Hassan Thomas is a 23-year-old entrepreneur from Texas who, over the course of the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, managed to transform a disappointing senior year of college into a thriving multi-faceted FinTech business called FYI FLI: For Your Information, Financial Literacy & Investing.
He did it by spending lockdown in learning mode, building on his newly minted business degree by teaching himself the skills he needed to bring important financial knowledge to others, setting ambitious goals, and keeping his eyes on the prize, even as other young graduates lost hope and momentum during the worst of the global pandemic.
During that short period, he founded and funded a nationwide financial literacy education program, built a software app, and launched the FYI FLI podcast.
Hassan's story begins in 2019 with a season-ending college football injury and a 2020 remote graduation, and journeys through the incubation of his education enterprise products and his bi-weekly interview podcast. Along the way, he documented lessons from his own experience starting a business from his bedroom and continued his learning journey by chasing the wisdom of his entrepreneurial mentors-some of today's most successful new-economy BIPOC business builders. He invited them to appear on his podcast, drew out their best advice for money-minded young people, and distilled those lessons into easy-to-apply tips, tricks, and encouragement.
This knowledge, both Hassan's and that collected from his podcast guests, are compiled into this refreshing and inspirational volume of life lessons-both financial and psychological-that will enrich every young person's wallet and aspirations.
As From College to COVID demonstrates, Hassan Thomas isn't your average young entrepreneur. His products are hope, education, and faith, and his customer is you: young people-people of all colors-who want to break the cycle of generational poverty, or simply learn to manage their finances in a way that will promise a lifetime of financial security.
"Young people aren't taught financial literacy in school. I had to find the most essential information on my own," says Hassan. "I hope this book of lessons from some of today's most successful entrepreneurs can go some way to closing that gap." His goal, he says, is to become the number-one financial literacy hub in the world through the FYI FLI podcast, website, app, music, and online curriculum.
