If you’ve come from Mexico to Palo Alto, Calif. and you work the night shift cleaning buildings at Stanford University, you might be surprised to learn that Stanford students are building a business to help you save money and plan for the future.
That’s the idea behind Juntos Finanzas, a start-up that began at the Stanford d.school. Juntos’ founder Ben Knelman was accepted to Stanford’s Launchpad and used the 10 week class to develop Juntos.
The year before, in another class, Knelman and some teammates had interviewed janitors who worked the night shift at Stanford and began hearing the same stories about money again and again: “I try to save all the time, but no matter how hard I try, nothing ever seems to change.”
The students proposed a simple experiment — try writing down your weekly cash outlays on a piece of paper. That simple experience of tracking expenditures ended up helping the janitors much more than they ever expected.
One of them learned that he was spending $200 a month on his children’s cell phone bills. Changing his plan saved him $70 a month, and inspired him to look for similar ways to save money on cable bills and car insurance.
Janitors using the tools told the Juntos team, “I have never felt this kind of control.. This is the first time, at the end of a week, I don’t feel anxiety about my money.” Knelman decided to launch a startup that would give more people that feeling. READ MORE
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