Teen entrepreneurship is the next front door for credit unions

When I was 12, my biggest concerns were video games and trying not to get in trouble for my grades. “Financial wellness” was the furthest thing from my mind.

Then one sentence changed my trajectory.

I had a pen pal who casually mentioned his school was teaching computer programming. My brain lit up: Wait, you can learn to make this stuff?

I dove into YouTube, started going to the library, and taught myself to code. I’d heard the quote, “the best way to learn is to teach,” so I started a YouTube channel teaching other kids how to code, even though I was still learning myself.

My voice cracked and I barely knew what I was talking about, but it worked. Those tutorials racked up over a million views. I earned my first $1,000. And I built a skill that changed my life, all without a business plan, a mentor, or even a bank account.

Here’s the part that matters for credit unions: my pen pal didn’t get paid to help me. He wasn’t running a campaign. He just shared something valuable at the exact moment I was ready to learn—and I never forgot it.

That small act of generosity shaped my career—and eventually led me to build a company serving the credit union industry.

That’s how loyalty forms. Not when someone is sold a product, but when they receive real help before they even know what to ask for.

In the decade since, I co-founded Zogo, a financial education company. We partnered with hundreds of credit unions, helping millions of people learn financial literacy through an app, and eventually sold the business for $36 million.

I keep thinking about the impact my pen pal had. There are millions of teens just like me. Curious. Ambitious. And quietly looking for a spark.

So my team and I surveyed and interviewed over 400 teens, parents, and teachers about money and entrepreneurship. What we found should matter to every credit union leader wondering, “How do we stay relevant to the next generation?”

The confidence gap

Our findings revealed a massive confidence gap:

• 55% of teens said they’d rather work for themselves someday than for someone else
• 74% are at least moderately interested in starting a business or side hustle
• 84% believe learning how to start a business is vital for their financial well-being
• Yet fewer than 3% feel very confident they could actually do it

Think about that disconnect: an entire generation craves independence and sees entrepreneurship as a path forward, but they don’t believe they’re capable.

This isn’t a motivation problem. It’s an education plus practice problem. They’re waiting for the kind of spark I got at 12.

And the institutions young people should be able to turn to—schools, parents, financial institutions—aren’t bridging that gap.

Where teens are learning

To no one’s surprise, teens are turning to social media for education. In our survey, social media ranked as their #1 source of information on money and entrepreneurship, beating schools and family combined.

You already know what that means. Teens are learning from influencers who optimize for clicks, not accuracy. They’re getting hype instead of help—shortcuts instead of skills.

One parent in our research put it bluntly: “I want my teen to learn about money, but I don’t know how to teach them without it turning into a fight. And I definitely don’t trust what they’re seeing online.”

In fact, 77% of parents said entrepreneurship education would benefit their teen’s financial well-being, but almost all feel ill-equipped to teach it.

That’s an opening credit unions are uniquely positioned to fill.

Resilience is the missing foundation

Teachers told us their biggest day-to-day challenges with students are:

• Lack of focus and attention;
• High stress, anxiety, and poor emotional regulation; and
• Low motivation and engagement.

And when we asked which “soft skill” students most need, resilience was consistently the top answer.

Here’s why that matters: entrepreneurship is essentially resilience training in disguise. Starting a small business or project naturally teaches:

• Problem-solving under uncertainty;
• Confidence through competence (learning by doing);
• Delayed gratification;
• Emotional recovery when things don’t go as planned; and
• Patience and persistence.

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