GZpoints
Founder: Kofi Frimpong
GZPOINTS’ 100UE BLOG: CLICK HERE!
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1059 Montgomery Avenue, Narberth, PA 19072 • kofi@gzpoints.com
GZpoints, or “GradeZone Points,” is a program that offers deals and discounts at an array of businesses to middle- and high-school students based on good grades achieved and community service performed.
HOW MENTORING WILL HELP: “Even though my cofounders and I are all young and enthusiastic entrepreneurs, we understand that the experience and expertise that we will receive from mentors will be invaluable to us. I’m excited to pick the brains of some incredible mentors and entrepreneurs.”
HOW $10,000 WILL HELP: “It will go toward marketing and branding GradeZone Points in the Philadelphia area during our first year of operation.”
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THE IDEA OF SCHOOLS rewarding students with material goods — or plain old money — for getting good grades is controversial. Let an entrepreneurial private company do it, though, with schools’ acquiescence, and you’re left with a good idea and very little controversy at all.
That’s the animating spirit behind GZpoints, or “GradeZone Points,” a Philadelphia-area startup cofounded by Kofi Frimpong (above) and his three partners: Trevor Wilkins, Max Huc and Will Lee. The concept is simple, and twofold: It gives middle- and high-school students deals and discounts at a wide array of businesses in return for excellence in the classroom and community service performed.
“Schools will be able to sign up and register into our system,” Frimpong, 22, says. “Teachers will put in marking-period grade averages for a student, a few times a year, and the average of the student’s marking-period grades will be converted to GZpoints. Students can then use these points to print out discounts to their favorite restaurants, stores and venues. Teachers will also get GZpoints for being a part of GZpoints as well.”
Meanwhile, participating businesses will host weekly community-service events; students who participate will receive GZpoints redeemable at the host company. “A community-service event such as a cleanup in a park may ask for 30 students,” Frimpong says. “Once those 30 students sign up, they can attend the event. There will be a teacher supervisor who oversees the event — the teachers get GZpoints for that as well — and students can sign up with their friends and earn discounts to the business hosting the event.”
Had GZpoints existed when Frimpong was a student, he surely would have racked them up; he graduated from Princeton with a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. (He was also, naturally, a member of Princeton’s Entrepreneurship Club.) He and his three cofounders plan to formally launch GZpoints in the Philadelphia area this September, giving students there extra incentive to do well — and do good. •
