‘Catch ‘em young’ is a good mantra to abide by when it comes to teaching your kids a trick or two about financial planning. Childhood experiences form the core of our personalities and learning how to handle finances can be counted as a life-essential skill, one that your kids would be grateful to have acquired early on. So, how about a technology that teaches the basics of financing to children as young as five? 

Analytics India Magazine interacted with Purva Aggarwal, founder & CEO of Good Good Piggy. Aggarwal talks about her journey, recounting how she established the first fin-edtech startup in India. 

Aggarwal is the first Indian-based female solopreneur ranked third globally to enter the space of ‘children’s online banking & wallet’.  Founded in 2021, Good Good Piggy is an online piggy bank and behavioural rewards platform that acts as an investment channel for young children to form habits of money management. The platform applies a few objectives from OECD/INFE, impacting the downtrend of financial literacy by setting early benchmarks.

The venture came up in Shark Tank India on Sony Liv, while Aggarwal was featured in Japan’s Start-up Review as ‘The Next Leader 2021’. 

Prior to this, Aggarwal worked as a financial analyst at Mayfair Equity Advisory Ltd. She was also a writer with a leading publication for institutional investors. She is the ambassador of the Indian Chapter of Women in Tech – a global movement by an international non-profit headquartered in Paris, dedicated to promoting diversity in the tech sector worldwide. 

Read the excerpts from our interview with Purva Aggarwal below.

AIM: What’s it like to be the founder and CEO of Good Good Piggy?

Every day is different and comes with new learning every day, bringing new challenges and problems for you to contend with. It’s bringing everyone’s efforts together and remembering the bigger picture and of course, fighting little fires every single day. Though I can’t be mad – it’s a good problem to have. We’ve been focusing on our go-to-market strategy and the public roll-out of the app as of late. It’s exciting to see what was once just an idea in your head turn into a full-fledged company, but it is also an exhausting rollercoaster. 

AIM: Elaborate on your role in trying to accomplish goals for the company.

My role is to balance the bigger picture with the little details. The role of a founder is never-ending really, but that is my favourite part. You are always on multiple learning paths because each part is too important to set the foundation right. There are always many different areas that need your full attention, all at once – operations, hiring, planning, funding – all as immediate as the other (laughs). 

AIM: Could you give us more details on Good Good Piggy?

Good Good Piggy is a digital piggy bank and habit builder for pre-teenagers, focusing on a D2C approach. We have started curating our special communities for different types of parents so we can identify and cater to their unique needs. Our first community event was held on October 16 at India Habitat Centre for Mompreneurs (moms+entrepreneurs). It was a huge success and we are glad moms and kids enjoyed themselves. Digital penetration in our lives has grown manifolds during the pandemic. About 86 percent of children as young as one year old have used a digital device. Now kids in primary school are attending school on video calls and can understand that technology better than we do sometimes. Therefore, the urge for digital exploration is already eminent. Children are a little too click-friendly now. They know how to handle devices and there’s no going back from this trend. In this tech- driven click-happy generation, attention spans are becoming smaller and instant gratification is too prevalent. 

AIM: What are the technologies driving the company and how do you make it kid-friendly?

We majorly use React JS, React Native, MongoDB and a bunch of integrations in a modular environment to make development progressive and scalable. Good Good Piggy’s kid interface is designed to look like a game so it keeps their attention and is easy to use. Why not engage their screen-time to teach them skills that will set them on the right path? It is also completely customisable and entirely controlled by the parent because we understand each parent and child is unique and there are many different parenting styles. Everything needs to be parent-approved and is designed to be completely safe. Further, there is a digital lock-out feature that parents can enable to prevent excessive screen-time for their kids. The video garage makes sure that the kid is only watching content fed into the app by the parent and doesn’t go clicking onto other unapproved videos.

AIM: How has your work evolved over time, especially in the post-pandemic era?

Good Good Piggy was a pandemic baby, so it is part of our DNA. The post-pandemic era has changed how teams work with geography no longer being a constraint. It makes the talent pool much wider and allows different perspectives to be part of the process. Creativity has definitely blossomed new solutions for virtual teamwork to happen effortlessly. 

AIM: What are some of the learnings that come with being in your shoes?

My biggest learning is that you can learn anything. I’ve learnt so much in the past year that I probably never would’ve bothered to if it weren’t for Good Good Piggy. There are also many macro trends we have studied in trying to figure out how to create for Generation Alpha and beyond. The environment is changing so rapidly that the development of the mind has changed in some ways as well and it is important for caregivers of the next generation to realise that we need to adapt teaching to accommodate the tech disruption.

AIM: Did you encounter the ‘glass ceiling’ in your career, or is it imaginary? 

Of course I did! Banking and entrepreneurship are both male-dominated sectors. I’m the first female solopreneur in India and the third globally in the children’s online banking and wallet space. The startup bubble has definitely improved in terms of women’s share but there is still a long way to go. I’m glad to be part of that journey and hope to make the path better for other women moving forward.

AIM: Being the Ambassador of the India Chapter of Women in Tech, how do you think organisations address the need for diversity in the field of technology?

Our goal is to encourage women in the technology sector and reduce gender parity. We encourage women to keep going and become part of the boardroom and for companies to be more inclusive. We also assist women joining the workforce after maternity leave/break, which is still an issue for many women. I believe true change comes when there is diversity at every level of an organisation. This means institutional funding for female leaders, training, ease in resuming work after a break and of course, equal considerations. We want companies to be more inclusive and create their policies with all stakeholders in mind – not just follow the standard.