Two 17-year-old students created a financial newsletter read on Wall Street

Two 17-year-old students from Brooklyn have unexpectedly become prominent figures in the financial media landscape: the newsletter they created, Passing the Torch, is now read by tens of thousands of people, with a significant share of its audience using corporate email addresses. Among its subscribers are employees of major financial and consulting firms, including McKinsey, JPMorgan, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs.

The project was founded by Jasper Gould and Emil Chilingirian while both were students at Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn. According to the project itself, its current audience exceeds 56,000 subscribers, and 77% of registrations come from corporate domains. The newsletter's database, according to data published by Passing the Torch, includes around 1,500 readers connected to McKinsey, roughly the same number associated with JPMorgan, about 1,300 with Blackstone, and 759 with Goldman Sachs.

Initially, the students were aiming primarily at a young audience. Their idea was to explain what was happening in financial markets, the economy and business in language that Generation Z could understand. However, it soon became clear that the material also appealed to professionals working in the financial industry themselves.

According to the creators, the reason lies not only in the simplified presentation of complex topics. Passing the Torch seeks to show financial and economic processes through the behaviour of the younger generation — how teenagers perceive artificial intelligence, robotaxis, consumer brands, fashion, social media and changes in the labour market. This perspective may provide professional investors with information that is difficult to obtain from traditional financial research.

In one article, the authors analysed Generation Z's attitude towards robotaxis and automated transport; in another, they examined changes in sneaker culture and the reasons for its declining cultural significance. The authors also write about monetary policy, private credit, markets, politics and other economic topics. The publication archive shows that over time the newsletter has become noticeably more professional and analytical.

At the same time, the creators themselves do not have years of experience working on Wall Street — they are only 17. In an interview with the New York Post, Gould and Chilingirian explained the professional audience's interest by saying that they are part of the age group whose behaviour investors and companies are trying to understand. For an analyst seeking to understand future consumer habits, teenagers' opinions can sometimes be no less interesting than yet another report from a traditional research department.

The project has another side as well. In addition to the newsletter, Gould and Chilingirian founded the Brooklyn Youth Charitable Investment Group (BYCIG), an educational organisation where students study financial markets and work with real investments. The organisation was established in September 2024. Participants independently research companies and prepare investment proposals, while decisions are made by an investment committee. The profits are directed to charity.

According to BYCIG, the founders initially wanted to create a school investment club that would allow teenagers to manage real money rather than simply take part in an educational simulation. After encountering legal and organisational restrictions, they created a separate entity.

In 2025, the organisation reported approximately 1,000 participants and more than $30,000 raised for the fund. Later, BYCIG stated that more than $100,000 had been directed to student investment and educational initiatives.

Passing the Torch itself has also evolved from a small teenage initiative into a commercial media project. According to the New York Post, a subscription to the paid part of the newsletter costs $15 per month or $150 per year, and the project's annual revenue is already measured in five figures. At the same time, the founders spend around 30 hours a week researching and preparing material — alongside their studies at school.

The project is gradually expanding: in addition to the newsletter, Passing the Torch now has a podcast, and its creators are developing their own media platform focused on finance, the economy and career opportunities for the younger generation.

The students now face an unusual problem: they are finishing school and preparing to apply to universities, so they are already thinking about how to hand over management of the projects they created. The irony is that the newsletter two teenagers initially produced for their peers has ultimately become a product regularly read by professionals at the largest financial companies.

The story of Passing the Torch points to another notable shift in financial media: value may come not only from an expert with 20 years of market experience, but also from someone who is directly part of the generation whose habits and decisions investors are trying to predict. In Gould and Chilingirian's case, their age, which may initially have seemed like the project's main disadvantage, turned out to be one of its main advantages.