Hey Nerds 👋
We went and did a little rebrand. I hope you like it?
We’re bringing together Tokenized, Pet Berisha’s Predicted, and our Advisory (led by Jeff Tijssen) under one roof. You might also have seen Thursday’s essay.
The first time I heard the phrase “Fintech is Dead,” I got a little offended. A little hurt. I mean, this was the thing I, we all, attached a professional identity to, a sense of community and a shared enjoyment of the idiosyncratic weirdness that is technology in services in 2026. I wondered: how can it be dead when it’s only 4% finished?
And sure, it has a long way to run.
But over time, I became convinced that what got us here won’t get us where we’re going. There are no trillion-dollar fintech companies after all.
So, last Thursday I published an essay arguing that fintech is dead as an investment category because the technologies that made “fintech” are table stakes now. A mobile-first neobank, running on the cloud, or an API-first infrastructure won’t disrupt the status quo. It will take something else.
Speak to any investor, and you’ll hear a similar thing: an identity crisis, but a recognition that the financialization of compute, payments companies routing AI tokens, and the wave of tokenization coming to Wall St. show another phase is coming.
Today’s massive companies, and tomorrow’s giants, are all leaning into AI and tokenization to solve new problems in new ways. (See: AI and new jobs to be done)
So Fintech Brainfood is now Brainfood.
But don’t worry, Brainfood will still hit your inboxes every Thursday and Sunday. Thursday Rants make sense of the big themes in tech and finance, while Sunday gives you news, 4 new companies, and some reading recommendations.
But now we’re doing more too. A bigger brand to bring together Tokenized, Brainfood, and the work the team has been doing behind the scenes:
Brainfood Media, which encompasses all of our media properties (see below)
The Brainfood podcast, relaunching tomorrow with a HUGE guest. You can also subscribe to the video version here on YouTube.
Tokenized, the podcast on stablecoins and tokenization with Head of Crypto @ Visa Cuy Sheffield. Now part of Brainfood Media.
Predicted, a newsletter on the business of prediction markets, created by my cofounder Pet Berisha. Our fastest-growing media property is up 150% in subscribers in the last 8 weeks…
Brainfood Advisory, co-led by co-founder Jeff Tijssen, formerly global head of fintech at Bain. Because an adult needs to help me, help you.
We even got a swanky new homepage here. (Would love feedback! Please reply with thoughts)
And if you want to see us in person… we’ll all be at NerdCon in San Diego (I do not apologize for this plug).
So that’s Brainfood 2.0. Bigger. A few more people.
And a lot more to come.
ST.
PS. Anyone remember Get the F Out? (If you do, you’re old.)
Four quick things, and then I'll get out of your inbox.
If you know someone who should be reading this, forward it. That's how most of the 50,000 senior leaders got here.
Subscribe here if you're not already on the list,
Book 30 minutes if you want to talk about the advisory side. Jeff and I are taking a handful of engagements: banks working out what AI does to their operating model, fintechs scaling into new markets.
If you’re interested in sponsoring any Brainfood Media properties, just respond to this email!
Simon
PS. The essay is here if you want to tell me where I'm wrong. I'd like that.
