These 12 sketches make complicated financial concepts simple enough to fit on a napkin

In 2002, enrolled in a finance class while pursuing her MBA from Harvard Business School, she realized that her classmates who came from the world of banking and consulting were acing the coursework without a problem, while she struggled to master the concepts foreign to her liberal arts background.

So, she started to draw.

"I think more visually," Hay told Business Insider. "I've always put numbers into illustrations and understood them that way, especially finances and money."

Hay didn't stop sketching, and today, her business school drawings have turned into something bigger: Napkin Finance, a multimedia company that aims to introduce people to complicated financial concepts through videos, text, and of course ... napkins.

We're not talking bar napkins with a few pen strokes on the back, but rather digital illustrations that go through months of development between former bankers, financial advisers, and an illustrator to nail the perfect visual intro to nuanced concepts such as compound interest, student loans, and credit scores. The Napkin Finance team has even collaborated with Michelle Obama's Better Make Room initiative to create a course on navigating the financial side of college admissions.

Below, CEO Hay shared 12 of the most popular and beloved napkins her team has produced: