EarlyBird CEO — It Takes a Village to Invest in the Next Generation

Written in collaboration with EarlyBird

Serial entrepreneur Jordan Wexler is the Co-Founder and CEO of fintech startup, EarlyBird. He sold his first company at 24-years-old, became the COO of Agility.io at 28, and launched his second company, EarlyBird, all before the age of 30.

EarlyBird is the simplest way for parents, family, and friends to collectively invest in a child’s financial future, starting at the earliest age. The platform is transforming financial gifting by making it personal, purposeful, and timeless while also enriching future generations with financial knowledge and freedom.

As we know, financial literacy is a major issue in the United States. Financial literacy includes every financial life skill from understanding how a checking account works and what using a credit card means, to balancing a budget, how to use an IRA or 401(k), investing in the stock market, and more. These skills are severely lacking not only with our youth, but with our society as a whole.

According to recent survey data, 19% of Americans reported that their household spent more than their income over the past year. Add in the fact that 43% of adults say they don’t have a rainy day fund, and that means huge chunks of our society simply aren’t prepared to face financial hurdles. Without knowing how to live within your means, budget, and save, kids are going to be totally unprepared if they ever get hit by a financial fastball.

Children generally have their financial habits set by the age of seven. That means to set kids up for financial independence we have to teach them the basics of financial literacy sooner rather than later.

This is why Jordan, and Co-Founder Caleb Frankel, launched EarlyBird. To help families teach the children in their life about financial literacy early on, so that they’ll be able to make smart investment choices and knock that fastball right out of the park.

What is EarlyBird & Who Do They Serve?

EarlyBird is helping parents, whether beginners or experts in investing in the stock market, simplify the process of kick-starting their child’s financial future by opening a custodial investment account. Family and friends are also able to contribute to the account through the EarlyBird app, which enables them to remain connected to the children they love by gifting meaningful and sustainable financial contributions for all of life’s milestones.

EarlyBird has designed a frictionless process for communities to gift financial assets to the kids they love. Traditional gifting of financial assets (cash in card, checks, savings bonds, even a Venmo) are cold transactions. There is no deep embedded connection for the child, it’s just capital. EarlyBird fuses capital and emotion by allowing ‘givers’ to record a short video memory alongside their contribution, which adds a rich emotional connection to the process of financial gifting.

The vision for EarlyBird is that parents who start investing in their children from day one will in 18 years have a solid investment account for their kid along with an abundance of knowledge and stories in the form of video content saved in the app’s archive to look back on forever.

What Was the Market Opportunity for EarlyBird?

Jordan began thinking about investments as an alternative to physical gifts when he became an uncle. He found himself head over heels with his niece and was spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the most ridiculous toys, clothes, and other “junk.” He wanted to have a larger impact on her life and give something that was actually meaningful and useful. That’s how he got the idea to simplify the process for parents to launch custodial investment accounts for their kids.

This snowballed into something much bigger. Yes, EarlyBird had the opportunity to create a way to seamlessly gift financial assets to children, but the platform also had a way to pass down generations of financial knowledge and incorporate efficient, real-life financial literacy. EarlyBird has a unique product/service offering. Unlike other teen banking or savings apps in the space, parents (and the village it takes to raise a child) can collectively start long-term investing in the child from the youngest of ages, while other apps are waiting for kids to be of age to spend money.

What is the Problem EarlyBird is Looking to Solve?

EarlyBird’s core pillars are financial literacy, financial empowerment, and financial freedom. EarlyBird is critically thinking about the stages of growth children go through and developing a solution for each stage.

Between 0 and five years old is when parents can start to plant the financial seed — set up an EarlyBird account, start to invest, and make their community aware of this alternative gifting platform for your child’s financial future.

From ages six to 13, parents can begin to instill financial knowledge in their children. Communicating about their investments, what they’re investing in, what that means, and how it is their money starts to build the financial literacy foundation.

During the 13–18-year-old window, children can begin to take some ownership of their finances. EarlyBird is currently developing a “view only” mode for kids to better understand their investments. Financial literacy is a crucial building block for financial empowerment because children need a strong foundation of knowledge on investing and how saving works before transitioning to having a debit card or being able to spend.

At 18, the EarlyBird account becomes the child’s to own and the hope is they are financially fit and savvy to use the money in their best interest. Whether it be to travel the world, start a business, go to school, or stay invested for another 20+ years, EarlyBird wants to ensure kids have the financial freedom to make these choices for themselves.

What’s Next For EarlyBird?

EarlyBird is just getting started. The company is backed by $2.4 million in funding, led by Network Ventures, in a round closed in November 2020. As EarlyBird fundraises for their next round, they are building out strategic partnerships and exploring how to best incorporate the ability for parents to invest in cryptocurrency for their kids. Currently, EarlyBird offers only custodial investment account options for parents but is looking to expand its offerings and become an all-encompassed, holistic wealth management platform for the next generation.