The Greater Washington, D.C. region has sprouted a bustling community of startups that have helped make our nation’s capital become “home of the ed-tech revolution.” Within this emerging center of successful ed-tech startups is The Wealth Factory Inc. founded by Angel Rich, a woman who Forbes has slated to be the next Steve Jobs. Angel’s company designs financial literacy and workforce development education technology games, with her app Credit Stacker receiving 200,000 downloads within just two weeks of its launch. Supported by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 28 cities, the National Baptist Convention, the HBCU network and other government agencies, The Wealth Factory’s mission is to reduce global poverty and create generational wealth through their games.
The D.C. native always had an entrepreneurial spirit and started reading business books at the age of 10. She started The Wealth Factory while she was a senior at Hampton University after winning the Goldman Sachs Stock Portfolio Challenge case competition. “Our team won with the algorithm I developed, that resulted in a net portfolio gain of 2% when the market tanked in 2008. I then asked myself, ‘how would anyone figure this out?’ It occurred to me that there needed to be some type of way where people can live out their financial life without the risk of losing their money,” she shared.
After she graduated, The Wealth Factory became Angel’s side hustle as she juggled her post-graduate job as a Global Market Research Analyst at Prudential and her budding business. Although her work at Prudential received many accolades, like being featured in Obama’s Veterans Initiative Research Study where her results were announced in the State of the Union, she continued to plan and prepare for her exit out of Corporate America. A mission trip to Salawa, Kenya inspired her to finally take the leap and give The Wealth Factory company 100-percent of her time. “While on the trip I met a little boy whose only piece of clothing was a t-shirt from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Business School, while he was drinking from a dirty stream. The experience rocked me; I realized no matter how smart he became, he’d never really have the opportunity to attend that school,” she explained. “No one’s financial future should be limited just because of where they are born.”