Helen Galbraith

Moneyready

Working in finance and asset management for many years, I have always had a sound understanding of money and the way it works in our society.

My career involved investing pensions in UK and global listed companies; a role that led to me becoming the go-to person for money guidance among my friends and family, on matters such as investments, consolidating pensions, and other day-to-day financial issues. While I’m sure this is common for professionals in any field, it always struck me that money – used by almost everyone, almost every day – shouldn’t be something that only experts are educated about; it should be something taught from a young age as an important life skill, something I had been keen to pass on to my own children. The challenge was how to make money ‘fun’; that is what led me to the idea of Moneyready.

Moneyready is an online financial education platform for young people, aged six to 18 years old; designed to provide independent, easy-to-access, guided learning. As a comprehensive resource, it will allow young people to learn at their own pace and in their own time, and can also be utilised in a school setting, saving preparation time and avoiding the need for specialist knowledge.

To turn my idea into a reality, I first set about designing the concept myself, then engaging games developers for support to bring my idea to life. Before long, I needed support with taking it yet another step further. This is when I was put in contact with REACTOR.

The REACTOR Project’s programme of events, workshops and mentoring provided skills and knowledge to grow Moneyready further. A big part of the REACTOR Project is its event series; one event that I really benefitted from focused on gamification, protection of intellectual property and how to seek funding. This event not only gave me a great insight into these matters, but also provided me with the opportunity to meet a variety of like-minded entrepreneurs and development experts that helped me to evolve Moneyready. The most important thing I learned from REACTOR – something which helped solved my aim to make learning about money fun – was the concept of gamification, which has become a key component of the product.

Working with REACTOR supported my recent decision to move Moneyready from my side passion to a full-time career. From the project, I not only gained the confidence and expertise to make this move, I also benefited from its matched grant funding.

Having fully committed to Moneyready, I am now in the process of developing a minimal viable product for use, with the Moneyready content platform and games still in their development phase, soon to be complemented by animated video explainers. I’m currently in conversations with partners about how to ensure Moneyready is market ready, and I can’t wait to get to the point that we are able to start benefitting young people and having a long-lasting impact on their financial competency and, hopefully, their lives.