stickK empowers you to better your lifestyle. We offer you the opportunity, through 'Commitment Contracts', to show to yourself and others the value you put on achieving your goals.
stickK was formed by combining personal experience and scholarly research. Our story began at Yale University a few years ago when Dean Karlan (Economics Professor at Yale and Co-Founder of stickK) came up with the idea of opening an online 'Commitment Store'. He envisioned that people would come to the Commitment Store to sign contracts obliging them to achieve their personal goals such as losing weight or quitting smoking. Dean experimented this concept by making contracts himself (click here to read his personal weight loss story). Meanwhile, he also conducted and published research* on Commitment Contracts as a tool for helping people save money. Now let's get a little technical.... The Commitment Contract concept is based on two well known principles of behavioral economics:
1.People don't always do what they claim they want to do, and
2.Incentives get people to do things
Dean believed that today's health-conscious and socially conscious market was ready for a service that would allow people a way to achieve their goals. He bounced his ideas off his fellow academics Barry Nalebuff, (professor at the Yale School of Management and co-founder of Honest Tea) and Ian Ayres (professor at Yale Law School and Author of Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart). Barry and Ian loved the proposal and very soon the idea of 'stickK' became a realistic possibility. Barry introduced Dean and Ian to one of his students at Yale, Jordan Goldberg, who hopped on board and accepted the offer to help launch this new venture. From there onwards, Jordan began work to form what we now call stickK. And the rest, as they say, is history. *Ashraf, Karlan and Yin, Quarterly Journal of Economics May 2006, "Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines"
Forbes - Make a Commitment
08/12/2010
Doctors, trainers, nutritionists and financial advisors can engage their clients on StickK, set customized commitments for them and referee their success. ...
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MSN Health & Fitness - Betting on Weight Loss
06/29/2010
Have trouble staying on your diet? Try putting your money where your mouth is ...
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CBS News - The Whys and Why-Nows of Procrastination
02/21/2010
The Story of People Who Suffer From "Time Issues," and Others Who Suffer For It ...
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The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - Commitment Contracts for Business
01/26/2010
Lots of people think of stickK.com exclusively as a tool for achieving personal health goals — like losing weight or quitting smoking. But this free program underscores that commitment contracts can be used on the job as well. ...
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Small Business Trends - Staples Makes Goal Setting Easy for Small Businesses in 2010
01/17/2010
Teaming with the goal-setting experts at stickK.com, Staples is launching the Staples stickK to It! Business Challenge, a unique program to help small businesses prioritize and achieve their objectives for the New Year. ...
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MediaPost - Staples Launches Small-Biz Incentive Plan
01/05/2010
Staples is launching a new campaign aimed at helping small business get its groove back, with a tough-love approach to New Year's resolutions. ...
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TIME Magazine - A New Weight Loss Plan: Getting Paid to Shed Pounds
01/04/2010
Financial incentives are the latest wellness craze, inspiring at least some of the nearly two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese to try to ditch their potato chips. ...
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NBC's TODAY Show - Turn your 2010 resolutions into reality
01/02/2010
Is keeping a promise nothing more than a question of mind over matter? ...
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Institute for Leadership - Making New Year's Resolutions stickK!
12/31/2009
An interview with Jordan Goldberg, CEO of stickK.com ...
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AmericanWay Magazine - Betting Against the Bulge
12/15/2009
Want to lose weight in 2010? Put your money where your mouth is.
...
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FOX Business - Site Takes Money When You Break Resolutions
10/31/2009
Jordan Goldberg, CEO of stickK.com, on how his company is making sure you stick to your goals. ...
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CBS News Online - Five Ways to Face Your Finances
10/30/2009
"Early Show" Financial Contributor Vera Gibbons Gives Tips for Tricking Yourself into Saving Moneyhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/30/earlyshow/living/ConsumerWatch/main5461857.shtml ...
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TechCrunch - StickK Raises More Funding For Self-Commitment Service, Eyes B2B Play
09/30/2009
User numbers are trending upwards too, fortunately for the upstart (I’m sure it was one of their own goals). When the company launched in February 2008, it grew to 4,000 users by the end of the month and now counts 42,000 registered members. ...
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New York Times - Freshman Year's Seven Deadly Sins
07/22/2009
A rising sophomore at Yale University talks about her experience using stickK throughout the schoolyear ...
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ABC 6 Action News, Philadelphia, PA - Weight Loss Challenge
07/07/2009
ABC 6's Ali Gorman tracks the progress of two brothers who used stickK to aid in their weight loss goals. ...
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KABC 7 Los Angeles, CA - Web sites help keep your diet on track
05/26/2009
"The way it's set up it involves your friends and family, which is really the way to do it. Those people, you know, they sort of don't let you backslide" ...
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BBC News - Bet dieting takes hold in the UK
05/23/2009
Not only are people who sign up hit in the wallet if they fail, their friends can get to hear about it via a group e-mail. In the US the scheme is said to be achieving success rates of up to 85% ...
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The Takeaway - Saving Trillions in Health Care, One Patient at a Time: Give yourself a financial incentive to follow a healtheir lifestyle
05/20/2009
Change, especially in health care, can actually trickle up from individuals to the national level
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The New Yorker Online - What Makes Orszag Run?
04/29/2009
[Obama's budget director Peter] Orszag is deeply interested in using insights from behavioral economics to design policy. And it turns out that he practices what he preaches. We were sitting in his office one day and he brought me over to his PC and typed in the URL for stickK, a site that helps users achieve their life goals by creating strong incentives. Orszag said he used the site when he ran marathons ...
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ABC 6 - Philadelphia - Wagering on weight loss
03/31/2009
There are several different ways to wager on weight loss. Some people compete for a winner-take-all pot, others have to pay if they don't lose weight. And a local researcher says it can all add up to getting healthy and earning cash
Like most siblings Nayan and Aalap Patel are competitive, whether it's on the tennis court or playing poker.
So when they both wanted to lose weigh, they made a wager. They signed up on Stickk.com ...
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NBC KING5 - Seattle - Online betting could help you lose weight
03/30/2009
"That motivation has had me get off the couch when I really didn't want to work out because I was thinking, I have to report in three days," said Grant ...
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The Independent - Nudge, nudge: Why we behave the way we do
03/22/2009
Taking into account human frailties such as selfishness, forgetfulness and apathy, nudges could be prods towards caring for the environment or writing a novel. On this score, author of Nudge Richard Thaler recommends the website stickk.com, which asks visitors to make a series of self-imposed bets ...
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FOX 25 - Boston - stickKing to It
03/12/2009
It’s the middle of March. How are those New Year’s resolutions going? Sticking to them, or have you fallen by the wayside? If you set high goals, and haven’t stuck with them, you’re not alone. FOX25’s Jim Armstrong explains how a new website has figured out how to keep you on track ...
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The New York Times - Dieting? Put Your Money Where Your Fat Is
02/05/2009
Similarly, two Yale professors, Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres, studied the effects of commitment contracts on quitting smoking and then applied that research to dieting, developing a business around their theories. They teamed up with a graduate student, Jordan Goldberg, 24, and started StickK.com last year, a Web site that motivates people to make changes in their lives by signing contracts: if they fail in their goals, it costs them money ...
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CNN - Putting A Price on Procrastination
12/30/2008
How, then, can we fulfill our sometimes-unpleasant New Year's resolutions, such as losing weight or kicking a bad habit? The economists answer: Put a price on it ...
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US News and World Report - How to Make New Year's Resolutions Stick
12/30/2008
In Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, economists Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein write that people often need help executing their goals, even when they have the best intentions. In other words, they need a "nudge." One solution Thaler and Sunstein identify is the concept behind the website Stickk.com, which was created by fellow economists ...
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The Boston Globe - Marshmallow temptations, brain scans could yield vital lessons in self-control
10/22/2008
stickk.com...tries to help people use their "cool" brain to overcome impulses by letting them stake money on goals they aim to achieve..."They allow individuals themselves, during cool periods, to regulate the way they will behave during hot periods" ...
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The Financial Times - How to make a decision and then stick to it
10/10/2008
Commitment contracts raise the price of undesirable-in-the-long-term but tempting-in-the-short-run behaviors. Academic theories behind this focus on conflicts within a person. The “now” me wants the “tomorrow” me to vote (or not eat too much chocolate, or exercise more or save more). If the “now” me has enough foresight, the “now” me can sign a commitment contract. This contract makes the price of the tempting behavior more expensive, thus making sure the “tomorrow” me does what I said I wanted to do ...
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The Wall Street Journal - Buy This: Save More, Spend Less
08/14/2008
"People need to create points in time when they re-evaluate their savings," she said. Of note, StickK is one Web site, now in beta, that might help Americans keep their schedule and commitments ...
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Berliner Zeitung - Geld oder Schokolade
07/23/2008
Alles fing damit an, dass zwei pummelige junge Männer unbedingt dünner werden wollten. Als Wirtschaftsstudenten am Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston dachten sie dabei in ökonomischen Kategorien. Dean Karlan und sein Freund John Romalis wetteten 10 000 Dollar darauf, dass sie in zehn Wochen 20 Kilo abnehmen können. Wer das nicht schaffen würde, sollte dem anderen einen Scheck ausstellen - über die Hälfte ihres damaligen Jahreseinkommens ...
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The Monitor - Put your money where your scale is
07/08/2008
A free Web site is helping users lose weight -- but it could cost you after all.
The premise of stickK.com is simple: People hate losing money and will do whatever they can to avoid doing so ...
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Esquire Magazine - The Suits, Vers. 3.0 - Pg. 95
07/01/2008
It's a service by which people try to accomplish goals, such as quitting smoking, but instituting a layered accountability that forces them to actually do it ...
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Self Magazine - Health Flash - Pg. 100
07/01/2008
Keep skipping the gym? The website stickK.com can help you reach your stay-healthy goals. It allows you to place a wager on your resolve; fall off the wagon and lose your bet to a designated recipient - a favorite charity (or least favorite, for more incentive). No bluffing! ...
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New York Daily News - Why we spend money when we're trying to save
06/30/2008
Or, seal the deal at www.StickK.com, a Web site that allows you to sign a commitment contract for your goals. Say you've decided to cut out coffee, or smoking or the money you spend at the grocery store on snacks so you can save an extra $100 each month. Put it in writing, then track your progress online while other users cheer you on ...
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Reader's Digest Magazine - Mind Over Money - Pg. 137
06/01/2008
Use your friends and family as a way to discipline yourself. Tell them what your goal is, and ask them to remind you if you're about to spend money on something you won't need ...
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Orlando Sentinel - For people who need motivation, this contract has consequences -- for your wallet
05/27/2008
Some people promise themselves treats if they lose weight or quit smoking.
Two Yale University professors use another motivator: If you don't reach a goal, they take your money and give it to someone you hate ...
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FOX - Birmingham - Homewood Couple ‘Stickk.com’ Customers
05/19/2008
There are numerous ways to lose weight or to stop smoking but one way you may not have considered is ‘gambling.’ A new website gives you a chance to put your money where your mouth is. FOX6 News Reporter Dave Bondy introduces us to a Homewood couple putting it all on the line ...
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FOX - Kansas City - Stickk.com Puts Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
05/14/2008
Cash money is a strong motivator, especially if it's the promise of a big pay day if you lose some weight ...
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The Boston Globe - A Web contract for personal goals
04/15/2008
A new website created by two Yale professors asks self-improvers - anyone from smokers who want to quit to runners trying to get in shape - to post their names and promises for everyone to see ...
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Yale Press - Nudge
04/10/2008
By Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein ...
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Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy - Learn how to achieve goals with stickK.com
04/09/2008
We learn how all about a website that will help you stick to your commitments. Jordan Goldberg who is with the website www.stickk.com told us all about how a bunch of Yale students and professors devised this simple but effective way to keep someone compliant to their weight loss program, their exercise plan or even their attempt to stop smoking. stickK promotes healthier and happier living by helping people achieve their personal goals through the signing of Commitment Contracts. Happier people = happier world! ...
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Handelsblatt - Abnehmen – oder zahlen!
03/18/2008
Ökonomen machen den Weight-Watchers Konkurrenz. Ihr Konzept für mehr Selbstdisziplin ist simpel und knallhart: Wer abnehmen will, macht einen Vertrag mit sich selbst. Wer seine Ziele verfehlt, muss zahlen - bis zu 10 000 US-Dollar oder mehr. Lesen Sie, warum ihr Unternehmen namens StickK.com schon tausende Kunden hat ...
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CNBC - StickK.com: Take a Contract Out On Yourself
03/11/2008
Want to lose weight, get a new job, stop smoking and floss every day? Whatever your goal is, let's face it: you won't do it without a serious incentive. At Stickk.com you can put your money where your mouth is and achieve your goals ...
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NPR - Put Your Money Where Your Girth Is
03/06/2008
Would you stick to your diet if your savings were at stake? Two professors are betting the answer is yes. The winning formula may include signing a contract to enforce the bet ...
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CBS - Lose Weight Or Lose Money
03/05/2008
Americans spend billions of dollars to battle the bulge but many of them are unsuccessful. Now a Web site is there to help people reach their goals by charging them if they don't ...
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The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - Could You Lose a Pound a Week to Save $500?
02/26/2008
People who really want to change are willing to give up some of their ex-post freedom. StickK not only helps you make credible commitments for yourself, it also lets you communicate that commitment to other people ...
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Money Magazine - Fool yourself into saving smarter
02/25/2008
You may be one of those people who respond more to the fear of punishment than the promise of a prize. Well, you can make a threat work for you too ...
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FOX Business - stickK.com Makes You Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
02/20/2008
Want to lose weight but just don’t have the motivation? Trying to quit smoking but can’t kick the habit? One Web site, www.stickK.com, has a way to help you reach your goal, by holding you accountable with cold hard cash ...
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TechCrunch - stickK Allows You To Put A Contract On Yourself
02/15/2008
Steven D Levitt of Freakonomics fame wrote about stickK in January (Ayres is an occasional Freakonomics Blog guest blogger) and approved of the concept, a strong endorsement for the site ...
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Economist - Carrot and stickK
02/07/2008
How to help your good self to triumph over your bad self ...
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Pittsburgh Post Gazette - Could cash be the key to losing weight?
02/03/2008
penalize someone, financially and significantly, and he probably is more likely to lose 20 pounds than if you'd left him to his own methods ...
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Los Angeles Times - Lose weight? Bet on it
01/27/2008
If you can't stick to that New Year's resolution, try putting your money where your mouth is ...
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The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - StickK To Your Commitments
01/21/2008
That is where the new Web site StickK.com comes in. Launched this week by economists Ian Ayres (also a Freakonomics guest blogger) and Dean Karlan, StickK is there to facilitate commitment contracts ...
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lifehacker - Wager Cash on Your Goals at StickK
01/17/2008
Serious enough about your New Year's resolutions to put money on them? To appoint a referee and cheering section to check in on your progress? You can do just that at StickK, a goal monitoring web site where you commit to achieving something and literally pay if you don't make progress ...
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National Post - Marni Soupcoff on stickK.com and a project to save the redheads
01/16/2008
The site walks you through the process of making and signing a "commitment contract," which obliges you to meet the specific goal of your choice within a specific time-frame. The helpful part of stickK.com is that it gives you added incentive to stick to your resolution by allowing you to make your contract public ...
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The Washington Post Express - Bet the Money and Run: Incentive Based Weight Loss
01/01/2008
Members start by selecting a commitment type, which can be either the site's standard weight loss, fitness or quit-smoking options, or they can craft a goal of their own. Then, the choices multiply ...
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The New York Sun - How Yale Professors Lose Weight
11/23/2007
The company will have a Web site offering individuals hoping to reach a goal — anything from sticking to a diet to learning to ride a unicycle — legally binding contracts where they will pay a set dollar amount to charity if they fail in their endeavor ...
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The Wall Street Journal Economics Blog - Can Economics Help Americans Lose Weight?
11/12/2007
They have started a company called stickK.com that will allow people to take out a contract on themselves. They pick a price. If they don’t lose a certain amount of weight, they lose the money, either to a charity, friends or family ...
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The Washington Post - An Economy of Scales
11/10/2007
Paying People to Lose Weight Helps Drop Pounds and Health-Care Costs ...
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Yale Daily News - Site to help users with personal goals
11/05/2007
Stickk.com, a new Web site developed by Yale economics professor Dean Karlan, law professor Ian Ayres and Jordan Goldberg ’06 SOM ’09, will allow users to create contractual commitments with family, friends and employers in order to reach personal goals ...
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Hartford Business - Nutmeg Startups Aim At High-Tech Cures For Misbehavior
10/15/2007
Jordan Goldberg, a Yale business school student, has developed a Web site where users develop contracts with themselves. Called Stickk.com, the (...) service targets “people who lack the will power or proper motivation to achieve their goals” ...
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August 2007: stickK, LLC is formed Founders: Ian Ayres, Jordan Goldberg and Dean Karlan January 2008: www.stickK.com officially launched
Ian Ayres
Co-founder
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Ian Ayres is a lawyer and an economist. He is the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School and a Professor at Yale's School of Management. He has published nine books including, 'Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart' in 2007.
In 2006, Ian was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T. and a J.D. from Yale University.
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Jordan Goldberg
CEO, Co-founder
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Jordan Goldberg is the CEO of stickK. He graduated from Yale University in 2006 where he earned his BA in American Studies. Jordan is a recipient of Yale School of Management's Silver Anniversary Scholarship, a scholarship to the MBA program awarded to six undergraduate students each year.
After completing the first year of his MBA program, Jordan decided to take a leave of absence from school to work full-time on stickK.
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Dean Karlan
Co-founder
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Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University. Dean has done extensive academic research on Commitment Contracts for savings and for quitting smoking. He is also president of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a non-profit he founded in 2002, that applies rigorous research techniques to develop solutions to real-world problems faced by the poor in developing countries. Dean is a research fellow of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and co-director of the Financial Access Initiative, a consortium created with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an MBA and MPP from the University of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Virginia.
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Samuel Espinosa
Director of Marketing
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Sam, or 'Tex', completed his Bachelor's Degree from Yale University in 2006 and worked at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P, before joining the stickK team in December 2007. Sam is the Director of Marketing, but also handles the bookkeeping for stickK. But Sam finds the most satisfaction in feeding the office shredder, Oroku Saki (if you don't get it, give it a Google).
Sam loves the Dallas Cowboys, baseball, and the great outdoors.
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Scott Goldberg
General Counsel
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Scott joined stickK in February 2008 as General Counsel. His responsibilities include making sure that we abide by applicable laws and regulations and doing general legal work. Prior to joining stickK, he was an Associate at a law firm in Washington DC. Scott is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Maryland, School of Law, where he was valedictorian. What a dork!
He's originally from Baltimore, MD and is a huge Ravens and Orioles fan. He's married (sorry ladies), loves nature, hiking, scuba diving and skiing and has a dog named Miles and a cat named Maggie.
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Victoria Fener
Director of Operations
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Victoria joined stickK in 2009 after working in finance as a private equity analyst for Tiger Infrastructure Partners and Lehman Brothers. As Director of Operations, Victoria is involved with all things stickK, from marketing to business development, strategy, and project management. She graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2008 with a degree in Economics.
When Victoria’s not dreaming up new ideas for stickK, she enjoys playing volleyball, skiing, cooking, and traveling.
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Darren Azman
Business Consultant
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Darren completed his Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Finance from Bentley University in 2006. In December 2007, Darren took a leave of absence from Georgetown Law to join stickK. As Director of Business Development, he had several roles including product development, business and operations strategy, and customer relations. In January 2009, Darren returned to Georgetown to finish his J.D. but continues to work with stickK as a Business Consultant.
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Elaine Mechanic
VP of Business Development
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Prior to joining stickK, Elaine’s career has been primarily in marketing and sales with American Express Publishing, major New York advertising agencies, and various health care companies. Her varied interests and talents also led her to develop and host her own television talk show, careermechanics. And while her official title at stickK is VP of Business Development, we value Elaine equally for her boundless creativity.
Elaine received her MBA from Wharton and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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Investment and Partnership Information
stickK is currently privately held. If you are interested in learning more about partnering with us, or have business development ideas, please feel free contact us.
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