Students vie for Young Person of Year award

Liverpool’s business community is backing two finance students who “captured the zeitgeist” with their start-up idea.

Marino Faggionato and Olivia Doyle have been nominated as finalists for the Young Person of the Year Award by the Liverpool Chamber, which praised their determination to “help people help themselves”.

The couple’s start-up, called All for Finance offers short courses to help people of different ages and backgrounds to understand finance and economics.

“Everyone should be able to make informed decisions about their money, their income and what they do with it,” said Marino. “We are really proud of our mission and achievements so far.”

Touches a chord

Liverpool Chamber shortlisted Marino, 26 and Olivia, 22, due to “their commitment” and for touching a chord with the general public’s lack of financial knowledge.

With the cost of living crisis biting hard on Merseyside, the students believe knowledge is purchasing power.

The first-year Business with Finance students have worked with the LJMU Start-up Hub, which put them in touch with LCR Founders*, which aims to gather entrepreneurial talents from LJMU and the University of Liverpool.

With their help, they managed to establish the business, and have recently begun marketing themselves: “We just started our social media pages, and we are looking to start approaching schools and universities with courses soon.”

Vote for our guys

You can vote for Marino and Olivia in this online poll, which is open until September 1. Winners are announced on November 17.

“We are really proud and honoured to represent the university in this event and only with your help, we could gather as many votes as possible,” said Olivia.

Check out All for Finance on:

Instagram

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LinkedIn

* LCR Founders is a collaborative project between Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool, supporting students, graduates and alumni to explore a co-founded approach to business start-up. ​It is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.