Block doubles down on teen focus with advisory council

• Key insights: Block is launching a teen advisory council that will help guide the company's product and services development. 
• What's at stake: The payments firm has been taking steps to attract younger customers to its platform, a strategy that CEO Jack Dorsey has said will promote long-term network growth. 
• Forward look: The Teen Advisory Council meets remotely once a month, and in person once a quarter. 

Block is taking another step to attract younger customers with a Teen Advisory Council, a group of approximately 20 teens that will help shape the company's product development. 

"For today's teens, technology isn't just a tool — it's seamlessly woven into their daily lives, and they're using it to reshape the future of money," said Owen Jennings, Block's business lead, in a statement. "By bringing their voices directly into our product development process, we're creating a real-time feedback loop that helps us innovate and support teens' needs faster." 

TAC members will provide Block with input on new product design, usability, safety and product strategy. 

The council follows a yearlong structured timeline, with monthly remote meetings and quarterly in-person events. Council members are offered monetary compensation, as well as direct access to Cash App designers and researchers. 

The first meeting will take place in New York City in the first quarter of 2026. 

Council members were selected from a pool of more than 2,000 applicants. Prospective teens were evaluated on influence within their communities, for example: holding leadership positions in school such as student body government, starting nonprofits or managing their own business, a CashApp spokesperson told American Banker. Selected applicants were also active Cash App users.

The move is the latest mile market in Block's quest to attract younger customers to its platform, a strategy that CEO Jack Dorsey has said will promote long-term growth on the network. 

"Block has been persistent and continually willing to iterate new approaches to getting a greater share of consumers payments and financial services," Eric Grover, principal at Intrepid Ventures, told American Banker. 

A focus on teens, especially teen cards, also has longevity, Aaron McPherson, principal at AFM Consulting, told American Banker. 

"It is valuable to have control over how your teen spends their money, and generates useful discussions around budgeting and impulse control," McPherson said. "A parent may have a Cash account just to get the teen features, since those aren't terribly common elsewhere." 

Outside of teens, attracting younger customers is key to broadening Cash App's product base, according to KeyBanc analysts. "Younger cohorts are more diversified in terms of income levels vs. historical cohorts," analysts wrote in a research note. 

Block last month also beefed up Cash App's products to help draw more consumers into a primary banking relationship with the company, including Cash App Green, a spend-based benefits program, payments that run on bitcoin's Lightning rail, forthcoming peer-to-peer stablecoin payments, teen savings accounts and MoneyBot, its chatbot. 

The company also made its near-real-time credit score, Cash App score, available for customers to see last month. Block has been critical of traditional credit scoring frameworks, saying they don't accurately reflect consumers credit health.