Greenlight: Spreading Financial Literacy Worldwide Founding Story of Tim Sheehan and Johnson Cook
It may seem like today’s kids have it all: cellphones, video games, and now debit cards. But do they understand how money really works in the real world? Founders Tim Sheehan (CEO) and Johnson Cook (president and CEO) started Greenlight in 2014 to empower children, teenagers, and their parents with strong financial literacy. Sheehan understands how valuable it is because his father taught him the good financial habits that shaped the trajectory of his own career. The Foundational Journey: Tapping Into an Untapped Market Sheehan was lucky his father took the time to teach him about money but realized most parents don’t have the time or an adequate knowledge base. So, Sheehan and Cook decided to survey a large number of families to confirm this suspicion, and they were right. Most parents didn’t educate their children on household finances. Along with that, parents lacked useful resources to guide them in teaching financial literacy. This revelation pointed to a market gap, which Sheehan and Cook decided to close with Greenlight. Looking at the Schools Creating Greenlight led to the next big question: Are parents qualified to teach financial literacy to their children? Many parents assume their kids are learning about money
in school from better-trained teachers. However, a 2010 national study on a teacher’s capacity to teach personal finance revealed that although 80% of states had guidelines for financial education, less than 20% of teachers felt competent to teach it. Seventy percent were open to further training on the topic, but how and when that education occurred is unknown. As of 2022, 47 states require K-12 students to take a course in personal finance to graduate, but it’s safe to assume parents still have a role in helping their kids with financial literacy. Understanding the Product Greenlight is a debit card for children that allows parents to control and monitor how their children spend money. It comes with three plans: Greenlight Core ($4.99/month), Greenlight Max ($9.98/month), and Greenlight Infinity ($14.98/month). All three plans have the basic features of providing debit cards for up to five kids, financial literacy games, and an allowance and chores feature. The Max and Infinity plans offer investing for kids, driving reports and crash detection, identity theft protection services, and much more. Checking Out the Competition While Greenlight may have struck while the iron was hot, the market for family finance has grown since 2014. Even though many startup fintech companies offer debit cards to children and teenagers specifically, Greenlight’s product includes features that other companies don’t. Other payment apps like CashApp and Venmo offer peer- to-peer fund transfers — but without financial literacy training, young users are still vulnerable to making financial mistakes. Greenlight’s unique features clearly have an edge over its competitors. Greenlight Gets the Greenlight The future of Greenlight looks exceptionally bright. It has grown to 3 million users and $100 million in revenue, and there are plans for expansion. Because the founders recognized a financial literacy need in family dynamics and acted to fill the gap, Greenlight is bringing financial literacy to the masses.
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