Social impact meets financial education meets funded trading.
A new category. Zero competitors.
Jason Brinkerhoff
Founder • Former Cricut • Product & Marketing
14 platforms teach women about money. Every single one stops at education. Zero bridge to real income or funded trading.
Companies that let traders use the firm's money in exchange for a share of profits. Traders pay an evaluation fee to qualify.
$7-20B industry that profits from failure. 70% of revenue from failed evaluation fees. Zero training. Zero women.
In 2000, 66% of households donated. Today it's 46.9% — 19 million households stopped giving. 65% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
IFC flips this: generate your own revenue, teach people to support themselves, then give back from strength. No donations needed to operate.
Social Impact + Female Education + Funded Trading = New Category
| Behavior That Kills Accounts | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| Overtrading | 45% less | 67% more trades/yr |
| Revenge trading after loss | Less prevalent | More prevalent |
| Oversized positions | Realistic sizing | Overconfident sizing |
| Impulsive exits | Patient holds | Early exits |
| Long-term returns | +0.4%/yr better | Fidelity, 5M accts |
| Prop firm participation | 22% | 78% |
93% of prop firm accounts fail. The #1 killers — overtrading, oversizing, revenge trading — are less prevalent in women. The gap is pipeline, not capability.
Real strategies. Real guardrails. Real risk management.
What prop firms don't do
Scholarship covers prop firm evaluation fee ($50-150).
Signals belief, not charity
Direct deposit from funded account profit splits.
Real income, not theory
Now she has money. Teach what to do with it.
Education has purpose
Her success funds the next woman's scholarship.
The flywheel compounds
Revenue = failed evaluation fees from losers. 94% never get paid. Zero training. "Crush it. Beast mode."
TAO LLC (for-profit) generates trading profits → donates 100% to IFC 501(c)(3). Same model as Newman's Own ($640M donated), Patagonia, Bombas. No outside donations needed to operate.
TAO LLC (for-profit) donates 100% of profits to IFC 501(c)(3). Newman's Own model — no outside donors needed. Trading income stays tax-clean in the LLC.
Income Share Agreement: funded scholars contribute a small % of profits for 12 months. Contractual, not voluntary — voluntary give-back rates are 2-5% industry-wide.
Trading is the first project, not the ceiling. As the pool grows, IFC funds new social impact projects beyond trading.
$42B+
Prop firms ($24.5B by 2035) + Financial education ($12.8B by 2033) + Women's wealth advisory ($4.7B)
$2.4B
Women who would trade if pipeline existed (15% of prop firm market) + women's trading education ($1.5B)
$3.6M
100 funded women at $3K/month avg income = $3.6M/year created. Prove the model, then scale. ISA revenue funds next cohort.
Scholarship Funnel (per cohort of 25)
3 funded women at $3K/month avg = $108K/year income created
ISA contributions fund next cohort's scholarships. 66%+ of funded accounts never withdraw (Topstep) — survival coaching is the edge.
| Per Scholarship | |
|---|---|
| Evaluation fee (cost) | $50-150/month |
| Training (TAO) | $0 — already built |
| Industry pass rate | 6% |
| IFC trained pass rate | TBD — first to measure |
| Funded income (7% who survive) | $2-5K/month |
| Profit split | 90/10 (trader keeps 90%) |
| Give-back (ISA, contractual) | % of profits, 12 months |
Self-sustaining — no outside funding needed
IFC generates its own operating revenue from trading profits. Give-back donations go 100% to new scholarships. The organization runs itself.
To copy this, a competitor needs ALL of:
| # | Requirement | Barrier |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Working trading system | 5 years + 800 days data |
| 2 | 501(c)(3) status | Legal + compliance |
| 3 | Prop firm partnerships | Integration + trust |
| 4 | Female-specific curriculum | Not rebranded male content |
| 5 | Community infrastructure | Give-back mechanics |
| 6 | Proven impact model | Research-backed framework |
Why they won't build it:
Training traders to win destroys their revenue model. 94% failure = profit.
Female Invest has $25M in funding. Zero trading infrastructure. Media company, not execution.
No trading systems. No prop firm relationships. The technical barrier is enormous.
The convergence only happens when someone deliberately builds at the intersection.
Co-founded PC Crafter, which partnered with Provo Craft to build the original Cricut — creating an entirely new product category that's been the category king for 20 years. Marketing to women from day one.
Now leading HopeAgain Trading Club — the first IFC scholarship program. YouTube educator and community builder.
Co-founded PC Crafter with Aaron. Led the product and technology side of the Cricut partnership. 30 years in product development and online marketing for women.
Built TAO — 5 years, 800+ days of market data, AI-coached trading system. The technology engine behind IFC's scholarship program.
We've Done This Exact Thing Before
| Cricut (We Built) | IFC (We're Building) |
|---|---|
| Created a new category that didn't exist | Creating a new category that doesn't exist |
| Combined things nobody combined before | Combining things nobody has combined |
| Made it simple and approachable | Making trading simple and approachable |
| 94% women — audience nobody targeted | 100% women — audience nobody targets |
| 3M subscribers, ~$1B/yr recurring | Membership community, recurring impact |
| Category king for 20 years | Zero competitors at this intersection |
How we reach them
The same playbook that built Cricut's 6M user community: online marketing, YouTube education, social proof from real women earning real money, and word-of-mouth from scholarship recipients. We know this audience. We've been building for them for 20 years.
Investment to Date
| Milestone | Status |
|---|---|
| TAO trading system | 5 years development |
| Market data collected | 800+ trading days |
| AI coaching engine | Built + deployed |
| Prediction models trained | 9 models live |
| Strategy backtested | 73.9% win rate |
| Training Zone (game-based) | Beta ready |
| HopeAgain Trading Club | Active — Aaron leading |
| Live funded account tested | $100K+ account |
What This Means
TAO isn't a business plan — it's a working product with 5 years of development, real market data, and live-tested trading. The training infrastructure is built.
The technology is built and running. Scholarship cost is just the evaluation fee ($50-150/month per scholar). No new engineering, no new hires, no new infrastructure.
HopeAgain Trading Club is the pilot program. 25 women, trained on TAO, scholarships funded by trading profits. Results from this cohort validate the entire model.
Total invested: 5 years + thousands of development hours. All self-funded.
A self-sustaining 501(c)(3) that generates its own revenue from trading profits — no outside funding needed. Mission: teach people to support themselves. TAO is Project #1. Their success grows the program and funds future projects.
$34T
Women's assets
by 2030
3x
Faster wealth
growth
0
Competitors at
this intersection
∞
Projects the
flywheel can fund
Social Impact • Financial Education • Funded Trading
Learn. Earn. Give Back.
The trading scholarship that funds itself.
Jason Brinkerhoff • Founder
jason@inventforchange.org