The Jump Off Point: Recent Episodes
Jump Capital
Imagine if you had unfettered access to the people, data patterns, and signals that drive venture investment decisions – as they’re happening. Powered by Jump Capital, The Jump Off Point takes a deep-dive into the trends shaping technology and venture capital investing with thoughtful and candid conversations from industry pioneers themselves. Take the leap, and learn from the people that helped chart the course that today’s most innovative companies are building on. Jump Capital is a thesis-led investment firm focused on a variety of verticals including IT & Data Infrastructure, B2B SaaS, Media, FinTech & Crypto.
Rarely, if ever, are we rational when it comes to money. Too often, financial solutions rely on users doing the right, rational thing versus optimizing for human behavior. Enter Kristen Berman, a Behavioral Scientist so well-versed in the irrational aspects that drive human behavior that she named her consultancy Irrational Labs. In this episode, we discuss how behavioral finance can be applied to personal finance, collaboration/family finance, and general financial philosophy to create more effective financial solutions that align with human behavior and decision-making - to make us do what we want to do but might not do so willingly.
Key Takeaways:
- [00:03 - 00:54] Introduction, meet Kristen Berman
- [00:54 - 03:08] The intersection of behavioral science and FinTech consumer engagement
- [03:08 - 05:05] The user experience, incentives, and how behavioral science can enable financial health and wellbeing
- [05:05 - 07:13] The spectrum of incentivizing behavior, helping people for the right reason vs the wrong reason(s)
- [07:13 - 10:24] The role of consumer inputs in determining incentives for their goals
- [10:26 - 12:17] A north star as your financial moral compass, orienting toward responsibility and the right reasons
- [12:17 - 16:02] A Noom-type approach to empower a financial user experience, the power of habits
- [16:04 - 18:15] A goal gradient, making goals achievable and encouraging success
- [18:14 - 20:27] How social networks and reinforcement impact people's financial habits
- [20:27 - 21:57] An increasing openness to financial transparency and building community
- [21:57 - 25:28] 50% of millennial couples don't share bank accounts, rethinking that context
- [22:42 - 23:49] Joint accounts and relationship quality, discussing values
- [25:28 - 28:17] The opportunity for a family financial account and app, the idea of millennials as the "sandwich" generation"
- [28:17 - 32:02] Timing and a first line of defense
- [32:02 - 34:18] How to change mindsets and habits, becoming financially aware
- [34:18 - 36:15] ESG and behavioral contagion, climate-friendly investment
- [36:15 - 38:32] Kristen's career and path to FinTech
Dive into the ins and outs of fintech compliance from a product angle. We discuss: how more effective fraud prevention starts with a better understanding of the user journey, the new attack vectors fintechs will face in the next 10 years, and much more with Adi Goel, Co-Founder of Sardine.
Key Takeaways:
- [00:02 - 00:55] Introduction
- [00:55 - 05:22] Adi's product leadership journey within the FinTech industry
- [05:27 - 08:12] How has compliance tooling changed the regulatory environment throughout the past decade?
- [08:12 - 16:00 How Adi thinks about winners and losers of the modern technology era
- [15:59 - 20:01] Visibility and the divide in managing compliance
- [19:59 - 24:02] Onboarding and monitoring continuous transactions for fraud: no one approach or vendor
- [24:02 - 27:10] Will merging infrastructures and data unlock new products, and how will affect the regulatory environment?
- [27:10 - 30:08] As use cases grow, compliance and onboarding evolve
- [30:07 - 35:15] The money movement from peer-to-peer and the issues of trust
- [35:20 - 39:02] Gathering disparate data sources cleanly into a system and deriving value
An old-school industry gets a new-school look. Financial planning as we know it is broken; we spoke with Shruti Joshi, COO of Facet Wealth, about the massive evolution taking place right now. If every decision is a financial decision, then are financial planners therapists with calculators? And how can we plan our lives and save for retirement when contentment and retirement look different to each person?
Join us as we explore what the future of financial planning is shaping up to look like.
Key Takeaways:
- [00:27 - 01:16] Intro to the episode
- [01:50 - 03:51] The shifts in how different generations retire
- [04:37 - 06:55] The need to redefine financial planning terminology
- [07:41 - 09:35] The marriage between human and technology is the true answer to reach financial goals
- [13:08 - 15:54] Connecting the dots between who really needs the service and who has access to the service
- [16:28 - 19:00] Has the mass increase of literacy options in the financial planning world been helpful or hurtful?
- [19:45 - 22:45] The amplification of shame in the financial world
- [23:17 - 26:24] Envisioning a world where finance is fundamentally collaborative - Is that what people want?
- [27:41 - 30:04] Conversation to better understand financial values and goals are necessary for budgeting apps to be beneficial
- [32:36 - 34:20] The current state of the economy in the U.S., it's impact on working people and whether financial planning can mitigate it
- [34:53 - 36:37] What technology are we still lacking? Where should it be headed?
In the latest episode of The Jump Off Point, successful investor, entrepreneur, and creator, Sahil Bloom, sits down with Jump Capital's Saaya Nath to explore the processes that can kickstart a creators’ career, including relentlessly and consistently producing high-quality content and building an engaged, active, loyal community across various channels.
This week on the Jump Off Point: Crypto edition, we’ll be welcoming Dave Olsen, President and Chief Investment Officer of Jump Trading Group, and Kanav Kariya, President of Jump Crypto, to discuss the events surrounding the Wormhole hack last week. Dave and Kanav will take you into the room when the hack was identified, walk through the thinking behind replacing 120,000 of stolen ETH, and explain why they believe Wormhole is essential infrastructure for the crypto ecosystem.
This week on the Jump Off Point: Host Jason Felger talks with Jump Capital Co-Founder Sach Chitnis and guest Porter Gale. Porter is an author, business builder, marketer and currently is on the Board of Directors for Reddit. In this episode, Porter helps us navigate the evolution of the FinTech industry, including the upcoming intergenerational wealth transfer, financial influencers and their effect on investing, and the significant change that's still to come to the industry.
This week on The Jump Off Point: Crypto Edition, host Peter Johnson talks with the president of FTX.US, Brett Harrison. FTX was started as a cryptocurrency exchange as an answer to the existing derivative exchanges in the world. We wanted to learn how FTX.US went from being a crypto exchange to the pioneer in attaining retail adoption, and Brett helps us explore what led to the broader vision. He shares the opportunities he sees in the crypto community with a discussion on securities, and also introduces us to FTX.US's NFT platform and shares what the future holds for the company. Listen now!
The DeFi Alliance was founded by Imran Khan in March of 2020 with a mission to help DeFi startups get connected with trading firms and eventually grow their network to one billion users by 2025. Imran joins our show to take us on The DeFi Alliance journey to share all we need to know, including what's in store for its future. He shares his background, how he got started in crypto, and what led him to bring the Chicago crypto community together to support startups. Eighteen months later, DeFi Alliance evolved its Accelerator Program to provide domain expertise to help startups build community. Listen now!
Las Vegas has gone digital! In a new episode of #TheJumpOffPoint, Todd Haushalter of Evolution joins Jason and Jump Capital VP Tarun Gupta to explore iGaming and the future of live, online casino services.
Jump Capital's Crypto Co-Lead Saurabh Sharma sits down to talk with Dylan Macalinao, Co-Founder of Saber. One of the earliest Dapps on Solana, Saber has quickly become the largest stablecoin swap in the ecosystem. After reaching $4bn TVL at their peak in record time and an active community behind it, we're excited about what lies ahead for the company. Tune in for a riveting conversation with this multi-talented founder.
Introducing a new series within our primary podcast, designed specifically for the crypto believers, intriguers, and even the skeptics. This series will be hosted by Jump Capital's crypto co-leads, Saurabh Sharma and Peter Johnson.
The content in this podcast is not investment advice.
The world of eCommerce has changed, and Jessica Schinazi is here to help us dig into the future of it. Jessica is the SVP of business development and transformation for Dyson, who previously led the charge in getting luxury beauty brands to sell on Amazon. There is no denying how COVID was a digital accelerator for most brands. On this episode she shares how eCommerce brands have evolved and shared strategies behind maintaining customers in a world where the rules have changed quite a bit.
Our first episode on sports betting is here! The industry is rapidly changing. Accessibility to sports betting is expanding, resulting in different audience bases. Today, Jason is joined by Yelena Shkolnik and Jeff Gerttula. Yelena will take us through how the sports betting industry has changed, trends we see happening, and where the industry could go. Jeff discusses sports betting from a media viewpoint and shares engagement opportunities as sports betting grows and evolves. Listen now for insight into how the audience expansion in sports betting opens up the doors for content and betting engagement.
Many priorities in technology were shifted due to the pandemic, and automation is one of those that have become an accelerated category. This week, Naveen Zutshi joins Jason Felger and Saurabh Sharma to discuss just that. Naveen is the CIO at Palo Alto Networks with experience in software development, IT infrastructure, and a leader in technology organizations. Naveen shares what his current role as CIO looks like, as well as how that role as a whole has evolved. Tune in and hear Naveen discuss what technologies can help drive value, and the digital native imperative of companies transitioning to cloud first.
Scott Lux is the acting SVP of Customer Experience and Digital Commerce at Alice + Olivia as well as an Adjunct Professor of Digital Commerce and DTC at Columbia University, NY and FIT. He joins the show to lend his expertise in a discussion on the shifting demands of new consumers and its inevitable impact on brands and retailers.
Host Jason Felger and his colleague, Yelena Shkolnik — Partner at Jump Capital — lead the discussion on current trends towards a customer-centric approach to marketing and the factors that have propelled this shift, challenges facing the retail sectors in striking an apt balance between online presence and brick and mortar establishments, as well as the key role Journey Mapping plays in identifying how to maximize brand interactions with customers.
Finally, tune in to hear expert thoughts on the live streaming market that accounts for 9% of commerce in China (translating to a whopping 70B potential State-side) and the current North-American barriers to it, from adoption to fragmentation.
As more and more financial institutions move into crypto, will traditional banking and trading infrastructure be able to manage these growing inflows? Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of Alameda Research and FTX, joins Dave Olsen, President of Jump Trading, and Jump Capital’s FinTech and Crypto-focused Partner Peter Johnson to discuss the driving forces of bitcoin and crypto’s broader institutionalization. Talking with Host Jason Felger, our guests explore the growth of digital currencies through the lens of Bitcoin and others to understand how the industry is adapting to this new reality and the various opportunities being presented by the broader foundational gaps across the crypto landscape. Our guests also preview the Pyth Network, an innovative new partnership to bring Hifi data to DeFi and broaden transparency across these growing markets.
Bill Harris, former CEO of PayPal and serial FinTech entrepreneur, and Peter Johnson, Jump Capital’s FinTech Partner, join the podcast today as Jason Felger helms a discussion that spans a variety of topics. From the expected 70 trillion dollar generational transfer of wealth and ensuing changes in the financial markets industry to Bill Harris’ opinion that cryptocurrencies may be a scam…. as well as his opinion on which alternative asset classes you should include in your portfolio and which you should keep for your closet - this discussion doesn’t disappoint. Tune in to hear all this as well as the advice Bill Harris shares for entrepreneurs looking to navigate startups in FinTech.
The Jump Off Point is a podcast that takes a behind-the-scenes look at the evolving technology and venture capital ecosystem. Join Jump Capital’s Jason Felger, as he leads candid conversations with investors, founders, and luminaries on the trends shaping technology and the unique investment opportunities they present.