Podcasts about 18b

In this episode of The Jess Larsen Show on Innovation & Leadership, Jess sits down with Seth Streeter, Co-Founder of Mission Wealth, for a conversation about building an $18B wealth management firm, redefining what true wealth means, and helping successful leaders design a more fulfilling next chapter. Seth shares how he and his co-founder started with zero assets under management and built Mission Wealth around independence, objectivity, comprehensive financial planning, and a proactive service model. Instead of simply managing investments, Seth explains how the firm focused on understanding the whole client, including their business, family, taxes, estate planning, real estate, lifestyle, and long-term goals. Jess and Seth also dig into the growth journey from $1B to $18B, including the power of partnerships, referral channels, customer experience, company culture, and learning how to get out of your own way as a founder. Seth explains why saying no can be more important than saying yes, how service businesses can scale without losing their human touch, and why taking care of your team becomes a competitive advantage. The conversation then turns to Seth's deeper mission: helping high-achieving CEOs, founders, and leaders find purpose beyond financial success. After his own personal journey through burnout, divorce, the financial crisis, and a search for deeper meaning, Seth began helping others explore what comes after achievement, from relationships and adventure to creativity, service, and legacy. This episode is a thoughtful look at wealth, leadership, service, purpose, and what it really means to build a life that feels successful from the inside out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andy Schwartz CEO, OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners  |  Kevin Spahn Founder, Spahn Financial (now OnePoint BFG) Two former Northwestern Mutual advisors, two very different paths. Andy Schwartz and Kevin Spahn share what it takes to build, grow, merge, and create lasting enterprise value. In Summary What separates a successful advisory practice from an enterprise with the ability to grow well beyond its founders? Andy Schwartz and Kevin Spahn offer two different perspectives on that question. Both spent decades at Northwestern Mutual, but their paths eventually diverged. Andy left to help build what is now OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, an $18B+ firm expected to surpass $20B by year-end. Kevin built one of Northwestern Mutual's top practices before deciding to merge his business into OnePoint and become an equity partner. Louis talks with Andy and Kevin about the decisions behind both journeys: creating a true firm rather than an aggregation of practices, transitioning advisors from 1099 to W-2, using outside capital without relinquishing control, rethinking succession, and determining when equity in a larger enterprise can offer greater opportunity than continuing to build alone. Underlying it all is a factor that's much harder to quantify: trust. The Storyline Andy Schwartz and Kevin Spahn have known each other for roughly 30 years. They met while both were building careers at Northwestern Mutual, where Andy became an important mentor to Kevin as Kevin transitioned from practicing law and estate planning into wealth management. After roughly 30 years at Northwestern Mutual, Andy and his partners left in 2015 with approximately $3B in assets to launch independently. What began as Bleakley Financial eventually became OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, an $18B+ enterprise that Andy expects will surpass $20B by the end of 2026. That kind of growth required more than attracting assets. Andy describes the evolution from a predominantly 1099 structure into a firm where more than 85% of advisors and AUM are now W-2. The shift created a more cohesive enterprise, gave advisors access to equity, and ultimately positioned OnePoint to bring in minority capital from Joe Duran's Rise Growth Partners. Andy makes an important distinction about that relationship: OnePoint is “private equity invested,” not “private equity owned.” The structure gave the firm capital and expertise while allowing its partners to retain control. Kevin faced a different decision. After more than 30 years at Northwestern Mutual, his practice had grown to 18 people and approximately $2B in assets. He was happy at the firm, but his clients had evolved, his business had become increasingly complex, and the internal succession plan he once envisioned carried risks he could no longer ignore. He could have built an independent firm himself. Instead, he chose to merge with OnePoint. The decision wasn't driven by the largest possible check. Kevin saw the opportunity to become an equity partner in a larger enterprise, give his team and clients a more durable future, and leverage infrastructure he didn't want to recreate himself. For both men, the story ultimately comes back to the same principle: The right economics matter, but sustainable partnerships require trust, shared philosophy, and the belief that everyone involved can create more value together than separately. Topics Covered Building an enterprise versus building a practice Northwestern Mutual and the path to independence OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners' growth from ~$3B to $18B+ Organic growth versus M&A Creating a growth-oriented advisor culture Moving from a 1099 model to a predominantly W-2 structure Equity ownership and advisor alignment Minority private equity investment Rise Growth Partners and Joe Duran Internal succession versus an external merger Selling versus merging an advisory business Merging versus teaming versus going it alone Evaluating equity versus cash in a transaction The economics of leaving a captive firm Centralization versus advisor autonomy Trust as a factor in partnerships and transactions > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors How did Andy and Kevin's 30-year relationship ultimately lead to a transaction? (04:11)Kevin explains how Andy helped him transition from attorney and estate planner into wealth management, beginning a professional relationship that would eventually make their partnership possible decades later. Why did Andy leave Northwestern Mutual after roughly 30 years? (08:45)Andy describes wanting greater flexibility, a multi-custodial platform, and more optionality for clients and the business—a decision that ultimately led to the creation of OnePoint BFG. Why did Kevin decide his longtime Northwestern Mutual practice needed something different? (15:49)Kevin explains how his clients, service needs, and business evolved over time, while concerns about his original internal succession plan led him to consider a different path. What has driven OnePoint's growth from approximately $3B to $18B+? (21:41)Andy outlines the firm's emphasis on client experience, advisor experience, organic growth, and carefully selected inorganic growth—and why helping advisors grow is fundamental to the model. Why does Andy say OnePoint is a firm rather than an aggregator? (23:54)The distinction comes down to alignment, shared responsibility, centralized resources, equity, and a partnership structure in which advisors are accountable to one another. How did OnePoint convert a predominantly 1099 advisor base into a W-2 enterprise? (29:26)Andy explains why capital and equity became necessary to build the next stage of the business and why trust was essential to bringing advisors into a more integrated structure. Why did OnePoint choose minority private equity investment? (33:13)Andy shares why Rise Growth Partners offered something previous potential buyers had not: a structure designed to benefit the broader advisor partnership while preserving control. Why did Kevin merge with OnePoint rather than shop his practice broadly? (36:43)For Kevin, maximizing price wasn't the objective. His decision centered on trust in Andy, confidence in OnePoint's infrastructure, and creating a strong future for clients and employees. Why did Kevin choose equity in the larger firm instead of simply cashing out? (40:57)Kevin explains why he believes participating in the future growth of a larger enterprise offers a compelling alternative to relying solely on the future growth of his own practice. How should advisors evaluate the “golden handcuffs” that can make leaving difficult? (46:42)Andy argues that the analysis needs to compare what an advisor gives up with the potential growth, economics, equity, and leverage available on the other side. How much conformity does a true enterprise require? (49:06)Andy explains why OnePoint sits somewhere between complete advisor autonomy and complete centralization, seeking enough consistency to create enterprise value without eliminating entrepreneurial flexibility. What would Andy and Kevin tell their younger selves? (52:06)Kevin emphasizes surrounding yourself with the best people possible, while Andy reflects on having the courage to make a difficult change after a successful 30-year run. Key Takeaways Building enterprise value requires more than asset growth. OnePoint's evolution included changing its ownership structure, integrating advisor practices, creating equity opportunities, and investing in centralized capabilities. Organic growth remains central even in an M&A-driven market. OnePoint targets approximately 10% organic growth and evaluates prospective partners partly on whether they are growth-oriented and whether the firm can meaningfully help them grow. A collection of successful advisors does not automatically make a firm. Andy sees shared ownership, alignment, accountability, infrastructure, and centralized services as critical distinctions between an enterprise and an aggregator. Outside capital does not have to mean giving up control. OnePoint chose a minority investment from Rise Growth Partners that provided capital and strategic support while leaving control with its operating partners. Succession can expose risks that growth may obscure. Kevin began reconsidering his internal succession strategy when he recognized its dependence on his continued production, key employees, and the future economics of an aging client base. The highest purchase price isn't always the most valuable transaction. Kevin prioritized equity participation, infrastructure, continuity for his employees and clients, and confidence in his future partners over broadly shopping his business for the highest bid. Trust can determine whether structural change is possible. From OnePoint's 1099-to-W-2 conversion to Kevin's decision to merge, both guests repeatedly point to established trust as the foundation that allowed significant business decisions to happen. https://youtu.be/jkIoynpZj6Y Quotable Moments “The biggest mistake advisors make is they buy their own bullshit.”— Andy Schwartz “We're not an aggregator, we're a firm.”— Andy Schwartz “The biggest issue is trust. Either they trust you or they don't.”— Andy Schwartz “I wasn't looking to sell my business. I was looking to merge it.”— Kevin Spahn “You have to trust them. You have to see that they provide value. And you need to be on the same page philosophically.”— Kevin Spahn “Associate yourselves with the best people you can… It accelerates your trajectory in ways that you can't do on your own.”— Kevin Spahn FAQs Why did Andy Schwartz leave Northwestern Mutual? After approximately 30 years at Northwestern Mutual, Andy and his partners wanted greater flexibility, the ability to operate on a multi-custodial basis, and more optionality for clients and the business. They left in 2015 with approximately $3B in assets and launched the independent firm that ultimately became OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners. How large is OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners? At the time of the interview, Andy says OnePoint manages more than $18B and expects to exceed $20B by the end of 2026, even without additional organic growth. What has driven OnePoint's growth? Andy points to three priorities: client experience, advisor experience, and growth. The firm targets approximately 10% organic growth while also expanding through acquisitions and partnerships with advisors it believes fit the OnePoint model. Why did OnePoint move advisors from 1099 to W-2? The firm wanted to evolve from a platform supporting individual practices into a more integrated enterprise. That required creating firm-level economics and equity that could be used to attract, retain, and align advisors. Today, Andy says more than 85% of OnePoint's advisors and AUM are W-2. What does “private equity invested, not private equity owned” mean? Rise Growth Partners holds a minority, non-controlling interest in OnePoint. The investment provides capital, expertise, and strategic support while the operating partners retain majority ownership and control of the business. Why did Kevin Spahn leave Northwestern Mutual? Kevin says he remained happy at Northwestern Mutual, but his practice and clients had evolved. His work had shifted increasingly toward investments and complex high-net-worth planning, while he also began identifying risks in his intended internal succession plan. Why did Kevin merge with OnePoint rather than launch his own independent RIA? OnePoint already had the infrastructure, people, and capabilities Kevin would have needed to build himself. The merger allowed him to focus on clients while becoming an equity partner in a larger enterprise he believed could grow faster than his standalone practice. Why didn't Kevin shop his practice to multiple buyers? Kevin says his decision was driven primarily by trust. He had known Andy and other OnePoint partners for decades and believed the firm offered the right future for his clients and employees. His choice ultimately came down to staying at Northwestern Mutual or joining OnePoint. How do Andy and Kevin suggest advisors evaluate a potential partner? Their discussion points to three fundamental considerations: trust, demonstrable value, and philosophical alignment. Economics matter, but both argue that a sustainable partnership depends on confidence in the people and business on the other side of the transaction. After approximately 30 years at Northwestern Mutual, Andy and his partners wanted greater flexibility, the ability to operate on a multi-custodial basis, and more optionality for clients and the business. They left in 2015 with approximately $3B in assets and launched the independent firm that ultimately became OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners. At the time of the interview, Andy says OnePoint manages more than $18B and expects to exceed $20B by the end of 2026, even without additional organic growth. Andy points to three priorities: client experience, advisor experience, and growth. The firm targets approximately 10% organic growth while also expanding through acquisitions and partnerships with advisors it believes fit the OnePoint model. The firm wanted to evolve from a platform supporting individual practices into a more integrated enterprise. That required creating firm-level economics and equity that could be used to attract, retain, and align advisors. Today, Andy says more than 85% of OnePoint's advisors and AUM are W-2. Rise Growth Partners holds a minority, non-controlling interest in OnePoint. The investment provides capital, expertise, and strategic support while the operating partners retain majority ownership and control of the business. Kevin says he remained happy at Northwestern Mutual, but his practice and clients had evolved. His work had shifted increasingly toward investments and complex high-net-worth planning, while he also began identifying risks in his intended internal succession plan. OnePoint already had the infrastructure, people, and capabilities Kevin would have needed to build himself. The merger allowed him to focus on clients while becoming an equity partner in a larger enterprise he believed could grow faster than his standalone practice. Kevin says his decision was driven primarily by trust. He had known Andy and other OnePoint partners for decades and believed the firm offered the right future for his clients and employees. His choice ultimately came down to staying at Northwestern Mutual or joining OnePoint. Their discussion points to three fundamental considerations: trust, demonstrable value, and philosophical alignment. Economics matter, but both argue that a sustainable partnership depends on confidence in the people and business on the other side of the transaction. Related Resources Rise and Reinvent: Joe Duran on Building and Rebuilding World-Class Firms From Insurance Sales to $8B RIA: A Northwestern Mutual Breakaway Story The 4th Annual Advisor Transition Report Andy SchwartzCo-Founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Executive Officer Andy Schwartz is the Co-Founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Executive Officer of OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, where he also serves as a Wealth Management Advisor. A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® with more than 40 years of experience, Andy has built his career around helping clients make confident, well-informed financial decisions at every stage of life. He works extensively with physicians and business owners on wealth building, retirement planning, and tax-efficient asset transfer across generations. A 2026 finalist for Wealth Management Awards CEO of the Year (under $25B AUM), Andy brings the same discipline to leading the firm that he brings to client relationships: comprehensive planning, long-term thinking, and an unwavering commitment to independence and integrity. Beyond his client work, Andy is deeply invested in the advisory profession itself. He co-hosts The Advisor’s Compass podcast, offering candid, practical guidance on the business and responsibilities of being an advisor. His mentorship philosophy is straightforward: pass the ladder back down. His industry recognition spans more than a decade, including Top 1,200 Advisor by Barron’s (2018–2024), Top 250 Wealth Advisor and Best-In-State Wealth Advisor by Forbes (2018–2024), Top 400 Financial Advisor by the Financial Times (2018–2020), and Top 100 Independent Advisor (2020–2023). He was named Executive of the Year by NJBIZ in 2019 and was a finalist for the Invest in Others Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 20 years of service with NJ SEEDS. Andy holds a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from Rowan University and is actively involved with Nourish NJ, the Navy SEAL Foundation, the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, and JSDD. Outside the office, he enjoys golf, reading, and time with his family at the beach.   Kevin SpahnPartner and Wealth Advisor Kevin Spahn is a Partner and Wealth Advisor at OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, bringing more than three decades of experience in comprehensive financial planning to his clients and the firm. Kevin’s path to wealth management is rooted in the law. After earning degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin, he began his career as a practicing attorney before making a deliberate pivot toward financial planning in 1993. He joined Northwestern Mutual, then founded Spahn Financial, building a practice centered on thoughtful, holistic planning for families and business owners. That practice joined OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners in 2025. His approach has remained consistent throughout: help clients build and protect wealth not just for themselves, but for the generations that follow. Kevin works with clients on comprehensive financial plans that account for the full picture, understanding that the impact of good planning extends well beyond an individual portfolio to families, businesses, employees, and the broader community. Kevin is based in the greater Chicago area.   NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… Build, Grow & Transact: Making the Leap from Northwestern Mutual to a $20B Enterprise A conversation between Louis Diamond, Andy Schwartz, CEO of OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners and Kevin Spahn, Founder of Spahn Financial (now OnePoint BFG). Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is Build, Grow & Transact: Making the Leap from Northwestern Mutual to a $20B Enterprise. It’s a conversation with Andy Schwartz, CEO of OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, and Kevin Spahn, founder of Spahn Financial, now OnePoint BFG. I’m Louis Diamond, and this is The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. Each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education-driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions, and more, inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: There’s a big difference between building a successful practice and building an enterprise. I think Andy Schwartz and Kevin Spahn offer a unique perspective on that distinction from two very different sides. Both spent decades in the Northwestern Mutual system. Andy ultimately left to build what became OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners, taking the firm from roughly three billion to nearly 20 billion and transforming just about every aspect of the business along the way. Kevin built one of Northwestern Mutual’s top practices before reaching a different inflection point, deciding what he wanted the next phase of his career and business to look like. Rather than go independent on his own or simply monetize what he had built, he chose to become part of Andy’s growing enterprise. That makes their story particularly relevant for our Build, Grow, and Transact series. Andy can speak to what it takes to build a firm capable of becoming an acquirer, from converting advisors from 1099s to W-2s, to creating equity opportunities, to bringing in outside capital while remaining very deliberate about being private equity-invested rather than private equity-owned. And Kevin brings the seller’s perspective, how you evaluate the economics, the trade-offs, and ultimately the people you’re trusting with the business you spent more than 30 years building. Because whether you’re building, buying, or considering a transaction of any kind, the numbers are only part of the equation. As you hear from both Andy and Kevin, trust may be the most important currency of all. So let’s get to it. Andy and Kevin, thank you so much for both joining us today. Andy Schwartz: Great to see you again, Lewis. Thank you for having us. Louis Diamond: I’ve been excited about this interview for a bunch of reasons. One, our Build, Grow, Transact series has become a real staple of our show and we got lots to talk about there. But also, the friendship, the relationship that you two have had for over 30 years really stood out to me. So before we get into the nuts and bolts, talk about your relationship. How’d you guys meet, and how did your career stay so intertwined together when you’re in different geographies and at different firms, and have each been very successful in your own rights? Andy Schwartz: Sure. Kevin, do you want to start with that? Kevin Spahn: Sure. I started in this career in 1994 and met Andy sometime after that. He was a more advanced financial planner. I was an attorney, and then I transitioned into this business. So when I first joined Northwestern Mutual, which is my first broker dealer, I didn’t really have a background in investments. At the time, a lot of Northwestern Mutual reps were learning the investment business because they maybe originally started with Northwestern Mutual focusing more on insurance planning. My background was more estate planning. At the time, if you think early ’90s, if you did estate planning, insurance often went hand in hand with that. The estate exemption in early 1990s was about $600,000. So if you pass more than $600,000 to your children, there was a 55% tax. One way around it was to put insurance in an irrevocable trust, help cover the tax that way. So it really was a popular common strategy back then, and it’s really what got me into the business. But I quickly realized that I didn’t want my future to be insurance and estate planning. And there was a conflict if you acted as someone’s attorney and sold insurance. So I had to pick one way or the other. I decided long-term it would be better for me to move into the wealth management space. But with that little background in that, I had a lot of work to do. So took a lot of tests, became a certified financial planner. But the person that helped me the most along the way was Andy. We became friends, we sat on committees together. That’s really how we met, I would say. So we worked side by side interacting with our home office and representing the field, bringing issues to the home office that we thought were beneficial to the field. As we did that together, I got to know Andy. And then separately, I learned from him how he built his business and how they would review clients’ portfolios and come up with solutions. So I really credit Andy with helping me more than anyone else to transition from attorney, financial planner doing more estate planning insurance to wealth management. Louis Diamond: Very cool. Hey, I would say, maybe I’m a little biased, that, Kevin, you picked the right path in hanging up the law shingle and coming into wealth management. Kevin Spahn: I tell a lot of people I’m a reformed attorney. Andy Schwartz: Great. Louis Diamond: Exactly. My dad would say the exact same thing. Very common at dinner tables in the Diamond households. Andy Schwartz: I was always grateful that I wasn’t smart enough to be an attorney. Louis Diamond: There we go. Andy Schwartz: That’s where my gratitude lies. Yeah. Louis Diamond: There we go. Andy Schwartz: Some would say he’s too smart. Louis Diamond: There we go. Andy, question for you. I mean, anyone who is at or was at Northwestern Mutual, I mean, you’re like Elvis to them. It’s absolutely crazy the amount of fanfare and brand recognition that you and your brother Scott have. But for those who maybe missed your first podcast appearance with us a number of years ago, or aren’t or weren’t within the Northwestern Mutual system, or haven’t been familiar with Bleakley and now OnePoint BFG, just give us the cliff notes, the origin story, how you got into the business, and how’d you get from here to there? Andy Schwartz: Yeah. So the origin is probably pretty common, probably by accident. Going into my senior year in college, I was working in a restaurant, had a falling out with my boss. I happened to be dating a woman who was living with a general agent with Fidelity Union Life. No one will have ever heard of Fidelity Union Life, but their secret sauce was they sold life insurance to college seniors on a note. So if you can get a $10 money order, because where I went to school, nobody had a checking account, then you could basically get a note signed and they would buy insurance. And then when they graduate, hopefully they’d pay for it. I started selling life insurance my senior year in college. And then my twin brother Scott, who is my partner, and has been for over 40 years, he took an interview with what was the nucleus of our present firm actually. I just went up to Northern New Jersey in May of 1984 because I was an expert. I had been selling life insurance to college kids for six months, so I knew everything you had to know. We met with these guys, and we both ended up joining them. So that was a Northwestern Mutual district agency, and that was 1984. We got licensed right away. I got my CFP in ’86. We always knew that it was going to be about planning. So I think we had the right idea. We were a little ahead of the curve because there weren’t a lot of CFPs in ’86. We got securities license immediately. So before Northwestern had securities license, we got securities license with US Life actually. And then it was really a volume business, a client-building business. We always tried to act as a firm and share resources. We were small, but like a lot of people, we started out selling A shares and B shares and C shares, doing financial planning, selling insurance, and then we made a lot of really good hires along the way. And then after 30 years at Northwestern Mutual, which was a great experience for me, and I have nothing but respect for the institution and certainly the advisors that are there, Kevin certainly was one of them, and I know he feels the same way, but we just wanted to have a little more flexibility. We went independent about 11, almost 12 years ago. We wanted to be able to be multi-custodial. We wanted to have a little bit more optionality for our clients and for ourselves. We left Northwestern at three billion or so in assets, and that was in 2015. It’s in March of 2024, I get introduced to this guy with a crazy accent named Joe Duran. Funny, probably the only person in the industry that had no idea who Joe Duran was me. I’d never heard of Joe Duran. I don’t pay attention. I worry about our firm. I don’t worry about what’s going on outside. So I get introduced to Joe by a mutual friend, and we had an interesting conversation, and it took us probably about four or five months to figure out what we wanted to do. And then in August of ’24, myself and my three partners, we rolled in. And then in ’85, the rest of the firm rolled in. And we can talk a little bit more about that. Today we’re 18-plus billion, growing quite a bit. We’ve been very lucky that we’ve made some very good decisions along the way. We’ve made some bad ones too. But most of the decisions had to do with the people that we hired, the people that we brought on to help us, because I think it’s really important. I always say that the biggest mistake advisors make is they buy their own bullshit, and I try not to, and I realize that I’m smart enough, but I’m certainly not the smartest guy. I’m rarely the smartest guy in the room. So what we try to do is hire lots and lots of really smart people. And we’ve done that. They’ve been loyal to us, we’ve been loyal to them. Yeah, so we’re blessed to have a really great team and lots of good partners. Yeah. Louis Diamond: Yeah, we’ll definitely get into more of the nuts and bolts of the decision to take on capital, partner with Joe Duran’s Rise, but that’s an amazing background. Andy, I have to give you credit because your style, and I think I’m sure there’s business benefits, but it comes from a good place, I’m sure. But the coaching and consulting and just assistance that I’ve heard you provide to so many past and current Northwestern Mutual advisors through sports camps is absolutely incredible. It’s very near and dear to my heart because we always try to lead with education and helping people. So I just wanted to call that out, that your reputation for just providing amazing guidance and coaching to advisors is unparalleled. Andy Schwartz: And it’s been the best part of our journey. We’ve been able to help so many people. We get way too much credit by the way. So everybody gives us way too much credit. But the way I look at it is, I’ve been able to leverage my life because I’ve been able to build a great life for myself and my family, but we’ve been able to leverage that, and that’s where the real gift is. So yeah, it’s been a joyful journey for us. Louis Diamond: Amazing. Kevin, question for you. You walked through your little bit unorthodox background to get into Northwestern. Can you talk about where your personal practice is today? And then I want to ask you about the decision to leave Northwestern and sell and team up with Andy and team. Kevin Spahn: Well, I have to go back to the beginning. What was attractive to me about this business is I went from a career which was confrontational adversarial. I was a trial attorney for six years, and every day I would fight with people over things I didn’t necessarily have a personal interest in and I didn’t really believe in always. But the adversarial confrontational nature wasn’t really my personality, and I would take it too personally. So sometimes I’d go home in a bad mood because I was fighting with somebody taking a deposition. At night, after so many years as a trial attorney, I started going to people’s houses and doing wills and trusts. And that’s where the dynamic of working with a client or a potential client, feeling that you helped them and walking out of the meeting where they would appreciate what you did for them, and you build a relationship and actually all of a sudden have a friend, that dynamic was attractive to me. That’s really what got me to transition into the business. So I think it was really helpful to me at the beginning of this career. As Andy said, we all grew our businesses one client at a time. There’s a lot of doors closed, phones hung up on. There’s many people that don’t want to talk to you. There’s many people that don’t call you back. There’s many people that you think you’re getting somewhere with and you don’t. And that’s difficult for people because people often, young reps take that as personal rejection. I had the benefit of comparing what I was dealing with as a young financial planner to what I had dealt with as an attorney in litigation. I think it just was perspective that I knew I didn’t want to do that anymore. So the negatives to this business didn’t seem that bad to me. I loved the independence. I loved all the relationships that I was building. And that part of it is to this day my favorite part of the business. When you ask about the present, what basically happens is you start out taking anybody and everybody as a potential client or as someone that you would be willing to work with. And then over time you work with more successful people. So where I’m at today is working with pretty successful people, but they’re all the same, meaning we like working with nice people. If people are nice, we work with them. I feel we can help anybody. Over the years, one client at a time. The thing that I probably, if I could go back, would change is I think Andy and I are both good at meeting people and building trust and providing value, so that’s why they work with us. So I think that’s just something we’ve both been able to do. He’s much better than I am at building an organization. So I built an organization basically hiring people, that whenever we got too busy, I hired another person. Drawback in terms of that is, anybody that I interview I think is great, and I think they’d be great to join the organization. I like them all. In spite of that, I’ve also brought in many good people that I love. At this point, my firm has 18 people. We’re a little subset of Andy’s larger firm. I think one of the most attractive things to me about joining Andy’s firm is what Andy mentioned before: the people. As opposed to me having to build this all out myself, going independent, Andy already did that. And he has the infrastructure that would allow me to just merge right into that and not have to go through the pain of figuring all that out, which I don’t even think I’m capable of, to be honest with you. Louis Diamond: You’re probably selling yourself short because the way I understood it, you had one of the top practices within the entire Northwestern Mutual systems, and it’s a firm filled with very successful advisors. For you, Kevin, what was the driving force to leaving NM after all these years? What was bothering you or frustrating you that indicated to you that it was time to do something different? Kevin Spahn: To be honest with you, I was pretty happy at Northwestern Mutual. I love the company and the people. I still have many good friends there that I truly miss. The big thing for me, I don’t know if it was any one thing, to be honest with you, is Andy said there’s optionality, especially on the investment side. I think one of the things that happened to me is, when I first started, I was 31 years old, and most of the potential clients that I would meet and work with, they weren’t what I would call today great investment clients. They didn’t have a lot of money. They had great futures. They might’ve been earning significant income or on the way to earning significant income. So what did they need at that point in their life? They needed planning. They needed protection. They didn’t really need investment management because most of their investments were going into their 401(k). But a lot of those clients that we would take on, and I think that’s the big advantage of Northwestern Mutual, you take on clients that a lot of the investor firms don’t want because they don’t have large investment portfolios. But at some point down the road, all of a sudden you wake up and they do have large investment portfolios. So you bring them in as clients that might buy life insurance from you or disability insurance or something like that. And then you help them, and you give them advice, and you build a relationship with them. Down the road, they make more and more money. They leave jobs, they roll 401(k)s, they have the ability to invest money, stock options, things like that. Next thing you’re doing more comprehensive planning that incorporates investments. As that progresses even further, you work with larger and larger clients, much more significant net worth, more complexity, bigger tax issues. Some of the strategies and opportunities that we now have at this independent RIA are very attractive for these high-net-worth clients. Along the same lines, less of what I do at this point in my career is insurance, mostly because a lot of the people that I meet are older, they already bought insurance, they’re looking more for investment advice as opposed to insurance. So one of the things that most attracted me to Northwest Mutual was their strong insurance products, which helped me for many years. As time went on, I was doing less of that. Louis Diamond: Makes complete sense. So it was a changing of what clients wanted and just the circumstances of your clients where you said, “What got me here when I was 31 was insurance planning, and that’s what my clients needed. But as my practice has evolved, I’ve aged, my clients are older, have more money, the focus shifted from insurance to investments.” And then the distinction was, am I at the best place to run investments in addition to insurance planning, et cetera? It’s a very interesting dynamic. Just the shift in basically your legacy clients was what drove you to consider change. Kevin Spahn: That was a big factor. I think the second big factor was I had my own firm with 18 people. My succession plan was that at some point I would shift ownership of the firm to people that worked with me. So as they owned more of the firm, they would have revenue that was currently at the time being paid to me. In my mind, as it shifted to them, they would buy me out using revenue from the clients that we already had. And I realized that there were some issues with that. In our business, as you get older, in your client’s age, they start taking money out of their portfolios. So everyone understands that in our business, the younger average age client you have makes your book more valuable. I was the biggest driver of new business at my firm, and I started to see that there were some problems with my succession plan. They included, if something happened to me during this succession, that would be a real problem for the people that were buying my business from me if I went that way. If something happened to some of my key people, that would’ve been a problem as well. So it was really attractive to me to… I wasn’t looking to sell my business, I was looking to merge it. So I merged it with Andy’s business. I believe that Andy and what he’s put together and the actual idea of having partners. So I never really had partners, but now I do. Having partners that we’re all on the same page, we all have similar backgrounds, we all bring something different to the table, and we can learn and benefit from working with each other. But also, owning a little piece of a much larger firm was, number one, it put me in a better position in terms of the potential risk of something happening to me or one of my key people. But secondly, I just think it’s more likely to grow at a greater pace than my firm would’ve as I aged from my 60s to my 70s. Louis Diamond: Very interesting. It’s a great realization. I think it’s one that probably every firm owner grapples with at some point, is the romanticism or the ease, some would say, of an internal succession plan. Rewarding those who have helped you build the firm is something I think everyone is interested in. But once that’s put into practice, whether it’s because of capital or sky-high valuations or right people on the bus or risk, et cetera, nowadays oftentimes leads to a firm owner looking at a transaction, whether it’s a merger, a sale, a private equity, capital infusion as a means to solve for succession. So it’s a very interesting way you framed it. Andy, I want to turn it over to you for a little bit. So you mentioned when you launched Bleakley Financial, which was the old name of your firm, out of Northwestern, you’re about three billion. I think I read that you’re about 10 billion or so when Joe Duran and Rise invested you in 2024. You just said you’re at 18 billion now in the middle of 2026. That is absolutely incredible and amazing. Andy Schwartz: We’ll be well over 20 by the end of the year without any additional organic growth. Louis Diamond: That’s absolutely incredible. Andy Schwartz: We’ve got a lot going on right now. Louis Diamond: What’s actually driven that? What’s been the playbook? Andy Schwartz: The three areas that are most important for us, and we had our town hall this morning, and we always talk about the things we focus on as a group, the first and most important is the client experience. I always say to people, if you are their advisor, then that means someone else isn’t. These people, they all deserve to be really well taken care of. They deserve the best service, they deserve the best advice. So that’s something we take really personally. So client experience first. Then we also understand that we don’t just work for clients, we work for our advisors. So I have two jobs. I have, I don’t know, 500 clients I service with my team, and I work for Kevin and 36 other partners and all of our employees. Because again, I recognize that the decision Kevin made… We’re in the middle of a transition out with another advisor, and we pretty much talk to her every day, and I know how hard this is. A transition is so difficult. When you come from a good place, because any of the Northwestern advisor who joins, they’re coming from a good place, it’s not like they have to go anywhere, it’s difficult. So we have the massive responsibility that three or four or five or 10 years from now, that there better be hugs around that this was the best decision ever made or otherwise. That’s the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. So we’ve got to take care of our client experience, we’ve got to take care of our advisor experience. And then obviously, we’ve got to grow the firm so the firm grows organically. So part of this whole idea of serving our advisors is we have to help our advisors grow. I talk to a lot of people on the acquisition side, and if I’m talking to an advisor, it doesn’t matter how big they are, we kind of think of it as a OnePoint way. There’s flexibility in the OnePoint way. But if I can’t help them grow, I don’t want them, because I say it all the time, I’m not the mafia. I’m not here to get a taste. Louis, if you weren’t interested in joining us, if I thought that we could help you grow by doing that, then I want you bad. If I don’t think I can help you grow because we’re so different, or because you’re not going to adapt what we do, or there’s no leverage in it, or you’re already better than we are, I don’t want it. So for us, organic growth, number one, and I think you know the industries well enough, that’s got to be the key. We shoot for 10% organic growth. We’re at a little over 5% so far halfway through the year. So assuming we have the similar second half of the year, we’ll hit our 10. Last year we’re at 7.5%. The second is the inorganic growth. If you truly build a platform, if you truly build a firm that advisors know that they’ll be supported, that they’ll be loved, and you’ll help them grow their businesses, it does make it easier for us. We’re not the highest bidder typically. We can’t. We respect our client’s capital, we respect their equity, so therefore we’re not going to go out there. We’re not an aggregator, we’re a firm. But I think that if we can get that message across, and I think we have, then advisors join us. So that’s been a big part of the growth. And then the market’s helped. Obviously, over the last two years, the market’s been helpful. So that’s how we’ve gone from 10 to 18 and on our way to 22 by year-end. Louis Diamond: This is absolutely incredible. Any advisor or firm owner would say organic growth is important, but just saying it’s important doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. So what are the ways in which you help your advisors or your own practice grow organically? What is it that OnePoint is doing for your advisors? Andy Schwartz: Starting with bringing on growth-oriented advisors. I mean, look, Kevin Spahn and I come from the same place. We learned how to sell. The great thing about coming out of whether they’re broker dealers or out of the different insurance BDs is, these are people that know how to sell. These are people that don’t think that selling is a bad word. A lot of times you go to the wirehouses and they’re not necessarily sales guys. They’re really smart. They think that they’re investment mavens and investment geniuses. I’m not interested in investment geniuses. I’m interested in people that want to take care of their clients, provide everything they can, clients first, do the proper planning, be good advisors, but they’re growth-oriented. So as long as we’re talking with the right advisors. Again, if I’m talking to advisor and they might have a big practice, if they’re not growers, we’re not interested. There’s a sense of responsibility for all the partners because we are a true partnership. It’s not an aggregation. This is a firm. I’m responsible for Kevin. Kevin’s responsible to me. All of our partners are responsible to each other, because if we’re going to do a 10% organic growth target, and if some partner is negative 3%, we don’t put them through the spanking machine, but everybody is very aware of where everybody is and nobody wants to let their partners down. I think either you’re a growth-oriented advisor or you’re a zoo-fed bear. There’s another expression that I got from another Rise Growth Partner or Rise Growth firm. We all kind of communicate and talk to each other. And I was talking about zoo-fed bears, and he said, we call them house cats that think they fight. So they’re house cats, but they have no claws. But I think if you’re careful about who you bring on as partners, and if they are workers, growers, they understand that their job in life is to serve the people. We talk about referrals, we do lots of training to help on referrals. We work on organic growth strategies from the firm, but a lot of it comes from the advisors themselves. Louis Diamond: Makes sense. So it sounds like, to boil it down, it’s being really selective and having a really clear sense of who’s the right fit for your firm. Not that there’s not amazing advisors out there, but just because you’re an amazing advisor, doesn’t mean you’re the right fit to join OnePoint. Andy Schwartz: I think the one big distinction and difference is other than the fact that we are minority-owned with private equity. So we own our business. I mean, I’m the CEO of the firm. I also have the biggest book in the firm. At least for right now, I mean, Kevin was transitioning, so I’m sure next year he’ll be the leading advisor. But I lead the firm, because as far as I’m concerned, you have to lead by example. We are completely aligned. I know exactly what Kevin does every day because I do the same thing. I’m not some attorney or accountant or private equity boss that’s saying, “Oh, I’ve got an idea for growth. We’ll just raise our fees by 5%.” Brilliant. Yeah, we are completely aligned, all of us. I think that makes us a little bit unique, and it really helps us, I think, in our growth trajectory. Louis Diamond: I would agree. The challenge that a lot of advisors-turned-firm-owners or turned-enterprise-builders have is the tug of war between the client work, which either is their ultimate passion and driving force, or it’s something they’re really good at minimum, versus being the owner, the operator, et cetera. I resonate very much, Andy, with the way you handle it. I do the same thing running a company, but also working with advisors. To me, I need to do both in order to do my job well. But that tug of war is tough. So I’m curious, your firm is very large now, you’re a steward of external capital, and you have a $3 billion book yourself. How do you do it? How do you balance the two? Andy Schwartz: Well, fortunately, my kids are grown, so I’m not coaching sports anymore. So I do have a little more time than most. Look, we have a great team. So the idea that I run the firm… I mean, I lead the firm, I don’t run the firm. We have great partners. We have great… Our manager team is fantastic. So I mean, they really run the firm. But this is where my passion is for now. So I don’t mind. Days are typically pretty long. I don’t play golf during the week. Mara and I don’t travel probably as much as we should. Vacations are always a little bit mixed. There’s always room for calls and meetings and whatever. But to me, I mean, I’m grateful to be in this situation. I’m enjoying it. This is such a privilege to be the person that people recognize as the leader of this bunch, of this group. I mean, it is the honor of my life. So I don’t think of it so much as work. It’s my advocation. It does get busy. There are some times where I have to remind myself, “Just enjoy the ride.” I get a little overwhelmed, but I get lots of help and that makes it possible. Louis Diamond: Yep. If you’re not doing the job of the folks that you’re encouraging and leading to do, how do you have fodder to train them, to teach them, to empathize with that? Andy Schwartz: Exactly, you don’t have the credibility. I can ask them to do almost anything because they know I do it myself, and I think that helps. Louis Diamond: Yep. So moving more into the decision to bring on private equity capital, what I thought was probably the most interesting component of your announcement that you took on PE investment was that you completely restructured or reoriented your firm prior to Joe Duran coming in 2024. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bleakley Financial Group was almost all 1099 contractors. So everyone owned their own books of business, paid Bleakley a fee or an override for certain services. But now, today, over 85% of your advisors and your AUM are W-2 employees, meaning you converted them from 1099 to acquiring them or merging with them. To me, that’s the dream. It’s had to have been very, very, very hard and challenging because there’s so many aggregator firms or platforms that support independent advisors, but the value that they’ve created is fairly minimal relative to one cohesive firm. So can you just talk about that decision, a very big and brave decision to go down the path of acquiring or merging with the practices rather than letting them continue to operate independently? Andy Schwartz: Well, look, we had to… It’s funny because we had been having conversations for years with consultants, and they kept telling us what we had to do. Again, we’re not that smart, so we just kept thinking, “No, we don’t have to do that.” But we were told 10 years earlier that the only way that this thing has any value to the world is you’ve got to have EBITDA for the firm. We talked to all the smart people, we ignored all of them. But what happened was we needed capital and we needed equity in order to bring people on, because people aren’t just joining us just because we can help them grow a bigger business. So the reason we went in the direction we went initially was we just needed capital. We wanted to grow the firm, and the only way we were going to get to is… What’s the old saying? What got us here is not going to get us there. So we needed capital. But we also realized that I had to have something I could sell in the marketplace. And people want equity. So they want cash, but they also want equity, because we’re talking to entrepreneurs. Kevin owned his own firm. He has $2 billion of assets. He wasn’t interested in being someone’s employee, but he was interested in being able to get leverage and be a partner and share equity in a larger firm that had the chance to grow even more. So what the gift that Joe Duran, the Rise folks gave us was that gift of structure and understanding. So that was really helpful, and that’s been a big part of our success. Louis Diamond: Yeah, it’s an amazing journey. Again, I think you could probably write a book or a case study on how that happened. I’m sure there were some downfalls, some people that weren’t all that excited about it, but the results speak for itself. Andy Schwartz: I think people ask all the time because I do get phone calls. People are trying to do this, and they’re struggling. It took us 90 days to basically do it. People say, “I’ve been at this for two years.” And the biggest issue is trust. Either they trust you or they don’t. At the end of the day, I always went to the advisor here, we were a firm for 30-plus years prior, and these guys knew that we always did what we said we were going to do, and we always did. If your people trust you, then you can do it. If your people don’t trust you, it isn’t going to work. Louis Diamond: In other words, your firm added immense value to the advisors as well. Aside from trust, if you weren’t providing a service or services that they found a value that they couldn’t access on their own, it would’ve been 85/15 going the other way for sure. Andy Schwartz: Yeah, 100%. I know it’s not easy, but it wasn’t that hard for us. Louis Diamond: Good. It’s well-earned. So I believe you were Rise Growth Partners’ first investment. Andy Schwartz: We were. Louis Diamond: That’s cool. It’s exciting. You get to be someone’s first, but did it make you uncomfortable that you were the first investment or did you see that as a positive? Andy Schwartz: I actually saw it as a positive. Well, one, because I recognized immediately that Joe Duran and his team were way smarter than we were certainly, and certainly with what we were trying to do. And I figured that it’s almost like the first child. They were so excited to have somebody, and there was so much time and energy, so they just really doted on us. They were really able to help us. Now they’ve got four or five groups that they work with, and obviously we’ve been launched. So the younger babies are getting more time and attention, although we get everything that we need from them. But yeah, that never concerned me. I always thought that would be our advantage. It actually turned out that way. Louis Diamond: Interesting. In thinking through a sale or a minority sale, did you entertain other types of capital, whether it was a family office or a multitude of other private equity sponsors or selling the firm outright? Andy Schwartz: Yeah, we probably had four or five very, very serious conversations. Actually, some got pretty close to the end where we basically just made the decision not to do it. One was a much larger firm, good people. But the problem always was… I was always going to get rich out of the deal because it was going to be 100% sale, but there was really no lift or leverage from the advisors. So the principals, they were willing to pay me a big multiple and my partners a big multiple, and pay these guys basically an average multiple. So we had always told our guys, “Let’s stay together, and someday, this thing, whatever it’s going to turn into be, will benefit everyone.” So with the Duran situation and the deal with Rise did, it gave everybody a chance to benefit from what we were doing. But what was good about all of those false starts was, it taught me a lot because I had… I know you’re involved in this, so you know better than I do, but we’d start conversations, somebody would reach out to me, I would be very specific about what I needed. They would say, “Yep, we can do that.” And then you get to the finish line, and it’s almost like, I started out, I wanted a tomahawk steak and a baked potato, and I ended up getting a two-day-old hamburger with some cold French fries. It’s like, I know I’m not that smart and I know you’re the PE guys, but for God’s sakes, we’re not stupid. So it was funny because in January of ’24, I told my partners, “I don’t want to have any more of these conversations. It was a waste of time and energy. I’m sick of talking to these people. Let’s just put our heads down, and then let’s grow the firm a little bit more, and then we’ll see what the world looks like.” And then I get introduced to Duran. Louis Diamond: Perfect. Makes sense. Yeah, so you were well-educated on the market, the types of buyers, and I always say it’s almost more important to understand what you don’t want more than what you do want. The only way oftentimes to understand what you don’t want is to experience it and touch and feel it and really get into the weeds on it. I like too, Andy, I saw in an article, you said that “we’re private equity invested, we’re not private equity owned,” which is a very cool dynamic. I could imagine why that was important to you to retain majority control. Kevin, I want to bring you back into the conversation. Thank you for being patient here. But I mean, I would imagine you had some real choices. I mean, you could have stayed at Northwestern and been very successful, gone through with your internal succession plan. You could have gone to an independent BD, monetized, figured out succession later. You could have sold the business to a strategic acquirer. You were big enough to take on an investor in some capacity on your own. So options wasn’t your problem. Maybe just walk us through. Did you consider any other pathways? And what were the pros and cons in your mind that led you to doing a transaction with Andy? Kevin Spahn: I’m a little different, I think, than most people in this industry. Even as you grow your business at a certain percentage, none of that stuff has ever really meant anything to me. All I know is I like what I do. So when I came into the business, because I like it, I enjoy it, I spend time doing it, I’ve tried to get better at it. But it comes naturally because it’s something that I don’t look at Monday mornings as, “Oh, no, it’s Monday morning.” I’m excited to go to work. My entire career, once I left law, my business has just grown over the years naturally. But you said something before, Louis, and I think this applies to me. I love to work with the clients. I don’t like what I have to do in terms of running the firm. I never have. It’s never been my cup of tea, but you have to do it if you run a firm. So number one, the thought of all the due diligence that I would have to do to research all the firms out there, I wasn’t really all that interested in doing that. At the end of the day, it comes down to this word trust. I trust Andy. I trust the other partners here too, because I’ve known not just Andy, but I’ve known Scott and many of the other partners for years. So I knew what I was getting myself into. At the end of the day, I knew what they built. I was very comfortable with it, and I was either going to stay at Northwestern Mutual or I was going to come here, but I wasn’t going to go anywhere else. I will say, since I’ve gone, it’s been exactly like I thought. I thought I trusted Andy. And if something happened along the way with the transition, everything that he said has been true, thing that he promised is real. As you deal with more complexities with a bigger book and more and more employees, I knew that I was almost at the breaking point in terms of my own organization and to merge into this organization that, as I said before, he’s already built out. I don’t have to do it. And to benefit from these great people that he has as part of his organization, that’s all been a real blessing for me and my team. So I didn’t shop the marketplace really, but I knew what I was getting into, and it’s worked out clear as I thought it would. Louis Diamond: That’s amazing. I think that’s what most people would covet. But it is a decision in and of itself to not shop the marketplace. I mean, from representing buyers or prospective buyers, I know the pricing leverage or the negotiation leverage and the valuation lift that comes from having an open market, having multiple bids, et cetera. It sounds like that wasn’t the… Obviously you wanted to get fair value for your firm, but for you, it was more, it’s trust, “I’m either going to just stay at Northwestern, which is the devil I know or it’s what I’ve known where I’ve been successful, or I’m going to go to the individual that I trust and forget about all the other noise.” Kevin Spahn: Well, Andy says things, but I know they’re true because I’ve seen him at work. I’ve seen how he’s acted. I’ve seen how he interacts with people. But here’s an example. He cares about the people that are at his firm. He says that, but I know it’s true because I see it. I’m the same. I really care about the people in my firm. So as I think about, well, what about the future of two groups, my clients, but also the people that work in my firm? They’re going to be around long after I am. Well, I don’t want myself to retire someday, get a big check, because there’s all sorts of options to get a check. If I get a check and then my client’s scatter to the wind, and my employees don’t really have a future and they just have to go and find their own way, that wasn’t attractive at all to me. So one of the things that I really appreciate about this opportunity is that there is a plan for both my clients and my employees or the younger team members at formerly Spahn Financial, where I feel very good about the fact that they have a solid, secure future in an industry that they’ve all grown to love without them having to go out and make their own way. Louis Diamond: Makes sense to me. We noted a couple of times in this interview, you talked about equity, partnership, both of you have. So Kevin, for you, what did it mean differently for you to become a partner and get equity in a larger firm rather than, we’ll say, the less risky move of just taking everything in cash? Why was that an important distinction for you? Kevin Spahn: For many years, when I left law and came into this business, I didn’t have any money at the time. I was just starting to make money as a lawyer. It takes a while. I started low. I got trial experience working for the government, so they didn’t pay much. That was three years. Then I was at a firm, and I was just starting to make more money. Then I made this big shift into a career tha

Welcome to this week's episode of the PEBCAK Podcast!  We've got four amazing stories this week so sit back, relax, and keep being awesome!  Be sure to stick around for our Dad Joke of the Week. (DJOW) Follow us on Instagram @pebcakpodcast   Please share this podcast with someone you know!  It helps us grow the podcast and we really appreciate it!   Simple 6 signup link https://simple6.co/r/CFUR98   Meta buys its way out of the teen engagement lawsuit and writes the curfew into the settlement. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/meta-agrees-to-18-billion-settlement-over-teen-social-media-harms/ Meta settled with 52 attorneys general for ~$18B over claims Facebook and Instagram were built to drive compulsive teen use, resolving a 2023 suit led by California AG Rob Bonta that also alleged illegal under-13 data collection under COPPA. The product terms are the real story: a default two-hour daily cap for under-18s that only a parent can lift, a midnight–6am blackout, notifications muted 10pm–7am and during school hours, hidden like counts, no cosmetic surgery filters, and expanded age verification to find under-18s and purge under-13s — locked in for ten years under an independent auditor. Only $12.7B goes to states now. The other $5.3B is held back until YouTube and TikTok adopt matching one-hour limits, nighttime restrictions and age assurance, and each makes a matching payment — at which point Meta's own cap drops to one hour. Meta openly framed this as driving industry-wide adoption. Read that again: Meta just put a $5.3B bounty on its competitors adopting mandatory age verification, and everyone's calling it a punishment. Meta books ~$10B in Q3 legal expenses; California takes $1.5–2.1B.   A watermark-removal industry sprang up overnight for a watermark nobody can detect. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ai-watermark-removers-flood-the-web-almost-none-can-prove-they-work/ Days after Anthropic switched on invisible watermarking in everything Claude writes, a removal market appeared: a 4,500-star GitHub project, freshly registered domains like claudewatermark[.]rip and gptcleanup.com, and existing Turnitin-bypass shops (StealthGPT, Human Writes) bolting Claude onto their pitch. None of it is verifiable; Anthropic hasn't published the scheme or shipped a detector. The technical punchline: stripping zero-width characters and C2PA/EXIF metadata works, but it's trivial, since file metadata dies on a re-save or a screenshot. The real mark lives in which words the model picked, so the only known removal is a heavy rewrite through a second model. Guillaume Meyer, who wrote the biggest tool, says so himself, metadata only, for now. Tester Pasquale Pillitteri read the code instead of the READMEs and found one popular cleaner passed a hidden payload through intact. Driver is EU AI Act Article 50, enforceable since Aug 2, penalties to €15M or 3% of global turnover. And a detected mark only proves Claude touched the text, not that it wrote it. Defender angle: these ship as agent skills people wire into pipelines and feed documents through. That's a supply chain surface.   Chrome finally kills the infostealer's favorite trick: the stolen cookie that walks past your MFA. https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/chrome-adopts-what-may-be-the-best-protection-yet-against-account-takeovers/ Chrome shipped device-bound session credentials, storing a key in the device's security chip: TPM on Windows, Secure Enclave on macOS and iOS and cryptographically binding session cookies to that hardware. A stolen cookie can't be replayed on the attacker's box to walk past MFA, because the private key never leaves the chip. This is the fix for the failure mode we keep covering: as users adopted 2FA and passkeys, infostealers stopped fighting the login and started lifting the post-auth session instead. Announced in 2024, beta in April, GA for Workspace on Chrome for Windows from May 25, on by default with no admin config, and binding events are visible in Admin console audit logs. Honest caveat: it kills one very popular path, not every takeover, and only where the server side implements it.   Dad Joke of the Week (DJOW)   Find the hosts on LinkedIn: Chris - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chlouie/ Glenn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/glennmedina/ Victor - https://www.linkedin.com/in/victordeluca/

Apple's latest launches, folding iPhone rumours, new Mac Mini and Mac Studio specs, and Meta's $18B teen safety settlement — Steven Scott, Shaun Preece, and tech journalist Will Guyatt break down what it all really means. This episode dives into Apple's busy product week, starting with the launch of new Macs and the official date for the “Surprise and Shine” September event. Steven and Shaun explore the rumours of a folding iPhone, the real-world appeal of foldable devices, and updates to the Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod. They break down the new M6 Mac Mini and M5 Pro models, neural engine upgrades for local AI performance, memory options, and steep pricing differences in Canada versus the US. The conversation shifts to one of the biggest tech legal stories of the year: Meta's $16–18 billion settlement over claims Facebook and Instagram are addictive to children. Will Guyatt explains why Meta settled, what product changes will be enforced for teens, and why the company still admits no wrongdoing. From two-hour time limits to disabling autoplay for under-16s, the team evaluates whether these changes will genuinely protect young users or simply delay deeper regulation. ----Follow on:YouTube: https://www.doubletaponair.com/youtubeX (formerly Twitter): https://www.doubletaponair.com/xInstagram: https://www.doubletaponair.com/instagramTikTok: https://www.doubletaponair.com/tiktokThreads: https://www.doubletaponair.com/threadsFacebook: https://www.doubletaponair.com/facebookLinkedIn: https://www.doubletaponair.com/linkedinSubscribe to the Podcast:Apple: https://www.doubletaponair.com/appleSpotify: https://www.doubletaponair.com/spotifyRSS: https://www.doubletaponair.com/podcastiHeadRadio: https://www.doubletaponair.com/iheartAbout Double TapHosted by the insightful duo, Steven Scott and Shaun Preece, Double Tap is a treasure trove of information for anyone who's blind or partially sighted and has a passion for tech. Steven and Shaun not only demystify tech, but they also regularly feature interviews and welcome guests from the community, fostering an interactive and engaging environment. Tune in every day of the week, and you'll discover how technology can seamlessly integrate into your life, enhancing daily tasks and experiences, even if your sight is limited."Double Tap" is a registered trademark of Double Tap Productions Inc. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Meta admits its Social Media is harmful to kids with $18B settlement, Meta Glasses now will stop working if you block the Recording light, Boston Scientific and McKesson Breached, Microduck Robot the next big thing? Flock OS Investigate tool getting creepy, CISA warns that Software vendors need to focus more on Secure by Design.

PODCAST LAS NOTICIAS CON CALLE 27 de agosto de 2026 - Fortuño no tiene vergüenza alguna, defiende que PR pague más de la deuda de la AEE aunque él mismo la emitió ilegalmente y es el que más endeudó a PR aunque fuera para disque refinanciar - Quién tiene la razón entre JGo y Pablo sobre la declaración de emergencia de FEMA  Federales declara desastre agrícola en 26 municipios - Irán y Omán pactan repartirse ingresos del Estrecho de Ormuz; el crudo bajaJunta autoriza $18.73 millones del Fondo de Emergencia para camiones cisterna, purificación de agua Remueven camión volcado de San Juan a Caguas - WUNO Piden demoler hotel Hilton Garden la gente de Dorado Beach, el pleito de los millonarios - El Nuevo Día FirstBank no sabía escándalo y pide desestimar demanda por relación con Epstein - El Nuevo Día  #lilly#incluyeauspicio ¿Cuánto es sequía y cuánto es incapacidad de la AAA? Se supone que lo sepamos en los documentos que entregue la AAA mañana al Senado - El Vocero La GNPR opera desalinización en Canóvanas (río Grande de Loíza, cerca de la desembocadura, agua salobre) y en Parque Central, San Juan. Evalúa pozos en Caguas (Moisty Skate Park), Levittown y Carolina. La propia gobernadora "no pudo precisar" el retorno de la ley 60, pero se va a promocionarla La máquina puede producir 45,000 galones pero solo se mueven 24–27 mil por falta de camiones - El Nuevo Día JGo v. Rivera Schatz por ir a la bolsa de valores, ahora hay duelo - El Vocero Rivera Schatz dice no a comisión total sobre contrato de Power Expectations - El Vocero Tribunal dice que no a ver los casos que archivó Justicia, son 229 casos que no sabemos nada de nada - El Vocero Josué Colón, convocado al Capitolio el lunes (3:00 PM) para vista Asesora de bonistas es mediadora en la deuda de PR - El Vocero Arrestan a chamaquitos de Fajardo, sospechosos de al menos 5-8 asesinatos Controversia por hospital de Vieques que no abre y Culebra que cambia de administrador Vivienda pide cautela con casas prefabricadas de Temu/Alibaba, pero el desespero es mucho - El Vocero A deponer secretario de Hacienda por contrato de Digimedia y el alegado traqueteo de anuncios - CPI Bill Gates alerta sobre la inteligencia artificial - NYTMeta y PR: paga hasta $17-18B por adicción de menores; PR recibe $124.7M en 10 plazosLOS DATOS DEL DÍA Brent$87.38 (−0.5%) WTI$81.64 (−0.7%) S&P 500~7,666 (−0.1%) Dow Jones~53,420 (−0.1%) Bono 10 años4.66% Euro / USD$1.1655 Gas natural$2.88/MMBtu (+1.2%) Hipoteca 30 años6.65%

#stockmarket #finance #investing #nvidia #meta #usgdp #inflation #monsoon #crudeoil #larsenandtoubro #adani #jsw #bharatelectronics #nifty50 #businessnewsCatch today's stock market news! US markets await Nvidia's earnings while Meta agrees to a historic $18B settlement. US GDP grew a sluggish 1.5% in Q2, though consumer spending stayed strong. In India, monsoon rainfall faces a 13% deficit, L&T signals a West Asia revival with new orders, Adani Energy wins a ₹4,700 Cr project, and BEL secures ₹730 Cr defense orders.https://shorturl.at/ZlJ11Book your seat for Delhi Sessionhttps://shorturl.at/gM97lHow to Use Artificial Intelligence for Investing - Combo of 5 ebookshttps://shop.investyadnya.in/pages/global-portfolio-methodologyInvest in Investyadnya's Global Equity Portfolio00:00 Start00:18 US Markets Await Nvidia Earnings00:43 US PCE Inflation Holds Steady02:18 Oil Prices Edge Lower03:04 US Q2 GDP Grows 1.5pc04:33 Trump Floats Renaming Lake Ontario05:06 India Faces 13% Monsoon Deficit06:45 India Widens Crude Oil Search08:11 Record Overseas Investments10:07 L&T Sees West Asia Revival11:06 Adani Wins ₹4,700 Cr Project11:36 JSW MG Motor Seeks Fresh Capital13:26 BEL Secures ₹730 Cr Orders

Follow the gang on Instagram! Check out @alice973 for links to our personal profiles. Sascha Baron Cohen's new movie is almost here. Heads up comedy fans - Netflix is dropping 4 documentaries you might be interested in. Donnie Darko is getting a sequel! For now it's just only a book. Spiderman is officially bigger than Avengers: Endgame. The popcorn bucket craze is growing. Another update on Pumpkin. Breaking news: Meta has settled for $18B with 48 states ushering in a legal responsibility for social media companies. To payout the full amount, Meta is demanding YouTube and TikTok also set time limits for underage users. It's National Dog Day! Enjoy your doodle - while you can. Jorts are BACK! But, this time they're long.

Hour 1: Dolly Parton has passed away at 80 years old. There was no shortage to Dolly's bright light and career success. Taylor Swift, Jack White, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, and Jamie Lee Curtis have already shared tributes to Dolly, and there will be a special on CBS. Taylor Momsen is singing with Soundgarden for an NFL Halftime show. Blockbuster was making HOW MUCH on late fees? Don't worry, you might still be able to buy a glow-in-the-dark bunny. Hour 2: Follow the gang on Instagram! Check out @alice973 for links to our personal profiles. Sascha Baron Cohen's new movie is almost here. Heads up comedy fans - Netflix is dropping 4 documentaries you might be interested in. Donnie Darko is getting a sequel! For now it's just only a book. Spiderman is officially bigger than Avengers: Endgame. The popcorn bucket craze is growing. Another update on Pumpkin. Breaking news: Meta has settled for $18B with 48 states ushering in a legal responsibility for social media companies. To payout the full amount, Meta is demanding YouTube and TikTok also set time limits for underage users. It's National Dog Day! Enjoy your doodle - while you can. Jorts are BACK! But, this time they're long. Hour 3: Let's Bridge The Gap! Can Olivia pull out the first-ever listener 3-peat?! Or, will San Franciscan Tiffany crush her dreams. Sarah isn't fooling around with these questions today, so it's anybody's game. Let's play! Then, if you still say these words, you're old! Put on your slacks and head down to the beauty parlor. Plus, some apps and websites that refuse to be forgotten. What are Yahoo and MySpace up to these days? Hour 4: Well, we lost another 80-year-old. Tim Curry, the star of Rocky Horror Picture Show, has passed away. Even if Stella Langley surpasses Mariah Carey, Christmas is always right around the corner. Stella Lefty is coming to SF! Is the Meta settlement a good thing? Betty Crocker is selling cake handbags. Football season is upon us, so Vinnie is making us hungry with the best tailgate foods. In honor of Dolly Parton, let's play a new game!

Marty Griffin Show Hour 1: UPMC commits $35M to the City of Pittsburgh! Amazing! Meta has to pay out $18B! WOW! full 2034 Wed, 26 Aug 2026 15:10:34 +0000 ZTKDE4tSIENgOx9TT8vb1imahNTN7dXd news Marty Griffin news Marty Griffin Show Hour 1: UPMC commits $35M to the City of Pittsburgh! Amazing! Meta has to pay out $18B! WOW! On-demand selections from Marty's show on Newsradio 1020 KDKA , airing weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News

Meta has to pay out $18B! PA is set to receive around $705 million! Attorney Tom King joins the show to discuss the settlement. full 564 Wed, 26 Aug 2026 16:04:20 +0000 I8xC8RQrrBfwLMKoUcGjiMtQNYvnkPd5 emailnewsletter,news Marty Griffin emailnewsletter,news Meta has to pay out $18B! PA is set to receive around $705 million! Attorney Tom King joins the show to discuss the settlement. On-demand selections from Marty's show on Newsradio 1020 KDKA , airing weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

In this episode, Sai breaks down why he deliberately chose a services business over pure SaaS, how a human-in-the-loop model creates a defensible moat in a world increasingly disrupted by Claude and ChatGPT, and why acquiring books of business from retiring CPAs is one of the most underrated go-to-market strategies nobody is talking about. He also shares the three categories of SaaS he believes will survive the AI disruption — and why everything else is in serious trouble.If you're building in a high-stakes industry or trying to compete where trust is currency, this episode is essential listening.Key Takeaways4:12 – Guest intro: Sai Dhanak — two exits, four patents, from Caribou to Latch to Deduction4:33 – What shipping early and obsessing over design taught Sai about building products people want5:35 – The connecting thread across cybersecurity, IoT, and service design patents7:00 – Seven years at Latch: What going from seed to IPO really teaches you about scale7:45 – "More money, more problems" — why lean is a feature, not a constraint8:28 – The compounding risk of bad hires at scale8:57 – What Deduction actually does: AI-native H&R Block for a fraction of the price9:33 – Real-time example: How Sai's wife emailed a charitable donation to the AI agent mid-year12:38 – The deliberate bet on services over pure SaaS — and why it was the right call14:07 – The AI SaaSpocalypse: Three types of SaaS that will survive disruption16:27 – How the human-in-the-loop model works operationally (Deduction OS)20:04 – Why Sai left Latch right after the IPO — the mental playbook he was building22:00 – The co-founder advantage: Moving faster because you already trust each other23:33 – The fractional-to-full-time hiring model that built the team efficiently25:17 – The critical fork in the road: Full-stack tax firm vs. selling software to accountants28:00 – Why the B2B SaaS tax market is flooded and the personal accountant market is fragmented29:20 – The personal accountant market: 18B, fragmented, no dominant player except H&R Block32:00 – Why TurboTax and DIY tax software are getting eaten by ChatGPT and Claude30:00 – Email as the primary channel: The internal debate and why async won31:24 – Why email is more enduring than it looks — even for Gen Z32:23 – The trust premium of human touch in an increasingly AI world36:15 – The onboarding call insight: 15 minutes with a human = customers happily working with AI37:57 – Acquiring books of business from retiring CPAs as a go-to-market engine40:57 – The referral flywheel: Emailing taylor@deduction.com directly, no app required41:25 – What Sai would do differently: Start acquiring firms sooner; build partnerships earlier43:40 – Flat architecture, "everyone is a builder," and why the 1-person company is the wrong aspiration45:36 – The most fulfilling part of building a company is always the people46:10 – The question every founder should be asking: Do you love this problem enough to work on it for 10 years?Tweetable Quotes"The most interesting opportunity in the AI era isn't building tools that replace humans. It's building businesses that use AI to make humans dramatically better — while keeping the one thing AI can't provide: trust." — Jeff Mains"AI can process the data. But it can't sign its name to it. Can't sit across from a client and take the blame when things go wrong. That's still you." — Jeff Mains"The intelligence of AI with the trust of a human. That's Deduction." — Sai Dhanak"In an ever-increasingly AI world, the human touch will have an ever-increasing premium." — Sai Dhanak"People don't want to sit in front of a chat box doing their taxes. The whole point of having an accountant is so you can go do something else." — Sai Dhanak"More money, more problems. When you're lean and scrappy, you stay focused. Raise too much capital and focus becomes exponentially harder." — Sai Dhanak"Do you love this problem enough to still be working on it in 10 years? Not the trend — the problem." — Sai Dhanak"Every founder, when asked what the highlight was, says the same thing: bringing on amazing people who are now my friends." — Sai Dhanak"Trends fade. Trust doesn't." — Jeff MainsSaaS Leadership Lessons1. The three types of SaaS that survive AI disruption Sai identified a clear framework early: the only SaaS that holds value long-term are (1) businesses with hardcore integration moats you can't vibe-code (like Stripe), (2) ledgers and systems of record that are structurally difficult to disrupt, and (3) anything that requires a human liability backstop. If your SaaS doesn't fit one of those three, it's at risk.2. The human in the loop is a competitive moat, not a limitation Rather than chasing full automation, Deduction deliberately built a model where licensed tax professionals review, verify, and sign off on AI-generated work. That signature requirement — mandated by the IRS — is baked-in defensibility. In high-stakes industries, the human backstop isn't a workaround. It's the whole product.3. Ship early, obsess over design Going back to his first company, Caribou (sold to Mattel), Sai learned two lessons that still guide him: launch before you're ready to get real feedback fast, and invest heavily in design and experience. In an AI world where anyone can build anything, experience is what differentiates.4. Lean is a feature, not a constraint After watching Latch raise hundreds of millions of dollars and experience the chaos that came with it, Sai deliberately built Deduction as a lean, flat organization. The goal isn't a one-person billion-dollar company — it's high margins with a small team that can move fast, maintain quality, and stay culturally tight. Every hire matters exponentially more in a small company.5. Choose your channel based on operational reality, not trend The decision to lead with email over chat or SMS wasn't a legacy move — it was a strategic one. Email's async nature gave Deduction manageable response windows as an early-stage company while also matching the customer expectation: "I hired an accountant so I don't have to sit and do this myself." Build for your operational reality first, then open faster channels as you can guarantee the experience.6. Acquire instead of just acquiring customers One of Deduction's most powerful go-to-market moves is buying books of business from retiring CPAs. The market for small accounting firms is fragmented and surprisingly liquid — entire websites are dedicated to the sale of these practices. Instead of competing cold for customers, Deduction inherits trusted relationships already built. It's an asymmetric growth lever that most founders never consider.Guest Resourcessai@deduction.comhttps://deduction.com/www.linkedin.com/in/saayujhttps://x.com/SaiDhanakEpisode SponsorThe Futureproof Series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfkXKUPZ5xuOqMPR7_gzGybncTtavyR1NThe Captain's KeysSmall Fish, Big Pond – https://smallfishbigpond.com/ Use the promo code ‘SaaSFuel'Champion Leadership Group – https://championleadership.com/https://jeffmains.com/books/SaaS Fuel ResourcesWebsite - https://championleadership.com/Jeff Mains on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkmains/Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeffkmainsFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/thesaasguy/Instagram - https://instagram.com/jeffkmains

Texas property taxes keep rising despite billions in state relief. In this episode of The Right Idea, Derek Cohen sits down with James Quintero, Policy Director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, to break down why relief isn't enough and what real reform looks like.They discuss local spending limits, the sales tax swap idea, voter-driven tax cuts, the “Death Star Bill” (Texas Regulatory Consistency Act), and how to rein in runaway local government spending in cities like Austin.Key topics covered:* Why property taxes continue climbing despite $18B+ in cuts* Local spending caps tied to population + inflation* Sales tax for property tax swap proposal* Allowing voters to directly cut tax rates via referendum* Expanding the Death Star Bill / field preemption* Fixing deceptive local tax ballot languageTimestamps:* 00:08 – Welcome & Introduction* 00:44 – Hot Take: How to Beat the Texas Heat* 02:51 – The History of Property Tax “Reform” in Texas* 06:10 – Relief vs. Real Reform: Why Billions Haven't Fixed the Problem* 10:02 – Rep. Cody Vasut on Local Spending Limits* 10:56 – Why Texas Needs Local Government Spending Caps* 12:53 – Austin's Out-of-Control Priorities* 15:47 – Rep. Jeff Barry on the Sales Tax Swap for Property Taxes* 22:22 – Voter Power: Tax Cut Elections & Referendums* 29:54 – The “Death Star Bill” (Texas Regulatory Consistency Act) Explained* 33:01 – Enforcement Challenges & Next Steps* 36:55 – Expanding Field Preemption* 38:18 – Closing ThoughtsIf you're a Texas homeowner tired of rising property taxes, this episode gives you the clearest picture yet of the solutions on the table for the next legislative session.

It's Eric and Torrey, and we are joined by our friend Andre, HEYYYY!! It's episode 18B. A bonus episode where we'll be doing our own mock draft using round 1 of last week's NHL Entry Draft and other rounds for our goalies. We'll also be diving into NHL Free Agency, as by the time this episode drops, we'll be well into shaking our heads at how much a variety of players have been paid. Eric Mock Draft Picks: 1. Chase Reid D 2. Viggo Bjorck C 3. Brady Knowling G 4. Keaton Verhoff D 5. Nikita Klepov RW 6. Oscar Hemming LW Andre Picks: 1. Caleb Malhotra C 2. Wyatt Cullen LW 3. Gleb Pugachyov RW 4. Albert Smits D 5. Maxim Sokolovskii D 6. Danai Shaiikov G Torrey Picks: 1. Gavin Mckenna LW 2. Ivar Stenberg RW 3. Ethan Belchetz LW 4. Carson Carels D 5. Daxon Rudolph D 6. Tobias Trejbal G You can catch Andre on Our Local Establishment @OLEPodcasts You can catch Torrey and Eric weekly on the Nattering With E and VGM Networks, where you get your pod

Spy Ninjas Entertainment is a creator-led media company based in Las Vegas, and is home to Spy Ninjas, the longest-running serialized narrative show on YouTube, which has 47M+ subscribers and 18B lifetime views since its launch in 2018. Founded by creators and entrepreneurs Chad Wild Clay and Vy Qwaint, the company recently announced it is investing $25M into its content pipeline and production capabilities, and aims to hire 50 new employees this year. Shelly Soriano is President of Spy Ninjas Studios, part of the creator-led media company, Spy Ninjas Entertainment, which reaches tens of millions of fans, anchored by its eponymous flagship original family entertainment franchise. Spy Ninjas is the longest-running, serialized narrative show on YouTube. With a career rooted in building and scaling digitally native companies, Soriano has transformed emerging brands into breakout businesses through new platforms and content formats, strategic acquisitions, and high-impact partnerships. As COO for Jubilee Media, she helped drive accelerated company growth through collaborations with top brands such as Amazon, Google, Netflix, Spotify, and McDonalds, and original premium content, including the launch of the viral internet series Surrounded.

Political spam texts are flooding phones at scale—and the data shows it's overwhelmingly a Democratic problem, running 3-4X Republican spending on SMS fundraising since 2008. This week breaks down the loopholes that make it legal (peer-to-peer "technology," snowshoeing across thousands of numbers, political speech exemptions) and the burn-and-churn vendor model that profits 7-15% off every dollar raised, no matter how much trust it burns. Plus a look at PACSpam.org, a new tool that lets you paste in a spam text, trace the UTM parameters and ActBlue links back to the vendor and PAC behind it, and log it to a public database. Plus: Giving USA 2025 numbers are in. Total US charitable giving hit a record $617B (a 3% inflation-adjusted bump), bequests jumped 17% signaling the great wealth transfer, and a handful of mega-donors accounted for nearly $18B of $19.2B in mega-gifts.

Political spam texts are flooding phones at scale—and the data shows it’s overwhelmingly a Democratic problem, running 3-4X Republican spending on SMS fundraising since 2008. This week breaks down the loopholes that make it legal (peer-to-peer “technology,” snowshoeing across thousands of numbers, political speech exemptions) and the burn-and-churn vendor model that profits 7-15% off every dollar raised, no matter how much trust it burns. Plus a look at PACSpam.org, a new tool that lets you paste in a spam text, trace the UTM parameters and ActBlue links back to the vendor and PAC behind it, and log it to a public database. Plus: Giving USA 2025 numbers are in. Total US charitable giving hit a record $617B (a 3% inflation-adjusted bump), bequests jumped 17% signaling the great wealth transfer, and a handful of mega-donors accounted for nearly $18B of $19.2B in mega-gifts. -------- NonprofitNewsfeed.com Summary of hundreds of news sources.The post Spam Texts, Scam PACs, and the Burn-and-Churn Fundraising Machine (news) first appeared on Nonprofit News Feed.

On this week's show special guest co-host Rob Joyce joins Patrick Gray and James Wilson to discuss the week's cybersecurity news. Rob served as an advisor to Donald Trump during his first term as president and also served at NSA for 34 years. While at the agency, Joyce led Tailored Access Operations (TAO), and later became NSA's Director of Cybersecurity. They cover: The surprisingly well done Fortibleed campaign Stolen Klue OAuth tokens lead to Salesforce data theft OpenAI wants to patch the planet runZero gets acquired by Accenture, congrats HD Moore! Much, much more! This episode is also available on YouTube. Show notes FortiBleed campaign used custom FortiGate sniffer to steal credentials | BleepingComputer FortiBleed: Fortinet device credential compromise expands into broader credential-attack guidance | unit42.paloaltonetworks.com Cybercriminals allegedly hacked tens of thousands of Fortinet firewalls used by major companies all over the world | TechCrunch Security Klue OAuth breach linked to 'Icarus' Salesforce data theft attacks | BleepingComputer Polymarket (@Polymarket) on X | X (formerly Twitter) The Korean telecom giant at the center of Anthropic's Mythos controversy | wrd.cm Beyond Fable: Can a Local LLM Replace Cloud AI for Security Code Reviews - SRLabs Research | SRLabs OpenAI Launches Full-Scale Effort to Patch Open-Source Bugs as It Takes on Anthropic's Mythos | wired.com Sponsored: Trail of Bits and OpenAI patch the planet | Risky Bulletin Intel agencies: Frontier AI models will reshape cybersecurity faster than expected | cyberscoop.com Embedding Forbidden Text in Spyware to Discourage AI Analysis | Schneier on Security A new unpatchable flaw in Apple chips opens the door to an iPhone jailbreak | TechCrunch Security USB worm spreads crypto-stealing malware via Windows shortcut files | BleepingComputer Android verification is coming: Google confirms timeline and supported app stores | Ars Technica California water utility probes breach claim by Iran-linked actor | Cybersecurity Dive Suspected cyberattack triggers false emergency alerts across parts of Brazil | The Record Tesco moving 40,000 server workloads off VMware amid Broadcom's "abusive conduct" | Ars Technica Trump directs federal agencies to protect US data from quantum threats | therecord.media Accenture shells out $4.18B on three companies in big industrial cybersecurity push | cyberscoop.com

The Information's Anissa Gardizy talks with TITV Host Akash Pasricha about OpenAI's $18B chip snag. We also talk with Aaron Holmes about Microsoft's Copilot updated strategy and UpperEdge's Adam Mansfield about ServiceNow's enterprise friction. Lastly, we get into the Elon Musk trial with Rocket Drew, Martin Peers, and Nick Wingfield.Articles discussed on this episode: https://www.theinformation.com/newsletters/applied-ai/microsoft-cuts-copilot-bloathttps://www.theinformation.com/articles/openais-ai-chip-deal-broadcom-hits-18-billion-financing-snagSubscribe: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theinformation The Information: https://www.theinformation.com/subscribe_hSign up for the AI Agenda newsletter: https://www.theinformation.com/features/ai-agendaTITV airs weekdays on YouTube, X and LinkedIn at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Or check us out wherever you get your podcasts.Follow us:X: https://x.com/theinformationIG: https://www.instagram.com/theinformation/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@titv.theinformationLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theinformation/Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:13 - DeepSeek Plans $7B Funding Round 03:00 - OpenAI's Broadcom Chip Deal Hits $18B Snag 11:22 - Microsoft Cuts Copilot Bloat and Hikes GitHub Prices 16:34 - ServiceNow Conference: Enterprise Buyers Seek ROI 30:39 - Elon Musk v. OpenAI Trial: Board Depositions Played 34:23 - The Editor's Cut: Who is Winning the Legal War?

Vishal Verma's family office has been operating out of Silicon Valley for over thirty years. His father arrived from India in 1977 with eight dollars in his pocket, worked as a rocket scientist, and eventually became an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. The family formalized their office in the late nineties with early LP positions in Sequoia Fund IX and Kleiner Perkins. Today Vishal manages a portfolio split across twenty-one venture capital firms and twenty-eight direct co-investments in generational companies including Anthropic, Wiz, Stripe, and xAI.In this episode, Prashant and Vishal go deep on how a thirty-year family office actually thinks about venture capital — the vintage strategy, the concentration framework, the Anthropic bet, and why most of what you hear about the first mover advantage is wrong.⭐ Sponsored by Podcast10x - Podcasting agency for VCs - https://podcast10x.comWe talk about -– The family origin story: $8 at the border to Silicon Valley– Portfolio construction: 70/30 public to private– The vintage strategy: why you have to be at every party– Three concentrations reshaping the VC ecosystem– The Anthropic investment at $18B valuation– AI vs crypto: behavioral change is everything– Bigger funds not returning DPI is hogwash– Emerging managers: what actually earns a check– DPI reality and the IPO bottleneck– Why family offices exist and what banks can't doTimestamps:(00:00) -Preview(01:40) - Introduction to Vishal Verma and His Family's VC Legacy(03:39) - The Family Office Origin Story: From India to Silicon Valley(06:57) - Challenges and Triumphs of Early Indian-American Entrepreneurs(08:56) - Why the Indian-American Community Thrives: Hard Work, Education, and Family(10:22) - Portfolio Construction and the First Investment in Sequoia(14:15) - The Rationale Behind a 30% Allocation to Venture Capital(17:22) - How Shorter Fundraising Cycles Have Changed LP Strategy(22:25) - The Differentiator for Top-Tier VC Funds(24:34) - Understanding the "Concentration" of Returns, Capital, and Founders in VC(28:08) - Do Bigger Funds Actually Lead to Shrinking Returns?(30:17) - The "Mafias" of Silicon Valley and Their Role in Deal Flow(32:32) - The Investment Thesis for Anthropic at an $18B Valuation(36:55) - AI vs. Crypto: The Critical Difference of Behavioral Change(39:15) - First-Mover vs. Best-to-Market: Lessons from Tech History(40:32) - The Reality of Stretched DPI and Liquidity Challenges(41:35) - The Rise of "Megacorns" and the Upcoming IPO Wave(44:34) - AI Investing: When Does Conviction Become Overexposure?(48:38) - Public Market Strategy: A Tech-Heavy Portfolio(52:50) - ConclusionLinks:Edgewood Ventures - https://www.edgewoodvp.com/Connect with Vishal Verma - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishal-verma-551327Connect with Prashant: https://linkedin.com/in/choubeysahabSubscribe to VC10X newsletter - ⁠https://vc10x.beehiiv.com⁠Subscribe on YouTube - ⁠https://youtube.com/@VC10X ⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts - ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vc10x-investing-venture-capital-asset-management-private/id1632806986⁠Subscribe on Spotify - ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/7F7KEhXNhTx1bKTBFgzv3k?si=WgQ4ozMiQJ-6nowj6wBgqQ⁠VC10X website - ⁠https://vc10x.com

Nilofer Merchart: Our Best Work Nilofer Merchant is ranked among the world's top management thinkers by Thinkers50 and is the founder of The Intangible Labs, where she defines the leading indicators of modern work. She's launched more than 100 products totaling $18B in revenue, and her TED Talk, Sitting Is the Smoking of Our Generation, ranks in the top 10% of all TED Talks. She is the author of Our Best Work: Break Free from the 24 Invisible Norms That Limit Us (Amazon, Bookshop)*. When bad behavior happens in an organization, it's the job of the leader to address it. In this conversation, Nilofer and I explore the strategies and tactics that will help you do this with clarity and effectiveness. Key Points Bad behavior isn't just “bad apples” – it's also the organizational norms of “the barrel” that reinforce these behaviors. Most management norms are not persuasive; they are persistent. Begin by getting clarity on what's acceptable and what's not. Interrupt behavior without escalation. Consider phrases like, “Ouch,” or “I don't know if you mean to…” or, “Did you intend that to be hurtful?” Culture is not defined by words on the wall—­it's defined by what happens when someone crosses the line. Ask everyone to enforce norms, not just the person who was harmed. Resources Mentioned Our Best Work: Break Free from the 24 Invisible Norms That Limit Us by Nilofer Merchant (Amazon, Bookshop)* Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes The Way to Be More Coach-Like, with Michael Bungay Stanier (episode 458) How to Respond Better When Challenged, with Dolly Chugh (episode 615) Being Nice May Not Be Kind, with Graham Allcott (episode 767) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Sthefano Batista is Head of Latam at Figment, the world's largest institutional provider of staking services with $18 billion in assets staked.Recorded live at Merge Sao Paulo, Sthefano joins host Aaron Stanley to break down how Figment is building the staking market across Latin America, why major institutions like BlackRock, Nubank, and Robinhood trust Figment with their crypto yield strategies, and what makes Brazil one of the most interesting regulatory environments for staking in the world.They dig into the nuances of proof-of-stake infrastructure, how Figment protects clients from slashing risk, the difference between retail and institutional staking priorities, and what the recent VASP regulatory updates in Brazil mean for the industry.You can connect with Sthefano on Linkedin------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

Rodrigo Coelho is CEO of Edge & Node. In this episode, recorded live at Merge Sao Paulo, joins host Aaron Stanley to explore the cutting edge of agentic commerce and blockchain data infrastructure. Rodrigo shares how Edge & Node, the original team behind The Graph protocol - built the indexing layer that quietly powers much of Web3 today, and how their new product, AMP, is modernizing that infrastructure for institutional adoption. The conversation digs into why crypto rails are uniquely suited for the agentic economy: from micro-payments between AI agents to ephemeral virtual cards bridging the gap for everyday merchants, and why agents paying each other via stablecoins may be closer than we think.You can connect with Rodrigo on https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigoco/------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

Owen Healy has spent five years matching blockchain talent with crypto projects around the world - and he's built a 50,000-follower LinkedIn following doing it. In this episode, Aaron sits down with the Ireland-based recruiter to explore how the blockchain talent market actually works: how recruiters get paid, how candidates can trust a headhunter is acting in their interest, and why referrals still beat job boards every time.Owen shares why Brazilian developers and blockchain professionals are increasingly in demand globally, what skills make candidates hireable regardless of location, and how the remote work pendulum is swinging back toward hybrid models. He also breaks down his "multi-chain" approach to job searching - why one-click LinkedIn applications rarely work, and how building genuine relationships inside target companies is the real edge in today's AI-saturated hiring landscape.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

Netflix says ads are booming—but are viewers actually watching more? Kate Scott-Dawkins and Jeff Foster dig into Netflix's latest earnings: ~$3B in projected ad revenue for 2026, 325M paid memberships, and a surprisingly modest lift in hours watched. We unpack what that gap could mean for advertisers, why big IP (including Warner Bros. Discovery/WBD) suddenly looks even more valuable, and where Netflix may go next on content and sports.Plus: what P&G's results suggest about a more disciplined year for CPG ad spend, the latest on TikTok's new U.S. ownership structure (and the still-open questions around the algorithm), and OpenAI/ChatGPT testing ads—with an early focus on transparency and user control.We explore:Netflix's 2026 ad revenue guidance (~$3B) and what it takes to scale a young ad business.Why 96B hours watched in 2H 2025 only grew ~2%—and the “attention per member” problem.Content strategy and competition: ~$18B implied 2026 content spend, sports optionality, and the pull of major franchise libraries (WBD).P&G earnings and why the company isn't planning a big media ramp—what that signals for CPG budgets in 2026.TikTok's U.S. divestment outcome: who owns what, what likely stays the same for advertisers, and how pressure is rising on social platforms globally.OpenAI begins testing ads: early guardrails, what “AI-native” advertising could look like, and why this launch matters.Chapters:00:00 – Intro: Netflix, P&G, TikTok U.S. deal, OpenAI ads00:42 – Netflix: ad revenue forecast to double to ~$3B in 202601:51 – Netflix: 325M paid memberships (first update in a year)02:20 – Engagement: 96B hours watched in 2H 2025 and what it implies04:29 – Content + sports: 2026 spend plans and rights questions07:30 – The hardware challenge: Netflix vs OS-controlled platforms08:38 – P&G: growth, pricing, category performance, and ad spend tone12:32 – TikTok: new U.S. ownership structure and open algorithm questions16:12 – Social pressure: under-16 bans, lawsuits, and brand risk20:29 – OpenAI/ChatGPT: testing ads, transparency, and what's next25:27 – Weekend recommendations: AI reads/listens28:41 – Next week preview: key earnings to watch29:00 – Closing + contact

Rodrigo Trindade is an investor at Iporanga Ventures. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss his comprehensive research on local stablecoin adoption across Brazil and Latin America. Rodrigo built his own tracking dashboard monitoring on-chain metrics including supply, holders, transaction volumes, and DeFi activity for regional stablecoins. He argues that while USD-denominated stablecoins will remain dominant globally, local currency stablecoins are essential infrastructure for building functional on-chain financial systems in Latin America, where users need to transact, borrow, and lend in their native currencies. Looking ahead, Rodrigo identifies credit and yield products as the next major opportunities in the space, emphasizing the need for better transparency through real-time proof of reserves and improved liquidity infrastructure. ------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

SimplySafeDividends just downgraded a major pharmaceutical stock with a 7% dividend yield. I break down why this dividend freeze could signal a cut ahead. Watch the YouTube video.In this video, I cover:-Why Pfizer's dividend freeze is the first warning sign (first since 2009)-How "accidentally high yields" indicate danger, not opportunity-The 97% free cash flow payout ratio leaves no margin for error-Declining revenue and the $17-18B patent cliff ahead-What dividend investors should look for to avoid dividend trapsThis is NOT a prediction that Pfizer will cut - it's an educational analysis of the risk factors every dividend investor should understand. Learn how to spot warning signs before they become dividend cuts.Dapper Dividends Recommendation Tracker Spreadsheet⁠Check out my current portfolio on

Its all fraud, all the time as Minnesota reaches a new low. We are now considered a tourist fraud destination.Heard On The Show:US Attorney's Office: ‘Half or more' of $18B billed through state programs tied to fraud16-year-old charged in connection with threats sent to several Dakota County schoolsMan suspected in Brown University shooting and MIT professor's killing is found dead, officials saySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Even The New York Times admits it. A staggering fraud scandal in Minnesota exposes how welfare systems, voter registration, and federal benefits may be intertwined in what critics call a massive looting and laundering operation. From Medicaid to SNAP, billions of dollars are allegedly siphoned through state-run programs—while whistleblowers are punished and accountability disappears. This episode breaks down the claims, the admissions, and why some say this represents something far bigger than ordinary fraud.

A shocking convergence of stories exposes what critics call a system in collapse—from a sprawling Medicaid fraud scandal measured in the billions, to a chilling campus shooting case spanning Brown University and MIT. As investigators uncover shell companies, alleged political protection, and a whistleblower trail that went ignored, a separate manhunt ends with a homeless tipster cracking a case authorities said couldn't be solved. This episode asks a hard question: Is this negligence, or something far more deliberate?

John Delaney is CEO and co-founder of Crown. Crown recently raised a $13.5 million Series A round led by Paradigm and is the issuer of BRLV - Brazil's newest and stablecoin with over 360 million BRL subscribed. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss Crown's unique approach to capturing institutional flows in Brazil's high-yield environment - namely by letting BRLV holders earn native yield generated from the underlying reserves.The conversation explores BRLV's groundbreaking bankruptcy-remote reserve structure with perfected legal guarantees, making it the first stablecoin globally to implement such comprehensive security protections. Delaney shares insights on Brazil's position as a prime stablecoin market given its massive M2 money supply, crypto-friendly central bank, and positive real interest rates that outpace inflation. He outlines Crown's ambitious 10-year vision to achieve one trillion BRL in circulation, projecting stablecoins will represent high single-digit percentages of Brazil's money supply as financial infrastructure migrates on-chain.You can connect with John on Linkedin------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

Thiago Barbosa, partner at Salles Nogueira Advogados, joins host Aaron Stanley to break down the complex and rapidly evolving landscape of crypto asset taxation and regulation in Brazil. The discussion centers on the latest major developments from the Central Bank, which is introducing stricter requirements for Virtual Asset Service Providers, and the new Receita Federal reporting mechanism called "Decripto". Barbosa explains how these changes create an increasingly tight compliance net, particularly for retail investors who've historically operated in gray areas. He emphasizes that the IRS is investing heavily in surveillance technology to identify discrepancies between reported income and actual lifestyle spending, warning that the window for undeclared crypto wealth is rapidly closing as Brazil integrates into the global tax reporting infrastructure.You can connect with Thiago on Linkedin and Instagram------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

In this episode, host Aaron Stanley speaks with Justin Norman, founder of The Flip, a content creator and filmmaker who documents technology adoption in emerging markets. Justin shares insights from his recent Latin American research trip exploring stablecoin adoption, which resulted in a YouTube documentary series examining markets like Argentina and Bolivia. The conversation delves into the disconnect between Argentina's impressive stablecoin transaction volumes and the lack of visible retail adoption, revealing that stablecoins primarily serve as store-of-value tools and facilitate cross-border trade rather than everyday spending. Justin emphasizes the importance of understanding the macro conditions driving adoption, including dollar shortages, parallel exchange markets, and currency devaluation, rather than focusing solely on technology hype. He also draws compelling parallels between Latin American and African markets, noting how similar economic pressures create comparable crypto adoption patterns, while highlighting Latin America's superior payment infrastructure that enables more seamless on-ramps and off-ramps for stablecoin users.You can connect with Justin on LinkedinBe sure to check out Justin's incredible YouTube documentary on stablecoins in Argentina here------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

Thomaz Teixeira, CEO of BRL1, and Ben Reid, Head of Stablecoins at Bitso, join host Aaron Stanley to discuss the BRL1 stablecoin project.BRL1 is a one-to-one Brazilian real-pegged token developed by a unique consortium of major crypto exchanges including Mercado Bitcoin, Bitso, Foxbit, and Cainvest. We explore how competitors joined forces to build shared infrastructure that reduces friction for market makers and liquidity providers moving value across global exchanges. Teixeira and Reid highlight BRL1's impressive early traction, with the token already ranking as the sixth or seventh highest-volume asset on Brazilian exchanges despite launching just months ago. We examine how the consortium model creates network effects that drive adoption, the growing interest from institutional market makers positioning for local currency stablecoins, and how BRL1 addresses interoperability challenges similar to those the now-shuttered Drex project aimed to solve.You can connect with Thomaz and Ben on Linkedin------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠⁠figment.io⁠⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

After three years of waiting, Brazil's central bank has finally released comprehensive VASP regulations. In this episode, Carlos Eduardo Russo (Bluegreen) and Cesar Carvalho (Baptista Luz Advogados) join host Aaron Stanley to break down the regulatory framework that will reshape Brazil's digital asset industry. We discuss the phased authorization process, capital requirements ranging from R$11-37 million, how stablecoins are now integrated into Brazil's FX market, and whether these rules truly level the playing field between local and international exchanges. Both guests have been deeply involved with AB Token's government affairs work and provide insider perspectives on what comes next for the industry.You can connect with Carlos and Cesar on Linkedin------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at ⁠figment.io⁠-------------------------------------------------------------------

Paulo David is CEO of AmFi. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss how his platform is revolutionizing access to Brazilian private credit markets through asset tokenization. As a third-time entrepreneur who previously built and sold two major fintechs including Grafeno, Paulo brings deep expertise in Brazil's capital markets infrastructure. The conversation explores how Brazil's position as having the world's second-highest interest rates creates a unique opportunity to export this yield to global investors through blockchain technology. Paulo explains how AmFi is addressing critical market inefficiencies including lack of transparency, limited accessibility, and absence of secondary markets that have historically prevented foreign capital from entering Brazilian private credit. He also discusses the platform's expansion strategy targeting Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and how democratizing access to these high-yield instruments can ultimately reduce borrowing costs and improve credit access for Brazilian businesses.------------------------------------------------------------------Brazil Crypto Report is presented by AveniaIf you're building a wallet, a crypto consumer app, or a global payment platform, Avenia is your bridge to Latin America. Instantly connect to PIX, SPEI, and CBU using stablecoins — with one API. No banks. No FX desks. No SWIFT. Move money globally, with full compliance and real-time settlement. Learn more at ⁠⁠avenia.io⁠⁠.------------------------------------------------------------------Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure with $18B assets under stake and provides the complete solution for over 1000 institutional clients in Latin America and globally. Through its enterprise-grade infrastructure, Figment enables clients such as banks and exchanges, to earn rewards on Proof-of-Stake assets such as Ethereum and Solana, while maintaining the highest standards of security, compliance, and performance.Learn more at figment.io-------------------------------------------------------------------

The AI trade is back in the green after a volatile week as new reporting emerges of a massive $18B financing deal for an Oracle-tied data center. We dig into the massive U.S. AI spend and how compares to China's advancing AI efforts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week: Guest Co-Host Henry Harteveldt, Guest: Alex Mans. Founder & CEO, FLYR. Topics: AI for airlines; Yahrzeit for Ben Baldanza; The case for using the $18B trust fund to pay controllers; Listener input includes a correction relating to Ryanair, travel spend by different disposable income levels.

Topics:How to Prepare for a SaleCustomer Diversification as a Growth LeverImportance of Board Culture...and so much more.Top TakeawaysKeep leverage in check for stability. In the ImpactXM deal, David's team held the company for 10 years and achieved a 21x ROI. When COVID hit, low leverage and a diversified service mix kept the business alive. The lesson for independent sponsors: don't overextend just to win a deal. A strong balance sheet and disciplined cash management create the runway to survive shocks and capture long-term upside.Get the books in order before diligence. David explains that many deals fall apart because sellers aren't prepared. Independent sponsors should push for clean reporting, monthly closes, and 13-week cash flows. These basics streamline diligence, build investor confidence, and keep management focused on running the business.Board culture can drive exponential growth. Founder-led businesses often lack formal boards. Independent sponsors can add immediate value by instituting structured board meetings. Simple steps, like setting agendas, tracking follow-ups, and standardizing reporting, can shift a company from reactive to strategic and set the stage for growth.About David AcharyaDavid Acharya is the Managing Partner of Acharya Capital Partners, leading the firm's investing, strategy, and operations. With 25+ years of investing and transaction experience, he's known for hands-on value creation. He began his career in investment banking at JPMorgan Chase and Toronto Dominion, where he helped raise $18B+ across telecom, media, consumer, and financial sectors.About Acharya Capital PartnersAcharya Capital Partners (ACP) is a New York–based independent sponsor firm specializing in lower middle-market investments. The firm partners with founders and management teams to drive growth through disciplined buy-and-build strategies, operational enhancements, and professionalized governance. ACP focuses on companies in technology, media and telecommunications, marketing services, and light manufacturing, typically with $3–20 million of EBITDA.

Ty Harris is CEO and co-founder of Openly, a VC-backed startup reinventing homeowners insurance for independent agents. Before founding Openly in 2017, Ty co-founded Quote Hopper and spent 12+ years at Liberty Mutual, where he rose to EVP & Chief Product Officer overseeing $18B in premium across Liberty and Safeco brands, plus $3B across 17 countries. Earlier in his career, he lectured in economics and statistics at MIT and Northeastern, and began as a research assistant at Brookings. A Duke and MIT alum, Ty is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS).

Patch Tuesday. A data leak sheds light on North Korean APT Kimsuky. Apple introduces Memory Integrity Enforcement. Ransomware payments have dropped sharply in the education sector in 2025. A top NCS official warns ICS security lags behind, and a senator calls U.S. cybersecurity a “hellscape”. A Ukrainian national faces federal charges and an $11 million bounty for allegedly running multiple ransomware operations. Our guest is Jake Braun sharing the latest on Project Franklin. WhoFi makes WiFi a new spy. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today we are joined by Jake Braun, longtime DEF CON organizer, former White House official, and lead on DEF CON Franklin, sharing the latest on Project Franklin. Selected Reading Two Zero-Days Among Patch Tuesday CVEs This Month (Infosecurity Magazine) Fortinet, Ivanti, Nvidia Release Security Updates (SecurityWeek) ICS Patch Tuesday: Rockwell Automation Leads With 8 Security Advisories (SecurityWeek) SAP 'wins' Patch Tuesday with worse flaws than Microsoft  (The Register) Adobe Patches Critical ColdFusion and Commerce Vulnerabilities (SecurityWeek) Data leak sheds light on Kimsuky operations (SC Media) Apple Unveils iPhone Memory Protections to Combat Sophisticated Attacks (SecurityWeek) Learn about ChillyHell, a modular Mac backdoor (jamf) Ransomware Payments Plummet in Education Amid Enhanced Resiliency (Infosecurity Magazine) Critical infrastructure security tech needs to be as good as our smartphones, top NSC cyber official says (CyberScoop) Sen. King: Cyber domain is a ‘hellscape' that will be made worse by cuts (The Record) US indicts alleged ransomware boss tied to $18B in damages (The Register)Jeremy Clarkson's pub has been 'swindled' out of £27,000 by hackers (Manchester Evening News) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Inbal Shani, Chief Product Officer at Twilio, the $18B customer engagement powerhouse trusted by over 320,000 businesses worldwide.Inbal is a trailblazer in AI-first product development. Before joining Twilio, she led the launch of GitHub Copilot—one of the most transformative AI tools for developers, reshaping how engineers write code. Now at Twilio, she's steering a product portfolio that infuses AI into the heart of customer communications, helping companies unlock smarter, more personalized digital experiences at scale.In this conversation, Inbal shares why successful AI adoption goes far beyond adding models to features—it requires a rethinking of product strategy itself. She also dives into how Twilio measures real business impact from AI, why PMs need technical fluency more than ever, and what it takes to lead a product org into the AI-native future.What you'll learn:- How GitHub Copilot shaped Inbal's approach to building AI-native products.- Why AI adoption alone is not a product strategy—and what to focus on instead.- The metrics Twilio uses to evaluate AI's business impact.- The evolving technical skill set required for PMs in the age of AI.Key Takeaways

1005: "Great innovations are painkillers, not vitamins." In this episode, Peter High speaks with Shez Partovi, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer and Chief Business Leader of Enterprise Informatics at Royal Philips, a €18B global health technology leader. Shez shares how Philips is building people- and patient-centric innovation by partnering with healthcare providers, co-creating solutions, and scaling software and AI-driven insights to meet the growing demands of modern care delivery. A former AWS health exec and practicing neuroradiologist, Shez offers a unique lens on the convergence of tech and clinical practice. He outlines how Philips' software-first strategy is accelerating productivity, reducing clinician burnout, and expanding access to care while also navigating AI trust gaps and reshaping internal engineering practices. Key themes include: The strategy behind Philips' health tech transformation AI's role in automation, augmentation, and agility in care delivery Co-creation with health systems to drive scalable impact Philips' dual-speed innovation model (80% business-led, 20% moonshots)

Welcome back to the Pear Healthcare Playbook! Every week, we'll be getting to know trailblazing healthcare leaders and diving into building a digital health business from 0 to 1.We would greatly appreciate if you took a moment to listen to the episode on either Apple or Spotify and leave us a rating! Your support helps our guests' insights reach a larger audience!Today we're grateful to get to know Amar Kendale,  Co-founder and President of Homeward, a company reinventing how care is delivered in rural America. Amar has spent the last 20 years building healthcare products that make life better for patients, providers, and health plans. At Homeward he is focused on improving access to care in rural communities. Before that, he helped grow Livongo from an early-stage startup to its $18B acquisition by Teladoc, where he became Chief Product Officer.In this episode, we're diving into how Homeward started, the challenges in building in rural health, how Homeward operates and gets paid, and how the company hopes to scale and navigate the upcoming year. 

In October 2020, three contrarian medical professionals published The Great Barrington Declaration to great applause by the pro-business, anti-closure crowd. One of them, Jay Bhattacharya, now runs the NIH. Things are not going well under his watch. Last week, he was grilled in front of Congress about the $18B in proposed cuts to NIH funding. This happened a day after over 300 people under his guard published The Bethesda Declaration, a document filled with issues occurring under Bhattacharya's leadership. Derek discusses this new declaration and listens in on the Congressional hearing. The Bethesda Declaration An Uproar at the NIH The Disappearing Funds for Chronic Diseases Show Notes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textIf today's Pentagon brief were a movie, it'd be a dark comedy with no budget and a glitchy drone trying to play hero. Jared returns with another savage rundown of everything broken in military bureaucracy—from the $18B PCS debacle to the Air Force accidentally playing bumper cars with drones mid-flight.We're talking Space Force funding so bad it's practically space homelessness, transgender policy whiplash, B-21 bombers being bought like Costco bulk snacks, and a DoD so addicted to credit it'd make Congress blush. Add in China flexing its missile game and our response being “eh, maybe 145 bombers will fix it,” and you've got today's briefing.This episode's got radar bombs, hurricane hunters, lost civilian jobs, and a new Air Force Secretary who hopefully doesn't suck at graduation speeches.

Send us a textIn this extended Daily Drop, Jared unleashes a tactical nuke of sarcasm on the Pentagon's parade of WTF decisions. From billion-dollar contracts imploding to Airmen stuck in retirement limbo, it's clear nobody's steering this defense dumpster fire. Cyber Command wants to be SOCOM now (because that worked so well before), troops can't move because the PCS fairy ran out of money, and SpaceX is somehow our last hope in space. Also: PFAS water, political drama, and Congress failing military families… again.If you like your military updates with a side of rage and real talk, you're in the right TOC.

Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he breaks down today's biggest stories shaping America and the world. Trump's 100-Day Diplomacy: Wins and Setbacks Abroad – Trump scores victories as Mexico agrees to water deliveries, India ramps up U.S. oil purchases, and Egypt faces pressure to grant free U.S. access to the Suez Canal. But his strategy falters in Ukraine and Canada, with Putin walking away from negotiations and Canada electing a leftist government amid anti-Trump backlash. Can Trump Eliminate Income Tax? The Math Doesn't Work – The White House floats ending income taxes for Americans earning under $200K, funded by tariffs. But with federal spending at $18B/day and tariff revenue projected at $3B/day, the math—and the politics—don't support it without massive cuts. Supply Chain Reality: Mixed Signals from the Economy – Treasury says U.S. shelves are stocked and supply chains are realigning, but UPS layoffs and shrinking West Coast port traffic hint at deeper disruptions ahead. “Take Back Your Health” Campaign Launches Nationwide – HHS Secretary RFK Jr. leads a new effort to combat obesity, encourage fitness, and educate Americans on better food choices. The military obesity crisis adds urgency to the movement. Medical Breakthroughs on Gut Health – New research shows gut bacteria transplants can dramatically reduce fibromyalgia symptoms, and coffee (not caffeine) boosts resilience and gut health. Bryan toasts the news with his favorite brew, Wacker Coffee. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32​

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1028: Today we talk about VinFast ditching direct sales for a full franchise model, Slate launching a no-frills EV pickup that's shaking things up under $20K, and the growing movement toward skills-based hiring over college degrees.Show Notes with links:VinFast is officially out of the direct-to-consumer game in California, shifting gears to focus solely on franchised dealers across the U.S. The pivot comes as the Vietnamese EV maker wrestles with rising costs, sliding U.S. registrations, and mounting losses.VinFast is closing all 15 of its company-owned California showrooms in favor of a full franchise model.The brand currently has 38 dealer locations either open or on the way across 16 states.U.S. EV registrations dipped to just 367 in Jan–Feb 2025, an 18% year-over-year decline.The VF 8 accounted for 321 of those, while the three-row VF 9 saw just 46.The company posted a $3.18B net loss in 2024; despite revenue growth, operating costs surged.After months of mystery and speculation, Slate, the American EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has made its first big move—introducing an all-electric, highly customizable pickup that ditches luxury frills for practicality and affordability.Slate is taking a “clean slate” approach by skipping high-end trims and focusing on accessibility.It will be built in the U.S., comes with over 100 optional accessories, and starts below $20,000 after federal incentives.The flagship model is modular, converting from a 2-seat pickup to a 5-seat SUV with optional flat-pack kit.The interior is stripped-down with HVAC knobs, crank windows and a universal phone mount—your OS, your way.Specs include a 52–84 kWh battery, 150 kW RWD motor, 8-second 0-60, and up to 240 miles range.Slate will sell directly to consumers with a $50 reservation; first deliveries are slated for Q4 2026.CEO Chris Barman says: “The definition of what's affordable is broken. Slate exists to put the power back in the hands of customers who have been ignored by the auto industry.”Join Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier every morning for the Automotive State of the Union podcast as they connect the dots across car dealerships, retail trends, emerging tech like AI, and cultural shifts—bringing clarity, speed, and people-first insight to automotive leaders navigating a rapidly changing industry.Get the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/