The Money JAR is always excited to share information and empower our listeners to take charge of their finances, and Mindy and Rishika interview someone who has dedicated his career to building financial literacy solutions!
CJ MacDonald is a tech entrepreneur whose current project, Step, gives young people under 18 the opportunity to explore their personal finances in a practical setting. Families are encouraged to have finance conversations and explore saving, building credit, and investing through the Step platform. CJ shares some the valuable experiences that Step offers, saying, “We look for these teaching moments on our platform, where we can guide you, remind you, educate you on different opportunities to grow or learn.” In building this platform, CJ says, “Our goal from day one was to start young, and grow with that consumer each step of their journey in life, and hopefully have a lifetime relationship with the customer as well as the family.”
CJ is a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in launching early stage startups across multiple industries. He has demonstrated an exceptional ability throughout his career to bring innovative products to market, attract large clients and deliver rapid consumer expansion. Currently, CJ is the Founder and CEO of an exciting new banking platform called Step. Prior to Step, CJ was the Co-Founder of Gyft (acquired by First Data), led Sales and Business Development initiatives at Luminate (acquired by Yahoo) and was an early team member at Liveops. CJ is a graduate from Wesleyan University and lives in the Bay Area.