Founder & CEO, PoolUp
Mercedes Robinson is the Founder and CEO of PoolUp, a social savings platform reimagining how people build wealth together.
Born and raised in Inkster, Michigan, just outside Detroit, Mercedes grew up understanding how access and proximity to opportunity shape outcomes. That perspective has guided her work ever since.
She began her career in diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2010, and later moved into education in New York City public schools, where she worked as both a teacher and administrator. Across these roles, she focused on how systems shape access and opportunity, bringing together her background in DEI with direct work with students and families. Over time, she saw how gaps in technology access and economic mobility showed up in real ways, especially during the pandemic.
Instead of working around those gaps, she built something to address them. She founded TEquity in Action, a nonprofit that teaches coding, AI, and web design to students of color. The program has served over 400 students across Newark, New Jersey and Medellín, Colombia, and was designed from the start to run sustainably with minimal funding.
Today, the program continues through partnerships with organizations like NJIT’s Real World Connections, reflecting a model built to operate beyond her direct involvement.
She is now building PoolUp, a fintech platform that turns group chats into structured saving systems. By combining behavioral design, social accountability, and cultural money habits, PoolUp helps people save for trips, emergencies, and major life moments in a way that actually sticks.
Mercedes holds degrees from Grand Valley State University, The City College of New York, and Teachers College, Columbia University.
Her work focuses on building systems that expand access and create real, practical pathways to economic mobility.