The Venture Leader Fintech leveraging gamification to foster financial literacy – Venturelab

Our expert jury recently chose ten startups for the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 program whose founders will join the Swiss National Startup Team. In anticipation of the Venture Leaders roadshow in London at the end of November, we would like to introduce our community to each of the Venture Leaders Fintech 2022. Meet David Giron, CEO of Money Masters.

Name: David Giron     

Location: Geneva, Switzerland 

Nationality: Guatemala & Spain 

Graduated from: Western Carolina University in 2015 with a degree in Business & Marketing 

Job title: CEO 

Number of employees: 5

Money raised: CHF 2.5 million 

First touchpoint with Venturelab: Venture Leaders Fintech in 2022

What does your startup do and why? 

Money Masters makes it fun and easy to learn about money. By leveraging technology, we have created a gamified and interactive learning experience so that everyone can have access to financial education.

 

“We are on a mission to make financial education accessible to all.”

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup? 

As I started working in the financial industry, I realized that, even though many of my friends were well-educated, most of them had little to no idea about finance. After many failed attempts at helping my friends, I realized there was a need to make financial education simpler. I studied some of the leading EdTech platforms, like Duolingo, and thought to myself, “Why can’t we do the same thing for finance?”. This is where I started my journey with Money Masters.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how do you think it will help you realize your vision? 

We are on a mission to make financial education accessible to all. Doing it alone can be quite complicated. Therefore, we want to keep growing our network of partners, be it financial institutions, NGOs, or even educational institutions. That’s why this is a big opportunity for us, it will help us with our visibility and collecting feedback. We are currently raising funds, therefore, having the opportunity to meet with potential investors is very beneficial to us.

Whom does your application help, and how?

At the moment, most of our users are Millennials and older Gen Zs who would like to learn about finance in a fun and easy way. From our user’s feedback, we have learned that most young professionals start looking for financial education tools as they join the workforce. After university, most people realize the lack of financial knowledge and simply don’t know who to ask or who to trust. They feel like most financial content online is from financial institutions trying to sell something. Given that Money Masters is a purely educational platform, gives them comfort.  

What are you most excited about at work right now?

When we started this journey, my idea was to become the “Duolingo of Finance”; but our early success has made us realize that we don’t have to do this alone. Most financial institutions want to provide financial education but have not been successful. For this reason, we have been approached by several institutions to work together through a white-label solution. In January, we are launching our first white-label partnership with a large asset manager out of Spain. We are extremely excited to see the results. As an additional point, it is exciting to see our customer acquisition cost (CAC) go below CHF 1. When we went live with our beta nine months ago, the CAC was at CHF 15. It has been an impressive run.

How did you build your team?

I believe our team is the strongest part of our project. Today, we have over eight different nationalities from different professional backgrounds. The team started small, with only the CTO and me. We then started working with an academic board composed of three professionals in finance and education. Once the financial education map was defined, we started working with our network of content creators and developers to build the platform. Now, we have five key team members: the CTO, the Product Owner, the Digital Product Manager, the Head of Marketing, and our COO, Victor Novoselov.

Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup? 

We are focusing our efforts on the US but have seen significant traction in the EU. In the US alone, over 100 million people are considered financially illiterate. Between Gen Z and Millennials, there are over 45 million who lack the most basic understanding of finance. We are also starting to get traction with financial institutions. In the US, there are over 5,000 credit unions and over 2,000 community banks that invest in financial education tools.

What are your key achievements to date?

There are a few: firstly, our incubation at Fongit, one of the leading incubators in Switzerland; secondly, being one of the top five fintech startups that were selected to pitch at the SICTIC Fintech Day in Zurich; and, thirdly, our selection to the Swissnex program in San Francisco, where we got to meet with potential partners and investors. On the business side of things, we are proud to have reached over 30,000 users, lowering our customer acquisition cost from USD 20 to USD 1 in just nine months, while achieving 13% monthly active users in October and teaming up with our first white-label partner, a fund worth EUR 7 billion out of Spain.  

 

“There is no playbook to being a founder. Mistakes will happen and there is no perfect way to overcome them. You just need to make the decisions you think are best for your situation.”

What is one thing not many people know about you?

I was born in Guatemala, and moved by myself to the United States at the age of 16, chasing my dream of playing American Football. I ended up receiving a scholarship to a Division I school and played in front of 100K people in Alabama. I then went on to play professionally overseas for several years. American Football does not exist in Guatemala.

What is your favorite podcast and why?

The Wall Street Lab. This is actually a friend’s podcast and has been recognized as a top 10 finance podcast in Europe. It’s a great way to learn from very successful financial professionals and have an insight into their lives. They have had amazing guests like Monish Pabrai and Howard Marks. I am a bit of a finance geek.

What is your favorite book and why?

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. While it is a very dry book, this book changed my life. As I was starting my career in finance, I read this book and did not understand what I was reading. It took me several attempts to fully understand it. I have been putting its teachings to practice ever since. It’s also part of the reason I wanted to create Money Masters.  

Who inspires you and why?

My father. My father comes from a very humble background, but he always strived for a better future. Through hard work, he managed to give me and my family an opportunity. He pushed me to believe in myself and without him, I don’t know where I would be.

Which startup do you wish you had founded and why?

Duolingo. This is a company that showed the world that you can build a profitable business while doing something good for the world. Today, you can learn a language for free, no matter who you are or where you come from. This gives people opportunities for a better future.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?

There is no playbook to being a founder. Mistakes will happen and there is no perfect way to overcome them. You just need to make the decisions you think are best for your situation.

The Venture Leaders Fintech 2022 roadshow in London is organized by Venturelab in partnership with Swissnex and supported by EPFL, ETH Zürich, and Walder Wyss.

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