Our Story
Hi! My name is Lexi K.; I am the founder and CEO of Smart $tart. I am a junior at Brentwood School in Los Angeles. I have been interested in business from a young age—whether that meant listing items on eBay for my family or researching stocks and making my first small stock investments at age 12.
I serve as the student CEO of Rock the Street, Wall Street, a program dedicated to encouraging high school girls to pursue a career in finance. For the past three years, I have competed in the Wharton Global Youth Investment Competition, where my team developed an investment strategy, selected stocks, ETFs, and other securities, and managed a portfolio over several months before preparing a final report and recommendation for a client in a case study.
I also attended the Wharton Global Youth Essentials of Finance program in Philadelphia. Through this program, I learned more about finance and concluded the experience by researching and delivering a stock report on Lululemon (LULU). After extensive research and analysis, my team ultimately recommended that our client sell the stock.
These experiences have significantly deepened my understanding of finance and also reinforced my enthusiasm for learning more about business and finance and sharing this knowledge with others.
In America, the lack of financial literacy skills is a huge problem that is often overlooked. In 2024, the financial literacy rate among adults was 48%, and it is much lower for teenagers at around 22%. Additionally, in 2024, around $240 billion was lost due to the lack of financial literacy skills. Without these essential financial literacy skills, Americans are losing unnecessary money that creates additional financial stress.
After learning more about this problem of the lack of financial literacy skills, I wanted to apply what I have learned about finance to mitigate this issue. Thus, I created an interactive financial literacy workbook for teens. Through my workbook, I hope students can learn the fundamentals of financial literacy at a young age to equip them with the proper skills to make informed decisions regarding money.
Lexi K.