ABCs of managing money

MONEY WISE: Finnest co-founders Clemens Grave, left, and Richard McDonald created the startup with a focus on teaching financial-literacy skills to children and teens. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
MONEY WISE: Finnest co-founders Clemens Grave, left, and Richard McDonald created the startup with a focus on teaching financial-literacy skills to children and teens. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Richard McDonald met Clemens Grave while attending an innovation management and entrepreneurship course at Brown University.

The course required students to create a commercialization plan surrounding a business idea, and while the duo didn’t produce anything together there, it was the basis for what later became Finnest, a financial-technology company focused on teaching financial-literacy skills to children and teenagers.

“Clemens’ passion is financial technology, he’s crazy about the industry, so we started brainstorming,” McDonald explained.

The idea for Finnest ultimately came from McDonald’s personal experience trying to navigate how to manage money while at school.

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“I didn’t get a debit card until I was 19, and I felt horribly uncomfortable about managing my own finances,” McDonald said. “Finnest is about getting youth started managing money on the right foot.”

Finnest is in the process of collecting data from parents. It’s also testing a prototype, and while the duo hasn’t yet decided what age group to focus on, the owners are tentatively looking at 11-14 years old. •

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