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fixed income

digital lending digital transformation fixed income

·Nov. 5, 2021

Building a $15B+ embedded loan management platform, with LoanPro CEO Rhett Roberts

In this conversation, we chat with Rhett Roberts, the Co-Founder and CEO of LoanPro – a new breed of software company that is API-driven, cloud-native and easily scalable. Rhett and his co-founders created the company out of necessity when they ran an auto lending business as they could not find anything flexible enough to suit their own needs.

More specifically, we touch on all things around the lending industry, the auto lending industry and how everything there works, and of course, why LoanPro is such an awesome company, and so much more!

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acquisition big tech Crypto digital lending fixed income IPO / SPAC venture capital

·Aug. 9, 2021

Acquisition arbitrage between public and private fintech revenues, highlighted by Figure and Starling

In this analysis, we explore an overarching framework for the M&A activity in the fintech, big tech, and crypto ecosystems. We discuss acquihiring, horizontal and vertical consolidation, as well as the differences between growth and value oriented acquisition rationales. The core insight, however, is about the arbitrage between the fintech and financial services capital markets, as evidenced by the recent transactions for Starling and Figure.

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DAOs decentralized finance fixed income microeconomics

·May. 21, 2021

Rob Leshner of Compound on creating a multi-billion DeFi lending protocol, and innovation under constraint

In this conversation, we talk with Robert Leshner of The Compound Protocol about the early days of crypto and how a fascination with Ethereum smart contracts drove him to build one of the largest DeFi projects to date.

Additionally, we explore the nuances of lending and interest rates, consumer privacy software and data monetization, floating interest rate pools of capital across different token pairs, DAO evolution and its influence on mechanism design, the role Compound plays in chain interoperability, and the discovery of yield farming as a means for user incentivisation.

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Crypto decentralized finance digital lending enterprise blockchain entrepreneurship fixed income neobank roboadvisor

·Jul. 17, 2020

Figure, SoFi and the Disruption of Finance with Mike Cagney

Mike Cagney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Figure, a full stack financial services blockchain company with consumer offerings in market or on the way in lending, banking and more. In late-2019, Figure raised $103 million at a $1.2 billion valuation and continues to grow.

Prior to starting Figure, Mike co-founded and ran SoFi, one of the most successful consumer fintech companies ever.

In this conversation, we discuss Figure’s routes to asset origination and capital markets disruption, Figure’s previously unannounced consumer banking and payments offering, lessons learned building and scaling multiple billion dollar companies and more.

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artificial intelligence digital lending fixed income

·May. 15, 2020

Technology, Empathy and Finance in a Time of Crisis, with Ohad Samet of TrueAccord

In this episode, we connect with serial founder Ohad Samet, CEO of TrueAccord. Ohad has been working in fintech machine learning for a decade and a half, applying multi-dimensional mathematics to consumer finance. The result? A more empathetic approach to the traditionally gnarly problem of debt collection.

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asset management covid pandemic fixed income macroeconomics small business

·Mar. 23, 2020

Why $2 trillion is barely enough for the coming unemployment spike, expected 20%+ GDP slow-down, and small business crunch

Another heavy week. It is hard to find the right, or even the interesting, thing to say. I look at why the $2 trillion in US bailouts may not even be enough to stave off the economic damage. In particular, I am alarmed by the large and fast rise of unemployment claims (higher than 2008 peak), estimates that GDP may fall by 20-30%, and the broad impact on small business. Small businesses have 27 days of cash on hand, and power half of our economies through both employment and output. So how do we meet this challenge? What strength should we draw on in the moment of doubt to become the artists of tomorrow?

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covid pandemic decentralized finance exchanges / cap mkts fixed income macroeconomics philosophy

·Mar. 16, 2020

Slowing GDP growth by 1.5% is like another 10 million people getting infected with coronovirus, and other analysis on financial fragility

I hope that you and yours are OK, socially distanced and stocked on essentials. Whether you feel it yet or not in daily life, the world is bracing for coronovirus impact. In this week's analysis, I look at the difficult trade-offs between health and economy, and try to quantify the impact of the likely slow-down. We look at some grim but useful concepts, like (1) the value of a statistical life, (2) what happened to the Soviet economy and life expectancy after perestroika, and (3) how our financial machines (NYSE, Robinhood, Maker DAO) are cracking at the edges. If you can do one thing -- be kind and gracious with each other as some things inevitably break.

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covid pandemic exchanges / cap mkts fixed income macroeconomics narrative zeitgeist venture capital

·Mar. 2, 2020

How Coronovirus impacts Fintech, Financial Markets, and the global Economy

I look at how the news about the spread of the coronovirus are cracking the global economic machine. Some may argue that the number of people effected is still low -- but that misses the entire point. The shock of a global pandemic has revealed weakness in the financial machine, sending the stock markets falling 10% year-to-date. Gross domestic product growth is expected to slow by billions of dollars, governments and central banks are unable to implement policy to compensate with rates at historic lows and borrowing at historic highs, public market valuations will tumble arithmetically, and private Fintech companies will lose a path to exit. At least that's what the conspiracy theorists want you to think!

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asset management digital securities / STO fixed income p2p & crowdfunding

·Feb. 10, 2020

Can the $4 Trillion municipal bond market be a digital asset in your pocket?

I reflect on ConsenSys acquiring a broker/dealer focused on municipal bonds, and why we believe that blockchain-native platforms are a fantastic fit for this $4 trillion asset class. Can direct holding of franctional munis enable deeper community participation and usage of common resources? Are there new sources of liquidity to unlock? At the same time, there are real dangers. I compare the evolution of digital lenders and their funding sources against the current possibilities in municipal bond markets. We also look into the reasons that some innovative Fintechs have failed to achieve their stated missions, and what can be learned and done better.

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big tech China civilization and politics fixed income governance macroeconomics narrative zeitgeist philosophy Social / Community

·Sep. 23, 2019

Facebook’s Supreme Court is like Compliance in Banks, or Chinese Communist Party entities in joint ventures

I've seen a whole bunch of headlines this past week about how Facebook is launching its version of the "Supreme Court", as if that were an app feature. The oversight board is meant to police controversial content decisions, and have the power to overrule Zuck's judgment on political matters. Its charter is drafted as if Facebook's 3 billion users were citizens of an Internet nation. Add to this the insanity over WeWork's failing IPO plans, where the CEO has been personally named in the amended filing documents with clear checks on demonstrated abuses of power. We are drifting into a Twilight Zone episode where modern corporations act as if they were feudal states run by divine kings negotiating with their nobility over a Magna Carta. Which is actually sort of where we are.

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