The brain behind Gimi, the app giving youngsters financial super skills for life

Philip Haglund turned an injury playing football into a fintech success, Gimi. Despite being named one of the 250 most promising fintech worldwide, Philip thinks the company is heading towards the EdTech world, which is in line with his vision to give children Financial Superskills for Life. From the time he got a call from Apple to winning the Mastercard Lighthouse program, we sat down with the Stockholm School of Economics alumnus to uncover his journey.

How was the change from professional football player to founder of Gimi?

I was playing the highest league in Sweden, and I had a great year: every ball that came onto my head, I would score a goal. So some scouts saw me, and I got a professional contract in the Netherlands. Back then, I had half a year left at the Stockholm School of Economics. I went to the Netherlands, started playing there, and by that time, I got invited to the national team. I finished my last year at SSE from the Netherlands and always flew back and forth to Stockholm to do my exams. After that, I went to another club in Gothenburg and started working in a PR agency because I wanted to do other things besides football.

What I saw people doing a lot back then, I still see today. You are at a dinner party and hear people saying, "Oh, I have this idea for an app". I've always felt that if someone has a good idea—or if I have a good idea— just do it. So back in 2014, I had this idea for Gimi and just went with it.

How did you come up with the idea for Gimi? How did you see there was an opportunity for a neo-bank targeting children?

In Sweden, soon to be the first cashless society, we knew early on that we wouldn't be using cash at all someday; that trend started in 2013. I realized that moving to digital payments would exclude children from handling and learning about money. There are three segments in society that are using cash: children, the elderly, and criminals. I thought: "Ok, why not do something for children?" The financial landscape is shifting: we're using microtransactions, buying stuff online, buying with credit, and many young people end up at the enforcement agency not being able to pay their bills; I saw a huge social problem—and that problem will only grow bigger—. What I did back in 2014 was learning all I had to learn to create an app and do a business plan, and then I went to the banks and said: "I can build a mobile bank for you so children can both use their money digitally and also learn about money", and I got a "NO" from every bank. I made sure to get funding and did it myself. It was 200 000 - 300 000 SEK, enough to build the app with other tech specialists. It was out in March 2015.

What are your goals for Gimi, and how does it align with the Sustainable development goals (SDG)?

I want to make sure that children growing up today can tackle all the financial challenges as adults. To put it more nicely: Financial super skills for life.

Because of the way we are consuming, the population uses the planet's resources in a way that is not sustainable. To change that, I believe we need consciousness and knowledge, and it comes down to our behavior to make that kind of shift. We think the solution comes with the children because they are the decision-makers of the future, and we need to make sure that they have the tools and the access to make the right decisions. Learning about money is critical.

When did you first get the sense that Gimi was gaining some traction and developing an audience?

The first time was only three months after launching the app in 2015 when someone at Apple called me and asked what we were doing at Gimi. After that, we were featured in the best Apple categories on the AppStore, and then we got so many downloads; in one week, we had 30,000 downloads. I realized that we were onto something. And I mean, every milestone we make, you feel more and more confident, "yeah, this is right", and what I want to be sure about is the exact proof of how we're teaching financial literacy. We're trying to get there. We have been quite successful: we have a lot of downloads, 1.4 million.

You started Gimi alone. Do you feel this was the right choice for you, or would you have done it differently today?

Yes, I did. I don't know why. I guess if I would have gone back, I would have founded Gimi with other people. When you start a company, it is always a question of how much you are willing to sacrifice in those early days. Some people are willing to sacrifice every hour of the day, and some people are not. I think that's the good thing about doing it yourself. If you're a founding team, and those ambitions are different, it becomes problematic. I've seen those problems in many startups. But the positive thing about being a team is that you can help each other out. If someone is a bit down, the other one can be pushing and those things. That's something I missed a bit. I think the first two years were quite lonely. But then I started to recruit the right people for the team. And today, we've been in the business for so long that it feels more or less like our management team is the founding team because we're taking all the decisions together.

How did you grow your team into what it is today? Do you look for a specific personality trait?

In the beginning, I knew that the most important thing was to recruit the tech people. Without them, it was impossible to build the app. And we're a tech company. I was only looking for tech people. As we scaled, we needed experienced people who know how to build an organization. So the company's recruitment strategy shifted. I've always been looking for people who have the ambition and care about making a difference. I think that more people are out there looking for that today. It's not about the salary; it's about growing as a person and making sure to make an impact.

Interview by  Diogo Ribeiro

MSc International Business at SSE

Member of BOSSES at the SSE Business Lab

For questions, contact Carmen Beltran, Marketing manager at SSE Business Lab.