Earnest pays kids to read real books and create original projects on what they read. Their peers grade. Their families fund. Their thinking pays.
Free during the pilot. Parents pay their kids in cash right now. Stripe direct deposit is coming.
American education was designed in the 19th century to turn farmers into factory workers. It worked then. It has been failing for generations.
AI is making it worse. Exponentially faster.
When machines handle the how, humans need to be far better at the why and the what.
Inside one family, Earnest is a complete loop. Parents fund. Kids produce. Peers grade. Payouts release. Across families it becomes a network. A community of readers, makers, and graders, all earning from being inside the loop.
Each turn makes the next turn cheaper. Community sells for us. Over time the marketplace goes multi-sided. Community graders, vetted teachers, course partners, financial integrations. Every additional side strengthens every other.
"A virtuous feedback loop that becomes a driving force for good in the world."
Humans are naturally curious. Naturally creative. Naturally social learners. We are born wanting to understand the world, make things, and share them with other people.
Somewhere between standardized tests, algorithmic feeds, and Chromebook classrooms, we broke that. Kids stopped associating learning with joy. They stopped reading. Stopped writing for an audience. Stopped sitting with a feeling long enough to turn it into a thought.
Earnest is the antidote.
"The financial literacy is the gift.
The dignity is the point."
Yes. Real dollars, paid by the parent for finished books and graded projects. Right now parents hand over the cash directly. Stripe direct deposit is in development.
Greenlight is a debit card. Allowance apps are chore trackers. Earnest is a marketplace for thinking. Kids earn money by reading, making, and grading each other's creative work. The financial literacy is a byproduct. The point is what it teaches them about their own ideas.
Free to use during the pilot. Long term, a 1% platform fee on each escrowed payout. We only earn when kids do. 85% of every payout goes straight to the kid.
Three peers per project. Other kids on the platform, parents in the community, or graders you invite (teachers, family friends). They rate on a five-point rubric and leave a comment. Each grader earns $0.50 per grade. A majority pass releases the payout.
Earnest is designed to lead kids off screens, into books, and into making real things. The app is the operating system, not the activity. Kids use it to track, submit, and get paid. The work itself is paper, pen, paint, instruments, cameras, voices.
Yes. That's the whole point. You invite friends, family, neighbors as graders. Their kids see their parents grading, and that's the seed of the next family joining. Word of mouth is the growth model.
I'm onboarding families one at a time so I can learn from each one. Teachers, journalists, investors, future graders. All welcome. Drop a note and I'll reach out personally.
If you've poked around the app, I want to hear it. The good, the broken, the parts that didn't make sense. I'll send updates as we ship. No spam, no list selling, just a note when something real changes.