A guest blog by Romi Mahajan

In her path breaking book “The Entrepreneurial State”, Marianna Mazzucato argues cogently, and with plenty of evidence, that the State is the key actor in technology innovation and development. We use the words “the” and “key” purposely- for four reasons:

1. The State creates and/or underwrites new technologies with a long-term view.
2. The State’s investment and ongoing incentives limit private risk.
3. There is no private investor that can compete with the State with regard to pool of available capital.
4. The State’s investments are not measured with the same ROI calculations and over the same periods.

One can go-on (and on) but these four parameters themselves make the case. Mazzucato isn’t alone in her analysis- most scholars agree- though her ideas might seem anathema to those in the technology sector who like to excessively laud private “innovation” and simultaneously lambast “government.” We can discuss this victory of Public Relations later. Here, we are interested more in understanding this idea as it pertains to the march to Commercially Viable Fusion (CVF).

Fusion has been underwritten almost exclusively the State. For seven decades, the quest for CVF has been ongoing. The carriage of Fusion has been characterized by fits and starts, but the overall vector has been positive. For many, the quest for CVF is seen as a bottomless pit of investment, but others see this as the standard manner in which science progresses- a sort of punctuated equilibrium of change. Each success and each failure begets something better.

While the State might be the key actor, there is no suggestion that private investment and innovation is unnecessary; it is in fact crucial. Private investment typically comes later in the game, when the infrastructure and basic science undergirding technology innovation has been developed. So too with CVF.

At some point in the innovation and development cycle, a sufficient critical mass of knowledge, talent, and advanced methods generates interest in the private sector and propels investment in the space. At this point, the punctuation can begin in earnest, as a variety of both competing and collaborative players strive to push the industry forward rapidly and with hope of private profit as well as public benefit. That’s where we are with CVF today. It’s indeed a heady era.

At this stage, with the efflorescence of interest and investment, firms in the CVF space must be willing to share, collaborate, and enhance each other. The stakes are high. An ecosystem must be built with intention.

Clearly, there are competing ideas, some more solid than others (forgive the pun.) Clearly, there are companies that will fail and some that will succeed. But, as with science, both successes and failures advance the industry.

It is our time.

Romi Mahajan President Pepper
Pulak Sinha CEO Pepper

Well, that’s why we build warning systems and endow people with the intelligence to act on them. And that’s why we have regulations and ask organizations to comply. It is worthwhile pausing for a moment to consider what’s at stake. When we look at the Asset Management industry as a whole, we see that it manages in excess of $120 trillion world-wide. Such sums are staggering and remind us of the famous, though apocryphal Willie Sutton story- “that’s where the money is.” The largest individual firms manage $3+ trillion. Put simply, even small failures in this industry have cross-sectoral, and fundamental effects on the economy as a whole and, ultimately, lives. We cannot afford that. Ever.

This industry cannot afford to meet the challenges of complexity, growth, regulation, compliance, and risk management with technologies that are built for other industries and ported to Asset Management after-the-fact. This industry cannot afford to meet these challenges as a technology laggard, as one so occupied with costs that it loses sight of the big picture.

Whatever the difficulties and stresses of day-to-day life in the industry, we must reject the idea that “it’s good enough.” Firms that manage hundreds of billions of dollars and dazzle investors with talk of AI, modernity, and innovation that they turn around and manage assets, dollars, and decisions on Excel are on the precipice. It is not a matter of if but when. Even the most venerable names have their “Kodak” moments when they stop paying attention to systems and cultivate a culture of dismissal.

It’s not simply a matter of efficiency, security, error management, or expedience. It’s not simply a matter of maximizing ROI by a basis point or two. What’s at stake here are “company extinction” events.

Modern business and technology have converged into a singularity. The stakes to get it right are high. Therefore it is high-time the Asset Management industry faces reality squarely.

Let’s be smart. Don’t settle for “good enough” because one day it will fail. Invest in the right systems and don’t run your business on Excel. Think of reporting requirements not as onerous but as good gut-checks. Together, united, we can build a culture of success.

Romi Mahajan, CEO ExoFusion
Dr. Swadesh Mahajan, Senior Scientific Advisor, ExoFusion

The pursuit of nuclear energy through controlled thermonuclear fusion could easily qualify as one of the grandest scientific and technical ventures in history.  As with all such gargantuan endeavors, the challenge is Herculean and has been subject to ebbs and flows in confidence.

The era of this persistent oscillation between hope and despair may just have ended, however; cautious optimism prevails after a succession of events including major new advances in the science and technology of fusion and a fundamental societal restructuring of research and development.  We’ve matriculated from talking just about fusion “research” to real and fertile discussions on commercially-viable fusion (CVF.)

Why are we optimistic?

First of all, hats off to the enormous sponsorship of fusion by governments around the world.  Here, fundamentally understanding both the science and technology was paramount, with commercialization being secondary.  That is the nature of discovery.  The recent success at NIF in achieving “break-even” is more than symbolic.  It is the beginning of a new era built on a foundation of science sponsored by Government. The bend in the road has come.

Second, the recent animation of the private sector in Fusion, with over $5 billion being raised is exciting and important.  The public-private partnerships that have ensued add buoyancy to the goal of CVF.

Third, new technologies, like the high temperature superconductors used by CFS and new physics ideas pioneered by the physics community will be crucial in fulfilling this promise.

Fourth, the possibility of large-scale simulations of new physics regimes with advanced software is a boon to the cause.

These are exciting times for fusion- for the first time we have a coalescence of all vital elements to make fusion power a reality.  The time for bullishness has come!

URL:  exofusion.co

Second in our “AssetTech” Series

By Romi Mahajan President Pepper
and Pulak Sinha, CEO Pepper

The Financial Services sector is every-changing and frenetic. As conditions change, markets change, as consumer behavior changes, markets change, and as new paths for ROI are created, markets change. That’s the name of the game in FinServ.

Couple this rapidity of change with the sheer size of the market and the results are epochal. One sliver of the market- the world of professional Asset Management- breaks the tape at $120 trillion AUM world-wide, a staggering number that exceeds global GDP. With a $120 trillion river running its course, even tributaries can be huge and powerful.

Enter the world of “private credit,” a fast-growing marketplace that now exceeds $1.5 trillion in investment with annualized deal-size in excess of $35 billion. As companies and other entities seek new sources of funding and as investors seek new forms of ROI generation and liquidity, the private credit market has burgeoned. New funds are minted daily.

For all investment types and asset classes, data is central to the story, but even more so with regard to non-public assets. Here, data and its connection to proprietary methodologies, valuation methods, and calculation is paramount. Further, ensuring that all parts of the organization are using the same data and the same methods to evaluate, value, invest, track, and report on deals is key to success. The lack of the proper platforms and controls is a sure-fire way to create internal friction and to slip-up in the marketplace. In private credit, data is the watchword.

As we mentioned before, private credit is a huge asset class, but very few companies build technology platforms and solutions specifically for this –and adjacent- industries. This is a huge miss in the technology industry as a whole. The private credit industry deserves better.

The data opportunity in this space is enormous. Even industry-watchers would have been challenged to notice the space even two years ago. Now it has emerged as a colossus. That’s why “AssetTech” – technology platforms that are innately and natively responsive to the needs of Asset Management- matters; the size and importance of the marketplace is unmatched.

The private credit data opportunity is real. We are eager to discuss it with you.

Part One in a Three-Part Series on “AssetTech”

by Romi Mahajan- President, Pepper

Business coins portmanteau words liberally.  As an example, combine “Finance” and “Technology” and you get “FinTech.”  Similarly if you combine “Assets” with “Technology,” you get “AssetTech.”  While the first is part of the everyday vocabulary in the industry, the latter is hardly understood.

This is curious, given the sheer size and importance of the industry.

World-wide, formal Asset Managers have over $120 trillion in” Assets under Management (AUM).”  This number is staggering- it exceeds World GDP.  The larger firms in the space themselves manage amounts measured in the trillions.  It is not uncommon for the tallies of “deals” –even just in the US economy-exceeding $250 billion in a month.  Again, these numbers suggest the importance of the industry as a whole.

Importance implies both opportunity and complexity.  With the rise in numbers and valences of asset classes and the intermingling of private and public assets- and that too across geographies- the opportunities to generate ROI where it was “invisible” before have increased substantially.  With this increase, the attendant increase in compliance, data, security, and governance needs come part-n-parcel.  In addition, investors are calling for transparency, where opacity ruled the day before.

Practitioners understand that the best tool-set to manage the forests of data and to derive insights and actions is Artificial Intelligence.  AI cuts across data, knowledge, decision-making, and pattern recognition.  AI is by its very nature dynamic, just like the markets being harnessed and understood.

Investors and Asset Managers have yet another convergence of interests with regard to AI. Both are looking for a step-up in a competitive game and both are looking for potential ROI being converted into kinetic.

For this reason, AI has to be native in AssetTech.  An AI-powered chassis is necessary for meaningful AssetTech platforms.

Here, distinguishing between rhetorical AI and real AI is key.  Kicking the tires is essential.  Furthermore, AI has to be at play at any entry point into the platform, from whatever workload you begin with.

Because of this, Marketing Darwinism and Pepper are together opening an industry dialogue and issuing an industry challenge.

Doesn’t Asset Management deserve its own technology and doesn’t that technology have to be the best we can offer?  Isn’t it time we go get it?

Romi Mahajan, President Pepper
Ann Eberle Thomas, CRO Pepper
Dharmesh Godha, President Advaiya

In a recent discussion with an executive, CRM software came up as a hot topic. Her assertion was that too many customers see CRM as a “commodity” and thus balk at upgrades, new purchases, and list-prices. The comment was interesting for a variety of reasons of which the most important was the degree to which this flies in the face of the claims (obviously) that CRM providers make. After all, they argue, if your customers are your lifeblood (as you claim) then how can the system that enhances your ability to build long, loyal relationships be relegated to commodity status? Isn’t a CRM system your best front-end to the customer and as such a core tool to boost sales? If so, how can you think of it as being “just there?”

Commodity? Not a commodity? The grass is green on both sides of the fence, but that is because our imagination has failed when it comes to both CRM and software in general. We continue to make software fit our calcified methods and processes versus letting it liberate us from these very constraints.

Let’s focus on CRM as an illustrative case. From the beginning, organizations have had relationships with their customers- this is simply a truism. Before machines, before computers, before software, before it all, organizations connected with customers and prospects and conducted business. But when some decades ago, intrepid entrepreneurs like Tom Siebel and Marc Benioff realized that specialized software solutions could be used to enhance an already existing idea, the category “CRM” was born. Once the genie leaves the bottle, it cannot be put back in. Once a category is in the world and the lexicon is understood by all, it takes on a life of its own. As such, today CRM is a decabillion dollar business and there are over a thousand companies that build CRM solutions and platforms.

When faced with so many choices and so many seemingly mundane applications of the category, it is no wonder that many think of it as a commodity. This is an understandable if unfortunate fact. When we take an existing idea and an existing process and simply make it “a bit better” with software, the software itself is measured in increments of value. The game in this case is linear.

What if, however, the CRM system allows you to quickly revisit the taxonomies and hierarchies you’ve held as sacrosanct before? What if the CRM system allows you to do different and dynamic things at scale whereas the previous dispensation made those ambitions impossible? In these cases, CRM is not a commodity but is, to use an overused term, a game-changer. Here, the game is non-linear.

That indeed is the nature of innovation. Incremental change and enhancements are good but when an entire epistemology or process is changed, innovation occurs. Innovation is very much a product of the outcome. As such, customers are thus the judge of whether a software solution is innovative or not.

Coming back to CRM. Yes, organizations have from time immemorial “related” to their customers, but the ability to do it not only at scale but by bringing to bear a variety of otherwise disparate data points, is powerful and indeed innovative. The watchword here is “integration” and how it relates to customer engagement. Customers are not monoliths, given to a unidimensional description. They are active, dynamic, multi-faceted beings. When CRM can help you not only discover deep context but also capitalize on it to offer value to these customers, then it ceases to be a commodity.

It requires us to use our imagination.

Marketing Darwinism: Advaiya has gone through a few stages of evolution, from its beginning. Your GTM is now very clear. Can you describe the changes and how you got to where you are?

Manish Godha: Advaiya started as an eager, nimble group of techies and consultants who have been enthused by technology’s potential to rationalize and transform businesses. We sought and found opportunities for impact and that led us through this journey of evolution. Our initial focus was on helping tech companies communicate the value of their technologies for businesses. This indeed meant that we could bring our skills of business and technology consulting along with marketing in interesting ways; while gaining enormous expertise and experience in the cutting edge technologies in enterprise contexts. The work we did, especially for Microsoft, used approaches grounded in the enterprise architecture concepts within the contexts of newer digital possibilities of transformation. We slowly shifted to the larger marketing and digital marketing needs of businesses, in general. Technology enablement remained our forte, and we were indeed more successful where we could address marketing concerns with data, automation, and web apps. As we worked for tech companies, conglomerates, consumer businesses, e-commerce companies, and service companies, we matured our engagement and delivery processes to better understand business, support business critical workloads and build deeper technical skills on newer enterprise technologies. With these strengths, we refocused on business productivity solutions as relevant to services businesses and service functions within large businesses. We realized that in services businesses customer experience and engagement are intrinsically and directly connected with service delivery and productivity solutions when seen in the context of customer engagement are highly relevant, but most businesses have approached them in a bespoke manner which did not unlock their true value. This is the opportunity that we are geared up today to address, as our unique capability in this regard flows from the many years of work in the fields of enterprise technology, business context mapping, marketing digital and business apps.

Marketing Darwinism: The Technology and Business services you offer a variety of customers are focused on enterprise productivity and adaptation. Does this fall into the category of future-proofing and ensuring that the digital infrastructure exists to grow even in a recession?

Manish Godha: Our services build the digital infrastructure for customer engagement and productivity. These aspects go hand-in-hand and, most obviously in case of services businesses, are core to the business model. Our solutions typically lead to a more resilient customer connection and services delivery. These can be critical for survival and growth of a business. Whether it is about managing leads, building client relationships, organizing field or project service delivery, or analyzing billings and costs, a digital infrastructure can bring the required robustness with efficiencies as well as agility during downturns to be able to offer more relevant client experience, which then becomes foundation for growth. Our services go beyond building and implementing a technology stack, we work with our clients to ensure that the solutions are used well and their employees feel supported and confident. This does unlock the business’s potential to innovate, as the digital, operational and analytical backbone provides the requisite confidence. Our clients have, for example during the pandemic, revamped how they packaged their offerings in no time as they could digitally roll out newer schedules, billing methods and so on.

Marketing Darwinism: How does a great Technology Infrastructure lend itself to a great customer or consumer experience? In other words, when a company has “Advaiya Inside” how does it work with its customers better?

Manish Godha: We realize that customer experience is primarily a consequence of how a business connects and relates with the customer and how it delivers its service—digitally or otherwise. Our solutions address these very aspects directly. The sustained high-quality customer interaction creates a latent capital that yields enormous dividends for the business’s growth. Businesses with integrated and cohesive customer interaction systems move customers more quickly through the sales funnel while providing a favorable brand experience. For example, we help create a fluid and straightforward physical and digital transaction experience which is personalized, comprehensive and responsive. With our solutions for work management and productivity, businesses can also ensure faster delivery, a better after sales service and serve their returning customers better. We help create an insights driven operation which not only provides better experience, but also is more efficient, as better logistics, work management, value chain management—all feed from it.

Marketing Darwinism: Advaiya has had incredible success building both the US market and the Indian domestic market. Few companies can boast of that. Can you share a bit of your secret sauce there? What markets are next for you as you expand your global footprint?

Manish Godha: We depend on our ability to understand our client businesses better and provide exceptional support. We have consciously built these for the US and India markets. We have invested in “local abilities” not necessarily in the sense of physical proximity, but in regards to having deeper and exhaustive understanding of our clients’ business context and environment, and in regards to providing support as relevant to the criticality of the solutions we implement. We have been successful in creating this “nearness” and availability, which have been found invaluable by our clients. This bolsters our technology capabilities and capacity, to maintain those we have stayed similarly near and available to our talent. It has required us to be somewhat focused in terms of geography of our client base, and we see enormous growth potential in the US and India. We plan to further strengthen our service and support capabilities in these markets and expand within.

Marketing Darwinism: You have partnered with companies like Microsoft and have kept abreast of their offerings and changes. What investment areas are you most excited about and what areas will you be doubling-down on in 2023?

Manish Godha: Our partnership with Microsoft has been quite successful with us driving revenues and customer relationships collaboratively in multiple segments. We have built multiple advanced capabilities along with “Gold” level solution partner competencies. This has of course allowed us to be on the leading edge, as regards Microsoft’s business technology offerings. Our solution offerings have evolved accordingly. We believe that Microsoft’s investments in the areas of business applications would be enormously valuable for organizations globally. Specifically, in the areas relating to customer engagement, we believe the Microsoft technologies are amongst the best, and are best suited for organizations across. Whether building a customer data platform or intelligently driving customer interactions, the Dynamics 365 applications and the Power Platform, can help organizations transform themselves digitally rapidly and reliably. These are the areas where we are investing as well, in terms of capacity as well as building integrations and offerings relevant to businesses in our target markets.

Marketing Darwinism: Culture. It plays a huge role in all companies but especially in Tech-focused companies. You have won a series of culture awards- what is your differentiator here?

Manish Godha: Our culture has been a huge advantage for us. We understand that at our scale we get the benefit of being small enough to bring multiple abilities quickly to an engagement and be agile, and at the same time being large enough to have systems and processes to provide continuity, coherence and reliability. These are a direct function of our culture built on our values of being customer centric, having passion for technology, always learning, excellence in work, and most importantly, respect for individuals. We take our values very seriously and that has helped build our culture where our team members are comfortable seeking and providing help to each other, engaging in each other’s pursuits, building deep capabilities, being sensitive to clients’ purposes. We are deeply conscious of the fact that in professional services businesses like ours, it can be difficult for our team members to balance client goals, company goals and personal aspirations. Hence, we try hard to build and maintain alignment with our team members’ individual goals as we organize our teams and projects.

On Tuesday night this week I received a totally unexpected award from ITSMA – it was their 25th anniversary and they were awarding companies and individuals who have had the most impact over the year. Honestly, I should be awarding them for having the most impact on me! If I wasn’t entering an award I was also (heads up) a judge. I learned just as much from judging as I did by entering. Spoiler alert: I’ll be entering the awards next year for sure so don’t count me out just yet!

ITSMA Lifetime Achievement Award – Most Individual Impact – 2022

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award –  Strengthening and Differentiating the Brand – Finalist 2022

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award – Enabling Sales for New Growth Opportunities  – Diamond Award Winner 2017

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award –  Agile Marketing – Diamond Winner 2016

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award –  Driving Revenue with Thought Leadership – Gold Winner 2015

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award –  Enabling Sales – Gold Winner 2010

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award – Predictive Data Modeling to Enable Sales – Finalist 2009

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award – Targeted Demand Generation – Finalist 2008

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award – Sharpening Competitive Brand Differentiation – Finalist 2007

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award – Sharpening Competitive Differentiation – Finalist 2006

ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award – Generating New Demand – Gold Winner 2005

AssetTech Pioneer Pepper Names Romi Mahajan as President

To read the full release go here

Q: We just saw the announcement. Congratulations on joining Pepper as President.

A: Thanks Paul. I am thrilled to have the trust and faith reposed in me by the Founding team at Pepper, specifically CEO Pulak Sinha. Pepper is an important part of the AssetTech ecosystem, and has in fact been a pioneer in the space so I don’t take this mantle lightly.

Q: Tell us a bit more about Pepper’s plans- how is 2023 shaping up?

A: Pepper has been commercially active for a short time only- just a few years. The platform was developed to de-risk customers, partners, and investors. CTO Jaskaran Singh is a world-class architect and technologist and CEO Pulak Sinha knows more about the industry than I will ever. They tailor made the platform for Asset Managers, especially in Alts, Secondaries, Private Markets, and so on. They built it in conjunction with some large customers and now we’ve unleashed the Kraken. So 2023 looks, well, very buoyant.

Well we are super excited to see where you take Pepper from here!

Boulder, CO  Oct 18, 2022 – PropTech innovator Rook Capital partners with Keller Williams Northern Colorado and First Bank to expand home ownership and solve the home affordability problem. Leveraging the power of its Shared Value Investment™, Rook Capital brings together homebuyers and community-based investors to accelerate home ownership and build communities.

“The last decade has seen a consistent upward trend in house prices. Combine that with higher interest rates and you get a really difficult situation for first time homebuyers and young families looking to establish community and generate wealth. Rook Capital has tailor-made a solution for this scenario and we are grateful to partner with Keller Williams Northern Colorado and First Bank to bring it to market and get families in homes,” said Rook Capital CEO Ed Messman.

Rook Capital’s Shared Value Investment™ creates a partnership between homebuyers and community-based investors to purchase a house with shared equity, shared risk and shared reward. The Shared Value Investment™ combines the power and protection of traditional home financing to offer homebuyers the ability to get into the right house with lower payments.

“We are proud to work alongside great partners to help get people in the right homes and build community,” said Messman. Keller Williams Northern Colorado’s David Rusaw added, “We have many prospective customers who just need a little help to be able to buy a house. Rook’s solution helps us expand the footprint of people we are able to help. It’s truly a winning partnership.”

John Ricotta of First Bank added, “One of our primary charters is to give back to the community that supports us. The housing situation in cities like Boulder, Colorado and other hotspots in the country are dire for young families. In partnership with Rook, we are opening new vistas of possibility for these prospective home buyers who are looking to live their American Dream.”

In this scenario, First Bank provides the 1st mortgage on the house while Rook brings up to 25% to help homeowners purchase and close. The homeowner makes no payments on Rook’s portion and can thus save or re-invest the money saved.

Rook leverages advanced data-science and modeling to identify locales and properties that offer the best prospects for return.

Rook is an innovative PropTech company focused on widening home ownership and solving home affordability. Rook’s Shared Value Investment brings homebuyers, investors, and the housing ecosystem into partnership with full life-cycle alignment. Rook is backed by a diverse set of investors, including LL Funds, First Mile Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Service Provider Capital, and Tango Ventures.

Keller Williams Northern Colorado is a leading brokerage and real estate firm serving the vibrant communities in Colorado. Keller Williams, the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count, has more than 1,100 offices and 200,000 associates. They are also No. 1 in units and sales volume in the United States.

FirstBank began providing banking services in 1963. Today, it’s known as an industry leader in digital banking and has grown to be one of the largest privately held banks in the United States, maintaining more than $25 billion in assets and 110 branch locations across Colorado, Arizona and California. FirstBank has been recognized as a top corporate philanthropist, contributing nearly $75 million and thousands of volunteer hours to charitable organizations. MEMBER FDIC

Contact: Romi Mahajan | KKM Group | romi@thekkmgroup.com