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2022 YASS PRIZE Finalist

Rapunzl

Chicago, Illinois

A mobile app and personal finance curriculum for high school students that offers fun (and free) investment competitions with over $250K in scholarships.

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Winner of 2022 STOP Award for Transformational Education

About

With a free financial literacy curriculum and teaching training program Rapunzl is helping to bridge the country’s economic divide by exposing students from underserved communities and empowering them to view the world as investors and succeed in financial services careers. With the world of finance and the high-returns of Wall Street seeming inaccessible and out of reach for most, co-founders Brian Curcio and Myles Gage met freshman year of high school and built Rapunzl to change this for students. Transitioning from the bank and financial investment industries, they built, broke, and rebuilt an innovative, hybrid financial literacy curriculum in 2018, which has inspired over 35,000 students, over 80% who identify as people of color. By showing students that they can thrive in financial services careers and providing them with the tools to build generational wealth, this cutting edge ed tech program transforms the way students perceive themselves in the world. They provide equitable access to real-world financial education materials for high school students from underserved communities and leverage a free, simulated investing app to offer affordable, relevant, and engaging financial literacy tools. Students engage in simulated stock portfolios and even stock trading competitions.

Their Story

Rapunzl’s goal is to make financial education more accessible and ensure that all children are prepared with the financial acumen necessary for the post-pandemic world by offering a scalable, high-quality digital curriculum able to reach families across the socioeconomic spectrum.

LEADER QUOTE

Brian Curcio, CEO & Founder

Financial literacy is essential because it really helps break the generational poverty cycle but also exposes students to careers in financial services…Staying financially literate is also important to having people be productive and engaged members of society.

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Why they stand out

Carl Sandburg famously described America’s third largest city, Chicago, as one full of folks who are “shoveling, wrecking, planning, building, breaking, rebuilding.” Chicago-based founders of ed tech company Rapunzl are made of such stuff. They identified a problem in American education with real-world consequences: financial illiteracy. With Rapunzl, students gain invaluable financial intelligence for life by learning money while actively earning money. Ask the nation’s student loan borrowers who are in more than 1.7 trillion dollars of debt for more on that. Students need to know what money is and what to do with it—responsibly. The financial system is broken for ordinary investors because it fails to be inclusive, educational, and engaging for ordinary people.

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How they STOP for education

A transformational digital finance curriculum is designed for any skill-level and embedded into a mobile platform that promotes self-guided learning.

The company has distributed attracted investments and is on track to break even as their expansion plans become a reality. To date, with their competitions and corporate partners, they’ve awarded over $250,000 in scholarships and generate recurring revenues to fund further awards.

Its open source curriculum and app that can be modified by teachers to meet the needs of all learners is permissionless for everyone.

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Winning their award

Rapunzl already serves 11,000 high school students nationally, but being a Yass Prize finalist and STOP Award winner is rocket-fuel to their plans to increase reach to 75,000 students and expand into grades six through eight. It would also increase capacity for more high schools nationwide with a specific focus on Florida, Arizona, and Texas where they already have a large number of schools using the platform. 

Their Latest

It’s time for a celebration!! 🤩 This past Th It’s time for a celebration!! 🤩

This past Thursday, Rapunzl learned that we had been named a semifinalists in the $1M @yassprize for (STOP) Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding & Permissionless Education!!

This means that we’re we’re still in the running for the $1M #StopGrant grand prize but even more importantly, it means Rapunzl has earned at least $200,000 to help grow our financial literacy program nationally!

The #StopAwards provide over $10 million in awards and grants to 64 education change makers and we’re honored to be mentioned alongside such incredible organizations! 

Our founders Brian and Myles already had the chance to speak with Steve Forbes at the Forbes on Fifth venue, who hosted the semifinalist announcement, and it seems that was only the beginning… 🚀

The @yassprize has lined up some incredible guest speakers as part of a 3-week virtual accelerator before we all meet for 1-week in Miami so stay tuned and #InvestSmarter 💰
Back in the day, the only places that stayed open Back in the day, the only places that stayed open 24/7 were pharmacies, gas stations and convenience stores. 

Even banks close and decided that we should only be able to trade stocks Monday through Friday. 

The past is over and the future is here!

Rapunzl’s hosting non-stop crypto trading competitions with hundreds of dollars in prizes every single day!

There’s nothing to lose and now double the competitions for you to join!

Comment below and we’ll send you a sign-up link where your first $1 of prizes is on us. 

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#learntoinvest #learncryptoinvesting #cryptocurrency10 #cryptoinvesting #crypto #bitcoin #altcoin #altcoininvesting #cryptodata #cryptogiveaway #nft #btc #ethereum #elonmusk #dogecoin #stocks #stonks #free #freeprizes #giveaway #learncrypto
#cryptoinvesting101 #nftinvesting #solana #ethereum #polkadot #hodl #blockchain #cryptomarket #cryptotrading
Yes. Crypto has finally made it to Rapunzl, and we Yes. Crypto has finally made it to Rapunzl, and we’re not HODLing our prizes. 

You’ve seen what Rapunzl can do with cash prizes and stock portfolio competitions, now it’s time to DOUBLE 🎉 the stakes with crypto!

We’re streaming coin prices from @coinbase to provide real-time pricing as you compete 📈 for your slice of the prize. 

Prizes will start at $500 per week and increase as a function of the number of competition participants. 

All competition and payout protocols will run on blockchain technology 🤯 creating our most secure competitions yet. 

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#learntoinvest #learncryptoinvesting #cryptocurrency10 #cryptoinvesting #crypto #bitcoin #altcoin #altcoininvesting #cryptodata #cryptogiveaway #nft #btc #ethereum #elonmusk #dogecoin #stocks #stonks #free #freeprizes #giveaway #learncrypto
#cryptoinvesting101 #nftinvesting #solana #ethereum #polkadot #hodl #blockchain #cryptomarket #cryptotrading
It doesn’t matter if it’s Saturday: the crypto It doesn’t matter if it’s Saturday: the crypto markets are always open and that means Rapunzl is here to play!

That’s right… 👀

Every. Single. Day. We’re hosting competitions with hundreds of winners every week. 

We’re talking $1 prizes followed up by $1,000 prizes. Stay tuned and join the latest competition. 

New to Rapunzl? Comment “Sign Up” below and we’ll send you a link to get started where the first $1 is on us.

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#learntoinvest #learncryptoinvesting #cryptocurrency10 #cryptoinvesting #crypto #bitcoin #altcoin #altcoininvesting #cryptodata #cryptogiveaway #nft #btc #ethereum #elonmusk #dogecoin #stocks #stonks #free #freeprizes #giveaway #learncrypto
#cryptoinvesting101 #nftinvesting #solana #ethereum #polkadot #hodl #blockchain #cryptomarket #cryptotrading
Follow on Instagram
Rapunzl 13 hours ago

We’re kicking off financial literacy month with a crazy statistic: over 25,000 high schoolers across the country placed over 1 MILLION trades since October! Thanks to the @YassP...

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Rapunzl 3 days ago

There’s only 1 month left in Rapunzl’s #FinancialLiteracy #Scholarship available to 6th through 12th graders. Prizes are paid to 529 savings accounts and we’ve given away o...

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Rapunzl 1 week ago

We teach kids how to get the job of their dreams, so why don’t we teach them about the realities of filing taxes, managing a budget, and living a financially independent life? #...

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Rapunzl 1 week ago

Today's the day! The 2024 application cycle for the @YassPrize-the Pulitzer Prize of education-launches in NYC at @Forbes on 5th! Being part of the #YassPrize community change...

Read More
Rapunzl 2 weeks ago

There’s only 1 day left until the @YassPrize application opens for 2024! The Yass community has been transformational and nothing short of outstanding, which is why you shoul...

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