 They fight 12 billion bots every month. I want to buy the stuff, but I can't buy the stuff. They're not letting me buy the stuff. So we're like, well, if you're not letting me buy the stuff, I'm going to own the stuff instead. And what I mean by own is ownership and equity. Ooh, L's in the equity. So that $200 billion streetwear market we talked about, 18 to 35 euros. We account for 92% to spend. We're buying the stuff. We don't get any of that equity. We are buying the stuff, but not the stock. Let's talk about how I'm going to come up big time in my sleep. We'll double that. We'll literally invest in you. That's crazy. I came here to talk to you guys about things I love, and it turned into a therapy session. Five years at Beyond ain't sexy, but it's going to be sexy when that thing becomes real. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Upside Mindset. Today, we're sitting down with Jackie. He's the founder of an app that is trying to change the way that sneaker heads think about building wealth through the brands that they consume. Man, this is really interesting and very relatable to a lot of us. Hey, man, thank you for joining us today, Jackie, all the way from SF. What is Neon Money Club? It's an app that people can download on their phone right now, right? Absolutely. So Neon Money Club is a lifestyle club. And we help people build what we call the long money mindset. And so we do this through financial education. We do this through premium tools, like investing directly into the stock market. And it's more about you buy Nikes. What if you can own Nike stock as well? Very interesting. All right, guys, so we're going to get into the nitty gritty of it, the details of the app. We're also going to just get into the larger just sneaker head culture in general. But real quick, Jackie, you look like a break dancer right now. Tell me why you're legit, though. Yo, I love Kujack. You got a real background in banking and finance. So most recently, I was the head of insights for all of JP Morgan. And I don't look like it, but I feel like you've got to come to this meetings and let people know that people that look like us, whether we're earth tone or come from the city or from urban culture, like we have a seat at the table. And that's what we're trying to do for everybody. Right. There was not a lot of people dressed at JP Morgan like yourself, right? There wasn't. And I think the street cred comes from like, I was in the free lunch club, right? I grew up super, super poor, but some way somehow made it to banking. And it's like, I'm never going to forget where I come from. And my whole thing is like, how do you bring the masses to two places that we're normally not invited to? Right. And that sort of leads you to the creation of neon money club, right? Absolutely. Like, how does it go? Like you're at JP Morgan. You're dressing crazy. The people are probably looking at you like, I don't know. This is our head of insights. Is he the designer? Yo, JP Morgan launching a streetwear. Does he need to wear t-shirts all the time? He's got some fresh ink showing. Oh, he's from the city. OK, yeah. It's crazy because my co-founder and CEO, Luke Bailey, he was 18 years in banking. He used to be an ex-music producer. And so we linked up because of our unhealthy obsession, like you guys have, with shoes. And our whole thing was like, how do we take what we know and love, which is sneaker culture, the culture, and bridge it to our 20,000 hours in banking? Right? Because it's a secret society. You take an Uber. You go to the pharmacy. You see people with drip. You're like, oh, these are my people. And so we realize, whether it's a kid from West Harlem or that kid from Wisconsin, it's the common denominator that brings us all together. For sure. Yeah, like sneaker culture, it's almost like hard to describe. It's almost like probably being into old rock music in the late 80s or something like that. I would say it's like a language group. You know what I mean? Like when you see somebody, you know what to ask them. You know how to talk to them. And you assume that even if you come from different backgrounds, that you're still going to understand and bond over something. This person knows some of the same niche things that I know that even my cousin and my parents have no clue what I'm talking about. That's a fact. Because I think a lot of people count us out. But think about streetwear. It's a $200 billion market. And that's not small. So we're a low-key mainstream now. But at the same time, it's like there are a lot of niche things that we could bond over, like waiting outside of a full locker for 14 hours for the Conkers or whatever. We have those war stories that kind of string us together. Yeah, I want to ask you to kind of get into the mid-level view of all this. Like what is the main disconnect that you guys see between collecting sneakers, reselling sneakers, just loving sneakers, and hype-beast stuff in general. Like, you know, just cool brands. Like what's the disconnect between people who love those things and making money and building wealth? I feel like if you think about the culture nowadays, it's all about the instant flip. Yo, I'm trying to make a buck. I need this right now. I need this drop. Right, panda dunks. That was the main thing. And it's just like this instant gratification kind of like takes away from our long-money mindset. Like how do you build generational wealth overnight? You don't. And so like, how can you kind of like bridge the two? And that's an interesting question in which we're trying to tackle right now. And so our whole thing is like, let's take what you already do, which is buy the brands. And if you put together dope outfits, how can you put a piece of that into investing into your long-money mindset? And that's what we're here to do. Right, you're saying that that's the goal of Neon Money Club? Absolutely. It's basically take people who are in the street where sneakerheads, these things, bare bricks, and then basically get them to invest into the same companies that own the stuff they're already buying. Now, I want to say that when you walk up to the average sneakerhead, somebody who loves, a kid who loves sneakers, right? And you try to talk to them about the stock market. Maybe they heard of Robin Hood. They might've heard of Wall Street Beds. They got a friend who did Dogecoin for sure. Yeah, GameStop a little bit. But I guess like, how do you explain to them and be like, hey, actually guys, it's cool. You can actually take the time and the knowledge and the love of all this, and it can start to build wealth for you. When it comes to the stock market, how do you tell them that? Yeah, because I would immediately think the sneakerhead mindset is more almost into day trading. Because they're day trading the sneakers, right? Oh yeah, I got the pandas low and then I'm flipping it high and there's a high liquidity because everybody wants the pandas so easy. I can flip it to somebody. Like our age group is our great consumers, but we're not great owners of anything and especially the stock market, right? Yo, so that $200 billion streetwear market we talked about, 18 to 35 year olds, we own 92% of the spend. We account for 92% of the spend. That same population only owns 1% of the stock market. So what does that tell you? It tells us that we're buying the stuff, but the companies profit off of us because they build the equity. We don't get any of that equity. You're saying 18 to 35 year olds, they fund the CPG companies and boost the stock, but they don't own any of the stocks of those companies that are actually seeing their equity increase. We are buying the stuff, but not the stock. And this is a big disconnect. It's like, and you know, we're all Asian here, it's like when our parents say you'd rather own something than to rent it. And so yeah, I might own these Nike Panda dunks, but I'm not really owning any equity that ultimately builds towards my generational wealth. Well, because the dunks almost any shoe, most 99.9% of the shoes are a depreciating asset, right? And it immediately goes down in value if you wear it. And they crumble, right? But that's not no shade to sneakerheads because I'm a sneakerhead myself, but it's more like, unless you have like the off-white Virgil's like Chicago ones, like it doesn't turn into generational wealth. So you brought up this crazy stat and you said, so the Jordan brand made Nike $19 billion in the past five years, right? And in the past five years, Nike stock went from $57 to $125. So that means if you had owned Nike stock at that time and still bought a bunch of Jordans and Nikes and contributed to that $19 billions, you would have made money just both ways though. You would have made money on the flip of the actual sneakers, but you would have made money on the stock as well. That's the fact. And you had mentioned like Robinhood, right? And so when you talk about the sneaker game, whether it's StockX or like part of it, StockX or, and then the equivalent is Robinhood on the stock market, I feel like a lot of people think about Robinhood as day trading. And like, yo, I'm trying to do an instant flip. Where we come in that's a little bit differently is like, yo, we're trying to talk about five years and beyond. Five years and beyond ain't sexy, but it's gonna be sexy when that thing becomes real. And so our whole thing is like, how do you flip this mindset of like, I need things now, I need things right now. I mean, I needed yesterday to like, you know what, I could do some of that for the immediate, but also like, let's talk about how I'm gonna come up big time in my sleep. Yeah, it's true that Robinhood feels like they're trying to encourage day trading through the charting and everything like that. But yeah, I mean, that's what they're trying. It feels like a video game when you're playing Robinhood. Why wouldn't people just go buy Nike stock on Robinhood instead of going through Neon Money Club? I think it's part of the storytelling. And so when you think about Robinhood, they might promote day trading. They might have complex graphs and standard deviations of things. And our whole thing is like, yo, we're gonna tell you what the longterm could be. And you think about who Robinhood targets. It targets the 60% of Americans who are 40% of Americans who already know something about investing. Our whole thing is like, yo, we're targeting the 60% of Americans that don't know anything about investing, but they know brands. And so if we can walk you into the stock market with brands, so Nike is Nike Supreme, one of the biggest brands in the world, owned by VF Corp. VF Corp also owns Timbs, Vans, Norface. And so like, if we can walk you through brands to companies to then like REITs and ETFs, it just becomes a funnel into deeper and bigger things. And you guys will do that on the Neon Money Club. Absolutely, you do that today. I will understand who owns LVMH and all the subsidiaries and the consolidation and multiple sub-brands. And you know what's crazy? And I think this is what's so interesting and also maybe one of the challenges that you guys face is connecting these two sides of the brain, that's this hustle, hustle, get sneakers because we all know the sneaker game. It can be a very quick flip. It can be you standing line. Double mean, double mean, double mean. Yeah, yeah. And you're like, oh, I've got- $40, $40, $40, I've got friends who have good jobs and he rides around in a Tesla, but he loves that hand-to-hand interaction between sneaker boxes because he's just that type of guy. The smell. Yeah, the sell. And I'm saying like it's connecting these two sides of the brain of thinking long-term but hustling at the same time. And hustling oftentimes is associated with quick money flips. So now you're like, wait, while you're doing the quick money flips, guys, set aside a little bit in the brands that you support because you're gonna help keep this stock high in a way, in an indirect way. So now you're gonna benefit from both the ends. So win-win. So it's long-term and short-term thinking. It's kind of crazy. But I get it. Real quick, like how does somebody who's a young Asian-American even start something like this? Because like, you went to Stanford, right? So I guess for somebody it's like, people are thinking is that what it takes to start an app? Because everybody's probably like, yeah, everybody who starts an app went to Stanford. Or like, you know what I'm saying? Like what goes into it? Where it's just like, yo, how does this even work? I feel like, you know, I think I'm guided by my North Star. And so as a kid, my North Star was always to, yo, I'm trying to pay for my mom's rent. Because I grew up single parent, low income. She worked three jobs and she barely spoke English. In SF. In SF. And so my shit was like, how can I pay for her bills? And so I was like, all right, I'm gonna go to the library, study, got to Stanford. I worked in automotive for a long time. And then I ended up in banking. Not because I love banking. It was because it was the quickest way to get to my North Star. And so- Cause banking does pay a lot off the rip, right? It's like the first year you could get paid. Oh, bro, like the bonus structure in banking is crazy. And so my whole thing was like, all right, if I can't beat them, I'm gonna join them. I'm gonna get this money, pay for my mom's bills. And then some way somehow I fell in love with the idea of like, yo, nobody looks like me. I was the youngest executive director running all insides at JP Morgan. That looked like me. And so I was like, shit, like, if I can inspire one other kid to do something where everyone and everything is telling you you can't do it, then I've won. And so my North Star has kind of evolved from paying my mom's bills cause like I could do that now into like, I have a three year old. And so my whole thing is like, how can I give her the tools to kick ass in a world where they don't want her to kick ass? Whether it's the way we look, whether it's gender, I feel like there's something there. And I think we can make that impact. For sure, for sure. So that ties back in a neon money club. Cause obviously, you know, you're from the city, the inner city, a lot of people are really into brands and sneaker culture. But it is true that majority of those people do not invest and they're probably not going to or you know, some of them will, but not a majority. Absolutely. And that's a huge opportunity for us, right? Yeah. And that's actually a huge opportunity for them. And I think that's what's so cool about this app and your story is that you're a person who's really, truly blending the two things that you love because you kind of hustled quickly to get the banking job to get the quick flip kind of in a way of what you wanted to do, right? Cause you had a goal you needed to accomplish and now you're like, oh my goodness, one, we can create this app and also benefit a lot of other people while benefiting ourselves and also changing the mindset of a lot of people out there who otherwise don't get a lot of great financial advice. And I think the key is the long-term aspect because everybody that's thinking about stocks right now or at least two years ago, you know, prior to everything going flat and choppy was thinking like, let me get some options, let me get some puts, let me just wow out, right? But they're not thinking about the long-term aspect that you're really trying to stress, right? You're trying to say time horizons way beyond what your day trading apps are trying to stress, right? That's crazy. I came here to talk to you guys about things I love and it turned into a therapy session. Cause, okay, so I didn't realize I put two and two together. The mom thing was about an instant flip. You're right, I never thought about it like that. Like I'm trying to get a buck, I'm trying to cash this check and then now I'm thinking about generational, right? And so like, whether it's the next generation or this generation, how do we change that? Appreciate you guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, that's what we're here for, Upside Mindset, it's therapy. Hey, Upside Mindset. I was also just trying to understand what your app is. Let's go. Yeah, no, all right. I mean, at the end of the day, listen everybody, check out Neon Money Club, look up more information on it. You know, I'm not here to tell you to throw in a bunch of money right now, but look into- A dollar. Right, do your DD, do your due diligence. What I will say is that when you listen and you watch enough stock trading advice channels or you talk to even people who are actually in the market professionally, they always tell you to dollar cost average in. And that is, correct me if I'm wrong, essentially one of the main things that Neon Money Club does amongst other things, you guys have the credit card coming out, you have a whole bunch of other financial resources for people to understand and it's delivered in a way that they understand. It's through the brands that they love and that's the easiest way. You take the Trojan horse, which is Nike, Jordan, Supreme, and you deliver information to them. You're not talking about copping the DMP package, but DCA? DCA, okay. Dude, we- Man, that was kind of an outdated- I know the DMPs, I waited in line for those. I waited in line for those. One last thing before we close out the video, you always like to bring up taking L's on the sneakers app as an example. Yeah, talk about the sneakers app thing because you have an app, Neon Money Club, sneakers app, a lot of people, obviously it's even a badge of honor in a way or like building camaraderie with others when you wake up at 7 a.m. and you take an L. What was the connection here? For us, it's like, man, I think Nike just released this stat with like Hypes as well. They said they fight 12 billion bots every month on the sneakers app. And so like, you guys know how painful it is to get an L on sneakers. I never hit, I never got a hit. I think I got a hit once and it was on a sneaker that had no resale. Like, you know what I mean? Like, one of the ones that nobody wanted. And it's almost like a, like I'm a Nike boy all day, you know, checks over stripes. But at the end of the day, it's like, I want to buy the stuff, but I can't buy the stuff. They're not letting me buy the stuff. So we're like, well, if you're not letting me buy the stuff, I'm gonna own the stuff instead. And what I mean by own is ownership and equity. And so I've been doing this with my teammates and my boys, every time we get an L, we put that money that we would have spent otherwise into the stock market. So the two apps they need to have are the sneakers app and Neon Money Club. So that when they take the L on the sneakers app, you don't fully take an L, you still put something in the stock market. Turn L's into something better, you know what I'm saying? Equity, equity. Turn L's into equity. Ooh. L's into equity, not just stuff, stocks. Okay. All right, we are coming up with some new marketing tag lines for you guys. This is free, y'all use it. But thank you so much, Jackie. Your story was amazing. I hope hopefully people connected with it. And I think the app is doing a lot of big things and it's got a great big goal. And I think changing the mindset, you know, of people who maybe don't always get the best financial advice. I think that's, if you can speak to those people, it's amazing. Real quick, man, what are your favorite sneakers? My favorite, actually, the threes, the Meniere threes. Okay. Because the theme of that was like, Pick it up, pick it up, grab it, grab it, grab it. The whole thing with these was like the storytelling. It's about the story of raised by women. Oh. I was raised by my grandma and my mom. And so like, and I have an all female household. So I've always, you know, cornered. But at the same time, it's a Hamas to that. And this is the, I think is the best silhouette that Tinker did like for of all time. And so look at the inside of it. Yeah. And you know what's interesting right now is I noticed a lot of brands like Meniere or Amé. They're French themed brands from America. America. Wuji, like. Right, right, right. Yeah. It's, I feel like it's that. Is that like Pellegrino from Italy? Is that an American? I think that's from over there. Okay. That might be an actual European brand, right? But like, but you know what I'm saying? Like a French themed Americana. And I think it's after this, this thing that people think is premium, which is fine. I think it's like. French things are premium. Yeah, absolutely. The cheese, the wine. Do you see how many layers, those pastries and those croissants? It's hand seat. Like, did you guys know that, what's that Paris Baguette? Is it from France? It's Korean. Right, it's from South Korea. No, because a real French brand would just have the name in front. Baguette. And it would just be actually, they wouldn't have all the toppings on the bread. It would just be literally just a regular piece of bread. Yeah. But it would be like the big, artistic, elevated piece of bread. No, think about it. French people made snails popping. A lot of people, they would refuse to eat snails from anywhere. If they sell, cause Chinese eat snails too, right? But they would be like, oh my gosh, Chinese snails are disgusting. But then there's S-cargo, we got a little bit of Gaillir on it. It's like, okay. Bro, it's called S-cargo. It's not snail. It's S-cargo. S-cargo. For a reason. With the little squigglies. S-cargo. That sounds like a sneaker colorway. Like the S-cargo. We need to do that. Somebody needs to drop the S-cargo. Where's that S-cargo collab? There's gonna be the S-cargo collab. It's gonna come in a box in the shape of a snail shell. Let me just say, cause you know, I know we got to a lot of finance talk early, but I just want to get to some sneaker talk I'm gonna be getting the galaxy foams once they retro because I had a pair. I sold it for resell. I bought it high. I sold it for like maybe a couple hundred dollars profit. But now this is my chance cause I think that foams are really like dipping in popularity. This is my chance to actually get them and maybe wear them without feeling like I'm throwing all my money away. Are you gonna wait in line? Like how are you gonna get them? You got the plug? Oh, that's a good point. I got to hit up Richie. That's what I'm gonna do. No. Richie, yeah. I'm gonna hit him up. Yeah, we know some sneaker shops. We might have to hit him up, but all right, we're gonna wrap it up there. Jackie, thank you for being here with us. Again, check out Neon Money Club down below. Just look into it, click on the link once, just read it and you decide for yourself. But thank you so much for explaining your app, man. And we appreciate it. This was another episode of Upside Mindset. As you know, just trying to bring on smart people who are doing cool things that could help you in your life. So until next time, everybody, we out. Peace. Greatest shoe of all time, right here.