# Tanya Van Court

> Tanya Van Court is the founder and CEO of Goalsetter, a New York-based fintech that teaches American families to save, spend, invest, and build wealth through debit cards with parental controls and culturally fluent, gamified financial-literacy quizzes. A Stanford-trained industrial engineer who ran digital products at ESPN, Nickelodeon, and Discovery Education, she launched Goalsetter in 2016 after her nine-year-old daughter asked for an investment account for her birthday. The company has raised tens of millions of dollars and drawn investors including Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Robert F. Smith, while pursuing Van Court's stated mission of closing the racial wealth gap.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Goalsetter
- **Organizations:** Goalsetter, Discovery Education, Nickelodeon, ESPN, Covad Communications, Financial Health Network, FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion
- **From:** Oakland, California, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Industrial Engineering, Stanford University, M.S. in Industrial Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded and leads Goalsetter, raising over $31 million for the financial-literacy platform, Attracted celebrity and institutional investors including Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Andre Drummond, Lance Gross, and Robert F. Smith, Goalsetter named winner of the FinTech Breakthrough Award for Best Financial Education Platform

## Career timeline

- **1994** — Earns B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University
- **2000** — As VP of Business Development at Covad Communications, sees her stock briefly valued at over a million dollars when the company goes public
- **2001** — Earns M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford; Covad's collapse in the dot-com bust wipes out her paper gains
- **2000s** — Serves as VP of new media products at ESPN, leading the launch of ESPN3
- **2000s** — Runs digital preschool and parenting products at Nickelodeon, including NickJr.com and Noggin.com
- **2010s** — Senior VP of Partner Marketing at Discovery Education, launching digital textbooks in schools nationwide
- **2016** — Founds Goalsetter, a financial education and family saving/investing platform
- **2019** — Pitches Goalsetter on ABC's Shark Tank (Season 10)
- **2021** — Closes a $15 million Series A round; NBA stars including Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul invest
- **2024** — Closes a $9.6 million Series A extension led by the MM Catalyst Fund (an Edward Jones and MassMutual affiliate)

## Achievements

- Founded and leads Goalsetter, raising over $31 million for the financial-literacy platform
- Attracted celebrity and institutional investors including Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Andre Drummond, Lance Gross, and Robert F. Smith
- Goalsetter named winner of the FinTech Breakthrough Award for Best Financial Education Platform
- Recognized among the Most Influential Women in Fintech
- Appears on the FDIC's Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion
- Built a financial-literacy curriculum spanning infancy through high school used by families and schools

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — Goalsetter closed a $9.6 million Series A extension led by the MM Catalyst Fund to expand its financial-education mission.
- **2025-02** — Goalsetter published a feature on Van Court's path from adversity to launching the fintech.

## Links

- Website: https://goalsetter.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanyavancourt/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/goalsetterco
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvancourt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goalsetterco/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/tanya-van-court
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-03