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About stickK.com

Our Mission

Our mission is to redefine goal-setting using Behavioral Economic principles that empower personal change in any setting. We believe that with the right combination of incentives and accountability, anyone has the power to transform their goals into reality.

Our Story

Our story begins like many stories do: with someone on a mission to shed a few pounds. What makes our story different though is that this someone was equipped with a PhD’s worth of knowledge and the academic resources to figure out what works when it comes to eliciting behavioral change to achieve personal goals. This someone was Dean Karlan, a Professor of Behavioral Economics at Yale University, his weight-loss story ended with the discovery of a successful goal-setting tool and his mission lives on today at stickK: to empower others with the tools and resources they need to achieve their personal goals.

What Dean Karlan discovered was the behavioral power of what we now refer to as a Commitment Contract. Through personal experience and academic research,* Dean found that people were significantly more successful if they signed a contract obliging them to achieve their goals.

On a mission to make this powerful goal-setting tool available to people around the world, Dean bounced his envisioned online goal-setting platform idea off of his colleague Ian Ayres, a Professor at Yale Law School and the author of Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart and Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done. Ian Ayres saw the power and potential of Dean’s online goal-setting platform and quickly joined Dean Karlan and a current Yale MBA student, Jordan Goldberg, to create what we now call stickK.

*Ashraf, Karlan and Yin, Quarterly Journal of Economics May 2006, "Tying Odysseus to the Mast: Evidence from a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines"

stickK in the News

LA Times - Most New Year's resolutions fail. If you want yours to succeed, put some money behind it
01/01/2019
Many New Year’s resolutions are only half-intended from the get-go. But if you’re serious about improving your health or fitness, a commitment contract can give you hundreds of reasons to see it through each week. ... read more

Scientific American - Need More Self-Control? Try a Simple Ritual
12/01/2018
To take one notable example, on the commitment contract website stickK.com, users put down some money (say, $200) and state a goal they want to achieve (such as to lose ten pounds in a month). They also need to state what will happen to the money if they don’t stick to their commitments (eg, it’ll go to a friend or to a charity they do not like). ... read more

Bloomberg - Fattening Up Your 401(k) Will Be Easier Than Losing Weight in 2018
11/08/2018
When a referee is used, the average success rate is 61 percent for goals related to money and finance, says Jordan Goldberg, the company’s chairman. (For those wanting to lose weight, the success rate is a not-too-shabby 47 percent.) When the goal involves using both a referee and a financial stake, the success rate for financial resolutions is 87 percent (and a healthy 73 percent for pound-droppers). The power of loss aversion (who wants to “lose” money to a cause he despises?) and the natural distaste for failing to reach a stated goal are built into stickK's model. ... read more

DatingAdvice.com - An Innovative Platform Empowers Daters to Follow Through on Their Commitments
11/07/2018
The stickK platform has designed a science-based system that gets results. The team has found that people who set stakes for themselves on the platform are five times as likely to reach their goals in the allotted time. Altogether, the platform has seen more than 425,000 commitments created, and a growing number of those have been fulfilled. ... read more

Seattle Times - Peer pressure, applied well, can boost your financial health
09/01/2018
People don’t change their habits when the stakes are low, says Dean Karlan, a Yale economist who has studied incentives and accountability. Placing your money or reputation on the line with a goal raises the cost of failure, which acts as a motivator, he says. That’s why Karlan and two colleagues created Stickk.com, a goal-setting website that uses peer support to help people stick to goals, including financial ones. Assigning a “referee” to keep you honest doubles your chance of success, according to an analysis of Stickk’s users. ... read more

Reward Expert - Commit to Achieving Your Goals with stickK
02/12/2018
stickK, a community-driven online commitment-setting platform, can help you achieve your goals –New Year’s and otherwise– by empowering behavioral change... Combined with social accountability and the possibility of financial penalty, more than 437,000 Commitment Contracts have been created by users determined to reach their education, career, health, fitness, weight loss and lifestyle goals. ... read more

Men's Health - How to Boost your Willpower
11/01/2017
Back yourself. Put your own money on the line to harden your resolve. At stickk.com, you can place a real financial bet on whether your willpower can hold out. Fail and your money gets sent to a charity or friend. ... read more

thestar.com - Is money an effective weight-loss incentive?
04/17/2017
"...designed to nudge people into making the right decision." ... read more

The Village Voice - Carrot and Stick: New Apps Help You Bet Against Yourself to Lose Weight
01/11/2017
Created by three Yale professors, StickK (iOS and Android, prerelease, free)follows a similar model of financial incentive, allowing members to make legally binding "commitment contracts" with themselves for a multitude of habits to adopt or end, or goals to meet. ... read more

Financial Times - Why your new year resolutions are not working
01/10/2017
Psychologists haven’t completely cornered the market: economists can offer wisdom on behavioural change too. One of my favourite strategies is embodied by the website www.stickk.com. It was co-founded by Yale academics Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres, among others, and relies on two brutal behavioural truths: people do not like losing money (loss aversion), and they are likely to behave better when others are looking. ... read more

U.S. News Health - Why Your Activity Tracker Isn't Helping You Reach Your Fitness Goals
01/09/2017
Receiving a virtual reward (such as ribbons and badges) might give you a momentary rush, but it probably won't motivate you to commit to fitness for the rest of your life. Instead, try linking up with a program like Stickk that provides monetary or charity incentives to encourage you to take more steps per week. ... read more

Seattle Times - Here’s how you can keep your New Year’s resolutions
01/02/2017
Pick a goal and set up an incentive program. Levine recommends using stickK,a website designed to help people meet wellness goals with financial incentives, having a real-life accountability partner or making an appointment with a life coach. ... read more

Time Money - Money Checklist: 4 Ways to Get Your Financial Life
01/01/2017
Resolve to build wealth. Happy 2017! “I’ll save more” is a top New Year’s pledge. To motivate yourself, sign a contract at StickK.com to cough up money if you fail. And tell a buddy. One study found that sharing goals with a friend boosted success rates by 33% ... read more

Travel + Leisure - How to Save Money For Your Dream Trip
01/01/2017
Travel + Leisure - How to Save Money For Your Dream Trip 01/01/2017 There are a number of online tools to help with this step, but Harris recommends Stickk, a site designed to help people set goals, and then achieve them through reminders and alerts. You can even designate a friend as your “referee” to monitor your progress and keep you on-track. ... read more

Harvard Business School - Most Popular Episodes of the Cold Call Podcast
12/16/2016
Professor Leslie John studies how to help people change bad habits (and reinforce good ones) by looking at what makes them tick. Here, she discusses stickK, an application that motivates people by forcing them to put skin in the game of self-improvement. ... read more

Huffington Post - How I Read 65 Books in a Year Without Speed Reading
11/06/2016
If habit forming isn't your forte, try a web site like Stickk. You set a goal, pick a referee, and make a financial commitment to donate to a charity (or anti-charity) if you fail to achieve that goal. An anti-charity is an organization whose views you strongly oppose. There is no better incentive than a sizable public donation to the National Rifle Association (NRA) for an anti-gun activist to pick up that book and read. ... read more

PRWeb - Study from Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute finds that Punishment May Work for Dieters
10/18/2016
Providing financial rewards correlates with more weight lost in studies of weight loss motivation, but what about financial punishment? New findings from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute show that people who signed up to lose money for failing to meet specific dieting goals lost more weight. ... read more

Entrepreneur - How a $200 Bet Scared Me Off My Overweight Butt and Into Exercising Again
08/12/2016
When it comes to sticking to a commitment, money makes all the difference, says Jordan Goldberg, co-founder and CEO of StickK. “Attaching a financial incentive to your personal goals reinforces your resolve and willpower and increases your likelihood of success,” he tells me during a phone interview. Per StickK’s research, he points out, its users are three times more likely to succeed in achieving their goals... ... read more

Entrepreneur - 'No Porn at Work,' and 16 Other Bizarre Goals People Committed to
08/12/2016
“Attaching a financial incentive to your personal goals reinforces your resolve and willpower and increases your likelihood of success,” StickK co-founder and CEO Jordan Goldberg tells Entrepreneur. He claims people who use StickK are three times more likely to succeed in achieving their goals than those who don’t. ... read more

Harvard Business School - The Key to Keeping Resolutions? Betting Against Yourself
04/07/2016
The pain of losing something is just much more poignant than is the pleasure associated with the objectively equivalently-sized gains. Loss aversion kicks in. Simply put: you don't want to lose the money, and so that further propels you, or further motivates you to lose the weight. ... read more

Psychology Today - A New Way to Lose Weight and Keep it Off
03/25/2016
"...this approach worked so well that they founded the website stickk, (link is external) where anyone can define a goal and create incentives to make it happen. According to their data, if you appoint someone as your “referee” you potentially double your chances of success. Adding financial stakes--“skin in the game”--increases your chances of success by up to three times..." ... read more

STAT - Hate to Lose Money? Channel that Emotion to Help You be Healthier
02/15/2016
“We ask people to put up their own cash as a motivator to make a change,” said stickK.com CEO Jordan Goldberg. “The threat of losing something you already own is far more motivating than the lure of gaining something you never had.” ... read more

News 8 - Website Charges You to Keep You Accountable for Your Goals
02/02/2016
We’re a month into the New Year. Are you sticking to what you set out to do? Well, to help folks really commit, a Yale Professor started a website called stickK and it takes away your money if you don’t meet your goals. ... read more

The Washington Post - What Your New Gym Doesn’t Want You to Know
01/05/2016
So if you’re trying to goad yourself into exercising, you might consider creating a contract with yourself and giving yourself a small, designated reward (probably not a cupcake) each time you go to the gym. ... read more

Courier Journal, USA Today - Want to Lose Weight? Make a Fat Bet
01/05/2016
"...[stickK] use[s] the power of social networks and the incentive of a thinner wallet as the catalyst to help people be accountable to their goals." ... read more

Dataquest - 5 Apps That Can Help You to Keep Your New Year Resolutions on Track
01/05/2016
"This is a website which lets users set up a “commitment contract” where they agree to achieve a certain goal, such as losing weight, exercising more, quitting smoking, or conserving energy." ... read more

Daily Bruin - Bruins can stickK to New Year's resolutions When Stakes are Raised
01/05/2016
One solution comes in the form of the website stickK, which allows an individual to register their resolution online, set a financial penalty for failing to complete their goal, and appoint a person as a referee to ensure that the individual is sticking to their resolution. ... read more

Time: Money - How I Blew Christmas This Year — And How I’m Resolving to Do It Better Next Year
01/04/2016
Once you’ve established that you want to stow more away, you can make sure that you stick to your goals by signing up for StickK.com. The site, which was developed by Yale economists, lets users put money on the line for any given commitment — helping you feel the sting more acutely if you veer off course. ... read more

The Sydney Morning Herald - The Rational Approach to Keeping New Year's Resolutions
01/01/2016
Websites such as www.stickK.com offer a similar thing: allowing you to make a contract with your future self and set penalties – such as donations to causes you hate – in the event you break the contract. ... read more

CBS News - The Secret to Keeping New Year's Resolutions
12/31/2015
stickK.com allows users to set their goals and accomplish them by imposing a fine penalty. ... read more

Independent - How to Break Bad Habits and Make Good Ones, According to Science
12/31/2015
To stick to a resolution, the best time to decide upon it is in August, according to data by personal goals website StickK. This may seem unhelpful, but it’s likely the habit you’re determined to break has been niggling at your conscious for a while. ... read more

International Business Times - New Year’s Resolutions: 5 Goals To Boost Your Financial Health In 2016
12/31/2015
Action is the best cure for anxiety of any type, and financial stress is no exception. Reduce stress this year by setting at least one money-related goal, but make sure it’s achievable. “Goals work much better when they’re realistic and specific,” advised Dean Karlan, a professor of economics at Yale University and founder of the goal achievement website Stickk. ... read more

Time: Money - The Best Way to Pay Off Debts
12/30/2015
...raise the stakes with StickK.com, a site developed by Yale economists that provides commitment tools to help you meet your goals. Users who have vowed to pay money if they fall short have been successful 72% of the time, vs. 29% for those who don’t pledge any money. ... read more

TH Online - Ease the Shopping Burden a Bit with These Ideas
12/13/2015
Resetting for the New Year? Try stickK (stickk.com), a goal-setting app that helps you track your progress and allows you to set monetary incentives. Achieve your goals and get your deposit back, fall short and your cash gets sent to a charity, friend or foe -- whichever is most motivating for you. ... read more

ETF Trends - How Tech Can Help With 3 Behavioral Finance Biases
11/23/2015
stickK, developed by Yale behavioral economists, penalizes users for not reaching goals by donating their money, depending on the chosen settings, to a charity, to friends or to an organization the user opposes. Users can also make their goals public and invite friends to serve as supporters for encouragement, peer pressure and added accountability. ... read more

Fast Company - The High-Stakes Way to Keep New Habits
07/21/2015
Since its founding, stickK has attracted users with goals ranging from brushing their teeth daily to saving for retirement, to cleaning out the garage. Each user chooses a goal, sets their stakes (how much money they lose and to what organization if they don't follow through), and selects a referee to work with. They then track their progress through weekly reports. ... read more

Fitness Magazine - 7 Habits of High Effective Exercisers
07/20/2015
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Women’s Running - The Latest Exercise Research You Need To Know
07/09/2015
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Full News - The 4 Types of Productivity Styles You Should Know About
07/05/2015
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Apartment Therapy - How to Motivate Yourself to Clean Regularly, For People Who Hate Cleaning
07/05/2015
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The Washington Post - Positive thinking isn’t all-powerful. Penalty for failure may help more in reaching goals.
02/10/2015
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GuidingTech - 3 Impressive Tools to Help You Create New Habits
02/08/2015
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Forbes.com - A Massive Social Experience On You Is Under Way, And You Will Love It
01/21/2015
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The Baltimore Sun - Betting on weight loss can help people meet goals
01/21/2015
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Forbes - Necessity's Child
01/12/2015
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Yahoo! Finance - 5 ways to cure a holiday debt hangover
01/06/2015
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Dailymail.co.uk - Never have a back-up plan, put your money at stake and don’t say ‘don’t’: The tricks psychologists say will make your resolutions stick in 2015
01/01/2015
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Bufferapp.com - 24 Great Free Apps and Tools to Help You Build Strong Habits
12/30/2014
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Fitness Magazine - 3 Surprising Ways to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions
12/29/2014
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Time - New Years Resolutions: 7 Psychology Tricks to Make Your Resolutions Stick
12/27/2014
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New York Magazine - In Partial Defense of ‘Fitness Concierges’
12/18/2014
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Lifehack - 29 Incredibly Useful Website You Wish You Knew Earlier
12/15/2014
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The New Yorker - The Ulysses Strategy
12/11/2014
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Time - 7 Steps to Never Procrastinating Again
11/20/2014
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Lifehack - 27 Simple Ways to Improve Your Life
10/14/2014
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Forbes - 4 Money Move to Outsmart Your Brain
10/13/2014
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Huffington Post - 4 Science-Backed Ways to Motivate Yourself to Work Out
09/05/2014
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Harvard Business School - The Business of Behavioral Economics
08/11/2014
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Forbes - 10 Tips To Supercharge Your Savings
08/07/2014
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Today Money - Want to kick a habit? The 6 best goal-tracking apps to kick your butt
08/01/2014
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The London Evening Standard - Do you suffer from ‘busyness’? How to thrive in an age of overload
07/02/2014
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Forbes - Wearable Tech Is Plugging Into Health Insurance
06/19/2014
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WealthManagement.com - Apps To Change Financial Behavior
05/13/2014
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U.S. News Money - 5 Ways to Put Financial Advice Into Practice
04/21/2014
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Harvard Business School - Making stickK Stick: The Business of Behavioral Economics
04/17/2014
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The Washington Post - Apps that might help nudge you into financial health
04/12/2014
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Runner's World - Need More Motivation? Try Behavioral Economics
01/31/2014
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The Wall Street Journal - New Year’s Resolution or Money Trap?
01/25/2014
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The New York Times Sunday Review - How to Keep Your Resolutions
01/03/2014
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Entrepreneur - 6 Tricks to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick
12/27/2013
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Forbes - Use the New Year to Improve Your Behavioral Fitness at Work
12/26/2013
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The New Yorker - Why we make resolutions (and why they fail)
12/20/2013
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CCA Innovators Forum - Applying Behavioral Economics to improve Health and Wellness, by Jordan Goldberg, CEO stickK
11/03/2013
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Men's Health - 21 Ways to Melt Your Gut
10/25/2013
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Lifehacker - Quickly Master Any Skill the Tim Ferriss Way
06/18/2013
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Noobie.com - How you can use the Internet to motivate you to lose weight
05/20/2013
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Inc. Magazine - Reward vs. Punishment: What Motivates People More?
04/02/2013
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NPR - Money Replaces Willpower In Programs Promoting Weight Loss
02/20/2013
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Shape.com - Are Weight-Loss Wagers Your Best Bet?
01/09/2013
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The Today Show - Weight Loss Wagers
01/03/2013
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The Dr. Oz Show - Health Apps That Work
01/01/2013
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Business Week - How to Keep New Year's Resolutions: Make Them in August
12/25/2012
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The New Yorker - Cliffhangers
10/15/2012
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MedCity News - Pharma companies interested in web site that uses financial stickK to change behaviors
09/27/2012
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Geek Sugar - Website Of The Day: stickK To Your Goals
09/18/2012
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Social Marketing Exchange - StickK.com: Turning Desires into Actions
09/10/2012
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PC World - StickK Puts Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
07/25/2012
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The Globe and the Mail - Nine ideas to help you save money
06/27/2012
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Forbes - How Obama and Romney Will Make Me Healthier
06/01/2012
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CNN Health - Would you lose weight if money were at stake?
05/28/2012
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The Wall Street Journal - Websites for Finance Novices
05/18/2012
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Albuquerque Journal - Fit Magazine - stickK It To Me
05/08/2012
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Boston Globe - Is your social network sabotaging your health?
04/06/2012
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ABC News - Got Goals But Lack Discipline? Now You Can Buy It Online
03/14/2012
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Yale Daily News - StickK helps the irresolute
02/21/2012
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NBC - Denver - Websites use money to motivate you to achieve your goals
02/09/2012
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Guiding Tech - 3 Impressive Tools to Help You Create New Habits
01/21/2012
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The Philadelphia Inquirer - Dieting for Dollars
01/18/2012
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Self Magazine - How to Keep Your Resolutions All Year!
01/13/2012
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Pravda - Want to keep your New Year Resolution? StickK to your promises...
01/11/2012
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The Oakland Tribune - Diet betting websites help losers win
01/11/2012
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BBC News - Websites pay users who meet New Year's resolutions
01/09/2012
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The New York Times - Be It Resolved
01/05/2012
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Mashable Tech - Keep it Real: 8 Services to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick
01/04/2012
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Self Magazine - How to Keep Your Resolutions All Year!
01/03/2012
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US News & World Report HEALTH - 7 Stick-to-Your-Diet Tricks You've Never Heard of for 2012
01/03/2012
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Shape Magazine - Digital Determination: Top 4 Goal-Setting Websites
01/01/2012
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Huffington Post - Dean Karlan On How To Achieve New Year's Resolutions (VIDEO)
12/31/2011
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Newsday.com - Akst: Real motivation for self-improvement
12/23/2011
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BlissTree.com - Bet You Can: Three Options For Wagering On Weight-Loss
12/20/2011
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Washingtonian - Three Ways to Make Sure You Stick with Your Fitness Resolutions
12/19/2011
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LA Times - Making a resolution? Diet betting may offer incentive to lose weight
12/19/2011
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The Canadian - Dieting: 50 ways to lose 10 Pounds
12/06/2011
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Smithsonian.com - Henry Morton Stanley's Unbreakable Will
12/01/2011
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Huffington Post - Overwhelmed by Fitness Gadgets? There's an App for That
11/15/2011
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Business Insider - 8 Startups That Are Shaking Up The Health Care Industry
10/17/2011
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Timesunion.com - StickKing to Your Guns
05/18/2011
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CNN Money - Problems with procrastination? Try bribery.
04/25/2011
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FOX Business - Talking About Money, You Can Save It
04/04/2011
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The San Francisco Chronicle - Economist in the bedroom
02/23/2011
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China Daily - Posting Your Promises to Elevate the Stakes
02/13/2011
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The Telegraph - Giving up is so very hard to do
02/08/2011
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Business Insider - The Latest Brilliant Business Scheme
01/27/2011
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Freakonomics.com - Commitment Contracts For Business
01/26/2011
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Health 2.0 Conference - stickK – Commitment Contracts and Health Incentives
01/22/2011
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The New York Times - I Resolve. World, Don’t Fail Me Now.
01/21/2011
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CNN Money - Stick to your money goals...or pay up
01/21/2011
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Slate.com - The Odysseus Option
01/21/2011
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The Taipei Times - Trouble keeping New Year’s resolutions? The art of sticking to it
01/08/2011
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ABA Journal - Want to Lose Weight? Try Visiting This Law Professors Website
01/06/2011
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British Airways Business Life - How to Stick to Your Resolutions
01/05/2011
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Forbes - How to Take Control of Your Finances in 2011
01/05/2011
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Forbes - New Years Dieters Should Dump Diet Books For Stickk.com
01/04/2011
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The Korea Herald - Helping People Attain Their Resolutions
01/04/2011
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TechnologyReview (MIT) - How to Stick to New Year's Resolutions
01/03/2011
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Moneycrashers.com - Would You Put Money on the Line to Achieve Your Goals?
01/03/2011
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Technologyreview.com - How to Stick to New Year's Resolutions
01/03/2011
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Forbes - A Different Kind of Diet
01/02/2011
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Huffington Post - Four New Year's Resolutions to Fast Track Your Career
12/30/2010
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The New York Times - Weak-Kneed Willpower Faces Temptation’s Lure
12/30/2010
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Money Crashers - Would You Put Money on the Line to Achieve Your Goals?
12/13/2010
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U.S. News and World Report - How to Make Sure Your 2011 Resolutions Stick
12/08/2010
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Business Week - Why People Want Less Choice
11/16/2010
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London Evening Standard - Bets are on if you want to show commitment
10/25/2010
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The Globe and Mail - StickK.com aims to help you stick to your financial goals
10/05/2010
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The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - Carrots and Sticks has landed
09/22/2010
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Forbes - Make a Commitment
08/12/2010
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Good Housekeeping - Betting on Weight Loss
06/29/2010
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CBS News - The Whys and Why-Nows of Procrastination
02/21/2010
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The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - Commitment Contracts for Business
01/26/2010
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Small Business Trends - Staples Makes Goal Setting Easy for Small Businesses in 2010
01/17/2010
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Freakanomics - If at First You Don't Succeed
01/07/2010
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MediaPost - Staples Launches Small-Biz Incentive Plan
01/05/2010
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TIME Magazine - A New Weight Loss Plan: Getting Paid to Shed Pounds
01/04/2010
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Institute for Leadership - Making New Year's Resolutions stickK!
12/31/2009
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CNN - Putting A Price on Procrastination
12/30/2009
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FOX Business - Site Takes Money When You Break Resolutions
10/31/2009
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CBS News Online - Five Ways to Face Your Finances
10/30/2009
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TechCrunch - StickK Raises More Funding For Self-Commitment Service, Eyes B2B Play
09/30/2009
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The New York Times - Freshman Year's Seven Deadly Sins
07/22/2009
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ABC 6 Action News, Philadelphia, PA - Weight Loss Challenge
07/07/2009
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KABC 7 Los Angeles, CA - Web sites help keep your diet on track
05/26/2009
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BBC News - Bet dieting takes hold in the UK
05/23/2009
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The Takeaway - Saving Trillions in Health Care, One Patient at a Time: Give yourself a financial incentive to follow a healtheir lifestyle
05/20/2009
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The New Yorker - What Makes Orszag Run?
04/29/2009
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ABC 6 - Philadelphia - Wagering on weight loss
03/31/2009
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NBC KING5 - Seattle - Online betting could help you lose weight
03/30/2009
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The Independent - Nudge, nudge: Why we behave the way we do
03/22/2009
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The New York Times - Dieting? Put Your Money Where Your Fat Is
02/05/2009
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US News and World Report - How to Make New Year's Resolutions Stick
12/30/2008
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The Boston Globe - Marshmallow temptations, brain scans could yield vital lessons in self-control
10/22/2008
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The Wall Street Journal - Buy This: Save More, Spend Less
08/14/2008
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Berliner Zeitung - Geld oder Schokolade
07/23/2008
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New York Daily News - Why we spend money when we're trying to save
06/30/2008
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Yale Press - Nudge by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
04/10/2008
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Handelsblatt - Abnehmen – oder zahlen!
03/18/2008
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CNBC - StickK.com: Take a Contract Out On Yourself
03/11/2008
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NPR - Put Your Money Where Your Girth Is
03/06/2008
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CBS - Lose Weight Or Lose Money
03/05/2008
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The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - Could You Lose a Pound a Week to Save $500?
02/26/2008
- ... read more

Money Magazine - Fool yourself into saving smarter
02/25/2008
- ... read more

TechCrunch - stickK Allows You To Put A Contract On Yourself
02/15/2008
- ... read more

The Economist - Carrot and stickK
02/07/2008
- ... read more

Pittsburgh Post Gazette - Could cash be the key to losing weight?
02/03/2008
- ... read more

Los Angeles Times - Lose weight? Bet on it
01/27/2008
- ... read more

The New York Times Freakonomics Blog - StickK To Your Commitments
01/21/2008
- ... read more

LifeHacker - Wager Cash on Your Goals at StickK
01/17/2008
- ... read more

The New York Sun - How Yale Professors Lose Weight
11/23/2007
- ... read more

The Wall Street Journal Economics Blog - Can Economics Help Americans Lose Weight?
11/12/2007
- ... read more

The Washington Post - An Economy of Scales
11/10/2007
- ... read more

Hartford Business - Nutmeg Startups Aim At High-Tech Cures For Misbehavior
10/15/2007
- ... read more

stickK's Creators

Ian Ayres
Co-founder
Ian Ayres is a lawyer and an economist. He is the William K. Townsend Professor at Yale Law School and a Professor at Yale's School of Management. He has published nine books including, 'Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart' in 2007.

In 2006, Ian was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T. and a J.D. from Yale University.

Read Ian's personal weight loss story here.
Jordan Goldberg
Chairman, Co-founder
Jordan Goldberg is a co-founder of stickK. He graduated from Yale University in 2006 where he earned his BA in American Studies. Jordan is a recipient of Yale School of Management's Silver Anniversary Scholarship, a scholarship to the MBA program awarded to six undergraduate students each year.

Jordan currently serves as a consultant in applied behavioral economics, working with startups to fortune 500 companies in efforts to nudge customer and/or employee decisions towards desired outcomes, in both digital and retail experiences.
Dean Karlan
Co-founder
Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics and Finance at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Co-director of the Global Poverty Research Lab. Dean has done extensive academic research on Commitment Contracts for savings and for quitting smoking. He is also president of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), a non-profit he founded in 2002, that applies rigorous research techniques to develop solutions to real-world problems faced by the poor in developing countries.

Dean is a research fellow of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and co-director of the Financial Access Initiative, a consortium created with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  He has a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an MBA and MPP from the University of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Virginia.

Read Dean's personal weight loss story here.

The Team

Alexander Marcoux
Full-Stack Developer
Alex has been a long time web developer for stickK since 2011. Having a Bachelor of Computer Science he currently does PHP, HTML, JS and CSS programming mainly. He also likes to learn new emerging technologies like 3D printing and VR.
Jerry Brown
Full-Stack Developer
Jerry joined the stickK team in the spring of 2017 after troubleshooting for the Community Experience team at Meetup. After being stickK's Product Manager for 3 years, Jerry has transitioned into Web Development where he currently focuses on building stickK with JavaScript and PHP.

Jerry graduated from Grinnell College in 2014 with a degree in Economics. Out of the office, he enjoys playing ping pong and chess with his dog, Siggy.
Pablo Spínola Fresán
Applied Behavioral Economist - Product
Pablo joined the stickK Team in March 2018 after graduating from New York University with a dual degree in Economics and Politics. His interest in behavioral insights and his passion for research and development led him to stick(K) around with us.

Pablo is passionate about his home country Mexico, he loves to talk about the future (and its possibilities), occasionally enjoys discussing politics with his friends over beers, and loves to read anything related to philosophy, history or semantics.
Pierre-Luc Dube
Project Manager
Pier Luc joined the stickK team during summer 2014. His position at the company is managing the releases for the android and iOS platforms.

Pier Luc likes to work on various projects at the same time and has a particular interest with home automation to simplify daily tasks at home.
Vincent Leclerc
iOS Developer
Vincent has exclusively been developing on mobile since 2013. He started off by learning Android and he's now a specialized iOS engineer.

In his spare time, he loves to attend car related events and learn more on how these machines work.
Yassine Hadj Ali
Android Developer
Yassine joined the stickK team in March 2018. As an Engineer in Computer Science, he has been working on maintaining and improving the stickK Android application.

Yassine likes sports, especially basketball. During his spare time he loves to work on making and developing games.

Company History, Investment & Partnership Information

stickK.com, LLC was founded in August 2007 by Ian Ayres, Jordan Goldberg and Dean Karlan. In January 2008 www.stickK.com officially launched.

stickK is currently privately held. If you are interested in learning more about partnering with us, or have business development ideas, please feel free to contact us.
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