The View from the Office.

I met up with Jay Singh at City Vineyard, an outdoor roof deck at Pier 26. I had a Negroni and fries; he had a beer and crab cakes.

Jay is the CEO of Casper Studios, an AI product studio he founded in 2022. Prior to that, he spent almost six years at LinkedIn on their product and BD teams.

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the sunset over the Hudson River. The wine bar was packed with people enjoying the first real summer day.

I was introduced to Jay thirteen months ago by John Kraski, a LinkedIn influencer who has connected me to so many people.

We talked about the ups and downs of the small businesses we run. One common point was the need to pivot toward opportunity.

In Jay’s case, he’s found demand from hedge funds to build custom solutions to integrate Generative AI.

A common example is summarizing large numbers of documents, often transcripts or interviews with CEOs. 

This is a fascinating example of a large technological rift we are seeing in the fintech world right now. 

Hedge fund managers tend to be the smartest, most demanding, tip-of-the spear customer for financial data.

And here we find them turning not to the platform giants like Bloomberg or Factset or S&P or Reuters to integrate and leverage Gen AI but to Jay.

On one hand that makes no sense.

On the other, it’s perfectly sensible because ChatGPT leveled the playing field for new entrants to provide data solutions that never existed.

Moreover, the incumbents have been cautious and slow to integrate Gen AI, effectively inviting hedge funds and others to look beyond their traditional vendors.

Many of the apps clients need are straightforward but they can make a big difference.

What’s cool about all this is people like Jay bring a whole new perspective to the design of AI applications.

It’s a reminder that even in the most competitive market there is room for creative solutions.

You can connect with Jay via LinkedIn or DM me for a warm intro.