Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Retuning the Math of Life
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Retuning the Math of Life
Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm your host, Alex Johnson, and today one of our favorite guests is back: Frank Rotman, founding partner of 37Maru and co-founder and partner emeritus at QED Investors.
First, we chat about what happens to an entire industry once its customers have concluded the game is rigged, which is why financial nihilism now shows up everywhere from ETFs built on sports bets to DeFi products costumed as savings accounts. Frank has a theory he calls p(win)=0; once someone concludes their probability of winning is zero, walking away from the game is rational.
From there, we separate the AI use cases ready for prime time from the ones that aren’t. Back office work like AML documentation and exception processing is ripe for automation. A bank chatbot delivering flawless, compliant financial advice is a different proposition. In financial services, 98% accuracy can still equal zero.
Finally, we close on student lending, an area where Frank has firsthand experience (having built a student lending company before QED), and firsthand ideas (having spent the better part of a year making the case for reform to the Department of Education and the IRS). His proposal for how the government could build a “truth file" on which degrees pay off is one of the more concrete policy ideas we discuss.
Expect a wide-ranging conversation. Frank has a gift for making financial nihilism, AI, and student loan policy sound like one continuous argument, and by the end, I’m convinced that it is.
---
This episode is brought to you by Ocrolus.
Every small business is different — but most lenders only see a snapshot. Ocrolus gives SMB lenders the cash flow analytics, borrower behavior and peer context to fund more, faster, with confidence.
Visit https://www.ocrolus.com/ for more.
---
Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/
And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.
---
Follow Frank:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-rotman/
X: https://x.com/fintechjunkie
Follow Alex:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FintechTakes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
View all episodes
By Alex Johnson
5
2020 ratings
Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I'm your host, Alex Johnson, and today one of our favorite guests is back: Frank Rotman, founding partner of 37Maru and co-founder and partner emeritus at QED Investors.
First, we chat about what happens to an entire industry once its customers have concluded the game is rigged, which is why financial nihilism now shows up everywhere from ETFs built on sports bets to DeFi products costumed as savings accounts. Frank has a theory he calls p(win)=0; once someone concludes their probability of winning is zero, walking away from the game is rational.
From there, we separate the AI use cases ready for prime time from the ones that aren’t. Back office work like AML documentation and exception processing is ripe for automation. A bank chatbot delivering flawless, compliant financial advice is a different proposition. In financial services, 98% accuracy can still equal zero.
Finally, we close on student lending, an area where Frank has firsthand experience (having built a student lending company before QED), and firsthand ideas (having spent the better part of a year making the case for reform to the Department of Education and the IRS). His proposal for how the government could build a “truth file" on which degrees pay off is one of the more concrete policy ideas we discuss.
Expect a wide-ranging conversation. Frank has a gift for making financial nihilism, AI, and student loan policy sound like one continuous argument, and by the end, I’m convinced that it is.
---
This episode is brought to you by Ocrolus.
Every small business is different — but most lenders only see a snapshot. Ocrolus gives SMB lenders the cash flow analytics, borrower behavior and peer context to fund more, faster, with confidence.
Visit https://www.ocrolus.com/ for more.
---
Sign up for Alex’s Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/
And for more exclusive insider content, don’t forget to check out my YouTube page.
---
Follow Frank:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frank-rotman/
X: https://x.com/fintechjunkie
Follow Alex:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FintechTakes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson
X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson
More shows like Fintech Takes
View all
The Investor's Podcast (We Study Billionaires) - The Investor’s Podcast Network
3,339 Listeners
Exchanges
970 Listeners
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
537 Listeners
Odd Lots
1,967 Listeners
The Knowledge Project
2,698 Listeners
The a16z Show
1,093 Listeners
The David Rubenstein Show
151 Listeners
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
10,182 Listeners
Dwarkesh Podcast
576 Listeners
Business Breakdowns
347 Listeners
In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
188 Listeners
Fintech Business Podcast
10 Listeners
No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
143 Listeners
The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
682 Listeners
BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley
491 Listeners