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Piggy bank standing on 20 dollar bills on a white background
Entrepreneur David Bernal is introducing a twist to the centuries-old tradition of gift giving on the occasion of a child’s birthday.
Bernal has created an app for parents to attach any interest-bearing or other financial accounts for guests to give a very meaningful gift for the child’s future. Something that can grow into a nest egg for a car, house, or college is far more valuable than a toy, which is often an act of a guest merely checking a box in exchange for a piece of cake and punch, or perhaps a beer, and that will be discarded sooner rather than later.
YoorKids will be available in app stores on Wednesday.
David Bernal
“The overall idea is this whole concept of generational wealth and bringing the concept to everyone,” says Bernal, 41. “I see financial planners and financial advisers say, as an adult, get your own finances figured out, figure out your own savings, work that out first, and then start focusing on the child. What we want to offer is basically an alternative to that, where we don't have to rely completely on the parent having the disposable income to actually grow a kid's savings.
“Kids are receiving all sorts of gifts and all sorts of things that they may or may not need. We want people to send gifts and be a part of the child's life and that into the direction of a future building wealth.”
Bernal is a client of TechFW, the business incubator he was introduced to through his wife. The nonprofit has provided invaluable mentoring, he says. This project is his first as an entrepreneur. He actually offices out of there.
Bernal was raised in Fort Worth, attending the North Side High School magnet program for a spell before graduating from Odessa Permian. His wife, Natalia, is also part of the company, heading its marketing efforts. She grew up here, going to Paschal, and then to St. Edward's in Austin. Bernal has a bachelor’s in computer science from Texas State, and after quickly realizing “I couldn’t do programming the rest of my life,” he went back to school to earn an MBA from UT Dallas.
His business career has taken him all over the world — London, Barcelona, and Singapore.
It was in Singapore that the idea for YoorKids sprouted life.
He was there with his wife and two young children, including one newborn.
Bernal had the idea a YoorKids concept, but it all it amounted to was a bank transfer.
“It doesn’t feel like a gift at all,” he says of the first incarnation.
But paired with videos and pictures, which family and friends sent and his oldest daughter loved, it had the feel of a valuable gift. Of getting something other than a financial transfer notice. Each recipient receives a digital coin, which can hold videos and photos and handwritten messages, a “memory capsule” of the time and place when the gift was sent, while also holding all the information about the investment.
A friend had sent Bernal’s 2-year-old daughter a “ducky bank,” which she used to begin collecting coins.
“She can barely speak, and she started collecting coins in this thing, and then she knew that she could go downstairs to the ice cream vending machine and buy ice cream,” he says. “And, so, she can barely speak, but she started to understand the concept of savings.
“I said, ‘Well, that's it. If I could do that digitally.’ The idea basically kind of started brewing more and more and more to the point where I was like, I gotta do this. I always wanted to build something and build software on my own. And so this was the idea I wanted to go and do.”
Family and friends, after all, are spending money anyway on gifts for some occasion. Despite great intentions, the gifts are often sent packing or turned to junk in just short matter of time.
This option, however, is lasting, swelling in the market over the years.
Bernal’s project is all self-funded. In addition to himself, he has contracted with 10, including four developers, who have worked on the project full time. He also has marketing, design, and SEO people working.
He is going out to meet people the old-fashioned way, one-on-one, to introduce the product, beginning this weekend at Mayfest in Trinity Park. YoorKids is sponsoring the sand pit where kids can dig up treasure. In there will be YoorKids treasure.
They’ll also feature a giant piñata and more.
“This concept can naturally grow into other things like charities and churches and other things,” Bernal says. “If you look at what the kid receives, they receive the digital coin, but they also within the app can go and look at the community that have sent them coins.”
That’s grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles, and cousins, for example.
“We wanted to create something that can grow into these other things. We're starting with YoorKids and it will start to expand from there.”
