Educating Millions of People Worldwide on Saving and Investing
juanlascurain.com is about educating millions of people Worldwide on saving and investing via online videos that transform people's behavior towards money.
About You
About You
About Your Organization
Organization Name
juanlascurain.com
Organization Website
juanlascurain.com
Organization Country
Venezuela, M, Caracas
Country where this project is creating social impact
Venezuela, M, Caracas
Is your organization a
Not registered
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them
Since 2010 Juan is the Personal Finance Expert for Venezuela for MasterCard’s Personal Finance Education initiative called Consumo Inteligente
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Start-Up (a pilot that has just begun operating)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for less than a year
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
a)Most people either know so little about money or think they know so much about money that they think they don’t need financial education. Put in another way, there is very little demand by the people for personal financial education.
b)Live teaching is expensive on a per student basis, therefore not scalable to millions of people.
c)Personal Finance Education must not only convey information to the student, but most importantly, it must trigger an emotional response which will result in a change of attitude towards money. You can give 10 books on personal finance to a person, but until that person is touched on her emotions, no change of attitude towards money happens.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
The proposed solution is a) to develop basic personal finance education material which hits people’s emotions b) that is online and accessible via a computer, tablet or smartphone and c) to develop incentives to attract people to financial education.
I am developing the material as a series of short videos, inspired by the only personal finance book I know has made an impact on people (“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki) and by Kahn Academy’s short youtube educational videos. So far the feedback has been outstanding.
These videos are available on youtube, therefore accessible via a computer, tablet or smartphone.
As for the bites, the best bite is to make personal financial education a mandatory course in high school, so I am working with local education authorities to make it happen.
Another bite is to target large Affinity Groups with campaigns inviting them to attend an online course and to win affinity-related prizes when they complete the online tests.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Imagine website www.ahorraconeltri.com (an approximate translation would be “www.savewiththemexiconationalfootballteam.com”). The affinity group would be the Mexican football (soccer) fans, the sponsor would be Banamex (who is a main sponsor of the Mexican National Football team, nicknamed “El Tri” or “The three-colored team” because of their green, white and red uniform). Banamex invites fans to visit and go through the personal finance course in www.ahorraconeltri.com. The course consists of at most twelve 5-minute videos organized in 5 modules. The modules are: 1) do you save or not? 2) Defining financial goals and saving rates 3) Save! Spend less than you earn or earn more than you spend 3) Do more than saving. Invest! 4) Investment basics 5) Getting out of debt. Each module has 2 to 4 online multiple-choice questions, for a total of 15 questions. For each correct answer the fan gets pictures of her favorite players. Those who answer correctly all questions get tickets to a game and a Banamex savings account with no fees for one year.
The same concept could be applied to other affinity groups. Imagine www.savewiththeredsox.com or www.savewiththeyankees.com for baseball fans in the US, or www.ahorracontelevisa.com for Mexican TV fans, or www.ahorraconelchavo.com for a kids campaign.
Finally, the concept could be applied to other subjects with the same challenges that financial education has, like nutrition. Imagine www.healthyeatingwithbradpitt.com sponsored by a healthy foods producer or grocery shop.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Peers and competitors are books like "Rich Dad Poor Dad", by R. Kiyosaki and “Finanzas para Papá” (“Personal Finance for Dad”) by R. Puentes. Microfinance lenders, Citi Foundation and BBVA Foundation provide live personal finance education.
Differentiators: 1) content triggers emotional reactions in order to transform people's behavior towards money. 2) delivery format is a series of short videos and multiple-choice questions available on the web and via smartphones, with the lowest cost per student 3) demand generation by targeting large affinity groups, like football fans, and offering them prizes.
Existing players pose more opportunities than challenges, since I am open to execute either as a partner or as part of their organizations.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
I had three “Aha!” moments.
"Aha!" moment #1 came one night around 2:00 am while trying to sleep when, after years thinking why does the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" make so many people change their behavior towards money, I got to the answer: author R. Kiyosaki makes his points by comparing face to face the “what if you do this” and “what if you do that” cases, and this format triggers an emotional response from readers. I immediately left my bed to go work on my next video.
“Aha!” moment #2 came when I discovered that most viewers of my youtube videos are based in Mexico, followed by Colombia, Peru and Venezuela, and then USA and Spain. That made me hungry for going global.
“Aha!” moment #3 came when I realized that there is no demand for personal finance education and I started working on the concept of “carrots” like targeting large affinity groups with publicity and prizes (imagine www.savewiththeredsox.com)
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
Reach millions of people Worldwide via personal finance short videos that transform people’s behavior towards money. The content is not only informational, but most importantly the content triggers emotional reactions in people and has them change behavior. The format is the very successful short video format made popular by www.kahnacademy.org . As a vast majority of people are not interested in the subject of personal finance, we attract them by targeting large affinity groups with publicity and prizes.
Which barrier(s) to financial inclusion does your solution seek to address? (select all applicable)
Other (Please describe below).
If you selected 'other' above, please specify which other barriers to financial inclusion you solution seeks to address:
Financial literacy
For which underserved or excluded communities will your solution create access to valuable, affordable, secure and comprehensive financial services?
Middle-class and the urban-poor Worldwide.
Could your solution work in other geographies or regions? If so, where?
Yes, it could work Worldwide by translating and localizing the videos to each country.
If your solution is dramatically successful, how will things be different in 10 years?
In 10 years, millions of people will live based on the following principle: Work, Save, Invest, Work, Save, Invest and you’ll be able to reach your dreams in life and live out of your investments’ returns. Don’t do it and you most probably won’t reach your dreams in life, you’ll need to work all your life to cover your living expenses and you’ll probably be poor or depend on your kids if you stop working.
In addition, people will have basic understanding to support economic and fiscal policies that are benefitial to economic growth.
What will have had to have changed to make this happen?
People's behavior towards money will have had to change. To have people live under the premisses that it is better to have a frugal life and save and be independent when retired, than to have a more expensive house and a more expensive car, only to depend on others as soon as they retire.
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Youtube channel dineroparalavida has over 10.000 views, 45 likes and 1 dislike, 19 comments. Latest video which is the only one that incorporates the "face-to-face" style has 560 views, 14 likes, 0 dislikes and 9 comments. That is equivalent to 250 likes per 10.000 views and 160 comments per 10.000 views. My interpretation is that viewer involvement is roughly 10 times bigger with the new "face-to-face" format than with the previous "informational" format.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
To have a national or large regional campaign in at least 20 countries, reaching some 40 million people.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Fully develop the core online video repository, initially at juanlascurain.com
Task 2
Close an agreement with a Venezuela or US-based sponsor to run a financial education campaign
Task 3
Fully develop the core financial education videos
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Execute the financial education campaign
Task 2
Translate education videos from Spanish to English
Task 3
Develop a network of local personal finance educators in the Mexico, Colombia, Perú, US and Spain
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
In July 2012 I visited Washington DC in search for partners like Inter-American Development Bank, Accion International and Microfinance Opportunities, but no tangible partnership arose from the visit.
In July 2012 I started conversations with Venezuela-based BBVA Banco Provincial to run a www.ahorraconlavinotinto.com campaign, but no tangible partnership has arisen so far.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?
I would like to target the New England area with a Bank of America / Red Sox baseball team campaign and Mecio with a Banamex / El Tri National Football team campaign.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
A passion, an obsession to transform people's lives via personal finance education will unite our team. Internally, fairness, smiles and the opportunity for professional growth in and outside Venezuela will attract and keep people in the team.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
I need funds to complete the freely accesible courseware and website.
I need introduction to Citi Foundation, BBVA Foundation and OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs
I can provide mentorship on business plans
