Georgia Fintech Academy

Episode 4: The Role of Fintech Venture Studios and The Biggest Fiscal Stimulus Ever - Manoj Govindan of Kashat Venture Studios and Jael Ortiz of Georgia State Robinson College of Business

March 27, 2020 Georgia Fintech Academy Season 1 Episode 4
Georgia Fintech Academy
Episode 4: The Role of Fintech Venture Studios and The Biggest Fiscal Stimulus Ever - Manoj Govindan of Kashat Venture Studios and Jael Ortiz of Georgia State Robinson College of Business
Show Notes Transcript

Manoj Govindan is a career fintech executive that helped created the technology partnerships function at Bank of America and then a similar function at Wells Fargo. He has recently helped established a fintech venture studio concept called Kashat Ventures. Jael Ortiz is a sophmore undergraduate student at Georgia State Robinson College of Business and part of the Georgia Fintech Academy student advisory council. 

Manoj and Jael join Tommy Marshall in a conversation about the role of venture studios followed by initial thoughts on the $2 Trillion fiscal stimulus that is about to pass USA Congress to provide economic relief in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

spk_0:   0:05
Welcome to the Georgia Fintech Academy podcast. The Georgia Fintech Academy is a co operation between Georgia's FINTECH industry and the university System of Georgia. This talent development initiative addresses a massive demand for fintech professionals and gives learners the specialized education experience is needed to enter the fin tech sector.

spk_1:   0:27
Hello, everybody. This is Tommy Marshall, executive director of the Georgia Fintech Academy and welcome to Episode four of the Georgia Fintech Academy podcast. Today is March 26th 2020 and we find ourselves in the middle of a public health crisis in the world. Um, this is the second episode where you're hearing from us in the midst of this crisis, just to mark things from historical basis. Today, as of today, the 26th of March, there's 2 490 identified cases of Corona virus Code 19 in world, and there are 669,000 in the United States of America. Um, as of today, New York City, New York State has become the epicenter of the public health crisis in the United States. Um, and we're continuing to, of course, hope that the curve will begin to flatten and give our health professionals. The best best chance of helping us all as this progresses. Um, in the midst of this, we've wanted to move forward with our with our podcast. In fact, we're releasing the podcast is more frequently to improve engagement with all of you, our listeners. And I'm very fortunate today to have my nose ge venden and jail Ortiz. Joining me is guest s. Oh, Before we go any further, I wanted Thio Give them a chance to introduce themselves. Minos. Welcome on and tell us about yourself.

spk_2:   2:24
Thank you. Thank you, Tommy. Jail. Very nice, Thio being this discussion with you. Uh, good morning, everyone. Hope everyone safe and healthy most importantly. And Tommy, I think you may

spk_1:   2:35
have mentioned

spk_2:   2:36
this at the top of the, um, opening here, but we're all remote on and dialing into this podcast remotely from three different locations. Fascinating. How this is working out the future of work. Future of execution. I think it's going to be interesting to watch a post pandemic, so I appreciate everyone flexibility and being able to do this. Uh uh, you know, through technology in this case, So Minos governed in I'm currently as the CEO, co founder of a in tech venture studio being built in Atlanta, Georgia. Um on deacon. Get into the details of that. But this is a collaborative effort with the city, the state, the university system, the financial institutions and fintech ecosystems worldwide to figure out how to optimize, um, the use of fintech startups Thio use them as a catalyst for change agents for financial institutions

spk_1:   3:44
in the U. S.

spk_2:   3:45
That's primarily the concerned there, but we can get back into that. My background. I am a database engineer by trade but very quickly shifted into Maura of a business analysis Roland function, and that made me into becoming a management consultant for mergers and acquisitions over a 10 year period. The mergers and acquisitions at the time were all almost all focused on financialservices, and so I ended up becoming involved in a variety of mergers and acquisitions of financial institutions, everything from banks to insurance companies. Um, that brought me to Bank of America in 2005 and, uh, the merger with Merrill Lynch a couple of years later, um, combined with the merger back, mm, in a background that I had allowed me to present and then create a function within Bank of America and then subsequently within most cargo to help the bank's build both their aperture and their appetite to use startups as change agents for their transformation in this case, in within financialservices world. And that was primarily driven by the recognition that these banks of the time we're spending Bank of America's technology spend budget at the time in 2008 was $10 billion right, so they were spending $10 billion each year cutting checked vendors, but there, But they had little to no leverage on what that spend was giving them and their business units in terms of serving the needs of their customers and their clients. So the push for this function was hardly creating leverage for the bank to directly take advantage of start ups, too. Then impact both the business you units, model of doing business, interacting with the customers and their clients, offering them new products and service is, but also from an operating model perspective. How does that reflect back to be in the bank, right? How do you create the economies of scale within the bank to allow for these startups to influence that accelerate that highlight the the weakness of the bank might have beat from its risk posture to it's, uh um, a supply chain Weaknesses. So whatever it is, right, So those are the kinds of things that we were trying to kind of bring to table by directly interacting with startup forms, not just start up firms, but also the investors. So this is again where we were trying to triangulate. So we were basically saying We want all hands on deck approach to determining what kinds of technologies influence financial services over it. Beard of type. This is, of course, 2008. Fintech wasn't even a term. No, it was still, um, we were just on the edges of trying

spk_1:   6:52
to figure out what

spk_2:   6:53
Fintech was in o X truck. Right? So it was technology for financial service, Essentially. But how we paid it out when we did this for about eight years of BankAmerica, the functions

spk_1:   7:04
to was that group. What's that function called at Bank of America? So

spk_2:   7:10
So that at the time be called the function technology partnership developments, right, and which is basically a description of the function, So it is essentially finding out waves to put the bank to partner around its technology needs with external entities, big and small start up the least, these large tech companies. What happens? Technology partner should do it over the years. I personally the way I we have designed this and optimized the function or bank that and eventually for other large companies, not just for bank. I have started calling adventure building right to the idea of helping these large enterprises build ventures around their needs on the adventures would be usually taken. Abel dentist. Right. So s O. Today I called adventure Building At the time, we called it technology partnership Development because that is really the core of it. It is identifying partnerships. And what happy Some very good success stories There are one of the biggest one that is again relevant to our conversation. There on fintech is the, you know, today way. Take it for granted data, Big data, Data analytics and how that plays out. 2008 way. Use this platform That was their Bank of America to really discover big data technologies. What is today called big data technologies at the time, you know, young companies call Cloudera and Aster data. Ha do. But the technology on how to be mature that into the enterprise. And how did the enterprise use that for different things? Uh, the those all started in on this platform in Bank of America in 2008. Right? Today, BankAmerica has do best service. Wells Fargo has, you know, big, big, uh, AP I platform driven by big data and data monetization. So

spk_1:   9:10
it's a reason we have financial data. Analytics is one and far core five courses in technique and

spk_2:   9:20
complicated again. Are you offering that today is

spk_0:   9:23
the big

spk_2:   9:24
Okay, clean and I would be curious to get back into this, but the curriculum. So who delivers that Indicate him. I know you are broadly basing this across university system, Georgia, but how do you identify the curriculum that supports this A category like this?

spk_1:   9:46
But after being there is a meaningful needs based study that was done I colleagues of mine in the university system about 24 months ago, and that helps that continues to help inform courses that we will that were in the midst of creating right now for release next year and then it's it's informed, the courses that that exist that exist today, Um, here, my nose. Let's I want to hear a little bit about jail. I'll tell us yourself. Welcome. Thanks you for being long today.

spk_0:   10:22
No, thank you for having me. And thank you for putting me in Cairo as me, with my knowledge. Someone mess sick. Near it is yourself. Tell me it's it's really oppression. Um, so I'm a second year student, currently resume a triple major in business and in contact with moments as well US finance and having been brought on this early on in my college career as a city lives before the Fifth Academy and and haven't been immersed with that contact since. That has been a great learning experience, especially being the youngest student recommended. Um, my first introduction to the vending industry was through a black mark event called the Authentic and Covered Series, which was a deep dire to about friends and how that would shape the future. But Lana, with their new innovation, top that they recently opened. That is where I met you, Tommy. Um and yeah, I look forward to being actively engaged with the growth of the authentic academy, and it's again, it's a pleasure being here today.

spk_1:   11:23
Awesome. Thank you, J always great to have you. Um, just just tell me a little bit. You know, what's your experience been like in terms of interaction with defense academy to date,

spk_0:   11:42
Right? So the authentic academy started was that you called me on You brought me on in February mid February, and it Adam, only a couple of months on. Right? So it's been really from the get go on from the start, just devising a plan to actively engage students and really to provide the best material up there and the best engagement, I guess technologies and the process is to bring on not only the talent but also that continent needed for the company's around metro Atlanta and

spk_1:   12:21
all over Georgia. Yeah, and we formed a student advisory council here in key one of this calendar year, and you joined on that, and that's been super helpful. Thio to us is, we continue toe, um, of all thea above the initiative, So, yeah, that's been fantastic. So let's talk about, um I think my nose you you wanted to hit on this whole concept of on adventure studios. Pull that thread a little further. Um, tell us about where you're coming from. With that and in your thoughts?

spk_2:   13:07
Sure. So the we're talking a bit about this partnership function that we built on the banks. One of the things we discovered there was great with a lot of these startup companies. As soon as we opened our doors to directly to engage with startups, we quickly discovered there were a lot of them and there were a lot of them popping up every day. And so we needed to find a way to optimize who we bring into the bank and engage with and then helped grow into the enterprise. And so one, uh, need a ring function that we applied then was we're going to try and stop the dog and pony show, as I call it, of the startups to come and show their wear than figure out if there's a match for them within the bank and instead kind of flip the script on this. So the concept of a demand driven discovery of startups that that that can then address the needs and solutions for the financial services company came to make came to be on. This is how we develop the pieces within BankAmerica first. And then it was Fargo. And so the idea of a venture studio is to do this at scale for multiple financial institutions. Broadly speaking, A. It is going to be demand drilling. So we're not I don't like a traditional accelerator where we would identify start ups and then figure out what their path is towards maturing into the enterprise. Here. We would not start with a startup. No pun intended of you would start with the needs of these corporations for whom the venture studio would serve as the platform right of demand driven stuffs of the exercise there would be we would sit with these institutions in the business units, understand their needs and then find a way to convert those needs into a discovery thesis that would then be used to discover the startups. But that would come into the studio and then solved for the problem. It may

spk_1:   15:13
not be a one

spk_2:   15:14
to one current correspondence between the startup and the and the problem. It may be multiple startups together solving the problem, but the focus is on solving the problem,

spk_1:   15:25
and so is And you tell me, like, a little bit or tell us that. Tell dialogue kind of where you are in terms of the development of this venture studio. I mean, I've been, you know, you and I have talked quite a bit about it, but just in terms of engagement with our listeners here, um, I mean, is it fair to say you've been working on this for, um, you know, more than half a year you're beginning to get, you know, some good engagement with kind of corporate thoughts and ideas, and I won't say more. I mean, tell us about kind of where you are.

spk_2:   16:02
Absolutely right. So the idea here is first, let me just made out there. Right? So the way that studio is going to be, we're going to have a fund that is going to invest in start ups that we end up bringing into the studio within the fund. We're going to have ah, fire one C six studio itself, which would be supported by membership Paid membership from corporations, large financial, tentative companies, midmarket companies, small credit union. So community banks or insurance companies, right. That they would support this bi annual membership dues that they would pay. So where we are right now is we are looking to raise a small fund that we need to support me and opening investments that we want to make when we bring these startups in

spk_1:   16:51
on. Then

spk_2:   16:52
the membership will support the exercise that we have to do to engage with the business units of these financial institutions. A big driver in that engagement that is really helping us is the partnership we have with one of the authentic academies. Um uh, partners, which is the 80 TC, which is the American Transaction Prophecies Coalition,

spk_1:   17:17
the same

spk_2:   17:18
coalition that the same coalition that is helping support and build the engagement of relationships for the academy is helping us do the same. That just kind of build engagements with the transaction processors initially, right? So the F I s is the NCR, the global payments that Alexis of the world initially gonna build that consortium effect of corporations that would support the studio. So we're talking to small handful thes transaction processors initially to become the core engagement engaged engagement partners from the studio side. And then we're talking to investors, primarily in Atlanta, Who would be interested in becoming part of the fund that would invest in these startups? Windy when the. Okay, open

spk_1:   18:06
it up to jail.

spk_0:   18:09
How do you

spk_1:   18:10
view this topic? Um, of entrepreneurism. Just from where you sit as ah is a second year student that the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State. Just you know what? Has this come up in your in your life and your studies? Just curious. Kind of what your view is on on numbers from where you

spk_0:   18:35
say Yeah, absolutely. Um, my background. But I come from an international background on my staff that it made her public. He had his own invention and he had his own participation and and troop in our company. And we partially moved to the States to pursue that s o even growing up. I had a entrepreneurial inside into seeing how project and product was advised developed. And then it was a prototype, just really understanding that it's a whole lot more than just a simple pitch and just getting a lot of money and racing back, but that there is years and years of crosses and development behind that um So he did what he had developed I and then that came to the United States. Thought has fattened and a better public saying and United States. So it's been years long process and then being able to learn that in college now just really understand why he did what he did. And the processes that he took has been truly insightful. Now I do have oppression, Forman AJ of specifically in this environment and with this pandemic going on, all the peace being so heavily affected, some more directly than others, how is that not so physically affecting the metro capital? One start of industry?

spk_2:   20:08
Yeah, you know, great up question. Interestingly, I was part of a Lincoln discussion a couple of days ago, uh, specifically around venture capital firms. Some of them anyway, you know how they make their decisions about keeping their capital commitments to the startup that they're supporting. They're the best of the

spk_1:   20:28
discussion that was

spk_2:   20:29
going on on a nickname. It it's actually a pretty interesting time. So there's a whole discussion going on around what should start ups to in this environment, right? And do the regardless of the state. They are in and they grow. But I'd like to actually pull the timeline back before the the

spk_1:   20:51
pandemic itself

spk_2:   20:52
to kind of illustrate where I think the pivot has to happen, both for back venture capital firms and their their portfolio startup companies. So broadly speaking before this pandemic even hit, one of the challenges we have in using startups as a catalyst for large companies is illustrated by one of my favorite books, by the way it's called Orbiting the Giant Hair Ball right. So what I mean by that is what a book means by that

spk_1:   21:22
is that

spk_2:   21:23
every company, um, when they grow up, they become a giant hair ball. It's just inevitable, right? They become a giant hairball of processes, of complexities, of all kinds of stuff, right in,

spk_1:   21:38
because

spk_2:   21:38
your political agenda on and on enough so invariably, when an individual or a startup is trying to make a change within that hairball, they were faced with usually one of two choices. You either get sucked into that hairball right, never see the light of day or they get thrown out of the hair ball because they don't agree with the culture off. How that company is making decisions or or what have you? Um there is 1/3 way is what the book talks about orbiting the giant elbow talks about Third way is you can find a way not to get sucked in, but still add value to these corporations. Now, why I'm mentioning this is that is a good contrast to have when a situation like a pandemic hit. Because what happens when a pandemic kid, baby, you know, and not just my view when a pandemic hits young company typically tend to be more nimble about how they can navigate this. They should be, at least on paper. Right. Large companies are the ones that tend to panic because they have to me off people, the body for cost pressures, their sales numbers on our matching with scales. And what have you. That is where this whole hairball analogy really comes into play. If you have change agents forbidding the hairball adding value, they become the catalysts to help shift the corporation the ability to respond to the pandemic. Right? So let's kind of project that back into into the question that you have to bar venture capital and start up within the

spk_1:   23:22
court. I think

spk_2:   23:24
if the recieves and their portfolio companies are able to keep their nose to the ground about how these large companies that they would like to impact beat, it doesn't just under the financial institutions, right? We're talking about startups going to retail startups going to the travel industry, scallops going to get to the hospitality industry. What have you So any of these start ups and they they have a huge opportunity to recognize that they are best position to help these large companies, whether this shift and they can do so only if they don't lose their marbles about it, right? Metes don't panic and pull their money out if startups don't panic and just lay off people or they decide they want a pivot or

spk_1:   24:15
they think they're

spk_2:   24:16
running out of money and they should have. So there are a few different things that I think are in play here. A start ups are being advised, obviously, to curtail nonessential expenses, right? So marketing, maybe something that they don't invest as much in, but they do invest in talent. But one of the

spk_1:   24:40
things we talked

spk_2:   24:40
about years now is the time to double down on the talent that you need made. They also other advice. Start ups are advised today, two liquidate as much off there in the capital. If they can't be dead. I think it whatever it is, right, So they have cash

spk_1:   24:58
right today

spk_2:   24:59
and their cash rich over the next 69 12 month period. So, Andi, same thing with the D. C we're talking about. The thing is, if you have raised money, put your money in your portfolio company. They need cash flush today, and

spk_1:   25:15
that is the best

spk_2:   25:16
thing you can do. Because if you are going to, you know, cut your nose off to spite your face, you're going to actually lose in the long run. Because, really, if you give them cash infusion today, they will be better position to help the large companies that they would eventually have to do. Obviously, I am talking about startups that are focused on enterprise technology not be to start up. So

spk_1:   25:38
I was I was on a call with several fintech B C's late last week, and I guess I heard, um, two things. One waas similar to this cash question, and so they were advising their companies. They need to drawdown lines if they assuming they've got some sort of line of credit, draw down the lines right away to get a cast position. And then they were singing into the entrepreneurs You need to be just as you need to be pretty cautious, like you need to be ready to survive for like, another 12 months. You need to imagine kind of things. You're gonna be very tough for the next 12 months and plan and manage in that manner things. Hopefully, it will be better before the next 12 months. Then you just get to have that is kind of improved outcomes and then from the VCs in terms of new deals, I heard clearly no new term sheets in the next 60 days. Um, and to the extent any investments were being considered at all in the next 30 60 days, would be convertible notes on Lee. Um, so that was kind of two things I was hearing clearly conversation, but a Iot. I know you've been looking closely at the news. Um, and it's been a remarkable amount of activity in the nation's capital and the United States Congress over the really just the last 567 days. Um, tell us what you taking up on and learning as it relates financialservices.

spk_0:   27:30
Okay, right. So this morning we woke up to the news that last night the third base of the economic stimulus efforts by the government passed the Senate with a massive $2 trillion package. Prior to his passing, the that someone legislators pushed to get that some new tools sports monetary toe, chest and they were talking about digital dollars and wallets. This was in efforts to make banking much more accessible to those who don't have access a war in areas where things are not really that present, and especially with the target $1200 disbursement that comes very crucial to the success of the stimulus package. So basically, and in a simplified way, this legislation would allow every American to open a free account. Um, they would have access to the digital cash and 80 EMS all over American Postal Office post offices. Now, even though it didn't make the cut in the final version of the bill, the concept that they're even talking about is in and really realizing that this is the way of the future is truly, truly impressive, and it will have repercussions in a runoff. Fintech from now on now, how ready do you see the immigrant financial institutions ISS? Such legislation were passed.

spk_1:   29:06
Um, I mean, I think they're very ready. I mean, I think of, um I mean, just when they have started to talk about that initial. This was probably five days ago. Treasury. Mnuchin had had thrown out this idea that we're gonna put cash into Americans accounts or we're going to disperse cash to Americans that are in particularly dire straits right now. The first thought my head was like, Okay, how are we gonna get the cash? And the next thought in my head was PayPal. Venmo Zell, Um, you know, some visa network transmission, an a C H file that would be set. I mean, those were immediately ideas I was thinking of in my mind. I mean, just if you look at Zell alone, um, I don't know the stats off the top of my head, but there's more than half of all the bank accounts in the United States of America are accessible through that that platform. Um, so just that's my first reaction is like, I think the bank's air well, perfect. There's challenges that there are, I think, unfortunately, meaningful numbers of people that we need to get that money, too, that are unbanked. Um, so there's challenges, like how to figure that out. But even with mark card, prepaid cards, reloadable prepaid cards in the marketplace, there's, I think, a way to get there to those folks as well.

spk_2:   30:43
And timing is of, in essence, they're right, which is

spk_1:   30:46
which is key

spk_2:   30:47
and, you know, jail And I briefly talked about yesterday, which is the concept of digital identity, you know, there there needs to be investment, too. And this is where you know, Estonia came up, right? So

spk_1:   31:01
a cz, a

spk_2:   31:02
country and a government, they have digitized everything, including their driver's license. Right. So compare that to here where the infrastructure doesn't exist. So, yes, it would have been a lot easier for us to access the unbanked if the keys to the infrastructure for identifying the people existed. Digital rights. Today that's a big challenge. There is a huge gap there between the people who qualify for this, but we may not be able to identify them and verify them digitally in a timely manner. Yet to take time. There's the process when we can get to it. But that might not be constructive. To what, what the act of the even the overture the intended it to be

spk_0:   31:47
in the last time, the any type of disbursement happened wasn't a Nate, and that time it took three months. Now Steven Venusians as that. This could take place in three weeks. Now there's that's a big gap, and how do you see that just letting it happen? E.

spk_2:   32:07
I think it's a blind spot. I frankly really think it's a blank, but I don't think they recognize the scope of the people that they have to be reaching, even with the filter or the that they have applied, you know, with all the caps and incoming all that stuff. They overturned, crying. There's a blind spot there. They are going to miss the good cross section of people on. We're going. We're going to find that out in the back end of this that my read

spk_1:   32:38
if I was hearing I mean the moon. The news has been moving fast. I know if I was hearing things correctly when I got out of bed this morning. They're suggesting that dispersement would get handled. You could get handled through a direct deposit from the RS. The Internal Revenue Service, Um, which, if you had enrolled in their direct deposit service When you've, you know, father taxes and whatnot in the past, which I mean, I've got kind of that sort of made sense to me because I could see Okay, so I arrest would be able to theoretically, quickly. No, that the which Americans fit under a certain just ickarus income cap that they've set. But I think I probably shouldn't quote these numbers. I think the numbers, like 75,000 or something, you know,

spk_0:   33:31
and it faces out. Yeah, it faces out up to 99,000.

spk_1:   33:36
Okay. Okay. Good for you. So you could imagine. Okay, I arrest would have that information for Americans that have filed income tax. Um, I don't know. You know how much of the Americans that we need to get this money to fit into that category of have file income income tax. Um, but, um, you know, I can You can sort of imagine how There's some been some efforts to try to solve some of the problems we're imagining talking here between the three of us. They're executing on this. Um, but that's, um it's really remarkable. I think the other thing I was remembering to is back in 2008 the last a massive piece of fiscal stimulus was that I can remember was deployed and that was called the troubled asset relief program TARP. And that was a 708 100 billion. So we're talking about an amount, Dannel, that it's war than twice the size of that massive fiscal stimulus step when

spk_2:   34:51
they're not done on dinar. Done they're

spk_1:   34:53
talking about foreign is going back to the

spk_2:   34:57
B dispersement issues just to compare this to a different country or different ecosystem, right? So in India, for example, you know they may not be highly digitised. Now they are, they've got other and all that stuff. But then I was growing up there, you know, they had a very simple concept that reached practically every single person there were. There's something called a ration card. The ration card essentially was provided to every family, no, out many many of the You know, richer families didn't take a veil of the ration card, but middle class and blow, all of them took available. But everyone would given what your every citizen was given a ration card and that ration guard allowed them to get basic supply price on oil. And, you know, whatever right? Salt and whatever. Um, that ration card became a very simple mechanism for dispersement because, you know, those ration card had government instituted agents spread across the country. We're talking the country of a 1,000,000,000 people at the time, much more now and being able to reach every single individual through that these agents and their ration cards. So the identity was not digital, but the identity agree about networking that doesn't exist here. We don't know. The Social Security card doesn't even barely reach at that level of agency, if you will. In terms of access, I would have loved to have seen something like that here, particularly to address the underbanked and unbanned population in the units in area like this.

spk_1:   36:39
Um, I wanna just touch on a few kind of newsworthy items before we wrap up. In the world of Fintech, we always try to do that in our shows. Some of these comments will seem a little inconsequential in light of everything else going on in the world right now. But one thing that caught my eye just in the last week was the entry of revolution, the neo band from the UK into the United States. Um, that, uh, I think it'll again. It will be interesting to see how these neo banks perform in the United States banking system, which is massively more complicated than three U. K's system. Mainly, from a regulatory standpoint,

spk_2:   37:29
the regulatory is obvious that the other one we were discussing Tommy was also a customer acquisition, right? So that our how many customers in the U. S. Are going to be willing to stop what they have and switch switch over, or are they just going to have this in parallel as a nice to have right?

spk_1:   37:48
And then the other note news knows I think you noticed was related to Visa and that Visa, with yesterday's market close, had a had a market cap of $360 billion which makes these theme are one of the largest, if not the largest financial service is into teed by market cap, Uh, in in the United States. Um, which is really pretty remarkable, Um, in its own right, I think just is a comparative. J. P. Morgan Chase, which is the largest financial institution in the United States, has a market capitalization of 200 97 1,000,000 roughly roughly that as of yesterday's market closed. Yeah.

spk_2:   38:47
Yeah, a very interesting story, and especially the fact that it, Liza and they are on a an acquisition spree, particularly acquiring in the network space. Um, and how that relates to Fintech. I think it's fascinating, right that their muscle power, I think, is going to be visible, I think, for the next couple of 23 years again, particularly in this pandemic situation on dhe. People finding very different ways, whether that be in financialservices or retail or otherwise, try to figure out how to remove the friction off remote everything remote transaction happening. I think these investments, their market cap, their their market presence, I think will be very interesting to see

spk_1:   39:37
Well, Joe, I l thank you so much for joining me today, Minos. Thanks for being part of the of the show I, of course, hope you'll both come back again soon. And we can talk some more.

spk_0:   39:52
Thank you, Tommy. Thank you for having us.

spk_1:   39:54
Thank you very

spk_2:   39:55
much. A good, very good conversation. Jail.

spk_1:   39:58
Good to meet

spk_2:   39:59
you. Talk to

spk_0:   39:59
you soon. Like West. Thanks very much. Georgia Fintech Academy podcasts are available on iTunes and Spotify. To obtain additional information about the Georgia Fintech Academy, please visit our website at Georgia fintech academy dot org's.