Views from the Crow’s Nest

In this episode of the Monday Mess Haul, we brought in both FischerJordan partners for a speculative discussion on some current hot-button issues, including: 

• Is the idea of financial services as an enforcement arm of political willpower a new/growing trend or just an emergency use case? 
• Given the potentially devastating impact of sanctions on a nation's economy, should sanctions themselves be considered an act of war and not just a "war-time measure?"
• Are five-day work weeks out and...seven-day work weeks in?
• What are the implications of healthcare successfully implementing blockchain technology at scale? 

The Mess Haul features a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants than our more interview-focused style. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, facilitating shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives. Each episode of The Mess Haul is recorded, edited, and released in the same day. 

Today's guests: Neet Shah, Boaz Salik 

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FischerJordan is a New York-based consulting, thought-leadership, and outsourcing firm helping business leaders exchange complexity for clarity. We use rigorous data analytics, specialized staffing, and custom technology solutions to deliver workable strategies for clients in financial services and healthcare.  

Background articles for this episode: 

• New York Announces New Financial Services Enforcement of Sanctions Against Russia
• NY Gov. Hochul says COVID likely killed off traditional work schedule
• Healthcare blockchain leader talks challenges and trends in DLT

In this episode of the Monday Mess Haul (MMH), FischerJordan team members get into sports and cars (just not sports cars). Some of our questions for each other: 

• Does NBCUniversal's promotional partnership with TikTok for the Winter Olympics indicate a broader trend for sports viewership, or was this a more concentrated attempt to boost lagging viewership for the Olympics? 
• Why might the Olympics have struggled recently to acquire and retain viewers?
• Is there a large enough market for "electrifying" luxury cars that companies like Lunaz might see more competition? 
• Is pushback for crypto from entities like the Financial Stability Board just par for the course with anything that threatens the status quo?

The Mess Haul features a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants than our more interview-focused style. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, facilitating shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives. Each episode of The Mess Haul is recorded, edited, and released in the same day. 

Today's guests: Kshitish Nanda, Boaz Salik 

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FischerJordan is a New York-based consulting, thought-leadership, and outsourcing firm helping business leaders exchange complexity for clarity. We use rigorous data analytics, specialized staffing, and custom technology solutions to deliver workable strategies for clients in financial services and healthcare.  

Background articles for this episode: 

• Morning Brew - "Can TikTok Save the Olympics?"
• Forbes - "Electrifying Classic Cars is a Surging Business - with a Two Year Wait List"
• CNN - "How cryptocurrencies could trigger a financial crisis"

In this episode of The Monday Mess Haul, we want to know what's going on. Specifically, we want to know: 

• Does zero-party data provide any new insights that can't be derived from existing data categories like first-, second-, or third-party data?
• Should we consider it a subdivision of first-party data, or will it eventually become synonymous with first-party?
• How could zero-party data factor into scenarios like credit decisioning? 
• Is the hype about the Metaverse coming from any real-world demand, or is it an act of self-justification by tech monopolies?
• If the COVID-19 pandemic made us live more online, do we think people only choose "life online" as an escape from bleak real-world conditions?

The Mess Haul features a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants than our more interview-focused style. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, facilitating shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives. Each episode of The Mess Haul is recorded, edited, and released in the same day. 

Today's guests: Jivraj Karwa, Boaz Salik 

Background articles for this episode: 

• Morning Brew - "Is Zero-Party Data a Real Thing?"
• WIRED - "Big Tech Needs to Stop Trying to Make Their Metaverse Happen"
• FischerJordan (via ABF Journal) - "Weighing the Pros and Cons of Web Presence Data in Credit Decisioning"

We're back with our first full-length episode of 2022 in this forward-looking conversation with entrepreneur Trevor Barran. Trevor is a FischerJordan co-founder and is currently one of four partners at CloudTree Ventures, which is focused on technologies driving interactive entertainment and the metaverse.

We get into both some broad trends and specific applications of the immersive entertainment space – which includes things like augmented and virtual reality, but you’ll quickly learn that there are things happening in this domain that go far beyond just entertainment or gaming. Some of the topics we cover: 

• What we mean by "immersive/interactive entertainment” and why it's relevant today
• Why Facebook's pivot to Meta actually isn't that surprising

• Companies that are already making interesting moves with AR/VR technologies

• What kind of infrastructure will need to be built to fully realize this technology's potential 
• Whether an immersive future will still be controlled by the tech giants we know today or if a new set of competitors/leaders might emerge
• The surprisingly simple constraint that stands in the way of a "Ready Player One"-style future

Find out more about CloudTree Ventures at https://cloudtree.vc/

This podcast is an in-house production of FischerJordan, a specialized consulting firm in New York with emphases in strategy, analytics, and technology. Find out more about our approach to delivering client value, career opportunities, and our work within our communities at fischerjordan.com. 

NOTES - Key Terms and Further Reading

Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC): “A special purpose acquisition company, also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional initial public offering process. Wikipedia”

OMO – Online Merged with Offline

Matthew Ball

xR = Extended Reality. From WorldStage: “Extended Reality (xR) is a next-generation process for film, broadcast and live event production. ... Mixed Reality (MR) combines camera tracking and real-time rendering to create an immersive virtual environment, visible live on set and shot directly in camera.”

What are haptics?

In this episode of The Mess Haul, we unpack three current topics from other publications, grappling with questions like: 

• What do the FED's efforts to tamp down consumer price inflation mean for 2022?
• What happens when a crypto crowdfund called a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) goes head-to-head with "legacy" investors in an auction for a first-edition printing of the U.S. Constitution?
• As more than just white-collar jobs come to depend on internet access, what are some ways to address the problem of connectivity inequity?

The Mess Haul features a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants than our more interview-focused style. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, facilitating shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives. Each episode of The Mess Haul is recorded, edited, and released in the same day. 

Today's guests: Anoushka Khanna, Boaz Salik 

Articles referenced in this episode: 

• Yahoo News - "What DAOs are And What They Might Buy Next"
• WIRED - "Smartphones Are a New Tax on the Poor"
• FischerJordan - "Making Sense (and Some Predictions) of Inflation" 
• FischerJordan - "Don't Panic About Blockchain (But Do Pay Attention)" 

In this episode of The Mess Haul, we get into a discussion about three recent news stories: 

• What implications does Jack Dorsey's departure from Twitter hold for the platform's future?
• Despite being a first-of-its-kind move, is the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) recent pushback on Meta's ownership of GIPHY a mostly symbolic attempt at "regulation?" 
• What does the FTC's blocking of Nvidia's acquisition of chip-designer Arm mean for Arm and companies like it?

The Mess Haul features a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants than our more interview-focused style. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, facilitating shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives.

In this episode we catch up with FischerJordan senior analyst Austin LaRoche about his research into the current state of food insecurity in the U.S. - post-COVID especially - and what FischerJordan is doing about it. Some of the things we cover in this special episode:

• Ins-and-outs of various operations in the U.S. to combat food insecurity
• How to ensure the largest amount of your donations are going directly to people in need when giving to non-profit organizations
• Resources for ensuring transparency in non-profit donations

We wrap up with an inside look at a new initiative at FischerJordan to try to address the problem of food insecurity in the communities where we operate - and how food banks and pantries can help out.

Some key resources referenced during this episode: 

• GuideStar

• Charity Navigator

• Charity Watch

• GiveWell

• FischerJordan FAIR (Food Availability Improvement Resource)

Naren Nayak is a 20-year veteran of Capital Markets and Securitization and current treasurer at Credibly, a leading small business fintech lender. In this episode of Views from the Crow's Nest, we sat down with him and senior FischerJordan manager Sachin Goel for a dialogue about the evolution of the alternative lending space in the time preceding, during, and eventually following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Some of what we covered: 

• The difference between alternative and traditional lenders
• What makes an alternative lender more attractive to small businesses for securing financing 
• How the COVID pandemic impacted the alternative commercial lending space and how things might look going forward 
• How investor attitudes toward alt-lenders may have shifted post-COVID
• Potential impacts of cryptocurrency on the alt lending space in the future 

Welcome to the crow's nest! 

In this second installment of The Mess Haul (or Mess Hall), FischerJordan team members Archita Bhandari and Jivraj Karwa and partner Boaz Salik chat about whether we're headed for another anti-trust cycle, this time for Big Tech. We then shift to some speculation about programmed bias in AI/ML and whether there has ever been a successful social or governmental attempt to limit a technology's advancement. 

The Mess Haul is a departure from our usual interview-style format, instead featuring a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, facilitating shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives.

This episode introduces The Mess Haul (or Mess Hall), a slight departure from our usual interview-style format instead featuring a more free-form conversational approach with multiple participants. This format is designed to generate quick takes on a handful of recent topics, an opportunity for shorter, more opinionated discussion with a number of different perspectives.

Today's guests are FischerJordan team members Shreya Jain and Austin LaRoche and partner Boaz Salik in a fireside chat riffing on the implications of the GME stock rally and Wall Street Bets saga in early 2021, followed by some speculations on the next stage of Bitcoin mass adoption.