How can you teach adolescents and young adults the value of money and make them financially literate?
This is the problem Funngro is trying to solve. This innovative company is dedicated to providing children with a fun and engaging learning experience that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and a love for learning while earning steady pocket money!
At the heart of Funngro's approach is a commitment to empowering children to explore and discover their strengths and passions and giving them an opportunity to work on real-time projects with various organizations. With a focus on hands-on learning, Funngro encourages children to take an active role in their own education, fostering a lifelong love for learning that will serve them well in the years to come.
Funngro is also one of our clients at FlexiBees, having hired multiple part-time and remote-working professionals to assist their existing teams. So we recently caught up with Payal Jain, Founder & CEO of Funngro to understand their business and to know what worked well for them and why they choose to hire flexible talent. What ensued was an interesting conversation about the value of letting young adults explore various options.
Some excerpts from our conversation:
How did it all start? Tell us your story.
It all started with a passion for working with kids and a desire to break free from the constraints of a 9-5 service job. In 2011, I started SVS Kids, a platform that provided a comprehensive list of extra-curricular classes and activities for children based on their locality.
However, as life went on, other priorities took precedence, and I had to put the business on hold. Fast forward to 2021, Vea, my daughter - a smart, innovative kid who had written a book and launched her own business. She was my inspiration as she started asking questions related to Finance while working on her venture. That's when I realized something was missing, we need to educate our kids with financial knowledge.
And that’s when I decided to start Funngro - a chore-based app that incentivized good behaviour and financial responsibility. By completing chores and managing household tasks, kids could earn rewards and track their expenses and wishlists.
Eventually, with a few learnings and iterations, this grew and morphed into Funngro Teenlancer, the app you see today. As a young adult, you can log in and figure out your interests and sign up for live projects and deliver. We have an array of services that they can choose from - like web design, content creation, video creation, etc. Through this app, I hope to teach children the value of money and how to manage it wisely.
Today, we have 5 lakh+ teenlancers using our app with more than 2000 companies willing to sign them on.
With over 20 years of experience in finance, tech, and product development, including managing large teams of over 100 people, and an engineering background with analytics from IIM Calcutta, I knew I had the skills and expertise to make this app a success. Once I started seeing the tractions and got my PMF(product market fit), I pulled my husband Anik Jain into Funngro as Chief Growth Officer. He comes with strong experience of 2 decades in the startup and corporate world.
Ultimately, my goal with this app is to help children develop essential life skills and prepare them for a successful future. Money management is an essential life skill that is often overlooked, and I'm excited to use my skills to make a positive impact on the next generation.
What makes Funngro so different from others?
What sets Funngro apart from other platforms is our focus on the overall development of young adults. Unlike freelancing platforms that are geared towards adults, we help young people identify their passions and build their skills in a way that sets them apart from the crowd. We even have online courses that they can sign up for to hone their skills and learn more about a topic or area of interest.
Our unique approach involves a two-step process. Firstly, we help young people identify their skillset and understand where they stand in terms of their abilities, by doing an internal round of evaluation. We then guide them towards identifying their true passion, something they truly enjoy doing, by matching them to live projects. By focusing on this unique approach, we help them stand out from the crowd and become successful in the field they are passionate about.
Secondly, we understand that communication and presentation are crucial to success. We provide an opportunity for young people to communicate with founders and organizations, thereby increasing their exposure and building confidence. We also provide creative courses at a low cost, such as financial management, which help teenagers master important skills that are typically not taught in school.
While some people might be worried about teenagers handling rejection at such a tender age, we believe that rejection is a part of life and that learning from our mistakes is essential for growth. We provide a safe and supportive environment where young people can make mistakes and learn from them.
To further support our users' learning, we have partnered with industry experts to offer learning courses on our platform. These courses cover a range of topics, such as how to master Instagram, content writing, sales, etc. These courses are short, engaging, and designed to help young people develop new skills and gain valuable experience.
Overall, Funngro is different from other platforms because of our unique focus on the development of young people, our commitment to providing a supportive and encouraging environment, and our dedication to helping young people build their skills and achieve their goals.
How does it work for organizations?
As a company, we give potential candidates an evaluation project, which is evaluated internally by our team of experts. Based on the feedback, we allow them to apply on company projects or handhold them to further enhance their skills to be ready for the work. We have a quality check in place to ensure that only the most talented individuals are selected before we present them to organizations.
Once enrolled, candidates are given live projects to work on. This gives the hiring organization a full profile of the teenager, including a brief note about their skills and abilities. We also suggest potential candidates for the organization to consider or allow the organization to choose the best fit for their project.
The hiring organization then directly communicates with the selected candidate. This process ensures that the organizations get the most talented and skilled candidates for their projects while also providing young individuals with real-world experience and opportunities to build their skills.
At Funngro, we believe in providing opportunities for both young individuals and organizations to succeed. Our unique approach helps bridge the gap between young talent and organizations by providing a platform for both parties to connect and benefit from each other's skills and experiences.
Can you share a recent success story?
We have seen exponential growth in numbers since January 2023. I think that is the biggest marker of our success. We are currently at 5 Lakh+ users (including parents and teenagers) with more than 2000 companies.
What do you envision for the future of Funngro?
We have a clear vision for the future, where every 15-year-old should be on our platform. We envision Funngro becoming synonymous with finding passion and excellence. We believe that our platform is the only solution for young individuals to excel in their careers by providing them with opportunities at an early stage to explore their passions, develop their skills, and gain real-world experience.
What made you opt for flexible talent and FlexiBees and how has been your experience?
I think it is a great value proposition that FlexiBees offer. We truly appreciate the processes they have implemented to get the right candidate with the required experience and professionalism. Speed is also their main USP as they provide these talents quickly and which is what is needed in the startup world.
If you are an organization that wants to give young adults a chance, then do check out: https://www.funngro.com/
