Here’s How EarlyBird Transforms A Child’s Future

This inspiring story is of a rising startup called EarlyBird started by Caleb Frankel and Jordan Wexler. EarlyBird’s objective is to transform financial gifting, making it personal, purposeful, and timeless, empowering future generations with financial freedom and the ability to change the world. Here is the story of EarlyBird in Caleb’s own words.

Introduce us to the idea of EarlyBird

EarlyBird is a gifting platform that empowers parents, family, and friends to collectively invest in a child’s financial future, starting at the earliest age.

We live in a society where it’s frowned upon to talk about money and, as a result, many people enter adulthood without a firm understanding of their relationship to money. Financial freedom is often perceived as a vague, distant dream — or maybe even a completely unattainable goal.

While the meaning of “financial freedom” is unique to each individual, having money set aside for our futures enables us to make decisions based on our passions, not our finances (or lack thereof).

Regardless of your goals, financial literacy and capital are two universal components of financial freedom. By investing in these things early on in a child’s life, parents, family and friends are preparing them for their futures and the opportunities they hold.

Since we started this journey 15 months ago, it’s been amazing to see the global-reach and diverse support we’ve had around EarlyBird. From our early investors and advisors who are excited contribute to the transformation of financial gifting and the virality that comes with it, to the hundreds of parents from all walks of life who have already kickstarted their children’s financial journey during our closed beta, to the thousands of loving relatives and friends who have signed up for early access to and are ready send their first financial gift and invest in the children they love this winter holiday season, it goes to show that we have tapped into something that has been missing across the financial services and Fintech space for some time now — community.

What’s your strategy story? What led you to start EarlyBird?

“The origin story of EarlyBird is a personal one. It started when my first niece was born, and I found myself showering her with toys and clothes, only to see her outgrow them in a few weeks. I was determined to give something more meaningful and lasting. In the spirit of the financial lessons and wisdom my father endowed on me as a child, I wanted to do the same for her. As I looked at options to invest in her financial future they all felt clunky, impersonal, or too transactional considering the lasting impact a gift like this would have on her life. At that moment, I knew there was a problem that needed to be solved.”- CEO and co-founder Jordan Wexler

What marketing, operation strategies are you adopting at EarlyBird?

We’re a fairly small team so we outsource different aspects of the business.

We held a fundraise to support the seed stages. It was led by Network Ventures, with strategic participation from Chingona Ventures, Bridge Investments, Kairos Angels, Takoma Ventures, and Subconscious Ventures along with notable angel investors.

Our marketing efforts are mostly focused on awareness and spreading the word since we are in the early stages. In fact, we just launched EarlyBird’s app last December. But before then, we allowed users to sign up for early access with a $15 incentive to join. A couple of our marketing efforts revolve around PR outreach, press releases, and increased publicity through getting branded mentions from notable blogs and websites.

Any strategy mistakes you have made and what did you learn?

One initial mistake that we encountered was the diversity of the terminology, which caused some confusion. I believe companies should use a set of “terms” to communicate internally and externally to alleviate this pain point. For example, we use the term “givers” instead of “gifters” to describe users who send a financial gift to a child.

Finally what advice do you have for your fellow entrepreneur readers?

Brilliant ideas can pop up from anywhere. For us, it happened to be gifting children materialistic things like toys and clothes. But what’s the real value behind it if they outgrow it?

Brilliant ideas come and go, so when you get that instant spark, remember to write it down and visualize it. Of course, picking the right people to share your ideas with is essential. But everything starts to flow better once you pick up that pen.

Disclaimer: The information in the above story is provided by the startup and The Strategy Story takes no responsibility for the authenticity of the product and services offered by the startup. Reader’s discretion is advised.

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