Kevin Foley, CFA’s Post

🚨 Breaking NBA Finals news! First off, thanks for everyone who came out to our Optimal Blue roadshow event in DC today. Tiffany McGarry and I decided to make a friendly bet on the NBA Finals with a surprise coming for our next roadshow in Plano, TX on June 25th. Join us in Plano to see how it all turns out 😂

I’ve always imagined walking into Gillette Stadium and telling folks how we’re going to go out there and make history. OK - so *technically* I won’t be out there leading the Pats to their 7th Super Bowl title, but our team WILL be talking about the next generation of mortgage pricing technology. If you’re in New England and looking to get a sneak peak at what we’re working on, plus an opportunity to offer your feedback, join us at Gillette Stadium on June 4th. And in more cities this summer: DC - June 6th Plano, TX - June 25th Irvine, CA - July 30th Chicago, IL - Aug 1st

Some insightful commentary from my friend Wesley Horbatuck on how thought leadership and community-building are changing the marketing landscape.

📚I recently finished reading Marty Cagan’s book Transformed, which I found to provide some practical insights on product development. While I don’t believe that there is only one way for companies to innovate, I think it’s great for product leaders to grapple with the larger ideas and perspectives that are out there. 💡One story from the book stuck with me. File this under “you can find innovation anywhere” - quick summary below: 1️⃣Almosafer is a travel and tourism company based in Saudia Arabia. They serve the wider Middle East and saw an opportunity to incorporate local needs, preferences and cultures for travel - also supporting religious travel. They grew to a billion dollar business BUT then the pandemic hit. 2️⃣While many tourism companies struggled during the pandemic, Almosafer turned this into an opportunity by leveraging their top-notch infrastructure for user feedback. They realized there was an unmet need for families to gather together safely. 3️⃣Most often, families were looking to gather in large outdoor courtyards called “istirahas”, so Almosafer began to incorporate finding and reserving istirahas into their product offering - quickly becoming the “Airbnb” of istirahas, successfully educating the population on this new offering, and growing to over 70% market share. 🔔Punchline: True innovation isn’t just about perfecting the present. It’s about planning for the surprises of tomorrow.

💬 ICYMI: a new media company, Hunterbrook Media, launched earlier this week with its first report focused on the mortgage industry - accusing UWM of “fraud” for pressuring brokers to exclusively send them loans. It appears they’ve also facilitated a class action lawsuit on behalf of borrowers. I’m going to ignore the 900 pound gorilla and refrain from commenting on the report itself (much thoughtful commentary already out there) however I found the backstory of Hunterbrook Media pretty fascinating, and what it means for the media landscape going forward. Some detail: ➡️ Hunterbrook Media is a division of Hunterbrook Capital, a hedge fund ➡️ Instead of hiring reporters, they hire Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) researchers to collect publicly available information to piece a story together ➡️ This is a deliberate strategy not to use investigative reporters, as it allows their hedge fund to take financial positions on subjects in their reporting without fear of stumbling on non-public information and accusations of insider trading (they shorted UWM) ➡️ They tout this business model as an experiment in “sustainably funded” news - the theory being their hedge fund generates outsized returns from their reporting, allowing them to invest in top dollar researchers. One particular OSINT researcher involved in this report has nearly 1 million followers on X/Twitter and is highly regarded in the community. 💡The broader context is that the print journalism biz is possibly the only industry coming off a worse year than housing. A huge part of the problem is how little consumers want to pay for digital news. Many remaining publications are national (scaled audience), or have subscriptions so high that they are predominantly geared towards businesses as the end consumer. So how is a new entrant like Hunterbrook going to change things? Some quick ideas: ➡️ if they are successful >> more copycats - or others who find inspiration to continue to innovate on the biz model ➡️ B2C journalism falling out of favor vs B2B journalism >> more focus on industry topics and concerns ➡️ growing recognition of the value of open source intelligence researchers and the work that they do ➡️ costs/risks increasing on publicly traded companies >> higher hurdle for companies looking to IPO/SPAC Overall will be interested to see if this news model has any staying power.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Brad in multiple capacities and know wherever he lands next will be lucky to have him. Reposting for visibility.