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The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

mattturck.com

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Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#11

Post by AnimalMuppet »

dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

> The financial services world has its own strong identity, handles massive amounts of money, and will not necessarily be in awe of your cool startup. When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. Who wants wall street awe? Who cares about credibility? Run a goddamn business, not a fan club. If you ca…

Who cares about credibility? If you're trying to sell to Wall Street, you care about credibility. If you want them to invest in your startup, you care about credibility.

If they want to sell to you, wear what you please.

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#12

Post by zenlikethat »

dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

> The financial services world has its own strong identity, handles massive amounts of money, and will not necessarily be in awe of your cool startup. When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. Who wants wall street awe? Who cares about credibility? Run a goddamn business, not a fan club. If you ca…

Except that Silicon Valley is equally superficial in different ways. Consider: founder fetishism, engineering fetishism (vs. sales/marketing/product), relative ease of getting funded as a Caltech / MIT / Stanford grad, favoring growth over revenue without coherent business plan, acting like fanboys towards YC or companies such as Uber, Google, Apple, etc.

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#13

Post by zenlikethat »

rcarrigan87 wrote: post #6

> When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. I understand you can't roll in looking like a slob but I have to think times have changed and the casually dressed founder wouldn't have a problem, even with Wall Street types. The cultural differences b/t the two industries are pretty interesting though…

Can't hurt to look nice. Why not use every advantage you can get? Imagine some Wall Street type who can talk to engineers on a technical level. You're going to automatically trust this person more because they're meeting you where you're at... just like a suit-wearing Wall Street type will trust you more if you show up "speaking" their language in terms of dress.

Not to mention that humans tend to trust others easier when they are more attractive, e.g., dressed snappy [1]. Imagine that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#14

Post by dgfgfdagasdfgfa »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #11
dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

> The financial services world has its own strong identity, handles massive amounts of money, and will not necessarily be in awe of your cool startup. When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. Who wants wall street awe? Who cares about credibility? Run a goddamn business, not a fan club. If you ca…

Who cares about credibility? If you're trying to sell to Wall Street, you care about credibility. If you want them to invest in your startup, you care about credibility. If they want to sell to you , wear what you please.

Funny, they never mentioned a link between perception and sales, so it just came out like shit talking....

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#15

Post by zenlikethat »

choward wrote: post #8
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #6

> When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. I understand you can't roll in looking like a slob but I have to think times have changed and the casually dressed founder wouldn't have a problem, even with Wall Street types. The cultural differences b/t the two industries are pretty interesting though…

People dressed up in suits lose accountability to me. It's like they are over-compensating for something.

And I'm sure they are devastated by this loss of accountability, since all they got in return was a 2x - 10x multiple of income from the average programmer.

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#16

Post by dgfgfdagasdfgfa »

zenlikethat wrote: post #12
dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

> The financial services world has its own strong identity, handles massive amounts of money, and will not necessarily be in awe of your cool startup. When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. Who wants wall street awe? Who cares about credibility? Run a goddamn business, not a fan club. If you ca…

Except that Silicon Valley is equally superficial in different ways. Consider: founder fetishism, engineering fetishism (vs. sales/marketing/product), relative ease of getting funded as a Caltech / MIT / Stanford grad, favoring growth over revenue without coherent business plan, acting like fanboys towards YC or companies such as Uber, Google, Apple, etc.

No argument here, startup/vc fetishism is distinctly unattractive.

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#17

Post by dig1 »

dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

> The financial services world has its own strong identity, handles massive amounts of money, and will not necessarily be in awe of your cool startup. When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. Who wants wall street awe? Who cares about credibility? Run a goddamn business, not a fan club. If you ca…

> Run a goddamn business,.... If you cared about image, you wouldn't talk about what people wear.

Let's change perspective - what do you think, how much success will have business with web pages that looks like from 90-ties or products that looks like they are made in basement in spare time? (sure, there are exceptions, but well, they are exceptions :P).

Everything is about image; if I'm going to invest in you, you better be shaved with ironed shirt and good suite. Simply, it's telling me you are serious about your business.

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#18

Post by JoeAltmaier »

dig1 wrote: post #17
dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

> The financial services world has its own strong identity, handles massive amounts of money, and will not necessarily be in awe of your cool startup. When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. Who wants wall street awe? Who cares about credibility? Run a goddamn business, not a fan club. If you ca…

> Run a goddamn business,.... If you cared about image, you wouldn't talk about what people wear. Let's change perspective - what do you think, how much success will have business with web pages that looks like from 90-ties or products that looks like they are made in basement in spare time? (sure, there are exceptions, but well, they are exceptions :P). Everything is about image; if I'm going to invest in you, you b…

Like Craigslist? Ok one example doesn't prove anything; except that not all businesses are about image.

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#19

Post by bogomipz »

choward wrote: post #8
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #6

> When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. I understand you can't roll in looking like a slob but I have to think times have changed and the casually dressed founder wouldn't have a problem, even with Wall Street types. The cultural differences b/t the two industries are pretty interesting though…

People dressed up in suits lose accountability to me. It's like they are over-compensating for something.

Does that include lawyers and financial advisors too?

Would you be OK with someone in jeans and a hoodie representing you in court?

Would you be OK handing your life savings over to a money manager who was wearing a t-shirt and flip flops?

Re: The New Gold Rush? Wall Street Wants Your Data

#20

Post by gozur88 »

zenlikethat wrote: post #13
rcarrigan87 wrote: post #6

> When I was at Bloomberg, I used to cringe when startup founders would show up in hoodies, essentially destroying their credibility before the meeting even started. I understand you can't roll in looking like a slob but I have to think times have changed and the casually dressed founder wouldn't have a problem, even with Wall Street types. The cultural differences b/t the two industries are pretty interesting though…

Can't hurt to look nice. Why not use every advantage you can get? Imagine some Wall Street type who can talk to engineers on a technical level. You're going to automatically trust this person more because they're meeting you where you're at... just like a suit-wearing Wall Street type will trust you more if you show up "speaking" their language in terms of dress. Not to mention that humans tend to trust others easier…

>Can't hurt to look nice.

It can. You want to dress for the impression you want to make. For Wall St. financial types you probably do want to dress like a banker, since what they're really looking for is professionalism and reliability.

But you wouldn't necessarily want to wear a three piece suit while pitching a media company in Northern California, since what you want to say is "We're not staid, boring people who can't tap into trends and fads."

Interviews are the same way. Overdressing is as bad as underdressing.

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