VestEd

Competitive simulated investing for university students.

Most simulated investing feels like an individual activity, disconnected from the clubs and campuses students are already part of. I started VestEd around a more competitive idea: what if students could represent themselves, their investment clubs, and their universities? Learning about markets could be more social if you could compete, compare performance, and build a track record with peers.

VestEd is a simulated investing platform built around competition between students and university investment clubs. Users can build and track a portfolio, then compare performance on leaderboards. I also designed College Arena, where clubs can represent their universities and compete nationally, and an AI Portfolio Professor meant to help students understand their decisions rather than only seeing gains and losses.

I developed VestEd from the initial concept through the working product: strategy, interface, application, competition system, and the overall experience. Much of the work was making familiar investing tools more engaging through identity and competition, while keeping the product centered on learning rather than simulated returns alone.

VestEd is an early-stage product with the core experience built and available online. It is still a concept I am exploring, not a launched platform with an established university network. I wanted to see how competition, identity, community, and status might change a usually individual product, and whether those mechanics could make simulated investing more engaging for students and investment clubs.