Building Financial Literacy Through Technology: An Interview with Daniel Rose, CEO of Doshi

In this week's FinBedded Digest,? we’re in conversation with Daniel Rose, CEO and co-founder of Doshi, discussing the importance of financial education. As financial institutions seek to improve customer engagement and reduce risk, Daniel shares insights on how embedded financial education can simultaneously enhance customer wellbeing and strengthen business outcomes.

If you’d prefer to listen to this week’s FinBedded Digest, then grab a coffee and your headphones and give the conversation a listen.

Q: Tell me the journey of Doshi - why you started it, how it started and how it became what it is today?

A: We started Doshi around three years ago. Our initial hypothesis was that everything in finance is changing with the onset of Web3, so we built an educational platform for young adults to learn and explore the new financial economy, crypto, and Web3. We discovered we were really good at creating educational content, but realised we needed to focus on building better financial foundations. Over time, we developed a more holistic solution encompassing budgeting, saving, investing, and lending. This coincided well with the current cost of living crisis, and we've been working to help people across all ages with their financial literacy.

Q: What made you move from crypto education to building foundational financial education??

A: We found a shocking statistic that only 2% of schools have implemented any type of financial curriculum. Financial literacy is quite poor, even in the UK, so we saw a mandate to find partners and make financial education more accessible in an engaging way.

Q: Research from FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) found that financially literate individuals are better at budgeting, have more emergency savings, and show greater loyalty to financial institutions. Were these benefits for both consumers and businesses what inspired your approach to financial education?

A: We definitely started with the benefits for end users – if we could build a great product to help people feel better about money, we knew we could partner with institutions. Working with lenders has been particularly effective. Some have loan rejection rates of 90-95%, and it's tough to find the right people to lend to and maintain those relationships. In a recent case study with one lender, we improved debt repayment rates by 15% for those using Doshi's financial learning. We're also particularly focused on people aged 16-21 who are just starting to navigate the world of finances.

Q: How does Doshi make financial education both engaging and accessible to different age groups and backgrounds??

A: Accessibility comes in multiple forms. We started with an app to build a fun, playful, and safe environment for learning, but discovered distribution was challenging. Now we're moving towards embedded journeys – embedding money confidence within our partners' apps and websites. Gamification elements, like earning points and rewards, are core to our experience. It's all about making content as easy as possible to consume.

Q: Do you create all the content in-house?

A: Yes, we see ourselves as a technology company that happens to do financial education. We focus on building beautiful experiences first, then consider the content underneath. While we create content in-house, we work closely with partners to align with their tone of voice and personality, while ensuring we meet regulatory requirements, providing non-advisory but highly valuable content.?

Q: How do you overcome challenges when your tone of voice doesn't align with a partners?

A: It's about showing what's possible with our product. We've developed tooling to allow partners to customise their content, and we focus on bringing people along on the journey to ensure they feel heard. We also involve compliance teams from the very beginning to avoid surprises that might block launching with partners.

Q: How does Doshi leverage embedded finance in its educational programs?

A: We render our Doshi experience inside partner platforms using SDKs, which allows us to control the user experience. We're also experimenting with using real-time data from clients to personalise the end-user experience. For example, if someone gets rejected for a loan, we can pinpoint exactly why and provide specific content to help them understand and improve their situation.

Q: What are the benefits of a financially literate society?

A: A financially literate society empowers creativity. Instead of seeing money as a limiting factor, people can view it as something that creates possibilities. This is especially important given current economic changes – it's about having control over spending and understanding how money can work for you rather than limit you.

Q: What are the most critical financial skills people need for today's economy?

A: Understanding how to leverage AI to your advantage is crucial, as it can help create multiple income streams. Another timeless skill is automated investing – being comfortable with putting money aside regularly and letting the market work for you. There are also increasing opportunities in the gig economy and using AI to build multiple cash flow streams, particularly for the younger generation.

Q: What impact have you seen for companies that have embedded Doshi's financial education?

A: When it comes to nudging behaviour towards making the right financial decisions, we typically see conversion rates between 3-5%, which is significantly higher than traditional methods like blog posts. This has a direct impact on our partners' bottom line. We are able to measure impact through NPS and surveys, and have continually seen high user satisfaction. We also help organisations better serve their customers through embedded surveys and missions that inform marketing strategies.

We're grateful to Daniel for sharing his insights on building a more financially literate future through embedded technology. Stay tuned for more spotlight conversations with innovative leaders shaping the future of embedded finance in upcoming editions of FinBedded Digest.

Visit Doshi to learn more