Former math teacher raised $1.15M in pre-seed funding from 12 investors; rolled out free financial workshops at 30 Atlanta schools and organizations to fuel the launch
The Beans, founded by a former math teacher with a vision to eliminate financial stress for teachers and other early-career millennials, launches its financial planning iOS app. As part of the launch, The Beans has rolled out financial wellness workshops to more than 30 schools and organizations in the Atlanta Metro Area.
“I used The Beans’ recommendations on how to divide up my money and was able to bring my Sheltered expenses (rent, utilities, subscriptions, and savings) down to 60% of my income, including some savings for a big trip I have planned this year. I’m less stressed about everyday expenses and I’m making progress toward the life I want to live,” said Veronica Karwoski, an Atlanta public school teacher.
“The world is rapidly becoming more visual and traditional financial services are too complicated, or so costly that they become inaccessible,” said Melissa Pancoast, founder of The Beans. “The Beans is designed to empower all people to make Visual Financial Plans effortlessly, and our growing community in Atlanta is evidence of the widespread need that we are addressing.”
According to the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America survey, despite lower post-recession stress levels, many Americans continue to feel substantial stress about money. This stress is expected to increase for millions of Americans when FICO score recalibrations go into effect in the summer of 2020.
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The World’s First Visual Financial Planning App
Pancoast developed Visual Financial Planning as a researcher at the University of Oxford. Today, Visual Financial Planning is proven effective in reducing financial stress and has been rolled out by the World Health Organization and United Nations to 400,000 families in 22 countries. Now, Pancoast’s vision is to make Visual Financial Planning accessible to more people through The Beans app.
With The Beans, members can leverage the best of technology and visualization to create a personalized, easy-to-follow financial plan that maps out spending, savings, and priorities based on trends from a users bank account. Specifically, members can:
- Create a personalized visual financial plan that tracks financial commitments, spending and savings in real-time.
- Automatically and accurately label transactions and plan for monthly expenses.
- Receive real-time support and customized alerts that provide positive, useful information such as account balances, ‘Free to Spend’ amounts, and more.
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