How do you teach financial literacy to a generation that’s grown up swiping on social media, watching crypto rise and fall, and navigating economic uncertainty before they’ve even finished university? That’s the question Aleksandra Medina set out to answer when she co-founded Frich—a social finance app built with Gen Z in mind.
In this episode, I sit down with Aleksandra, the CPO and co-founder of Frich, to explore how she and her team are redefining financial wellness for the next generation. Born out of a small New York apartment and their own shared frustrations with managing money, Frich isn’t your typical finance app. It gives users a way to benchmark their spending and saving against their peers, sparking conversations around topics often ignored—like how much support you’re getting from your parents, or whether you’re overpaying on rent compared to people your age.
With over 800,000 users and partnerships with banks, credit unions, and fintechs, Frich has become a trusted tool in a space where many young people feel overlooked. Aleksandra explains how her role as Chief Product Officer puts her at the intersection of tech and impact, designing an app that’s as much about psychology and transparency as it is about numbers. We also talk about what it’s like raising funds as a first-time founder during a period of economic headwinds, and why Gen Z’s financial potential is often underestimated.
Throughout our conversation, we explore why open dialogue is key to improving financial well-being and how Frich uses gamified, community-driven insights to make those dialogues easier and more fun. From daily polls to data-driven recommendations, the app flips the script on traditional financial advice, replacing lectures with real-world relevance.
Is Gen Z as financially lost as some headlines suggest? Or are they simply lacking the right tools and data to guide their decisions? Frich is betting on the latter.
Where are you benchmarking your financial reality? And how might a little more transparency change the way you approach money?
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.