Podcasts about 2B

Ben confronts, sorta, a grumpy old, white guy at the Jazz Festival. Oh, Chicago, why must you be the way you are? Meet Debby Pope, candidate for school board in district 2B on the north side. Think Bernie Sanders running for school board. Hear about her journey from Erasmus High School—in Brooklyn—to Chicago, where she was a public school teacher for many years.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi everyone, it's been a while! I decided to do an update, sharing details about what took me away from the channel. I also talk about different themes that have emerged in that time as well as themes that went away. Finally, I touch on all the companies I had invested in over the years, providing brief updates on each one. While it was a good way to lose money, there were some lessons in it, which I share at the end of the episode. $KOD (23:20) is one company I am excited about for an upcoming readout. DAYBREAK is a phase 3 clinical trial comparing Zenkuda (tarcocimab), KSI-501 (VEGF + IL-6 inhibition) and Aflibercept 2mg in wet AMD. This indication is a massive opportunity and is on track to release results in September 2026. The company trading at a $2B market cap today, which I think has potential to go much higher on a positive result. Disclaimer: All opinions expressed by Matt (or his guests) in this podcast are solely his (their) opinions. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Matt in this podcast as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his opinion. Matt's opinions are based upon information he considers reliable, but Matt (nor his guests) cannot warrant its completeness or accuracy, and it should not be relied upon as such. Matt (nor his guests) is/are not under any obligation to update or correct any information provided in this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Matt (nor his guests) does/do not guarantee any specific outcome or profit. You should be aware of the real risk of loss in following any strategy or investment discussed in this podcast. #biotech This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Frodan and Dishsoap gather again for the first episode of study hall on the new set 18. They discuss the balancing of the 18.2B patch and what the strongest comps are right now.Find all the comps talked about in this episode and more meta topics on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tftacademy.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow the daily updated comps tier list here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tftacademy.com/tierlist/comps⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download the new TFTAcademy overlay app today (open beta) https://tftacademy.com/overlay?source=socials

Part 1:We talk with Harvey Kronberg, publisher of the Quorum Report in Texas.We discuss the events of 9-11.We discuss how Trump is attempting to interfere with vote by mail, when, in Texas, most people in rural areas vote by mail. Data Centers are a concern in Texas. The top issues in Texas now are the economy, inflation, and corruption. The estimated cost of school vouchers has doubled, to $2B annually. We also discuss the anti-Muslim prejudice shown by the latest schoolbooks being adopted.Part 2:We talk with Bill Curry former state of Conn Controller, governor candidate, and with Robert Hennelly, General Manager of WBAI in NYC.We discuss the events of 9-11, and how WBAI was able to capture the events and transmit in real time. We discuss how the pollution as a result of the fires and buildings' destruction has affected first responders, and the people of NY. The current mayor, Mamdani, has made available the facts around this event, for the first time since 2001. Many people have been affected.  WNHNFM.ORG  production

Sean Emory, Founder and CIO of Avory & Co., discusses Oura's planned IPO and argues it signals the accelerating consumerization of healthcare. He highlights Oura's scale and financials, $1.2B in revenue, 74% growth, GAAP profitability, 5M paying subscribers, and 3.6M rings sold in the past 12 months, while emphasizing the story is bigger than "the next Fitbit."He frames the shift as driven by cheaper and smaller sensors, consumers paying more directly for health through higher deductibles, GLP-1s, and cash-pay services, and AI making health data more usable. Using Oura's S-1 cohort data (72% women, 73% age 45 or younger, 63% earning $100K or more, over half with a chronic condition), he explains why Oura won by targeting finger-based wearables, improving signal quality and wear time, and pairing hardware with subscriptions. He runs Oura lightly through Avory's 6M framework and flags retention and churn as the key unknown until more cohort data is public.Chapters00:00 Oura IPO Snapshot01:10 Channel Intro and Approach02:03 Why Oura Matters Now03:56 Big Tech Health Moves04:51 Three Forces Driving Change07:04 Who Uses Oura09:56 Winning the Finger13:31 Subscription and Engagement Loop16:06 6M Investor Lens19:59 What Comes NextMore from Avory & Co.Newsletter (Investing with Data): www.investingwithdata.com Website: avoryfunds.comInformational only. Not personal investment advice. Opinions reflect Avory & Co.'s views as of the recording date and may change. Avory & Co. and Sean Emory may hold positions in securities discussed. Do your own research and consult your financial professional before making investment decisions.

Aaron started Vestwell in 2016. Two years in, he had $500K in ARR and an investor asking if it would ever make money. During the 2021 bull market, VCs told him 401ks were too boring—they were busy chasing crypto. Then Morgan Stanley signed. Today Vestwell has 2.5 million people saving on the platform, over $200M in ARR, and just raised $385M at a $2B valuation.In this episode, Aaron breaks down why he white-labeled everything instead of building his own brand, how losing the JP Morgan bid as a 40-person startup still turned into one of his largest partnerships, and how a methodical cap table let him raise a Series A on a couple hundred thousand in revenue.Why You Should ListenWhy letting your customers keep their brand beats competing with them.How to raise a Series A with only a few hundred thousand in ARR.Why losing an enterprise deal is the start of the sale, not the end.Why you never regret firing someone too soon.Keywords startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, product market fit, finding pmf, Vestwell, Aaron Schumm, fintech, 401k, retirement savings, enterprise sales, channel partnerships, white label software, Series A fundraising, Morgan StanleyChapters00:00:00 Intro00:02:05 The Morgan Stanley Deal That Proved PMF00:08:32 A 401k So Bad It Started a Company00:10:23 Building V1 in a Regulated Industry00:17:07 Turning Advisors Into a Sales Channel00:23:57 Raising an A on $200K of Revenue00:31:16 Too Boring for the Crypto Bull Market00:38:45 Losing JP Morgan, Then Winning It Back00:43:23 Never Regret Firing Too SoonSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Teoscar talks to DV after hitting another 2-run 2B in the Dodgers 5-3 win over the Nationals. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leading the week: Kelly Lyons steps into the Innovation Hub's empty chair right as PSU — the Hub's fiscal sponsor — lands $6M for innovation and commercialization, and Rick had the story out before the Hub itself put out a statement. From there, Josh Carter's UpStart Collective marks 4 years and a full floor of Big Pink, a decade after Portland first waved him off. The Bend Venture Conference narrows its Growth Stage field to 15 semifinalists — heavy on Oregon names like Caravel Bio and Looptworks, with a few out-of-state ringers along for the ride — ahead of its October main-stage finale. And if you're building anything, circle September 15: that's the deadline for the Oregon AI Accelerator's zero-equity cohort, the Oregon Innovation Showcase's deeptech call, and Founders Inc's hardware program, all landing the same week. Plus: August's top 10 posts, in case you missed Panthalassa's $2B moment or the news that Portland Startup Week isn't what it used to be.CHAPTERS:00:00 - Oregon startup news intro02:15 - Oregon Innovation Showcase: Deep tech and hardware applications 03:18 - Oregon AI Accelerator: Cohort 2 applications (Due Sept 15) 04:25 - Founders Inc: Hard tech opportunities in the Bay Area 05:23 - Metro Region Innovation Hub: New Executive Director Kelly Lyons 09:18 - Bend Venture Conference: The 22-year angel investor legacy 11:55 - BVC Growth Stage Semi-Finalists: Tech Category19:00 - Silicon Florist turns 19: The 20-year celebration preview 24:45 - Upstart Collective: Celebrating 4 years in Big Pink 30:20 - Secrets LINKS:Innovation Hub names new director — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/01/portland-metro-region-innovation-hub-names-new-director/Portland Metro Region Innovation Hub — https://www.portlandmetrohub.org/Oregon AI Accelerator wants you — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/02/building-with-ai-oregon-ai-accelerator-wants-you/Oregon AI Accelerator — https://oregonaix.com/Learn to stop worrying and embrace AI with Scott Hanselman — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/02/learn-to-stop-worrying-and-embrace-ai-with-scott-hanselman/Steam Circuit — AI Without the Hype — https://www.steamcircuit.com/events/ai-builder-series-ai-without-the-hype-september-5-2026Oregon Innovation Showcase 2027 call for founders — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/03/interest-in-showcasing-your-innovation-youre-in-luck-oregon-innovation-showcase-2027-is-looking-for-folks-to-feature/Oregon Innovation Showcase — https://www.oregoninnovationshowcase.org/Bend Venture Conference reveals Growth Stage semifinalists — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/04/bend-venture-conference-2026-reveals-growth-stage-semifinalists/Bend Venture Conference — https://www.bendvc.com/Hardware / deep tech accelerator — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/04/looking-for-a-startup-accelerator-for-your-hardware-or-deep-tech-startup/Founders Inc Blueprint — https://f.inc/blueprintTop 10 Silicon Florist posts for August — https://siliconflorist.com/2026/09/01/top-10-silicon-florist-posts-for-august-2026/FIND RICK TUROCZY ON THE INTERNET AT…- https://patreon.com/turoczy- https://linkedin.com/in/turoczy- https://siliconflorist.substack.com/- https://pdxslack.comABOUT RICK TUROCZY ----------Rick Turoczy has been working in, on, and around the Portland, Oregon, startup community for nearly 30 years. He has been recognized as one of the “OG”s of startup ecosystem building by the Kauffman Foundation. And he has been humbled by any number of opportunities to speak on stages from SXSW to INBOUND and from Kobe, Japan, to Muscat, Oman, including an opportunity to share his views on community building on the TEDxPortland stage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj98mr_wUA0). All because of a blog. Weird.https://siliconflorist.com

AGENDA:  00:00 Nvidia crushes $96.2B quarter and nears $12.9B Hugging Face deal 13:52 OpenAI cuts off Cursor as the Altman–Musk feud escalates 17:40 OpenAI's 1,000-agent cyberattack triggers an industry wake-up call 22:58 Instinct hits $2.5B valuation as AI assistants gain spending power 36:39 Cognition targets $1.6B ARR as the coding-agent market explodes 40:31 AI forces every startup to become a compound company—or get left behind 52:42 Salesforce embraces Claude and outcome-based pricing in major AI reset 1:00:52 Stripe–PayPal deal collapses as both sides clash over price 1:02:31 Clay hits $7B and Linear reaches $100M ARR as agents choose their tools 1:11:52 Texas pauses Flock cameras as police-surveillance backlash grows

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

Dan Nathan interviews Phill Rosen, CEO/CTO and co-founder of Astraeus, an AI infrastructure company for wealth management. Rosen recounts his path from college dropout to fintech builder, including Orchard Platform and Even Financial (later MoneyLion Engine), explaining how API-embedded distribution and machine-learning signals improved lending decisioning while navigating regulatory explainability. He argues many “AI companies” mainly deploy or fine-tune others' models and that value often lies in data pipelines, governance, and deterministic software around AI. Rosen describes Astreus targeting independent RIAs and private-equity roll-ups (from ~$2B to ~$200B AUM) by unifying siloed legacy data, codifying compliance rules, and deploying “digital workers” with 90-day pilots to show operational ROI and enable scalable, auditable agentic workflows. They prefer model portability (often Gemini; testing Kimi 3) to manage cost and data sovereignty, and Rosen weighs whether LLMs commoditize into cloud-like infrastructure as tooling matures. —FOLLOW USYouTube: @RiskReversalMediaInstagram: @riskreversalmediaTwitter: @RiskReversalLinkedIn: RiskReversal Media The financial opinions expressed in Risk Reversal content are for information purposes only. The opinions expressed by the hosts and participants are not an attempt to influence specific trading behavior, investments, or strategies. Past performance does not necessarily predict future outcomes. No specific results or profits are assured when relying on Risk Reversal. Before making any investment or trade, evaluate its suitability for your circumstances and consider consulting your own financial or investment advisor. The financial products discussed in Risk Reversal carry a high level of risk and may not be appropriate for many investors. If you have uncertainties, it's advisable to seek professional advice. Remember that trading involves a risk to your capital, so only invest money that you can afford to lose. Derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than the amount originally deposited and any profit you might have made. This communication is not a recommendation or offer to buy, sell or retain any specific investment or service.

Nvidia posted a $96.2 billion quarter, forecast another year of major growth, and set off a conversation about whether the AI buildout is a durable boom or a hyperscaler-funded bubble. Ricker and Bon also get into the reported Nvidia and Hugging Face deal, what open-source AI infrastructure actually means, and why the gap between people who use AI fluently and those who do not may keep widening.They unpack the reported autonomous OpenAI breach of Hugging Face and the state investigations that followed. The conversation turns to whether AI companies, governments and ordinary businesses understand what agents can do when they can work directly with files and systems instead of being limited to a traditional interface.The Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic gets a closer look after a federal judge ruled against it. Ricker and Bon talk through Anthropic's limits on surveillance and autonomous-weapons use, the government's response, and what it says about the demand for frontier AI tools.Trump's proposed 50% tariffs on Canadian autos, parts and steel lead into a conversation about who ultimately pays when a tightly connected supply chain gets hit. They also cover Iran, natural-disaster anxiety, California earthquake scenarios and why a movie like The Dog Stars can make a normal afternoon feel much less normal.Then it is time for restaurant-business analysis. Jersey Mike's, Dave's Hot Chicken, Yum Brands, Blackstone, private equity, celebrity investors, food stocks and the surprisingly serious question of whether restaurant food is mostly mid all make the cut.The episode also includes a Ridley Scott movie review, a detour into the Google AI experience, the evolution of phones and streaming, and the usual weekend conversation.Chapters:0:00 Episode open and The Dog Stars3:16 Nvidia, Hugging Face and the weekly tech rundown10:00 The tech bubble, New York and Silicon Valley14:20 Nvidia's $96.2B quarter and Canadian tariffs18:40 Anthropic, the Pentagon and AI use limits28:42 Reported OpenAI breach of Hugging Face31:00 AI agents, the GUI and the AI skills gap35:00 Nepal, natural disasters and California earthquake fears40:00 Jersey Mike's, private equity and food stocks49:00 Dave's Hot Chicken, Yum Brands and Pepsi55:00 Restaurant takes and the cheeseburger origin story60:00 Basketball stories, The Weeknd and streaming music66:00 Phones, AI and what comes after the iPhoneFollow Ricker and Bon:http://instagram.com/rickerandbonhttp://tiktok.com/@rickerandbonhttps://youtube.com/@rickerandbonhttps://open.spotify.com/show/0n1m0eR2sYZU2EFhSwlqX1https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ricker-and-bon/id1367523204

Bray Hansel thought he was done. After a swollen left testicle led to an orchiectomy and a pathology report showing an eight-centimeter pure seminoma contained to the testicle, the 37-year-old financial advisor, husband, and father of three from outside Philadelphia went on surveillance feeling like a survivor — proud of what he'd gotten through and ready to move on. But testicular cancer had other plans.In this episode of It Takes Balls, Bray shares a story that captures just how unpredictable seminoma can be. What started as a borderline stage 2B diagnosis became months of confusing scans: a scan showing no active cancer, a blood test reading 0.00 cancer DNA, and normal tumor markers — all while a lone lymph node in his abdomen quietly kept growing. His care team's honest conclusion was that the cancer was declaring itself, landing Bray in the group of seminoma patients who need further treatment after an orchiectomy.Faced with several paths — BEP chemotherapy, carboplatin plus radiation, or a robotic RPLND — Bray walks through one of the most difficult decisions of his life. He explains why he had concerns about the long-term risks of chemo and radiation, and chose a robotic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection Penn. Of the 15 lymph nodes removed, five contained cancer — more than expected, but still low-volume, with no adjuvant therapy needed and roughly an 80% chance of staying recurrence-free at two years.Beyond the medicine, this is a conversation about perspective, humor, and community. Bray talks about coaching his undefeated soccer team through treatment, making an "RPLND playlist," showing his testicle to his buddies in a parking lot before surgery, and how a whole network — from his wife and friends Brandon, Alex, and Ryan to strangers who never knew they were helping — carried him through. He reflects on the phrase "a problem shared is a problem halved," how cancer deepened his marriage and relationships, and his desire to follow in the footsteps of TCAF's Jordan Jones by being a resource for the next guy.Whether you're navigating a seminoma diagnosis, weighing treatment options after an orchiectomy, or supporting someone through testicular cancer, Bray's story is a moving reminder that survivorship can add depth, connection, and even joy — and that no one has to face it alone.Provide your feedback on the podcast:https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org/itbsurveyJoin The Ball Room:https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org/theballroomWant to be a guest? Apply here:https://www.testicularcancerawarenessfoundation.org/it-takes-balls-submissionsConnect with Bray:https://www.instagram.com/haaaaaaaaansel/brayhansel@gmail.comFollow Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation:https://www.testescancer.orghttps://www.x.com/testescancer⁠https://www.instagram.com/testescancerhttps://www.facebook.com/tca.orgFollow Steven Crocker:https://www.instagram.com/stevencrockerhttps://www.facebook.com/steven.crocker2Theme song: No Time Like Now - Tom Willner www.tomwillner.com

What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here:Want my help starting a business? Join me here inside Zero To FounderSign up for my AI Masterclass: AI MasterclassFOLLOW TOM:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeuWOI EPISODES:FOLLOW LISA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisabilyeu/Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisabilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/womenofimpactTik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisa_bilyeu?lang=enCash App: Download Cash App Today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/v6nymgjl #CashAppPod*Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Cash App Green features, Savings, Direct deposit, Round ups, Overdraft coverage and Discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosure.Quince: Free shipping and 365-day returns at https://quince.com/impactpodWhatnot: Download the Whatnot app today and get free shipping on your first order.Ketone IQ: Visit https://ketone.com/IMPACT for 30% OFF your subscription orderEthos: Get a free quote at https://ethos.com/impactIncogni: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code IMPACT at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/impact ATT Business: Switch to AT&T Business at https://business.att.comPique: 20% off at https://piquelife.com/impactThe team dissects the viral Konstantin Kisin vs. Steve Keen debate—both former Impact Theory guests—on the central climate question of our time: is the answer to use less and shrink (de-growth), or to innovate our way forward? The host, who knows both men and calls them smart and well-intentioned, explicitly urges viewers not to pick a side and dismiss the other as stupid, but to find the one factual disagreement worth reasoning from. His own position leans hard toward innovation: drawing on Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist, he argues that 80,000 years of human progress make "it all ends now" an irrational bet, that we've innovated our way out of every prior crisis, and that de-growth—especially any talk of reducing world population—would trigger economic collapse that causes far more suffering than the problem it aims to solve. He respects Steve Keen's economic mind but argues Keen has essentially "given up," wishing we'd listened to engineers 50 years ago rather than charting a path forward now. He reframes the climate fight around tradeoffs the doom narrative ignores: citing Bjørn Lomborg's "it's real but overstated, and the solutions can be worse than the disease" framing, the roughly 140,000-plus annual heat deaths that air conditioning could prevent, and Jordan Peterson's warning about sacrificing today's actual poor for tomorrow's hypothetical poor. The conversation ranges across the East-vs-West Germany innovation contrast, a Peter Diamandis-style geoengineering thought experiment, why "politics is downstream of culture," and the host's more contested claim that climate panic often masks a desire for control and resentment—before ending on a speculative, openly-unsupported musing about the psychology behind who pushes it. A wide-ranging argument for optimism, first-principles thinking, and refusing to let "we're doomed" become the whole story.The team breaks down Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's latest move to tame rising long-term bond rates—and why the bond market is likely to keep testing him. After Bessent doubled buybacks from $2B to $4B per round (which briefly knocked yields down before they rebounded past where they started), two off-the-record Treasury officials leaked to CNBC that the Treasury General Account—the government's roughly $1-trillion checking account at the Fed—could be tapped to buy bonds en masse. The host walks through why that's a bigger deal than expected: using cash to retire long-duration bonds without issuing new supply makes the debt "evaporate," and the market has, at least for now, believed the rumor enough to push the 30-year and 10-year yields down. But he's clear about the catch: the TGA isn't a magic war chest—every dollar in it was borrowed via prior auctions, so spending it down just defers the problem and eventually requires selling more debt, pressuring the curve again. He frames the backdrop honestly: $40 trillion in debt, ~123% debt-to-GDP, climbing interest costs, Japan (the largest buyer of US debt) in trouble, China dumping Treasuries while hoarding gold, and gold overtaking the dollar as the top central-bank reserve asset. His throughline is that there's no silver bullet, only tradeoffs, and the only real fix is growing the real economy—rising middle-class wages adjusted for inflation, GDP moving from ~1.2% toward 3–4%—rather than financial engineering. Absent that, he lays out the grim menu every over-indebted empire faces: austerity, default, or inflating the currency to shrink the debt (which quietly impoverishes everyone paid or saving in dollars), and warns that another Covid-scale inflation spike without real growth is how you get to "pitchforks." The conversation closes on a lengthy, contested tangent about immigration incentive structures, the Nordic model, and social trust—with the host explicitly noting the Nordic countries themselves say they aren't socialist. A dense, sobering economics breakdown.The team breaks down the escalating US-Canada trade war after Canada walked away from a deal that would have sharply lowered tariffs on several key Canadian industries. The host argues Canada is making a serious economic miscalculation—laying out the dependency math: roughly 78% of Canadian exports rely on US consumer markets, and exports make up about 33% of Canada's GDP, versus Canada representing only around 13% of US imports and a small slice of US GDP. In his read, that asymmetry means Canada has far more to lose, and pivoting toward China—geographically distant and, as he notes, a non-market economy—is a poor substitute. He digs into what actually broke the deal per PM Mark Carney: autos, French-language and cultural protections, and, most importantly, a US demand to restrict Canada's ability to sign independent trade deals with other countries (read: China), pointing to Canada's stated goal of a 50% export increase to China by 2030, Carney's January Beijing visit, and a flurry of mutual tariff cuts (including slashing Canada's 100% EV tariff to ~6%) as evidence of a rapidly warming relationship. But the host is pointedly two-sided: he says the US had understandable strategic reasons to push for guarantees, while blasting Trump's "51st state" rhetoric and bullying public posture as counterproductive—using it as a lesson he teaches entrepreneurs about always showing the other side how a deal is a win for them, and the human psychology of how people resist being forced into even things that serve their interests. He walks through the granular US demands (auto assembly, procurement, energy allocation, language laws) and their second-order effects, and closes on a contested hypothesis that Canada may be more ideologically aligned with China than the US. A dense, numbers-driven, deliberately even-handed breakdown of leverage, strategy, and a deal gone sideways.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I. A Troubling Report II. Prompting Intercession III. The Vision's Fulfillment Scripture Reading: Zechariah 1 Text: Zechariah 1:7-17 Psalter Numbers: 85A, 2B, 97B, 72H

The mates discuss NVIDIA's $96.2B quarter and the AI circular economy, China's 200,000 fake accounts, Flock's 20 billion license plate scans, OpenAI's new chip, why only 4% of companies are cutting jobs due to AI, and a major breakthrough that has doubled pancreatic cancer survival. Sign up for our AMA at ⁠http://Moonshots.com/ama Get access to metatrends 10+ years before anyone else - https://qr.diamandis.com/metatrends   Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is the Founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University, ZeroG, and A360 Salim Ismail is the founder of Open ExO, a GP at Exponential Venture Capital/The Organizational Singularity Fund and a sought after global speaker and thought leader. Dave Blundin is the founder & GP of Link Ventures Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross is a computer scientist and founder of Reified – My companies: Apply to Dave's and my new fund:https://qr.diamandis.com/linkventureslanding   Get the blueprint for generative media https://goo.gle/startupgenmedia  Go to Blitzy to book a free demo and start building today: https://qr.diamandis.com/blitzy   Your body is incredibly good at hiding disease. Schedule a call with Fountain Life to add healthy decades to your life, and to learn more about their Memberships: https://www.fountainlife.com/peter  _ Connect with Peter: X Instagram Substack Website Xprize A360 Connect with Dave: Web X LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Connect with Salim: LinkedIn X Join Salim's 10X Shift Subscribe to Salim's YouTube channel Exponential Venture Capital Connect with Alex Website LinkedIn X Email Substack  Spotify Threads Listen to MOONSHOTS: Apple YouTube Follow MOONSHOTS:  Instagram TikTok X Threads – *Recorded on August 28th, 2026 *The views expressed by me and all guests are personal opinions and do not constitute Financial, Medical, or Legal advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Crypto News: SEC resurrecting U.S. crypto custody rule the previous administration failed to land. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Santander & over a dozen major banks move forward with plans to launch a crypto stablecoin. Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin crosses $2B in market cap, with $963M issued on the XRP Ledger and $1.1B on Ethereum.

The Last Trade: Bitcoin just posted its second best week since February 2021, up about 24% from roughly 62,000 to a high near 80,000, and Brian calls it the biggest dollar magnitude move ever inside a three to five day span. Gold and Bitcoin ETFs pulled a combined $7 billion in a single week, a record for any five day period. Jackson, Michael, and Brian trace it back to the Treasury's bond buybacks and Stanley Druckenmiller's op-ed calling out his own former protege.---

Deals reporter Valida Pau talks with TITV Host Akash Pasricha about Nvidia's plan to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. We also talk with Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, about Nvidia's Q2 sales doubling to a whopping $96.2B, and The Information's Laura Bratton & KeyBanc Capital Markets' Jackson Ader about Salesforce's 14-point stock jump yesterday.Articles discussed on this episode: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-agrees-buy-open-source-model-repository-hugging-face-12-9-billionSubscribe: 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/

Chris is the Co-Founder and CEO of Drive Capital. Prior to Drive, Chris was a Partner at Sequoia Capital where he helped launch the firm's first growth fund. Chris left Sequoia in 2012 to start Drive in Ohio on a single bet: the best companies in America are getting built outside Silicon Valley (and almost nobody's funding them). Thirteen years later, Drive has handed back over $1 billion to its investors in a market where most funds can't return a dollar.We talk chasing $2B outcomes instead of $50B, when his lead investor pulled out the day he moved from SF to Columbus, why only 100 of 3,500 firms can raise right now, the welders quitting to drive DoorDash, and why America is the best emerging market on earth.Thanks to this episodes sponsors!Numeral: Sales tax on autopilot https://www.numeral.comFlex: Premium banking, 60-day credit, 0% APR https://home.flex.one/referral/bananacapitalAmplitude: AI analytics https://www.amplitude.comMerge: Every model, one API https://www.merge.dev/turnerMonaco: The revenue engine for startups https://www.monaco.com/Timestamps:(0:00) America is the best emerging market(8:13) Why this couldn't have happened pre-2006(10:48) Top lessons from 10 years at Sequoia(14:17) Why the "meeting factory" model fails(21:42) Searching for vacuums(24:51) Sequoia passed on a company 10 miles too far(29:37) Greece's GDP equals Detroit's(34:34) The biggest tech companies aren't in SF(40:28) 223 meetings to raise Fund 1(44:27) Turning one fund into a product catalog(48:47) The day his biggest LP pulled out(52:08) Fundraising is a persistence game(57:36) Returning $500M in a single week(59:56) Only 12 companies hit $50B in 20 years(1:01:29) Why Drive owns 30%, not 10%(1:05:03) Returns over logos, the carry math(1:10:00) Mindset of VC's outside SF(1:15:54) How AI unlocks boring, giant markets(1:19:22) Investing in catalysts, not sectors or geo(1:25:35) 3,500 firms raised, 100 survived(1:31:33) OpenAI won't eat every other company(1:37:46) Compete with yesterday's version of yourself(1:40:19) Small changes, compounding resultsReferencedDrive Capital: http://drivecapital.com/Follow ChrisTwitter: https://x.com/ChrisOlsenCMHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cholsenFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Good afternoon, I'm _ with today's episode of EZ News. Tai-Ex opening The Tai-Ex opened up 57-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 45,890 on turnover of 8.4-billion N-T. However, the main board surged nearly 400 points within ten minutes of the opening bell to bounce back over the 46,000 mark, as investors were boosted by Nvidia's latest quarterly results - which beat expectations. AI-related and heavyweight electronics stocks are in focus this morning. Lawmakers to vote on drone procurement bills today Lawmakers are voting today on competing (競爭的) drone procurement (採購) bills. The vote had originally been scheduled for tomorrow. However, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu proposed bringing it forward during cross-party caucus talks. The legislative caucuses agreed to move up the vote to allow lawmakers to return to their districts to inspect damage caused by the recent heavy rains and flooding in southern Taiwan. However, the D-P-P, K-M-T and Taiwan People's Party caucuses failed to agree on key aspects of the bills, including which ministry will oversee the drone procurement program, the budget for drone procurement and whether annual spending caps will be imposed. ASF found in** pig carcass in Kinmen and pork shipments suspended** The Kinmen County Government has suspended shipments of pork and processed pork products to Taiwan proper and other outlying islands after a African swine fever was detected in the carcass of a pig that had washed ashore. The suspension (暫停) of shipments of processed pork products runs until next Monday. Live pigs from Kinmen are already banned from being shipped to Taiwan proper and other outlying islands under existing regulations. According to Kinmen County Department of Economic Development, the pig carcass was found on the shoreline at Wu-sha-jiao in Jin-ning Township on Saturday by Coast Guard personnel. County animal health officials disinfected the site as well as the surrounding area. USArmy to spend $2B to build nuclear microreactors at 5 bases as US seeks to ramp up nuclear power The US Army is set to spend $2-billion dollars to build nuclear microreactors (微型核反應爐) at 5 bases as the country seeks to ramp up nuclear power. AP's Lisa Dwyer reports Canada PM to Address EU Parliament Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will address the European Parliament next month in a high-profile visit that underscores Canada's push to deepen ties with Europe. The announcement Wednesday comes after a sharp break with the United States under President Donald Trump as the trade war escalates. The prime minister will also attend the European Union's annual State of the Union address. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to deliver her annual address Sept. 16. Carney is expected to speak the following day. The visit comes days after U.S.-Canada trade talks collapsed and Trump imposed new 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, prompting (推動，使) Ottawa to announce retaliatory tariffs. Carney has set a goal of doubling Canada's non-U.S. exports over the next decade as he seeks to reduce the country's economic dependence on the United States. That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _. －－－－以下為 SoundOn 動態廣告－－－－ 準備賣房嗎？ 即日起至12月31日， 把房屋專任委託給台南住商不動產，即可參加「好友五吉」抽獎活動，賣房抽五機~有機會抽中最新 iPhone 18！ 錦上添花, 好運大獎拿不完! 詳情請洽台南住商任一加盟店。 https://sofm.pse.is/9kbkd3 -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3U6PdsL David Bahnsen opens from The Bahnsen Group's new Santa Barbara (Montecito) office, briefly recaps markets (Dow up ~0.25%, S&P down ~0.25%, Nasdaq down ~0.75% led by semiconductors; staples and financials up, tech down), and argues recent 10-year yield trading has been relatively range-bound. He focuses on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's announced 30-year Treasury buybacks ($2B now, potentially $4B in September) aimed at lowering long-end rates and term premium, likening it to an “Operation Twist” style intervention. Bahnsen says the move briefly lowered the 30-year yield about 10 bps but largely failed and is unlikely to work long term, criticizing government attempts to override market price discovery. He attributes higher long yields mainly to 30-year market illiquidity and new competing long-dated issuance from AI hyperscalers. He also covers U.S.-Canada tariff threats and retaliation, upcoming data/events (PCE, durable goods, Nvidia earnings, Warsh at Jackson Hole), WTI down ~2.5% near $85, and promotes his new book, “Profit from the Prophet,” releasing tomorrow. 00:00 Welcome From Montecito 01:06 Market Snapshot Today 01:38 Is Bond Volatility Overstated 02:58 Treasury Buyback Plan Explained 05:53 Did It Work Short Term 06:59 Can It Work Long Term 07:55 Why Long Yields Rose 12:05 Concerns About Intervention 13:52 Tariffs Canada Trade Spat 15:30 Week Ahead Data And Jackson Hole 16:27 Book Launch And Wrap Up Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Van & X return for a jam-packed, D23 edition of The Black Variant as the X-Men cast is revealed. Plus - Spider-Man: Brand New Day passes $2B, HBO and DC Studios clash, D23 goodies like the Ahsoka S2 trailer, Vision Quest with James Spader returning as Ultron, Season 3 finale of House of the Dragon, and more this week on The Black Variant. Tap in!Subscribe to Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theblackvariantrncFollow The Black Variant on Twitter: twitter.com/BlackVariantRNCFollow Van: twitter.com/1017VanFollow X: twitter.com/XTheExiledFollow Syd: twitter.com/SydSlidePark

August 20, 2026: Your daily rundown of health and wellness news, in under 5 minutes. Today's top stories: Target adds 4,600 new food items in a grocery overhaul leaning into discovery and emerging brands, targeting over $2B in growth over the next few years SUMMITS and Hyphen combine nutrition software with automated makelines to personalize institutional food service using wearable and sleep data Josh Kushner and Bob Iger buy the Lakers for a record $12.5B as sports and wellness merge into a shared identity economy for Gen Z More from Fitt: Fitt Insider breaks down the convergence of fitness, wellness, and healthcare — and what it means for business, culture, and capital. Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe  Work with our recruiting firm → https://talent.fitt.co/ Follow us on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/fittinsider/ Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider  Reach out → insider@fitt.co 

The Last Trade: the US Treasury just doubled its long-dated debt buybacks, turning a $2B daily cap into a $4B daily floor, and long yields fell, gold jumped $100 an ounce, and Bitcoin ripped a five thousand dollar candle. Jackson, Michael, and Brian make the case that this is the opening move of yield curve control and the Bitcoin thesis playing out in real time. They also cover Citi confirming Bitcoin custody, the Trezor shipping breach, and why the flight into ETFs is the wrong lesson.---

- Beltway Blitz: Nats, NFL, Commanders - The concerts continue at Nats Park this week! - Paul Toboni talks with the Junkies about moving CJ Abrams to 2B

-What do you think of the Nats moving CJ Abrams to 2B? - Injury Updates For Key Commanders - Top Audio From Around the NFL and Biggest News

- Beltway Blitz: Nats, NFL, Commanders - Is CJ Abrams moving to 2B the right move for the Nats? - How does CJ Abrams moving to 2B affect his future with the Nats?

Jeffrey Bellone ("Mets Fix") is here to discuss the Mets' hot play since the deadline. We talk about what's next for 1B and 2B, the new-look bullpen, the future of Andy Greene, and whether this season can be a long-term positive. Join us! #Mets #LGM

HOW TO MAKE MY MARRIAGE BETTER Proverbs 14:1 The WISE woman builds her house, but with her own hands the FOOLISH one TEARS HERS DOWN (NIV) Proverbs 24:3–4 By WISDOM a house is built, and through understanding it is established; 4 through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures (NIV) James 3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from WISDOM (NIV) 1. GROWING MARRIAGES CHOOSE HUMILITY OVER PRIDE 2. GROWING MARRIAGES REJECT ENVY AND SELFISHNESS James 3:14–15 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic (NIV) 2A. BITTER ENVY TURNS PARTNERS INTO COMPETITORS 2B. BITTER ENVY KILLS CELEBRATION 2C. BITTER ENVY PRODUCES EMOTIONAL DISTANCE 2D. SELFISH AMBITION WILL ALSO RUIN A MARRIAGE 2E. SELFISH AMBITION REPLACES SERVANTHOOD WITH SELF-CENTEREDNESS 2F. SELFISH AMBITION MAKES ONE SPOUSE’S NEEDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE OTHER SPOUSE’S 2G. SELFISH AMBITION CAN CREATE RESENTMENT 2H. SELFISH AMBITION CREATES CONTROL AND MANIPULATION 2I. SELFISH AMBITION PUSHES GOD OUT OF THE CENTER 3. BITTER ENVY AND SELFISH AMBITION PRODUCE DISORDER AND EVIL James 3:16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice (NIV) 3A. CONSTANT ARGUING 3B. CONSTANT EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY 3C. COMMUNICATION IS CONDESCENDING 3D. THERE’S DIVISION 3E. IT LEADS TO EVERY EVIL PRACTICE 4. GROWING A BETTER MARRIAGE REQUIRES APPLYING GODLY WISDOM James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is FIRST pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere (ESV) 4A. PURE Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me (NIV) 4B. PEACEABLE 4C. GENTLE Proverbs 15:1 A GENTLE answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (NIV) 4D. OPEN TO REASON 4E. FULL OF MERCY 4F. FULL OF GOOD FRUITS 4G. IMPARTIAL 4H. SINCERE

The latest Spider-Man film, Brand New Day, is headed towards $2B at the box office! It's got action, laughs, the Punisher, Hulk, and shirtless Tom Holland. What's not to like?! Join us for a spoiler-filled review and share your thoughts as we ponder the question: is this the best MCU Spider-Man film yet??

-CJ Abrams to move to 2B; Reacting to Commanders inactives for tonight - Hearing takes from national media on the JD5-LSU situation

August 14, 2026: Your daily rundown of health and wellness news, in under 5 minutes. Today's top stories: JG Wentworth survey finds 92% of US adults have delayed or abandoned medical care due to cost, creating an opening for lower-cost consumer health models Regenerative farming products hit $2B in annual US retail sales as 40 global food companies sign onto an initiative tying sourcing to soil health Eli Lilly files six lawsuits against sellers of unapproved retatrutide as CBP intercepts nearly 90,000 illicit GLP-1 vials in July alone Today's episode is brought to you by AIIR — a modern communications and experiential agency for health, wellness, fitness, and performance brands. From earned media to events and creator-led campaigns, AIIR helps companies sharpen their story, earn attention, and build trust that compounds. Visit https://aiir.agency to learn more. More from Fitt: Fitt Insider breaks down the convergence of fitness, wellness, and healthcare — and what it means for business, culture, and capital. Subscribe to our newsletter → insider.fitt.co/subscribe Work with our recruiting firm → https://talent.fitt.co/ Follow us on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/fittinsider/ Follow us on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/fittinsider Reach out → insider@fitt.co

LA gets flipped for a quick 2B profit. Jayden Daniels serves his alma matter. Football is back!!!! Mattisms strike again with a round peg square hole......

Live August 13, 2026  | Yaron Brook Show(Season 12, Episode 135)Assassination?; Tucker/Shapiro; Qatar; Rent; Data Centers; Refunds; Achievement | Yaron Brook Show"Trump's own Secretary of State was left on a plane he thought was about to be shot down — while his ex-caddy got a seat in the food cart. What does that tell you about this presidency?"Trump escaped a plane he thought Iran was going to shoot down — by hiding in an airline food cart. His Secretary of State stayed on the "decoy." His former caddy didn't. I break down why this story is both hilarious and terrifying, and why the same week Qatar quietly became the single largest foreign funder of American universities — bigger than AIPAC could ever dream of — nobody in Washington is talking about it.Then: Tucker Carlson didn't just insult Ben Shapiro this week. He ran a textbook antisemitic conspiracy theory — "an employee," "somehow got into Harvard," "represents larger interests" — dressed up as media criticism. And Shapiro's response proves why appeasing evil only feeds it.Plus: Zohran Mamdani hasn't taken office yet and Manhattan rent already hit an all-time high of $6,655/month. Rent control is working exactly as economics predicts — just not the way Mamdani promised. I also debunk the data-center land panic, show you exactly which companies got billion-dollar tariff refunds (proof Americans, not foreigners, pay the tax), and close with a medical drone that saved a man's life in Sweden before the ambulance even arrived.TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – Cold open: the Iran assassination plot and Trump's food-cart escape 2:53 – Inside the getaway: catering carts, decoy jets, and who Trump chose to save 9:26 – Why the whole "decoy" story doesn't add up 18:12 – Qatar's $6.6 billion capture of American universities — bigger than AIPAC, and nobody's talking about it ~25:00 – Tucker Carlson's "employee" smear of Ben Shapiro, decoded line by line ~38:49 – The "somehow got into Harvard" line and why it's classic antisemitic conspiracism ~45:00 – Why Ben Shapiro's refusal to call Tucker evil makes Tucker stronger ~52:00 – The Gen Z "$20 burrito" myth — and why Gen Z is the richest generation in history ~58:00 – Mamdani hasn't taken office and Manhattan rent already hit $6,655/month ~1:05:00 – Rent control 101: why 57,000 rent-stabilized apartments sit empty ~1:09:00 – Data-center land panic vs. the actual math (hint: corn subsidies dwarf it) 1:16:43 – The tariff refund list: Apple got $2.2B back — proof you paid the tax 1:23:10 – Human Achievement: the drone that restarted a man's heart before the ambulance arrivedLive audience questions are answered throughout the stream on Tucker/Shapiro, the Iran assassination plot, and rent control — drop yours in the chat next time we go live.Watch now: https://youtube.com/live/9JkNes9Te6M#TuckerCarlson #BenShapiro #maga #trump #iran #Antisemitism #QatarInfluence #RentControl #TariffsAreTaxes #nycrentals  #Capitalism #Objectivism #ForeignPolicy #FreeMarkets #AynRandLike this episode?Subscribe, share it with friends, and become a Patreon supporter to access monthly AMAs, exclusive content, and commercial-free audio.The Yaron Brook Show is Sponsored by[The Ayn Rand Institute](https://www.aynrand.org/starthere)[Energy Talking Points, featuring AlexAI, by Alex Epstein](https://alexepstein.substack.com/)[Express VPN](https://www.expressvpn.com/yaron)[Hendershott Wealth Management](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4lfC...) &(https://hendershottwealth.com/ybs/)[Michael Williams & The Defenders of Capitalism Project](https://www.DefendersOfCapitalism.com)[Support the Show]( / yaronbrookshow )[Sponsor the Show](askyaron@yaronbrookshow.com/)[One-time donation](https://bit.ly/2RZOyJJ)Join the [Yaron Brook Show YouTube channel]( / @yaronbrook )Like what you hear? Like, share, and subscribe to stay updated on new videos and help promote the [Yaron Brook Show](https://bit.ly/3ztPxTx)Continue the discussion by following Yaron on [Twitter](https://bit.ly/3iMGl6z) and [Facebook](https://bit.ly/3vvWDDC )Want to learn more about Ayn Rand and Objectivism? Visit the [Ayn Rand Institute](https://bit.ly/35qoEC3)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/yaron-brook-show--3276901/support.Yaron is the executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute and a world class speaker. He is the coauthor of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand's Ideas Can End Big Government, Equal is Unfair: America's Misguided Fight Against Income Inequality and In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case for Finance. He speaks around the world on a variety of topics including the morality of capitalism, Ayn Rand and her philosophy, finance and economics, and the value of inequality.

Topics covered in this episode: Claude Code /insights Post-quantum crypto lands in Python MCP goes stateless — and FastMCP gets renamed inshellisense - IDE style command line auto complete Extras Joke Watch on YouTube About the show Sponsored by Xweather Xweather combines enterprise-grade weather intelligence with agent-ready APIs, natural language capabilities, and an MCP server so your agents can adapt workflows, automate responses, and make better decisions based on real-world conditions. Michael will tell you more about them later in the show. Get started for free at pythonbytes.fm/xweather Connect with the hosts Michael: Mastodon / BlueSky / X / LinkedIn Calvin: Mastodon / BlueSky / X / LinkedIn Show: Mastodon / BlueSky / X Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Tuesday at 7am PT. Older video versions available there too. Finally, if you want an artisanal digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it. Michael #1: Claude Code /insights Michael's Insights: michael-kennedy-claude-code-insights-2026-08-09.html Be careful sharing these outputs, they include details references to your projects, errors, security findings, etc. ;) /insights reads your last 30 days of local session transcripts and hands back an interactive HTML report on how you actually work. One command, zero setup: type /insights in a session, or run claude -p "/insights" from the shell for a non-interactive version that just prints the path Reads what's already on disk: pulls session logs from ~/.claude/projects/, skipping agent sub-sessions and anything under 2 messages or 1 minute Project areas: clusters your sessions into themes like "CLI Tooling" or "Documentation" with session counts Friction analysis: categorizes where things went wrong by root cause - and quotes your own prompts back at you Interaction style: tells you whether you're a delegator or a micromanager, plus which workflows are worth doubling down on Actually actionable: suggests concrete CLAUDE.md additions and Claude Code features you're not using The catch: Haiku does the per-session classification, so the first run takes several minutes; results cache to ~/.claude/usage-data/facets/ and the report lands at ~/.claude/usage-data/report.html Calvin #2: Post-quantum crypto lands in Python pyca/cryptography 48 ships ML-KEM (key establishment) and ML-DSA (signatures) — NIST's post-quantum standards, now one pip install away. Big deal because it's the 11th most-downloaded package on PyPI (~1.2B downloads/month) and sits under Ansible, Certbot, Airflow, and paramiko. No PQ there, no PQ anywhere in Python. Trail of Bits did the work (Rust bindings, cross-backend API, tests, AWS-LC backend support), funded by the Sovereign Tech Agency. Timing tracks a June 22 White House order setting federal deadlines: PQ key establishment by end of 2030, PQ signatures by end of 2031. Not a drop-in swap — the wire sizes explode. ML-DSA-65 signatures are 3,309 bytes vs Ed25519's 64; ML-KEM-768 public keys are 1,184 bytes vs X25519's 32. Hardcoded field sizes and length prefixes will bite. API looks like the existing asymmetric primitives, except ML-KEM is encapsulate/decapsulate rather than a Diffie-Hellman exchange. SLH-DSA (the hash-based conservative backstop) is still in progress. The primitives are here, but protocols haven't caught up — so you won't be running post-quantum Certbot this week. Sponsor: Xweather You're using agents that can write code, summarize documents, and automate workflows. But they're missing one thing: awareness of the world around them. This is where today's sponsor, Xweather comes in. Xweather combines enterprise-grade weather intelligence with agent-ready APIs, natural language capabilities, and an MCP server built for tools like Claude, Codex, Copilot, and modern IDEs – so your agents can adapt workflows, automate responses, and make better decisions based on real-world conditions. Backed by Vaisala, whose instruments fly on NASA missions to Mars, Xweather delivers trusted data and unique insights that go beyond conditions to actual impact – from real-time lightning strikes to road surface forecasts. Start with 15,000 free API calls each month and pay only for what you use as you grow. Xweather is your full weather stack, for developers by developers. Start building for free today at pythonbytes.fm/xweather. The link is in your podcast player's show notes and on the episode page. Thanks so much to Xweather for supporting Python Bytes. Calvin #3: MCP goes stateless — and FastMCP gets renamed From Philipp Acsany over at Real Python The 2026-07-28 spec landed July 28 and the Python SDK shipped 2.0.0 the same day. Biggest rewrite since MCP launched, and it's breaking on purpose. Context for scale: the Tier 1 SDKs are pulling close to half a billion downloads a month, with TypeScript and Python each past a billion total. The headline is the stateless core. The initialize/initialized handshake and the Mcp-Session-Id header are both retired — protocol version, client identity, and capabilities now ride in _meta on every request, with an optional server/discover RPC if a client wants capabilities up front. Any request can land on any instance behind plain round-robin, no shared storage. Server-initiated calls are the hard part of the migration. Sampling, elicitation, and roots/list no longer call back to the client; instead the server returns resultType: "input_required" and the client retries with inputResponses attached. Multi Round-Trip Requests, MRTR. Also: Mcp-Method and Mcp-Name are now required headers so gateways route on headers instead of cracking JSON bodies, and missing-resource errors move to standard 32602. Deprecation sweep with an actual policy behind it — Roots, Sampling, Logging, and the legacy HTTP+SSE transport all deprecated with a twelve-month minimum offramp. Tasks graduated out of the experimental core into a real extension, which is what the formalized extensions framework was for. MCP Apps is now an official extension too, so a tool call can return sandboxed interactive HTML. Auth picked up RFC 9207 issuer validation, issuer-bound credentials, and a shift from DCR toward CIMD. Python SDK 2.0 is where it gets personal: FastMCP is now MCPServer, no alias, no shim. McpError → MCPError. Wire types went snake_case (is_error, input_schema) and moved to a standalone mcp_types package, with mcp.types kept as a permanent alias. One Client object replaces the old transport + ClientSession + initialize() stack. httpx became httpx2. Sync handlers run on worker threads now, so asyncio.get_running_loop() raises inside them. The good news: one MCPServer serves both protocol eras, so 2025-era clients keep working with nothing to configure, and a Resolve(fn) parameter lets one tool body cover MRTR and the old path. 1.x is maintenance-and-security-fixes only — pin mcp>=1.28,

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticJoin The Normandy For Ad-Free NME, Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0KIn this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, Analytic Dreamz covers the viral clip of Drake barking during his 20v1 and analyzes the effects plus revenue from clipping culture. Networks drove billions of views elevating creators: Clavicular saw ~1,600 clippers, 70k videos and 2B+ views while Adin Ross gained 430M views from 11k videos by 520 clippers, turning short-form content into primary discovery on TikTok, Reels and Shorts. Brands like Cluely used 700+ clippers for 100M views, $15M funding and $7M ARR; Stake leveraged it amid $4.7B revenue. Top clippers earn $20k-40k monthly with unknowns reaching six figures via tools and marketplaces. Analytic Dreamz ends with RJ3's unreleased track Clip (Clipping) Farm.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

California pays 270 people to investigate Medicaid fraud. In 2024 they returned 32 indictments. Arizona pays 33 people and returned 82.   PeterSchweizer and Eric Eggers break down 'the summer of fraud' on ep. 281 of The Drill Down.   Federal Medicaid recoveries went from 1.4B to 2B. CMS withheld 351M from Minnesota and 1.3B from California. Alabama employs seven fraud investigators. Minnesota employs 28.   Chapters: (02:33) The federal numbers (07:58) California's 32 indictments (10:37) Alabama has seven (15:01) 1.9B to the Virgin Islands, zero homes (19:09) Minnesota and Feeding Our Future (26:13) What happens when the money stops

Sixteen years ago, my very first podcast conversation was with my sales coach Matt Nettleton. So, naturally, when Matt came back to More Than A Few Words, we talked about how the fundamentals of good sales haven't changed all that much. Matt and I agree that when you're starting a business, a qualified prospect is often anyone with a pulse, a checkbook and the ability to fog a mirror. And that's okay. You have bills to pay. But eventually, you need to get a little pickier. We have talked for years about customers as deer, moose and elephants. The problem is, too many salespeople spend their days chasing squirrels and rabbits while trying to hit goals that require much bigger game. And then there's the really big elephant. What happens when you land a customer that's actually too big? Matt shared the story of a client preparing to chase an opportunity that would increase revenue by 50% in about 60 days. Sounds fabulous, right? Except they didn't have the people, cash or capacity to deliver. They walked away, found two customers that were a much better fit and ended up growing 30%. Sometimes saying no really is a growth strategy. In this episode of More Than A Few Words, Matt Nettleton and I talk about knowing who belongs in your sales pipeline, giving yourself permission to let bad prospects go and why the customers who got you here may not be the customers who take you where you want to go. And yes, after sixteen years, we're still talking about deer, moose and elephants.   ***************************************************** About Matt Nettleton For Indianapolis Business Owners Tired of the Revenue Roller Coaster | I Build Sales Engines That Forecast Accurately | Sandler-Certified | My Clients Have Closed $3.2B+ in New Sales | Book a 30-Min Diagnostic Call Matt is also the host of the Default Profitable podcast, where I interview successful small business owners and share valuable insights, tips, and trends on starting and running a business. I am a certified instructor of Sandler Training, Extended DISC, PeopleBest and OMG Profile. I specialize in sales organizational assessment, sales process development, and leadership programs. More Than a Few Words More Than a Few Words is a bite-sized marketing podcast for people who want practical ideas they can actually use. Each episode cuts through the noise with smart conversations about what's working, what's changing, and every now and then, what went wrong. Hosted by marketing strategist Lorraine Ball, the show has been serving up marketing ideas with no fluff and no jargon since 2010. Like what you hear? Follow More Than a Few Words so you never miss a conversation. https://morethanafewwords.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraineball/

Group Chat News is back with the hottest stories of the week, including why movies are suddenly back with [Spider-Man clearing ~$1B globally in its opening weekend], Jonah Hill announcing he'll annihilate anyone who calls him the fat funny guy from Superbad, and the [$2.2B tariff refund Apple just got] that isn't showing up in anybody's prices. Plus a 25-year-old who ran a fund to $45B and got margin called on his wedding weekend, Elon saying money will be worthless by 2036, and colleges quietly spending endowment money that donors thought was going somewhere else. This week's Group Chat covers: Movies are back — Odyssey, The Invite, and two theater trips a month Why streaming is losing — no Stranger Things-level show to stay home for [Spider-Man's ~$1B opening weekend] and the flight to quality Jonah Hill says he'll beat up anyone who calls him the fat funny guy from Superbad White belt confidence, early martial arts syndrome, and why the guys still think everyone should learn to fight LeBron, Kevin Hart and Rich Paul golfing at [Sherwood] — and how nothing stays secret in LA [The Supreme Court overturning the tariffs] — and the refunds companies are getting back [Apple's $2.2B and Amazon's $640M] — the rocket-feather effect and why prices never come down Why this is exactly the story that makes socialism sound good to everyone else Mamdani, cheap bananas, and capitalism's optics problem The Elon trillionaire headline that made rich people feel poor [Elon telling the BBC money will be worthless by 2036] The friend who took a huge AI job — and called depressed about what he saw under the hood The nuclear bomb argument: everyone gets the robots, so nobody sends the robots [Leopold] went 0 to $45B in 18 months, then got margin called on his wedding weekend Ken Griffin and Citadel on the other side of the trade... again Zero day options, prediction markets, and why nobody holds anything for four years The new crop of 25-year-old gunslingers who'll run the next Blackstone Colleges are dipping into endowments to pay overhead — and donors are finding the money gone Why most colleges don't survive the next decade Critical thinking as the only skill that matters now And much more! Drop us a 5-star rating and a review if you're rocking with the show.