Two High Schoolers Turned Lunchroom Stock Talks Into a Newsletter With 56,000+ Subscribers, and Wall Street Is Paying Attention

An informal debate between classes became the starting point for Passing the Torch, a newsletter founded by Jasper Gould and Emile Chilingirian while they were high school students in Brooklyn. The New York Post’s August 13, 2026, profile traced the project to their sophomore year at Berkeley Carroll School, where conversations about markets and other subjects helped spark the idea. What began as an exchange of opinions among students eventually developed into a publication reaching professionals across the financial industry.

Gould and Chilingirian launched the newsletter in 2025, covering markets, economics, politics and culture. Rather than limiting themselves to stock recommendations or conventional financial commentary, they also examine the habits, preferences and attitudes of their own generation. Their position gives them an unusual starting point for a publication aimed at an audience considerably older than its founders.

Wall Street Became a Major Audience

The newsletter’s audience has expanded well beyond the school community where the idea began. According to the official Passing the Torch Media website, the publication now reports more than 56,000 subscribers, with 77% using corporate email domains. Its website also lists approximately 1,500 readers at McKinsey and JPMorgan Chase, around 1,300 at Blackstone and 759 at Goldman Sachs.

The August profile reported a similarly large audience, describing nearly 60,000 subscribers at the time. These figures show that the publication has attracted substantial attention from people working in finance and technology. They do not, by themselves, demonstrate that readers have acted on its analysis or made investment decisions because of it.

The Founders Believe Their Generation Offers a Different Perspective

The newsletter’s underlying idea is that teenagers can notice shifts in consumer behavior before those changes become obvious to older investors. Chilingirian told the New York Post that finance and technology professionals may be interested in Gen Z perspectives that the market has not fully accounted for. The founders believe firsthand familiarity with their peers can help identify trends that traditional financial analysis might overlook.

An early reader, Sam Shaffer, a former eBay executive, offered a related explanation for the publication’s appeal. As described in the original profile, he valued its discussion of emerging trends rather than viewing it simply as another attempt to identify winning investments. That distinction helps explain why a newsletter written by teenagers can attract readers whose professional lives revolve around financial markets.

Robotaxis Became One Test of Its Approach

One of the newsletter’s August 2026 articles examined automated vehicles and robotaxis. In The Important Reality of AVs, published August 11, 2026, Jasper Gould considered the technology’s development and the question of whether growing adoption would translate into lasting acceptance. The subject allowed him to examine an industry through both a market-oriented lens and the perspective of a younger consumer.

The article’s opening discusses the expansion of robotaxi services before raising doubts about whether the trend will endure. That framing reflects an important distinction in the newsletter’s approach: technological progress and consumer enthusiasm are not necessarily the same thing. By considering how people might respond to a product, the writers attempt to explore questions that go beyond company valuations or technical milestones.

Luxury Watches Offered Another Clue About Young Consumers

The newsletter has also examined the renewed interest in traditional wristwatches among younger consumers. In High Schoolers Are Buying Luxury Watches, published June 8, 2026, Gould argued that members of a generation surrounded by screens can still develop an attachment to physical objects that perform relatively simple functions. The article explored how that preference could matter to companies selling watches at different price points.

For readers in finance, the subject offers a potential connection between everyday behavior and commercial opportunity. A shift in what young consumers want could eventually affect which brands gain attention and how they compete for customers. The newsletter’s argument is that understanding those changes requires more than looking at sales figures after a trend has already emerged.

Sneaker Culture Became Another Subject for Analysis

The publication has also explored changing attitudes toward sneakers in The Death of the Sneakerhead, published June 14, 2026. The article revisited the culture surrounding sought-after sneaker releases and the appeal of buying shoes that could potentially be resold for a profit. It examined how a once-prominent consumer movement could lose momentum as the relationship between products, resale opportunities and cultural status changes.

The subject fits the newsletter’s broader editorial interests because it connects personal taste with business outcomes. Sneakers can serve as practical footwear, fashion statements and collectible products, but those roles do not necessarily retain the same importance over time. By separating a product’s usefulness from the cultural meaning attached to it, the writers attempt to explain why consumer enthusiasm can change.

The Newsletter Became a Paying Venture

By the time of the August profile, Passing the Torch had moved beyond being an informal student project. The report listed subscriptions at $15 per month or $150 per year and placed the founders’ combined annual revenue in the five-figure range. Those reported figures suggest that the publication had developed a paid business model while its creators were still completing high school.

Running the newsletter also required a substantial time commitment. The August profile reported that researching and writing consumed roughly 30 hours per week between the two founders, in addition to their schoolwork. Passing the Torch Media describes its publishing schedule as 72 issues per year, reflecting an operation that depends on producing new material regularly rather than publishing only occasional essays.

Their School Background Adds Context to the Story

Gould and Chilingirian attend Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, where published tuition for the 2026–27 academic year is $66,090 for students from prekindergarten through Grade 12, according to the school’s official tuition information. The school also offers need-based financial assistance, so the published tuition figure alone does not establish what any particular family pays. Still, the founders’ educational setting provides relevant context for understanding their background.

Their reporting ambitions extend beyond the social environment in which they study. The original profile described them as maintaining ongoing contact with high school students around the country, giving them a broader pool of experiences to draw from when examining their generation. That wider network matters because the habits of students at one private school cannot automatically be treated as representative of all teenagers.

Their Nonprofit Project Actually Came First

The newsletter was not the founders’ first attempt to turn their interest in finance into a larger project. The Brooklyn Youth Charitable Investment Group, or BYCIG, identifies September 2024 as its founding date and names Gould and Chilingirian as its co-founders on its official team page. The newsletter followed in 2025, creating a separate outlet for their writing alongside the financial education initiative.

BYCIG describes its purpose as teaching financial skills to high school students through practical experience and charitable investing. The organization brings students together to study financial concepts, evaluate businesses and participate in projects that require them to apply what they learn. In that sense, it shares the newsletter’s underlying interest in giving young people a more active role in discussions about money and business.

Students Work With Real Investment Decisions

BYCIG’s official website describes a system in which students research actual companies, prepare equity proposals and submit investment ideas to an advisory committee. Approved proposals can lead to real investments rather than simulated trades. The group presents this arrangement as a way to teach students about the responsibilities that accompany managing capital.

The committee structure also gives the process a framework for reviewing student work. According to the organization’s published description, members must develop proposals that can be examined for their reasoning and potential weaknesses before investments are approved. That approach connects financial education with research, presentation skills and decision-making rather than relying exclusively on classroom explanations of market concepts.

The Investment Fund Adds Financial Stakes

The August profile reported that BYCIG’s investment pool held approximately $50,000 raised from parents and finance professionals. Student teams presented investment ideas to the advisory committee, with approved trades carried out through an accountant, according to the report. The organization then directed part of its investment returns toward charitable causes.

The profile also reported that the fund had outperformed the market, with three of its 12 positions increasing by more than 40%. However, the public materials reviewed for this article did not include an independently audited performance statement, so those figures should be understood as reported results rather than independently verified returns. The distinction is important because a fund’s educational value and its investment performance are separate measures of success.

The Organization Has Grown Beyond Its Founders

BYCIG has also promoted its expansion through its own public channels. In a first-year milestone post on LinkedIn, the organization said it had reached 1,000 members, raised more than $30,000 for youth initiatives and hosted over 20 guest speakers during its first year. It also reported that its portfolio had grown by more than 25% during that period.

These are figures published by the organization itself, rather than independent measurements of its performance or reach. They nevertheless illustrate the scale of the network BYCIG said it had developed beyond its founders’ original school community. The nonprofit has presented connections with experienced professionals as another part of its educational model, giving students opportunities to hear from people working in finance and related fields.

Charity Determines What the Fund Is Supposed to Achieve

BYCIG’s account of its mission and structure makes clear that personal investment profits are not the organization’s stated objective. It says money raised through the group is intended to benefit charitable causes, with periodic contributions to local charities and a larger final distribution when the fund closes. The organization describes its approach as a combination of financial education, investment experience and philanthropy.

That purpose also influences how the founders think about continuity. BYCIG says it hopes to pass the investment fund to future generations of students rather than automatically ending the project when its original leaders leave school. Its published plan acknowledges that the fund could eventually close if continuing operations is no longer practical, leaving the long-term future dependent on whether later student leaders can maintain the organization.

College Plans Introduced a New Challenge

When the August 2026 profile appeared, Gould and Chilingirian were described as 17-year-old rising seniors preparing for college applications. The report said they were considering succession plans for both Passing the Torch and BYCIG as they approached the next stage of their education. Gould also joked at the time that he was still two months away from turning 18.

Their challenge was therefore not simply to attract more readers or expand the student investment group. Both projects required systems that could continue functioning if the founders had less time to manage them personally. The newsletter had become a media business with a large professional audience, while the nonprofit had developed a structure intended to survive beyond its original organizers.

The Bigger Story Is What Happens After the Founders Leave

The two projects demonstrate different ways the founders have tried to turn an interest in finance into something useful for other people. Passing the Torch builds its business around research and commentary informed by the founders’ proximity to their generation, while BYCIG focuses on giving students experience with financial analysis and charitable investing. Neither model eliminates the practical demands of running an organization while completing school, but both have grown well beyond the informal conversations that helped inspire them.

Their next challenge is whether those projects can remain effective as their founders move into adulthood and eventually leave high school. Continued growth will depend on more than attracting subscribers or finding promising investments; it will also require other writers, student leaders and decision-makers to take responsibility. For two teenagers whose work has reached well beyond their own classrooms, building something that lasts may prove just as significant as building it in the first place.