Banking 1

The Three-Body Problem: Finding the New Stable Points in Venture Capital

William Edwards Deming once famously said, “It is not necessary to change. Survival isn’t mandatory.”‍These words are profound, humbling and important to internalize. Societies change. Economies change. Beliefs change. Industries change. Everything changes.‍But there’s nothing that forces any individual participant in an ecosystem to change except the desire to survive and thrive.‍The Three-Body Problem (downloadable below and to be presented at LendIt […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

fintech 0

Music’s Gutenberg Moment

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything” – Plato Can you imagine your life without music?  Very few people can.  The truth is that music has played prominent roles in every known society throughout history. Musical preferences have varied from culture to culture, era to era and person […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 1

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time.  Such a simple opening phrase.  It’s a phrase that’s been used a countless number of times to introduce a countless number of stories that we all know and love.  It transports the reader into a comfortably familiar (but not too-familiar) world that’s governed by a simple set of rules that define “good” and “bad” with crystal […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 0

The Power of Twitter

I like Twitter.  Unapologetically.  Until I started using it regularly I didn’t appreciate the power of the platform and how it’s a true universal equalizer.  Anyone can search for interesting people to follow and interesting conversations to join.  The platform is designed to allow interaction with no material barriers to speak of.  A college student with no real-world experience who’s […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 5

To Trade Or Not To Trade? How Is The Question!

Ask just about any Venture Capitalist what they think about a company and I bet you’ll get a very confident answer in return.  Companies are “good” or “bad” to most VCs and fall into one of these two categories based on a variety of metrics like how quickly they’re growing, how much funding they’ve been able to attract, what the […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 3

Alpha (fundraising) and Omega (exits)

I find myself apologizing once again for being so delinquent in my posts and it feels like what I imagine good Catholics go through in the Confessional Booth (which is funny because I’m Jewish).  “Forgive me Twitter for I have been busy.  It’s been four months since my last post…” With that off my back, I did want to share […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 0

Buying a Cash Making Machine

What if I told you that I had a business that built machines that were designed to miraculously transform sums of money into greater sums of money? You put money in one end and more money comes out the other end. Amazing! Being the business person that you are, of course you ask to see the machines and want to […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 1

Solving Challenging Problems

Like most children who were growing up in the early 1980s (I’m dating myself fiercely), one of my life’s goals was to be able to solve the Rubik’s Cube. Sure, I could have easily bought a book that mapped out the various solution methods (a book was required since YouTube wasn’t around then!), but I wasn’t that type of kid. […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 0

How to Make Bad Decisions And Not Get Fired

I have to admit that I was surprised by the reception to my last post. It was shared and discussed literally 10X more than my typical posts. It spread through the core Banking ecosystem as well as the startup community and was being used by Executives, Entrepreneurs and Investors as a framework to discuss a critical and age-old topic —- […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 6

But We Have A Relationship….

As difficult as it’s been, I’ve tried to beg borrow and steal time from my schedule about once a year to pull together a thought piece on something I find interesting that’s happening in the Fintech ecosystem. The first was a pretty long piece on the history and evolution of the Personal Loans space (The Hourglass Effect). The second was […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 0

The Importance of Defining a Good Day

One of the most common questions that people get asked regularly from friends, family and co-workers is: “How was your day?” The question is about as basic as a question can be but because it requires context to answer our typical response is rarely “good” or “bad”. Instead, the question becomes code for “tell me about your day” and usually […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 62

Ramblings About VC Investing – Part 3

If you were to spend enough time with me you’d very quickly realize that I’m a bit of a broken record when it comes to giving advice. I’ve found that some of the concepts that I’ve been able to crystallize into simple phrases over the years seem to apply very broadly in the business world. I’ve shared most of these […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 2

LendIt – Thoughts from a Redeye

Rabbit holes and parentheticals can be quite annoying and I know I’m guilty of one here.  Part III of my “Ramblings About VC Investing” will be coming out next week but I thought it would be worth sharing a few observations about the LendIt Conference given it just ended and is fresh in everyone’s mind. To be very clear, I’m […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 0

Ramblings About VC Investing – Part 2

Every Investor eventually finds his or her sweet spot in terms of sector, stage and traction and typically does best by sticking to a personal strategy and process for investing. For instance, I’m an early stage Fintech Investor and love backing companies that still have a lot to figure out. It’s where I can be differentially helpful to companies and […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 1

Ramblings About VC Investing – Part 1

Time is a very precious commodity so I do my best to be as succinct and clear as possible everywhere I can.  But, occasionally time=time and there’s no way around it so if you want to hear a solid hour of my perspectives about a variety of fintech topics, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Christian Rolon for […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on

Banking 3

Chip and a Chair

Believe it or not, one of the most profound pieces of advice that I’ve given over the years when someone I know and like is facing adversity is to “go ahead and quit”. Taken out of context, this might sound like a horrible piece of advice, but I truly believe that presenting the option of quitting is almost always better […]

By fintechjunkie Posted on