second, I'm going to figure out how to go make this lemonade, go put this table up with these signs. [00:03:05][29.0]
[00:03:05] There's a whole process around this. How old were you when you knew? Like, I love doing this. [00:03:10][4.7]
[00:03:11] It was I think it was I was an only child. Right. So I was like, not necessarily split with gifts, fast food with love. And I like I always wanted things like, oh, I want to get this. I want to get this. I remember when the Toys R US big toy book would come through. I would like cut out what I wanted and had arranged by price, like which relative I thought could afford it and I would send it out. So the whole thing. But I say all that to say, like, I really was always determined to like achieve something. And then, you know, I was a group of my mom's single mom. My dad lived in New York. We lived in Maryland. And I would always try to find ways to attain things of it snowed out. I'd be the first one with the shovel. So it was really just finding creative ways to think outside the box to like earn a couple of bucks to buy things that I wanted. And it really was pretty much that from the onset. So I saw lemonade stands and how people create them was like, this is cool. Be be nice to try the S.V. thing, you know, is like, how how can I make a computer? I remember reading this article, I typed it out and then I worked a job the moment I could turn 14, saved up every single penny so I could build that computer to be able to burnsy these to some of my friends. [00:04:26][75.0]
[00:04:27] And what kind of art you've got to tell me, what kind of computer was it? Because I worked at Gateway back in the 90s. So that's when they started. I mean, Dell and Gateway, we're kind of like these these made to order computers. But you could also go down to the, you know, the fries. You could pick your own motherboards, you could make a room and you could put this stuff together. This is some real hardcore nerdy stuff we're talking about here. What kind of computer was it you remember? [00:04:53][26.3]
[00:04:54] Yeah, well, I mean, it was everything was from scratch, right? So it was like I remember picking up this computer case that had like multiple decks in it so I could put I don't I don't remember brands fully, but I had like one of those external soundcard so that you could plug in and different inputs. Yeah, I had a I think it was tde x like a forty X c.D round which is like the. Now this city burner at the time. Oh yes. I had that couple with a regular C rom drive. That's kind of fun and really like going back. I had a Pentium four. Was was that the chip that we put in there at the motherboard? [00:05:32][37.5]
[00:05:35] Yeah, Pentium fours. It's funny. You know, when I worked at Gateway, we had, you know, the first chip I saw was a 386 desex two sixty six that went 386 486. And then the five eighty six is where the Pentiums and then went Pentium one, two, three, four. They just started getting these heat sinks Saltum so they would have these big gnarly fans. Were you a were you. And then the memory a Pentium four, you probably had like sixty four megs of memory on that thing, right? [00:06:07][32.0]
[00:06:08] I think so. I remember and I remember the hard drive I think was like Western digital. Oh yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah there was. [00:06:16][7.6]
[00:06:16] Now you're taking me back. There was I think quantum and Western digital. And then and back then they had tape backup drives too, because God forbid you lose something on a floppy disk of one point four, four or three and a half inch floppy disk. Then they got hard drives that were better. But this is this is super interesting. Did you do this just because you like to tinker with stuff? Or did you do this because you wanted to run business software? Or did you do this because you want to play video games? Like, why did you do this? [00:06:50][33.5]
[00:06:51] I truly wanted to be able to burn CBS faster than anybody else is selling to my friends. [00:06:57][6.0]
[00:06:59] I remember I and we had I remember one of my buddies in high school. [00:07:02][3.8]
[00:07:03] He was selling like seeds and he had like paper, like a paper like logo and then the tracks on the back and everything. And you some for like five dollars a piece. Wow. And I was like, I can't beat that. I need to make them better. So I got the C.D. and I had the jewel cases and I would run home from school and print out what the cover would be like. And then the tracklist, none of that got a little label maker. Yeah, I sold them for seven and then I did like custom mixes for like ten bucks. [00:07:32][29.2]
[00:07:32] Oh wow. That's awesome. So was this. [00:07:35][2.7]
[00:07:36] Now another question I have is obviously you're a serial entrepreneur, but I mean, this is not one of the first companies you started. Let's go to you. You've started companies since you were 14. Clearly, right. Maybe not recognizable by these things. [00:07:57][21.0]
[00:07:57] They're not. And this is a very long time ago. I guess just statue limitations is up, everybody. [00:08:03][6.3]
[00:08:05] But so what was the first attempt or what was the first success you had as a as a serial entrepreneur when you went out? You incorporate it as a company and you went out this thing hard. [00:08:17][11.8]
[00:08:19] I remember I was working a sales job with a buddy of mine. We were doing like a kind of timeshare sales, right. And that's hardcore. By the way. Yeah, I. So if I wasn't doing entrepreneurship, I was always doing like sales. I got my first telemarketing job and I was like 16. Yeah. So that was got that kind of help too. But where were we. So we started Tiger marketing me and a buddy of mine and it was basically it was geared around like generating leads from different like events or finding different vendors that we could get people to sign up to, then find leads. And then we would sell them to different timeshare company. And I was like, my first experience with, like getting a e i n and setting up LLC and like all of those really basic business stuff that like now comes second nature. But everything that I did at that point was. I was really exciting. [00:09:16][56.6]
[00:09:16] Yeah, yeah, I know it's you honestly had that experience with telemarketing. I was a telemarketer, too. Oddly, you know, we would sell like Allstate Motor Club or Discover Card, private issue on the phone, a hundred phone calls a day. [00:09:33][17.1]
[00:09:34] I've heard the timeshare thing is hardcore. Man, that is hard work. [00:09:38][3.9]
[00:09:39] It is tough because, I mean, you're getting people that come to see it, like literally don't want to see it, but they understand they've got to be because the perk that they got to be there was pretty, pretty nice. [00:09:48][9.2]
[00:09:49] Right. Right. You get an upgrade to the room and then you have to hassle with this guy for a day. Have you take you all around the property and that hard close you at the end? [00:09:58][9.1]
[00:09:59] You're like, look, man, I'm just here for the free stuff that I like. I wouldn't I wouldn't I definitely wouldn't do it again. [00:10:08][8.9]
[00:10:08] But in terms of like what it teaches you, in terms of just being able to understand, like I remember a quote from somewhere, it was like sales is the art of getting people out of their own way to help them get what they want. And then, you know, sometimes a lot of times people did actually want a timeshare, but it was like what it took to get them to that point was, you know, sometimes it's a little tough on you to be. [00:10:34][25.6]
[00:10:34] Well, you know what's interesting about that? I think all of us have preconceived notions about just because we wouldn't want to be in that room doesn't mean that nobody else would. I mean, maybe they didn't want to be in that room. I certainly I went in that room one time and I was like, I will never go in that room again. I don't want to time-share all those rent something. We're not having this conversation. [00:10:55][21.1]
[00:10:56] I'm totally paying Legum. I'm going on a vacation somewhere. It's fine. I'll bet. [00:11:00][3.9]
[00:11:01] Yeah, but but no, that's interesting. And then I also think that being a serial entrepreneur and also a founder, if you don't know sales and marketing, I think you're kind of in for one, right? I mean, you like I say, there's no way I could hire a sales guy and not know what he or she is up to. Like, I know how to do that. Now, technology, on the other hand, I'm not as I'm not a CTO, I don't sit in dark rooms with dark screens and, you know, code bits and bytes and ones and zeros. So a little bit easier to for me on stuff like that. But sales and marketing, though, right? So it's necessary. If you don't know one, you better know the other one. It sounds like, you know the sales and marketing piece cold plus you built built some computers. So I think you're even a I'm impressive. [00:11:52][51.1]
[00:11:52] My 14 year old tech self, not my 34 year old Texan. [00:11:55][2.7]
[00:11:57] So. So let's talk about KiddieKredit. Tell us what the vision is or the mission is of KiddieKredit or why did you start that company or what is the problem you're trying to solve here or so? [00:12:10][12.8]
[00:12:12] Just as I started building businesses and as I started to do adult thing right. Getting looking for a house, trying to get a car, trying to get business loans and lines of credit, like I made mistakes very early on with my credit. A lot of it sure was just being dumb. But like a lot of it, too, was like I didn't understand. I did know, like, how a credit score was even calculated, like like how pivotal it is to like any large purchase you're trying to make in your adult life. And I was like, man, I you know, I never what I went through. I don't want to see the generation that precedes. We have to go through as well. So how can we change that? I can. How do we do it in a fundamental way to where it's not like some course that you learn in 10th grade or seventh grade and you forget, like, how can you create something fundamental? So I created this correlation in my head about maybe chores like chores can happen at any different age during your childhood and creating something that ties in. Sure. Completion to a good credit score. So that was where the idea of KiddieKredit was born from. And I had that in my my head conversation about myself maybe like eight, nine years ago. So they actually have it out and like working with families and continually improving it is like it's amazing. [00:13:30][77.4]
[00:13:31] So the problem. So really the problem you're trying to solve is how these families or these kids can help. [00:13:37][6.6]
[00:13:39] Not make the same mistakes you did with credit. So maybe by the time they get out of college or even maybe by the time they're 18 years old, they could go out, get a credit card and be responsible with it and start building their credit. So, as you say, adult teen, they need to buy a car. They need to buy a house. Maybe they want to put by some furniture. They have the means to do that. And this could take how many years does it take, you think, to either? Well, this is two questions. How many years does it take to fix a crappy credit score or how many years does it take to build a decent credit profile? [00:14:16][37.4]
[00:14:17] I mean, it varies. I what I will say is negative reports can stand here. They can stay on credit permanently. Five to seven years. So just one to three months of mismanagement is. It haunts you. Yeah. You know, and and it's just it's so much harder to repair your credit than it is to just build it the right way from the beginning. So, I mean, it took me it took me years to get my my credit to a reputable score, you know, to where I was able to do things, to really start things to to start to build businesses in a real way and, you know, focus on generating wealth. And I as I went down this path, I've seen people that have been able to leverage a good credit score into generating wealth and a multitude of different ways. So I just I just want to be able to show people how, if you manage it properly from the beginning, you can really leverage that situation to generate wealth. [00:15:13][56.6]
[00:15:14] Yeah. I mean, let's tackle a few key issues here. I think over the years that I've been involved in personal finance since about 2005, I actually had to work for experience. So I understand this stuff. And I got to tell you, like, if I think back over the years and I think about how many companies started credit repair or credit counseling companies, if we had as many companies doing what you're doing as we're starting credit repair and credit counseling companies, the world would be a different place. Right. Right. I mean, are you kidding me? And if you get on, you know, the CFTC and you look at, you know, all the complaints that some of these credit counseling companies have have gathered, it's unbelievable kind of what they've done to consumers. So not all of them were bad. Clearly, there's there's folks out there that do a great job. But I think so when when you started thinking about this and you survey the market, you looked at it either qualitatively or quantitatively. Did you say, wait a second, there's nobody doing this? Is that what happened? [00:16:25][71.0]
[00:16:26] Yeah. I mean, I would. What really struck me was that. You see, like financial literacy as an overall term, you kind of see a lot of efforts towards, but when it's hyper focused on like early credit education, there's not that many things out there. Right. I remember a couple of years ago, I was really excited to see a game that taught kids about credit to gamification is called credit stack. Like, see, these are the types of things that need to be out there, you know? And we just really wanted to tackle it from a fundamental way and say, look, you can continually try to repair people's credit or you can educate them. So it never has to be repaired at all. And, you know, fortunately for us, you know, as we're going along this, we're finding a lot of companies that are saying, yeah, that that makes sense. This hasn't really been been done this way. And to take it on another note, too, it's like where we're at right now. Economic equality is really the next steps. A lot of the issues that we face, right. And if there was a generation where credit was implicitly understood and everybody had better credit scores, there would be a reduction in debt because there's lowered interest rates. People be able to start businesses within their own communities, build communities up from within. That is a lot of more steam within the community. It's safer for everybody. It really. It's it's so under. It's just so overlooked as a topic that is frustrating sometimes. I think it's changing, you know, so it's it's a good time to kind of have my ideas validated. But yet it's. It's unfortunate that there's a million credit repair companies and then me teaching it at a younger age is like an anomaly Heidi. [00:18:16][109.4]
[00:18:17] Yeah. And then I think you focused on on the underserved in in specific markets. And I think there's probably generic solutions that banks say they offer because they have to. Right. There's some financial literacy and some tools. But I think those tools are really meant for young adults. Right. Not not kids. They're meant for, you know, people in their 20s, in their 30s who probably already wound up in this situation that you did. So you can go to ever phy. There's a number of these financial literacy companies out there. They do a great job, by the way. They have great content. They give you tests. It's awesome. But is there a certain target market for KiddieKredit? Is this for like a six year old, a seven year old or eight year old? And then it really probably stops at like fifteen or sixteen or is there a certain target there? [00:19:11][54.6]
[00:19:12] It's a good question. So there's two part answer to when we started the app, we intended it to be for kids ages four to 12, hyper focused on eight to 12. Yep. But what we realized this is kids turned teenagers like. Are we? Just leaving the mystery, and now they've got to figure out the rest of their childhood by themselves, like how can we how can we address that, too? So now in our upcoming build out. We have three different learning tracks. Right. So like the content of your experience as a as a kid, you're you you X will be different if you're from four to seven. If you're from eight to 12. If you're from 13 to 17. So that way the content resonates with you. So the one thing that's the the continual constant versus like how beginner or expert level that the credit knowledge is, the one thing that's constant is habit forming because forming good habits carries over into adulthood. So just a strong foundation of habits can lead to strong foundational habits. As an adult, that's that's essentially the theory. [00:20:12][60.0]
[00:20:13] Yeah. You're really coming at this with first principle thinking, which is I think the other guys are thinking about how to treat, you know, a symptom of a much larger problem. They're trying to fix something that gets broken earlier on in life. And it's no different, really, than, you know, like drugs or alcohol or any other, you know, things that happen to folks as they're growing up. [00:20:33][19.6]
[00:20:34] You know, having a poor financial acumen can really impact you later on in life. And if you take it from first principle, which starts in families, it starts in households. So tell me about the chore aspect of this, because honestly, I've got a I've got a couple of kids myself. Tell me about the chore aspect and then maybe I don't know if you're doing any gamification of this. So it makes it interesting for the kids. Let's talk about the chores. How do you come up with the chores? Because like what? You just go to the Internet and say top 10 chores for kids and then you put it in the app. How does that work? [00:21:09][34.9]
[00:21:10] So we do have there are some pre populated chores, right. Based on what the most popular tours are. But we allow for customization from the parent. But let's let's say Christly for your your kids, your inputting. Clean your room, make your bed. So you input the chore, how often you want it done. Is it weekly? Daily. And then what's the priority of the tour. Right. So if it's a low, medium or high, so if it's a high priority chore that they miss it, it's going to affect their score more than if it was a low priority tour. And then you put which kids? You're signing it to the kid. They'll then see those chores on their chalkboard and then say, hey, dad, I did this. And then it's up to you to either approve or deny the chore and to, like, not not get the kidding for what they did. And the parent didn't approve it or deny it. If if after a day it hasn't been approved or denied, it's automatically counted as if they did it. So that way, it's it's not affecting the child if the parent overlooks the logic of it. Got it. Then on a weekly basis, the credit score is calibrated. And essentially from there, based on what their credit score is, they they're able to earn an internal currency and then from there they can redeem that for different rewards. So it could be monetary and non-monetary. Only 40 percent of parents statistics show, pay an allowance. So we didn't want to alienate the 60 percent that don't actually receive money for allowance. So it could be you could get ten dollars or it could be time outside with friends totally dependent to the parent. And anytime that a kid asks for a reward request, it's it's like an increase. [00:22:45][94.7]
[00:22:46] So is there is there an actual tie in? Like, do the kids and the parents, the parents put in Social Security numbers that they register their kids today? Is there a tie in to the credit bureaus or anything like that? [00:22:59][12.6]
[00:22:59] No, no, it's no Social Security number like it in terms of the way that we do the data. It's totally S.O.P compliant, which is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. It's all done by the parent, the child mode, once you're in child mode to even go back to the parent admin side of the app. The parent has to reenter their password, but in the close. The only thing that we have credit bureau related is our relationship with Equifax Foundation. [00:23:23][23.8]
[00:23:24] Got it. Got it. So. So the kids are actually in. I don't even know how this works, honestly. What, like when is a kid start to be recognized by a bureau as being a human being and actually knowing that that human being could have credit? Because I'm assuming there's some linkage with you and Equifax that says, hey, these are KiddieKredit customers, we are working on this stuff. And I mean, does Equifax say, oh, they're part of the you know, the the Leaphart family or they're part of the Snyder family? And we look at them all as a group, like what kind of reporting goes back and forth here? [00:24:00][36.3]
[00:24:01] We don't do any of that type of reporting. Right. Like audit for where it's at. Now, with that being four, twelve and under, when it comes to teens, it's a little more relaxed in terms of what data and everything that can be provided. But it's totally up to the parents for us at this point. It's not about like trying to get that early data on the five or six year old. It's out. It's about changing their habits and forming solid foundational habits to then when they turn a teenager and then they can be introduced to some more real world concepts. Debit cards, things of finance, savings accounts. That's where there's more of a tie in. But again, it all falls on the parent. We don't we don't collect it. [00:24:37][35.5]
[00:24:37] You got it. So you're basically saying, hey, here's a way to give your kids, quote unquote, credit for something while also teaching them about financial literacy. Really foundational stuff, but no real world tie into any credit products. No bureaus. I mean, nothing of the sort. Really, it's a hundred percent educational credit based rights for four for kids, twelve and under. [00:25:04][27.4]
[00:25:05] Right now on the parent side would be able to provide resources that they can go ahead and view. And if they are looking for partners for cards or savings accounts and things of that nature, the parent will be able to do that. But as far as the kid and getting any tangible information outside of knowing when they're becoming a different age, we don't we don't collect that. [00:25:24][19.4]
[00:25:24] Excellent. Excellent. So let's talk about the older kids then, because it sounds like maybe you have a marketplace with preferred providers. [00:25:32][7.7]
[00:25:33] I don't know if you call them that or partners that you vetted and you say, look, we think once these kids do get old enough and they've graduated from KiddieKredit program, that we would then intentionally and I think we should intentionally introduce some of these products in a very safe environment. So in case they screw it up, there's not hell to pay. Right. But it sounds like you've got a marketplace with some folks that you really trust to potentially introduce some of these credit products to parents and then the parents can potentially introduce to kids. Can you tell us about that? [00:26:06][32.9]
[00:26:07] Yeah, absolutely. So what we are it's think like kind of a credit karma for kids, right? We want to be able to be a product recommendation engine for different child based financial products. But it all falls to the parent for us. Right. And in terms of where a lot of these are introduced, it's from teens and up. And, you know, we're working with different different organizations and partners to be able to kind of fill fill what those solutions are. And giving also the smaller outfits the ability to compete. Right. So we're geo fencing a lot of the solutions. Right. It's that's important for us to having that representation. So not just big banking or very big solution is is filling all of these gaps, but something local as well. [00:26:48][41.1]
[00:26:49] Got it. So how did people find your product or brand? I mean, your sales and marketing guy. Right. I'm assuming you have a team behind that. But how are you getting the word out about this? I'm assuming this is a national thing, not a local or regional thing. [00:27:03][14.6]
[00:27:04] Like, anybody can have this because it's an app, right? [00:27:06][2.4]
[00:27:07] Yes. So it's a. So we launched our public beta last year. We really didn't spend any money on marketing. What it was for us was to basically put it out to the public in and hear from the parents as to what they like about the app, what they don't like about the app, what they would like to see in upcoming iterations. So the reach that we've had so far and the coverage and press has been truly humbling for all of us as a team. Very unexpected and. Where we're what we're doing now is really building out what our new version is, and that'll be where you'll start to see a lot of the, you know, going through the traditional marketing channels, just, you know, physical, digital and doing a push like that to get the word out. But it's it's it's really been totally organic. Parents, a parent, friend to friend, organization, organization that we meet, we get all these opportunities. [00:27:57][50.8]
[00:27:58] Do you sell? So do you sell B2B or or direct a consumer? It sounds like you said organization. So maybe your licensing or giving the tech to some organizations to distribute as well through a channel. [00:28:10][12.0]
[00:28:11] Yeah. So be a B2B model. Right. So what we wanted them to be able to do, especially because our target is to put this in the in the hands of the families that need it most in underserved communities, essentially get them to buy bulk user licenses, annual subscriptions, and then go ahead and get a user license for X, Y, Z amount and then distribute that within their channels. [00:28:31][20.1]
[00:28:32] Oh, got it. So there's somewhat actually subsidizing the use of the app and delivering it to their audience, right? Mm hmm. Interesting weather some. So did you. So founder Jim, is that where this idea was conceived and brought to life for was this is this a v.C back company KiddieKredit? How did you how did you bring this to life? What kind of funding? [00:28:57][25.2]
[00:29:00] My pocket went much better, you know. So I had to go into my credit, right. [00:29:07][6.5]
[00:29:07] And get the, you know, just like really just went all in on this. You know, I've done tons of businesses before, but I was like, this is the one that I will leave it all out there. And if it doesn't work, I just go to island and just say, hey, I tried. But yes, I started bootstrapping. I think a year into after we incorporated, we incorporate in 2089 a joint founder. Jim and I did a lot of programs last year, a couple five hundred startups, Miami bootcamps, did might might a tech participate in it? Accelerate rain, rain. Venture capital. Bidya and I really started out of my own pocket cup. I was along the way and last month we just finished our crowdfunding campaign. [00:29:49][41.6]
[00:29:50] Excellent. That is super exciting. So let's talk about you're also the co-founder of Black Men Talk, right? Black men took tech. If you're black men talk tech. Can you tell us about that? What is that about? [00:30:03][13.2]
[00:30:04] Yeah, sure. So it's fun from Black Women Talk Tech. We did it in partnership with them to conference. They're in their fifth year. Amazing conference. You know, both conferences are meant to celebrate and spotlight. A demographic that's that's typically been looked over when it comes to venture capital. Right. We all know the statistics. You know, one percent or less typically traditionally goes to black led companies. And I just wanted to be a part of that. I know, like as somebody that's a non-technical tech founder that's trying to build a tech startup. If I didn't have some of the help that I did and just ask the right types of questions and just really maybe you can get lucky. I wouldn't know where to go. So to be part of a collective that's really trying to create a hub of resources for not just founders but investors and technologists and bringing everybody together and also organizations that are looking looking forward to ways to be better and say, hey, how can we connect with this demographic better? It was a no brainer. So we did it last year here in Miami where UNbased. We were going to have it this year, too, in Miami was amazing setup. But unfortunately, go it right. So entrepreneurs, you know, you've got to change and adapt. So now we're doing it virtually this year and we have. It's the twenty third, twenty fourth and twenty fifth of October. So this month. And the pitch competition at the end is actually going to be presented by our presenting partner is the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation. And first place gets ten thousand. Second place gets five thousand. Third gets twenty five hundred and fourth gets twelve fifty. So I would play. That's excellent. [00:31:48][104.3]
[00:31:49] That's excellent. So. No conference, but still, how long is that organization been around? [00:31:56][7.0]
[00:31:57] How many years so black? Black women talk text their fifth year. This is our second year. Wow. [00:32:02][5.1]
[00:32:03] Excellent. Can you tell us a little bit about, I think someone from your organization, maybe your CMO is involved with an organization called Black Wallet. What can you tell us a little bit about Blackwall? [00:32:14][11.4]
[00:32:15] Sure. So first off, the founder of Blackwell, it is John Saunders, who's one of my favorite people. But like just in terms of entrepreneur, we're the most organized people I've ever met. He has processes for everything. And I actually would I discovered him through Blackwell. It just went down a rabbit hole on the Internet one day. So, BLACKWELL it it's a financial literacy blog for urban millennials having over two hundred fifty thousand followers on Instagram. I don't know this specific to their Web traffic, but it's a lot and it turned out great content. So after reading an article finding out who John was, I connected with him and he really liked what we were doing with KiddieKredit is very on brand to all the stuff that he's working on. So we've been working together for about a year and a half now. [00:33:02][47.1]
[00:33:04] Excellent. That must be a great promotional and marketing piece for KiddieKredit as well. [00:33:10][6.1]
[00:33:11] It's definitely something that we kind of have as a as a as a vehicle to get the word out. But, you know, you always want to make sure that you're being, you know, authentic with your audience. It's not it's not overexposure. It's just if there's a topic that we can talk about, then will we have the ability to talk about it on that platform? [00:33:28][16.3]
[00:33:29] So what's next for KiddieKredit? If you if you think about the big things that you have to do from a milestone standpoint, you're like, we really got to do this. Like, what is it? What's next for you guys? [00:33:40][11.0]
[00:33:41] So we've been having some major conversations with financial institutions in the bureau. And just figuring out what ways we can make a real impact. It's not about just saying, hey, we're working here. It's like, how can we fundamentally make a change going forward and and do it and where it's not just a drop in a pan. So nailing some of those conversations at pitches and I can't necessarily say like where they are in those conversations. But that was like step one. And then step two is essentially saying now we know what this is going to look like at what are we going to input in our next version. Right. So the app that you see today is nowhere with the app will look like in two to three months, but it's still important that we have it out and we're engaging with our users to say, hey, where are you frustrated? What do you like? What do you make? You want to make sure that we do not take away. Going forward. So that's essentially where we're at. [00:34:35][54.0]
[00:34:35] So if there's so if our audience you know, our audience is founder, CEOs, executives, banks, nonbanks, financial services, there is a mixed bag with this audience, but they're mostly executives and founders. You know, they probably look a lot like us in many ways. But, you know, if you had a message for that audience about the kinds of companies you're really looking to partner with, like, for example, I just got off the phone today with a regional bank that has like one hundred billion dollars in assets. And they're like, oh, yeah, we love to find partners that look like this and look like that. Maybe communities and underrepresented neighborhoods in this specific part of the United States or whatever. So if you have some specific targets in mind while everybody is listening, you have some specific partnerships that you'd like to say, hey, if there's someone out there that looks like this, you know, contact KiddieKredit Everleigh part, you know, we'd love to talk to you guys. [00:35:32][56.8]
[00:35:33] Yeah, absolutely. It would it would really be around the efforts on economic inclusion and in a real way, not just a press announcement about, hey, we're looking to do this. It's like fundamentally changing the numbers, changing the stats on those that live below the poverty line and creating having a long term commitment towards seeing this process through. Right. If we're if we're doing this for and we're starting at age four, I mean, that's a that's a 14 year old 14 year cycle till they become. All right. So it's not just about funding this in 2020 or being a partner in 2020 because it could be perceived as the trendy thing to do. How can we fundamentally save from here on out? We are going to make sure that we're educating credit. If that conversation is not serious to you, no matter how large you are, I don't want to talk. But if it's really something that you want to change, like let's figure out how to do this. This together, we have a team that's totally dedicated to it. Every every single team member sees it as importantly, as I do. Every person that's been an angel investor or been a promoter on a social media outlet of some sort believes in it as much as I do. So aligning with those organizations would be truly my only hope. [00:36:55][82.1]
[00:36:56] Yeah. It's your mission. It's your values. I mean, this is what this is what you are doing. And I mean, obviously, being a founder is hard, hard enough, but it would be even harder if you're doing something you don't believe in or nobody else believes it and they believe that, oh, maybe we'll just jump on board for a year while it's trendy. That doesn't fly. Right. I don't think anyone who's a founder that's mission driven and has like core values and has a team with core values, that that's behavior is just not going to fly. [00:37:25][29.4]
[00:37:26] So, you know, I appreciate you know, I appreciate you saying that because it is very important that we stick to what we're trying to do in this life because rock to be around forever. [00:37:36][10.1]
[00:37:38] So he must do something that matters and kind of stick to it. So as we wrap up here, you know, I'd like to ask you, since you've you've done a lot. You're a serial entrepreneur. If you had to give one or two pieces of advice to our budding entrepreneurs or current entrepreneurs and founders and executives are listening to this podcast, like, what would it be? [00:37:58][19.8]
[00:38:01] Balance, for one, and then mentors to two out to explain both for balance. [00:38:07][6.3]
[00:38:09] It's easy to overwork. I mean, I'm I'm talking about balance like I haven't and I don't. But I understand the importance of really hitting the reset. Right. You don't get so in the weeds of trying to build something out or get to the next step that you can't take a step back and realize why you created in the first place. And the more balance you have, the more clarity you can convey things to your team, to potential investors, to potential customers. So just having that like that mental health, it all comes from the balance. I would just say, like continue to like work as hard as you need to work and you'll have to work harder than probably any other occupation. But just just released a balance and headed. So even if you're working 18 hour day, just have the balance in mind to understand, like I'm working this 18 hour day because in 18 years I'm gonna be on an island. I'll be very level headed in your thought process. And then mentors I to my from our team, Matko and Ray. Like, we built out the initial wireframe on this process together. And I mean, he had been in the tech startup scene for over 10 years. So it was just even and he scaled up an app to over 100000 users. But like in our conversations that we had, it was I really learned from him. I absorbed as a sponge. And I knew that he was somebody that had my best interests have my backs like a cure would, he had to say, and not take it with a grain of salt. And I always looked for people like that, you know, a lot of times. Along the way, everybody will tell you what's gonna work, what won't work. And you really have to be able to say, hey, I hear you. But now, you know, like you don't have to. You have to be able to to taking what everybody's saying. But then from that, evaluate the information. And do what's going to work best for you. So it's a lot easier to take in a lot of information if it's from people that you you know, you trust, respect and you admire. So just find the right mentors would be my. [00:40:09][120.2]
[00:40:09] Yeah, you have to because it gets to be it gets to be a real lonely place. And sometimes you really need someone to just talk to you about this stuff. Right. It doesn't really even matter. Like they have to be in my opinion. They have to be founders' or they have to be someone that's walked this path. I feel very strongly about that because I don't think it's like having kids. Right. Like, you can't really tell a parent. Well how you feel about their kids doing this, that or the other thing. If you yourself don't have kids. It's like, yeah, it's like, come on. Right. So at the end of the day, you know, unless you're working in community centers, you're working with kids all the time. There's there's a lot of people that have a lot of experience with kids. But at the end of the day, if you're not if you're trying to advise someone on how to be a founder, you yourself are not a founder. Yeah, you might want to think about that because it's a hard it's a hard, lonely road sometimes. And candidly, I'm thankful for you know, I listen to a lot of podcasts. You know, these guys I might not be connecting with them and talking to them, but I hear what they say. And I actually make that connection. And I consider them, you know, all mentors. When I have problems, I go to these podcasts and it really helps me kind of get through having a real human being that you can talk to. Who's probably would be better, though. [00:41:32][82.3]
[00:41:34] Well, listen, everyone. Evan Leaphart, founder of KiddieKredit, a mobile chore and tracking app designed to teach kids about the importance of financial literacy and credit. KiddieKredit utilizes chore completion, quality and timeliness to generate a credit score that helps children learn how to maintain and improve their real life credit. [00:41:56][21.8]
[00:41:57] Evan, thank you so much for being on the show today. It's been a great pleasure, Chris. [00:42:01][4.0]
[00:42:01] Thank you. This is an amazing conversation. [00:42:02][0.9]
[00:42:03] Thank you. [00:42:03][0.0]
[2435.7]
2020 ©Snyder Showdown. All Rights Reserved.
