StreetSage History
The StreetSage Team
- Michael Z. Stahl
- Matthew Saskin
- David Schlosberg
- Daniel Stahl
Recent Studies / Programs
- The Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner
- The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
- Innovation Philadelphia
- The National Youth Involvement Board (NYIB)
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StreetSage History
In February of 2001, while staring at his dorm room wall,
where he attends the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School, Mike Stahl recognized the flaws with all of the stock
market games he has played throughout his life. Most games
don’t assess trading fees or capital gains taxes nor
do they provide adequate research capabilities, leaving most
students to simply guess. Furthermore, the short duration
of the game promotes day-trading and risky investments. The
game’s purpose is to educate students about investing
but they rarely fulfill this intention.
Throughout Mike’s teenage years, he has been committed
to finding interesting and enjoyable ways to educate his peers
about investments. The imperfection of the stock market game
troubled him and determined to find a better solution; he
sat for hours looking at the beige wall. Mike’s thoughts
crossed one of his favorite computer games in high school,
SimCity 2000. SimCity simulated hundreds of years of time
over the course of the game, which usually lasts a couple
of weeks. This idea lead Mike to ask, “Why can’t
a game simulate 30 or 40 years of a lifetime of investing
to promote the true virtues of the practice?” The answer
was that it could and the StreetSage concept was born.
Since then the concept has been blueprinted and designed
to provide the first teaching tool to accurately illustrate
the virtues of long-term investing using a 25-year game-simulation.
In an effort to reflect reality, StreetSage includes trading
commissions, capital gains and dividend taxes, and detailed
investment research, among many other innovative features.
The StreetSage Team
Michael Z. Stahl - Founder and
CEO
Passionate about improving financial education among
young adults, such an essential life skill, Mike founded
the StreetSage in July 2001 to incorporate his vision
for an innovative long-term investing teaching tool
that was both deeply informative, engaging, and fun
for secondary school students. StreetSage has been featured
on in such media as the Kansas City Star, Philadelphia
Inquirer, and on CNN for the company’s pioneering
work in financial education.
At 22-years-old, Mike has become widely respected for
his knowledge of finance and entrepreneurship. Since
beginning investing in the 4th grade, Mike has parlayed
his know-how into a successful book, Early to Rise:
A Young Adult’s Guide To Investing (Silver Lake
Publishing), aimed at teaching his generation and their
parents the importance of financial education. Also
a frequent speaker to groups of university and high
school students and teachers, Mike has been featured
in The Wall Street Journal, Investors’ Business
Daily, and on CNNfn and Bloomberg Financial Television,
among others. Mike is a graduate from the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics
where he pursued dual concentrations in Finance and
Entrepreneurial Management.
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Matthew Saskin, CCNP –
Chief Technology Officer
Matt has assumed the considerable task of creating
and programming StreetSage’s innovative 25-year
stock market simulation. Along with game programming and design,
he has extensive experience in the fields of network
design and implementation, network security, relational database design, artificial
intelligence, and e-commerce. Matt is a graduated of Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY
with a BS in Computer Science where he focused on Network Engineering. |
David Schlosberg – VP of
Business Development
David has served an integral role in the development
of the StreetSage program. His focus has been to ensure
the accuracy and realism of every aspect of the game
including pouring over each piece of financial, stock
price and new related item. He is currently employed
by a Fortune 100 financial services company and participates
in a leadership development program. Previously, he
has accumulated exposure to the Northeast venture community
while working at Lenfest Enterprises, LLC in Philadelphia,
PA, an investment vehicle that focused on early-stage
cable and telecommunications opportunities. David collaborated
with Mr. Stahl and his first entrepreneurial venture,
GoFerretGo, during the company’s initial capital
raising period. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a
BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania, where he pursued a concentration in
Finance. |
Daniel Stahl –
COO & VP of School Relations
As Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of School Relations, Daniel is charged with coordinating the StreetSage experience within our participating schools. Daniel works with teachers, students and administration to maximize student enjoyment, reduce teacher administrative effort, and ensure the educational success of StreetSage participants. Daniel is also intimately involved in working with our educational partners, The Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner and The National Youth Involvement Board, in providing StreetSage to scores of young people. |
Recent Studies/Programs
StreetSage has thoroughly and meticulously researched the
usage of its program in order to improve upon its effectiveness
and to validate that StreetSage would help to reach our goal
of improving financial literacy among young people. Here are
descriptions of our most extensive studies.
The Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner,
David Brant
In the spring of 2003, StreetSage conducted an education study
to determine the effectiveness of its program. The study,
generously sponsored by The Office of the Kansas Securities
Commissioner, included 14 high schools and nearly 400 students
from across the state. At the urging of Commissioner David
Brant, the study included schools large and small, public
and private, urban and rural.
Quantitative and qualitative results across the board were
impressive. Using questions from Savings & Investing section
of the National Jump$tart Financial Literacy Survey, StreetSage
determined that students increased their test scores by an
average of 13% and scored more than 8.5% better than the national
average. Furthermore, students strongly exhibited their enjoyment
by logging on to StreetSage an average of 3.1 times per week.
The anecdotal feedback from students and teachers solidly
validated these findings.
StreetSage proved to be an effective tool for teaching long-term
investment principles, the cornerstone of fundamental investing.
Those interested in reading the White Paper from this study
should click here.
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
In the fall semesters of 2002 and 2003, StreetSage conducted
an in-depth analysis of its program’s usage within the
classroom. With the assistance of The Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania, StreetSage was administered to
a group of students at University City High School (UCHS)
in Philadelphia. Each year, a group of 10-12 Wharton undergraduate
students would teach the UCHS students the fundamentals of
long-term investing using the StreetSage program. Throughout
the semester, the Wharton students would keep copious notes
on their teaching sessions. Each year resulted in an extensive
research report provided by Wharton to StreetSage about the
effectiveness of the program along with its usage patterns
and possible suggestions for improvements.
Innovation Philadelphia
After spending 18 months developing StreetSage, we conducted
a pilot program in the fall of 2002. The objective was to
administer StreetSage in a diverse group of classrooms in
order to better understand how the program is used, how it
can be improved and what specific benefits it provides. The
pilot was generously sponsored by Innovation Philadelphia,
a public/private partnership supported by the City of Philadelphia
and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The pilot resulted in a wealth of positive information. Teachers
appreciated the idea of educating students with a long-term
simulation rather than a short-term one. Students enjoyed
the experience considerably as exhibited by the myriad of
positive letters, emails and essays we received. Moreover,
StreetSage faired remarkably well across all demographic groups.
The pilot illustrated that StreetSage was successful in educating
students in an innovative, enjoyable fashion.
The National Youth Involvement Board (NYIB)
In conjunction with the National Youth Involvement Board,
an organization of credit union professionals committed to
youth education, StreetSage set up a system whereby credit
unions nationwide could sponsor StreetSage for their local
schools. The program has proved quite popular and resulted
in StreetSage being used in schools from Virginia to North
Dakota to Oregon. Those interested in learning more about
this partnership should contact us at info@streetsage.com.
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