Shivam Siddaiya, John Rho, Grant Stapleton and Rishi Niranjan
Shivam Siddaiya, 16, along with his team members, John Rho, 17, Grant Stapleton, 17, and Rishi Niranjan, 17, all of Plano, Texas, are one of this year’s competitors in the i.Invest National Youth Business Competition. The team members are the cofounders of CASH Club Corp., a student-founded network of investment clubs built for high school students to improve their financial literacy.
We spoke with the cofounders to learn more about the business venture:
Tell us about your business/product:
CASH Club is an ever-expanding network of investment clubs across high-schools all over the world designed to provide students with opportunities to develop their financial knowledge. Currently, we have established nearly 30 branches across the world including two in India and one in Dubai. Our proprietary curriculum is specifically catered towards high school students and has been tried and tested for two years. CASH Club consists of two primary components: in-classroom learning and extracurricular competition. We host bi-weekly school club meetings, presenting our curriculum to educate fellow students about the stock market, which can then be used to advance performance in our branch-wide stock market game. We host two games per school year during the Fall and Spring semesters, each of which offers a cash prize to the top participants.
What inspired you to start CASH Club Corp.?
CASH Club was founded as a high school investment club in 2018 at Shepton High School. Our first year saw over a hundred members and a dozen meetings, culminating in an ultimate investment competition championship. Above all, we focused on delivering a quality curriculum in addition to an active application of investment principles. The very next summer, we soon expanded across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and by the end of the year, we even opened a branch in New Jersey and India. Since then, our emphasis has been on spreading our mission across the nation, spreading financial knowledge and professional opportunities wherever we go.
How will CASH Club Corp. impact the world?
The stock market is an excellent tool to harness a secure financial future, which, in turn, can lead to greater opportunities in life. Sadly, according to Princeton research: 75% of millennials report that they don’t invest because they don’t know enough about the markets. This lack of investment is not due to a lack of interest, but rather due to a lack of exposure and opportunity. Around the world, high schools suffer from a lack of finance-based programs to teach students the fundamentals of investment. CASH Club Corp. aims to fix this problem by enabling students to start stock-investment clubs at their schools, providing them with a bite-sized curriculum covering the basics of the stock market, and empowering them to apply their knowledge through engaging stock simulation competitions on a mobile app.
What are the next steps?
The company is seeking funding to be put towards fulfilling our fundamental purpose of educating the next generation of investors. Funds will help cover the operational costs of developing a new curriculum, hosting weekly club meetings across multiple schools, and expanding our organization. Since CASH Club aims to create investment clubs at every high school in the world, funds will also be critical in powering various channels of marketing, including social media, mail, flyers, and news platforms.
To learn more about CASH Club Corp., visit their website, https://www.cashclubcorp.info/, or their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/cashclub.corp. To mentor or offer support, email info@i-investcompetition.com.