Hey Nerds 👋
This event is kinda different. Sure, there’s a registration desk and coffee station and a stage and even panels. But the golden rule is the content must be incredible.
And, high-key I think we bring that this year.
For example:
Nubank’s CTO Eric Young.
Nubank is preparing its US launch.
This company’s numbers are GOATed.
Nu reported 139 million customers in Q2, roughly $17 in monthly revenue per active customer, and a 19.5% efficiency ratio.
Can they do that in the insanely competitive US, without taking their eye of the ball in LATAM, and what’s the secret sauce? What’s the tech platform underneath it all that makes it tick?
Eric is the CTO, and the ideal person to explain that.
Nubank is also building its own financial foundation model, nuFormer, using financial behavior to improve decisions.
If you’re a bank or scaled fintech company, take notes.
Stuff you have to see
AI Scales the Mess faster: Alloy’s Co-founder Laura Spiekerman and Bretton AI’s Natasha Vernier are getting into it. When I recently interviewed Nubank CEO David Vélez, he made the point that AI had given them a reason to go back through their processes and ask what they could delete.
Everyone has AI, but can you use it, or did you just make the mess work?
“How small teams build big AI products” with Gusto co-founder Edward Kim, Plaid CTO Will Robinson, and Jenny Johnston from OpenAI. People who have to make these decisions in real companies, with real customers.
And if you’re trying to work out what your product team should look like now, this is a conversation to be in.
And we’re planning “What is fintech product in the age of AI?” with Checkout.com’s CPO Meron Colbeci. Plus Seb Goddijn, who helped build Ramp’s internal AI harness, Glass.
And possibly my all-time favorite title for a talk, I’m going to try and be there for it:
“Autopsy of a Consent Order” with Michele Alt of Klaros Partners
There are no words. Just 🤌.
Unique Formats
The Builder Zone: Bring your laptop, meet at a whiteboard and solve sh*t.
Workshop Zone: 90 mins on how Ramp built their custom harness, or with Google on Universal Commerce Protocol.
Office Hours: Time with VCs, and some of the most talented operators ever. Go there with something you’re stuck on, this will be the best ROI of your year.
And the demo stage is back! It was one of our most popular areas last year. Think of the appeal of Finovate*: fewer companies, more time to breathe, and more time for Q&A.
* no shade thrown, respect.
Compliance nerds. Pull up a chair.
We made a whole corner just for you to go wild.
Well, it's a corner with a stage and seating. But you get the idea.
What does KYC look like when your customer is a machine? “Give the Bot a Hall Pass” gets into that with Nate Soffio from Prove.
“AI is now a compliance object” features Professor Chris Brummer of Georgetown Law. Yes, that Chris Brummer.
We’re also bringing together Soups Ranjan of Sardine, Johnny Ayers of Socure and Jonathan Awad of Baselayer. Three fraud CEOs dealing with the consequences of this stuff every day, comparing what they’re seeing and what it takes to respond.
(Yes that’s a San Diego / Anchorman reference)
Some of my picks.
For those of you feeling beholden to a core banking provider:
“Why we built our own banking core” has Chime co-founder Ryan King talking with Lauren Kolodny of Acrew. Why take that on? What did it let Chime do? What did it cost?
Yes, Chime’s co-founder.
Brex’s Head of Data, Sumeet Marwaha: Where growth companies spend on AI. This is a data nerds dream, again, love this!!
And if you saw the Nvidia, Blackrock, KKR, Goldman thing:
“Who will finance AI?” brings together Marc Rubinstein of Net Interest and Rex Salisbury of Cambrian. Somebody has to finance all this. I want to hear those two work through where the money comes from and who is taking the risk.
Then go fight a giant robot.
Prove is bringing a giant robot you can battle. Apparently you can also make it moonwalk. You need to see this.
The gaming arcade is coming back too. And Rockstar Games co-founder Jamie King will be on stage on the day GTA VI is currently scheduled to launch.
You’ll find places to keep talking, and places to take a break.
I want you to have the conversation you came for, discover something you didn’t know you needed, and have a ridiculous amount of fun along the way.
San Diego. 18th to 20th November.
Get your Nerdcon ticket. See you there.
ST.
