Have you thanked your LLM today?

^A few weeks old but just became relevant again as Sam Altman Admits That Saying "Please" and "Thank You" to ChatGPT Is Wasting Millions of Dollars in Computing Power.

Since last post we’ve seen 4 acquisitions, 13 funding rounds ($225.2M raised), 19 people moves & promotions, 6 roles ($198K average salary), 1 new company, 3 partnerships, 5 articles, 2 legal & regulatory matters, and 5 newly added upcoming events.

Changing it up this week and adding a paywall. I’ve provided much of this content for free over the years and I think the $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr is well justified (besides, you’re going to expense it anyways). Substack paid subscribers should all have access - please email me if you do not see below the paywall and currently pay through Substack. Read on up to the paywall to see how you can get 1-month free.

I recently sat down with Pouya Taaghol and Daniel Goldberg to learn more about Big Data Federation and their OdinUltra platform, a financial AI platform with the most advanced forecasting I've seen.

In our conversation, Pouya outlined how the company leverages vast quantities of public and commercial data to build highly accurate financial forecasts and macroeconomic models. Their proprietary platform, OdinUltra, combines deep preprocessing, ecosystem modeling, and ensembling of 27+ forecasting models to deliver daily-updating insights for 1,300+ companies. The forecasts focus on metrics like revenue, EBITDA, and adjusted gross income, and are used by both quantitative and discretionary investors. The conversation also covered Pouya's background, the accidental founding of BDF, and his goal to expand the model internationally, starting with Japan.

For a recap and transcript of our conversation, check out the link here.

What I’m Reading

• There's No Such Thing as a "Data Buyer" by Jason DeRise.

• Data Engineering: Now with 30% More Bullshit by Kirill Bobrov.

• How Gen AI Is Transforming Market Research by Jeremy Korst, Stefano Puntoni, and Olivier Toubia in Harvard Business Review.

• From enormous payouts to pink slips: What it's like to work at a hedge fund right now by Bradley Saacks and Alex Morrell in Business Insider.

• Navigating the tariffs data minefield by Max Bowie in WatersTechnology - thanks for the shoutout Max!

People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments

• Nadav Aharony joined Placer.ai as CTO.

• Gianluca Biagini joins LSEG as Co-Head of Global Data & Analytics Division in August 2025.

• Nicolas Bourret joined the Board of Directors of Potloc.

• Francois Delepine joined the Board of Directors of Potloc.

• Jonathan Durkee was promoted to President & COO at TrueData.

• Ron Lefferts was promoted to Co-Head of Global Data & Analytics Division at LSEG.

• Michael Marisca joined iCapital as VP, Growth and Client Retention.

• James Megley joined Azure Knowledge Corporation as Director of Client Success.

• Katelyn Melan joined Prolific as Head of Human Data.

• Yossi Mizrahi joined Xverum as VP of Sales.

• Chase Packard joined Marathon Management Partners as Founding Partner.

• Brian Peterson was promoted to CEO at Outrigger Group.

• Michael Rhodes was promoted to Director, Data, Application and ISV Partnerships at Snowflake.

• Joseph Rozenfeld joined AlphaSense as EVP of Engineering.

• Evan Schnidman joined Fidelity as Head of Fidelity Labs.

• Andrew Sprague was promoted to VP of Sales at Sensor Tower.

• Richard Thornton was appointed Chairman of the Board at

• Potloc.

• Deepali Vyas joined ZRG Partners as Global Data & AI Sector Leader.

• Daniel Wheller joined Hebbia as VP of Business, Strategy & Growth.

Special Shout-out

This week’s special shout-out goes to Evan Schnidman and Brian Peterson. The two worked together building Prattle (acquired by Liquidnet) and then teamed up again to launch Outrigger Group in 2023. Outrigger is a fractional consulting firm focused on growth and scaling strategies, working with a number of innovative companies in the data and information services space. This week it was announced that Evan is transitioning into an Advisor role as he’s joining Fidelity as Head of Fidelity Labs. Brian is assuming the CEO role at Outrigger, having previously served as the company’s COO.

Evan and my friendship goes back to his Prattle days, and since then we have invested in and advised data companies together, particularly those focused on investment research and capital markets use cases. He’s one of my “Top 8” (MySpace reference for those old enough) who I call for advice. Fidelity Labs is the in-house fintech incubator of Fidelity Investments, a firm that needs no intro to this audience. Congrats to both Evan and Brian on these new roles and exciting journeys ahead.

Deal Of The Week

Consumer data intelligence provider Consumer Edge acquired transaction and healthcare data intelligence provider Earnest Analytics. Founded in 2009 by Bill Pecoriello (former MD at Morgan Stanley), Consumer Edge most recently raised $60M in a venture round in 2023 led by CoVenture and acquired Qentis in 2022 and Savvr in 2021. Founded in 2012 by Kevin Carson (former MD at Great Bridge Capital and Lone Pine Capital) Earnest completed a $15M Series B in 2019 led by Pivot Investment Partners and acquired Alpha Hat in 2020.

The combined team brings together some of the most experience operators, data scientists, and sales talent in the industry, in addition to bringing unique data assets under one roof. Both companies have all-star teams and an incredible list of alumni, many of whom moved into CEO roles in their next organizations.

FT Partners served as the exclusive financial and strategic advisor to Earnest. More info can be found in the press release here.

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