Yesterday was V-Sum_Eight, which was great. One of the demos was from Alloy. Their product makes it much easier for banks, FinTechs, and others, to validate an end user's identity. This has a special place in my heart because I've experienced the brain damage of solving the problem first hand in a far less elegant… Continue reading The Speed Of FinTech
Category: written-words
Diverse Children’s Books
A close friend of mine has spent years looking for and cataloging diverse children's books. When she shared the list I was overwhelmed by it. I asked her permission to share it here because it's the best list I've seen to date on the topic. Hopefully some of you find as much in this list… Continue reading Diverse Children’s Books
CBDC & Currency Bandwidth
CBDC is a fascinating topic. Central Bank Digital Currency is simply digital money but at times this feels perplexing. Perplexing because money is mostly already digital and there are plenty of things to consider when creating a CBDC. When money is printed it's because a computer said it was available to print and another computer… Continue reading CBDC & Currency Bandwidth
The Value Layer
The phrase the value layer of the internet is peppered throughout my work. When I say, the value layer of the internet, what I'm speaking to is the immensely complex series of systems that support value exchange across the internet. I've come to think about this as being comprised of access, value types, transfer types,… Continue reading The Value Layer
Solving T+2 Settlement
In a meeting last week we were talking about T+2 challenges. Certainly Robinhood has brought these back to light. Companies these days are commonly raising capital left and right just to fund payments. The thing is, T+2 is going away right before our very eyes and pre-funding requirements are now being solved through various mechanisms.… Continue reading Solving T+2 Settlement
The Printed Word
My desk(s) are always surrounded by paper. One of my discoveries as an adult is that I don't absorb written words on a screen well at all. This has spawned an enormous amount of printing things. A few years ago I finally bought a decent black and white printer for our home. Our trusty Brother… Continue reading The Printed Word
Day Zero
This might as well be a private journal entry and it's certainly an internal narrative found biking in -0º weather and walking alone in the woods during 2 very cold weeks in Iowa. Sometimes time alone just gives you space to think and other times the inspiration from others is just what you need. What… Continue reading Day Zero
World Class API Product Demos
V-Sum_Two wrapped up recently and it was a treat just like the first. Something that really struck me with this series of the technical briefings was the quality of the demos. The three companies that presented were Paxos, Drive Wealth, and Phixius. Drive Wealth and Paxos are both a bit further along in their product… Continue reading World Class API Product Demos
Back @ Work. Appreciating Power of Platform.
After ~4 months on sabbatical I returned to work at Dwolla this week. I wasn't sure how I would feel but I'm happy to be pleasantly sitting here Saturday morning reflecting with a smile on my face. This week was really nice. I'm aware that my perspective has shifted after some time to think. I… Continue reading Back @ Work. Appreciating Power of Platform.
Structuring Founding Team Equity
Founding is hard and the equity topic can range from awkward to really stressful. It's surprising how many founding teams breeze through this discussion but not all do and emotions don't make it any easier. Regardless of the emotions I always come back to similar thoughts... Everything is ideally split evenly with an intellectual desire… Continue reading Structuring Founding Team Equity