Some entrepreneurs are willing to do whatever it takes to make their business successful. Tom Davidson, a former Marine legislator, is no stranger to hard work, which is reflected in the lengths that he has gone to tout his new venture for building financial literacy among children.
Featured in CNN Money, the founder of web-based software provider EverFi has developed an innovative solution to the traditional problem that teenagers suffer when getting their hands on money for the first time.
The extent of this predicament amongst America's youth was illustrated in a Princeton Survey Research Associates International study recently, which revealed that only 59 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds pay their bills on time.
Mr Davidson's answer to this problem lays in advice distributed through generation Y's favourite medium - video games. EverFi has created a series of web-based tutorials that immerses the user into real-world locations online.
"This stuff is the most ungodly, boring content on the planet," he told the news provider. "We have to make it funny and irreverent, built for kids used to receiving content over the internet."
Developed as a SimCity style experience, children experience life on the New York Stock Exchange and at a used-car dealership, with education on debt management and saving seamlessly incorporated.
This is recognised in an article entitled Financial Literacy through Video Games, in which the software entrepreneur's two week cross country promotional campaign is detailed.
Despite the present economic climate, the founder of EverFi is hoping to enrol around 20,000 students by the end of this year, which will generate revenues for the company worth $4 million. This optimism also stretches to 2010 when 50,000 students have been forecast to take part and 2011, by which time more than 100,000 children are anticipated to be involved in the project.
Ntiedo Etuk, chief executive of the rival educational gaming company Tabula Digita, believes that these predictions are achievable.
He told CNN: "EverFi could have stumbled into the next $100 billion industry. But if that happens, other developers will be right behind them."
Having already secured significant contracts with the DC Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the online payment specialist PayPal, it is clear that Tom Davidson requires none of the financial advice found on his software.
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