EP 21 – Troy Prince – Wall Street Bound – IQ and Talent Are Equally Distributed, Opportunity is Not

Quote: “Being In This Skin Is the Only Way to Really Experience It”

You simply have to listen to the conversation I had with Troy Prince.  Troy is the Founder of Wall Street Bound, an education and training organization focused on the recruitment, exposure, licensing, and placement of inner-city youth into front office intern positions on Wall Street.  Troy is also a graduate of the prestigious Bronx High School of Science and the NYU Stern School of Business.

Troy and I talked about what it was like growing up in a strong, close-knit, education-focused family in the Bronx.  The southern-most section of the Bronx is a mere 10.2 miles away from Wall Street according to Google Maps, and yet it may as well be on a different planet.  Most kids that grow up in the Bronx have little to no exposure to the world of global finance nor the employment opportunities it presents.  Troy is committed to changing this and believes that while IQ and Talent are equally distributed, opportunity is not.

Troy and I have known each other for more than 20 years.  We met when he was a buy-side trader at Barclays Global Investors in Tokyo and I was a sell-side portfolio trader at Goldman Sachs.  We talked about our experiences in Tokyo and how it was the first time I experience being a ‘visual minority’, something that Troy has to deal with every day of his life.  We also noted that it was the first time a lot of the foreign traders in Tokyo felt somehow out of their comfort zones.

Troy also spent almost five years living and investing in Vietnam as an angel investor, but could not get the idea of ‘Wall Street Bound’ and the positive impact it would have on under-served communities out of his mind.  He decided to stop thinking about it and start doing it, like a true entrepreneur.

Wall Street Bound currently runs three impactful programs with more on the way.  Most recently, WSB has created a program in partnership with Maverick Trading that trains urban youth to trade and manage real money in live markets.

Listen to this episode and the rest of the Social Innovation Podcast to learn about how business principles can be applied to create profit and real social impact at the same time.

If you would like to contact the team, e-mail them at info@wallstreetbound.org.