In Control with Natasha Vernier

Natasha Vernier
  • 5.0 (14)
  • BUSINESS

A weekly podcast where I get answers to the questions people are too afraid to ask. natashavernier.substack.com

  1. AI and Actually Good Customer Support

    2D AGO

    AI and Actually Good Customer Support

    Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Everyone already seems to know everything about AI and LLMs. I think I missed the part where the basic questions were asked and answered, and given AI will almost certainly be a core part of all our lives, that felt like a gap worth closing. Luckily, my good friend Dimitri Masin, CEO and Co-founder of Gradient Labs (which builds customer operation agents for financial services), knows all about it, and was willing to answer my “stupid” questions. So, I finally understand why the frontier LLMs cost so much to build, how the training actually happens, and how to build actually useful agents with them. 00:00 Understanding the basics of AI 10:29 Model context windows 13:33 Open sourced LLMs 18:26 Automating customer support with agents 26:43 Why brand matters more than ever, and how to measure AI performance 32:23 Agents for back office operations 36:38 Gradient Lab's Co founders This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    40 min
  2. Enabling Banks to Use AI

    APR 30

    Enabling Banks to Use AI

    In this episode I spoke to Kareem Saleh, the CEO of Fairplay, about how banks can use AI safely. Fairplay is a technology that tests, tunes and validates models for banks, and so he was the perfect person to ask about the risks - and mitigators - of generative AI within financial services.  Here’s what we talked about: - How banks have always used machine learning models, and what is different with generative AI - The risks that gen AI and agents bring to banks - Practical tips on how to mitigate those risks - How banks can evidence to the regulators that they are using AI safely - Why banks may end up having to have 2 systems - their AI native system, and a secondary non-AI system as a failsafe - What keeps Kareem up at night If you work in a bank or fintech, you should listen to this episode. 00:00 Introduction to AI in Banking 02:44 The Old World of Machine Learning in Banks 09:44 Risks Associated with Generative AI 16:32 Potential Consumer Harms and Institutional Risks 19:32 Managing AI Risks in Banking 25:28 Guarding Against Hallucinations and Runaway Behaviors in AI 31:35 Regulatory Compliance and Risk Appetite 34:46 Future of AI in Banking  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    40 min
  3. How to Measure Product Market Fit with Mark Roberge (Stage 2, HubSpot)

    APR 23

    How to Measure Product Market Fit with Mark Roberge (Stage 2, HubSpot)

    On this episode I spoke to Mark Roberge, one of the founders of Stage 2 Capital. He has a new book out, The Science of Scaling, which is a practical guide about how, and when, to scale revenue. It is hands down the most quantitative and useful book for early stage VC-backed businesses that I have read.  This episode is absolutely jam packed with great insights, such as: - How to ACTUALLY measure product market fit. It’s the most important, and least well defined, term in startups… until now. Turns out, it’s all about retention, and we get deep into how to actually measure it - What Board Decks and Meetings should look like for pre-seed and seed stage companies - What selling to banks (and other companies) with long sales cycles means for raising money from VCs - Why serial entrepreneurs are usually the ones that chase capital-intensive new businesses (like SpaceX) - How to optimize pricing and contract term length at the earliest stages of a startups life - How AI is changing sales - Whether market timing actually matters - What, other than scaling too early or too late, can kill a startup If you are building an early stage startup I really encourage you to listen to the whole thing. Chapter list: 00:00 Introduction to Scaling and Revenue Generation 02:33 Early Stage Board Meetings 08:40 Leading Indicators of Retention with Long Bank Sales Cycles 17:28 What Bank Sales Cycles Mean for Raising VC Money 21:47 VC Discipline and Investment Strategies During Bubbles 26:49 How to Optimize Pricing and Term Length at the Early Stages 31:41 Does Timing Matter for Startups? 36:24 The Other Sciences of Scaling 37:35 The Impact of AI on Scaling Revenue 48:49 Societal Impacts of AI This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    51 min
  4. Cable acquired by Synctera! with Peter Hazlehurst

    APR 16

    Cable acquired by Synctera! with Peter Hazlehurst

    Today’s conversation is with Peter Hazlehurst, the CEO and co founder of Synctera, the company that just acquired my company, Cable.  Peter has a fascinating story, having grown up in Australia and teaching himself to code as part of his “gap year” job working for the government, before traveling to Silicon Valley and landing a job building a core banking system. Many tech jobs later, including stints at Google and Uber, he is now building Synctera, which could in many ways could also be described as a core banking system.  One of the themes of our conversation were the lessons that we can teach our children, and we covered: - How an interaction with the conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when he was 14 years old gave Peter a life philosophy that has stuck with him since- How being lazy can unlock near-endless opportunities- Peter’s core belief that if you build something, you have a responsibility to make sure that, as far as possible, people can’t do bad stuff with it- How the secret to making B2B businesses successful is the relationships built over many years- Lessons on managing teams learnt from Google- The similarities of the dot come bubble and today’s AI hype cycle- How startup life influences parenting styles Listen along to hear more from Peter, and for a chance to reflect on your own early life lessons. I hope you enjoy the conversation!  00:00 Introduction and Acquisition Announcement 00:31 Peter's Childhood and the Influence of Music on his Life 11:30 First Job and Teaching Himself to Code 18:06 Moving to the US and Jumping on the Startup Train 21:29 How Startup Life Influences Parenting 24:43 Leadership Lessons from Google 26:33 The Through-line of Payments, the Origins of Synctera and the Importance of Building Relationships 38:10 Acquiring Cable This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    44 min
  5. Is Embedded the Future of Banking? with Renata Caine

    APR 9

    Is Embedded the Future of Banking? with Renata Caine

    In this episode I sat down with Renata Caine, who leads Embedded Finance for Green Dot.  How does Starbucks offer it's reward card? How does Amazon provide a credit card? All these "embedded finance" programs have banks behind them who help the brands onboard customers, provide oversight, and act as the buffer between the brands and the regulators.  I went into this conversation thinking that standing up an embedded finance program was mostly about choosing 1 great partner and making sensible decisions around compliance. Now I know how wrong I was!  A bank getting into BaaS is a bit like a contractor building a house. They may do everything - the plumbing, the electrics, the painting - or they may outsource all those things to others. Deciding what skills you have as a bank, and therefore what you can offer, what you can build internally, and what you need to contract, is step 1.  We got into detail about the pros and cons of For the Benefit Of (FBO) v Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) account types. An FBO account is a single pooled account at the bank on behalf of a brand or a fintech, whilst a UBO structure means every end consumer (or business) is an actual customer of the bank. There are distinct pros and cons to both set ups, and again, the bank should work out where its skills lie to decide which route to take.  Making money is harder than it seems! You might make revenue from interchange, interest and/or program management fees, but the size of those buckets varies hugely depending on the type of brand or fintech you work with. Diversification is the key, and scale is needed to make any meaningful revenue. This isn’t an area you can “try out”. You either go hard, or go home.  For so many more great insights, listen in here.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    39 min
  6. Where Politics and Banking Collide with Peter Piatetsky

    APR 2

    Where Politics and Banking Collide with Peter Piatetsky

    Sanctions started in ancient Greece and now touch every bank and fintech on the planet, but most people in finance have never really examined how they work.  In this episode, I talked to Peter Piatetsky, former US Army intelligence analyst, former Treasury Department official, and now CEO of Castellum AI, about the history of sanctions, how they've evolved from a careful diplomatic tool into something governments reach for freely, and what that means for banks.  We covered the Turkish pastor case that changed how policymakers think about sanctions, how Peter personally figured out how to sanction aircraft at the Treasury, the existence of the UN Credit Union (one of the highest-risk financial institutions in the world), how people actually evade sanctions, and why the explosion of fintechs may be creating more sanctions risk than the sanctions themselves. If you work in finance, you can't afford to miss this one.  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    40 min
  7. The Hidden Revenue in Bank Data with Oban MacTavish

    MAR 26

    The Hidden Revenue in Bank Data with Oban MacTavish

    Spade has raised a $40m Series B, and I was lucky enough to sit down with Oban MacTavish, CEO and co-founder, to learn about how Spade makes merchant data usable, and to hear all about their fundraise.  The data your bank gets when you swipe your card is shockingly bad - a jumbled descriptor of ~50 characters, a merchant category code that might be wrong, and a "city" field that's sometimes just a phone number.  In this episode I learn about why payments data hasn't meaningfully changed in 30 years, how Spade built a body of merchant data covering 99.9% of payment-accepting businesses in the US and Canada, and what banks can actually do once their merchant data is good.  We also discuss Spade's freshly announced $40M Series B led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, what nearly 500% YoY growth breaks inside a company, and why Oban is saying no to obvious opportunities to stay focused. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    56 min
  8. Prediction Markets with Alex Johnson

    MAR 19

    Prediction Markets with Alex Johnson

    I am obsessed with prediction markets!  But maybe not for the same reasons as you.  I am obsessed with how quickly they have grown, how they seem to be on track to disrupt the gambling industry entirely in no short order, and how they seem to have evaded appropriate regulatory oversight. An alarming stat: we know that when a state legalizes online sports betting, bankruptcy rates increase by 25-30% over the next 3 to 4 years, and so to me, the fact we’ve found a way to avoid state gambling regulation is… worrying to say the least. Are we creating a whole generation of gamblers? Have we found a way to avoid gambling regulation? Is it simply another tool through which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? To understand more about prediction markets I begged Alex Johnson, founder of Fintech Takes, to chat to me. He’s the fountain of much knowledge, and like me, is pretty obsessed with what’s happening here. This episode is a cracker, and we covered so much, including: → What prediction markets are and how they work → The regulatory landscape they exist within, and that which they’ve managed to avoid → Where their volumes come from - what kind of predictions are being made? → Some pretty suspect behaviours linked to politics and predictions on these markets → How Robinhood and others are starting to present prediction markets as an investment opportunity This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit natashavernier.substack.com

    1h 4m
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5
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14 Ratings

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A weekly podcast where I get answers to the questions people are too afraid to ask. natashavernier.substack.com

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