Neudata's New York Summit 2024 Key Takeaways

Want to make money in data? Consider an AI role in PE

June 07, 2024

This week’s Neudata New York Summer Data Summit 2024 was an impeccably organized event blending the best of networking, market making and thought leadership Neudata has become known for.

Where a lot of events fail is a certain myopia that develops due to the concentration of attendees all sharing the same ideas, callings and goals. What set this event apart was its ability to attract a diverse group of data buyers, sellers and regulators representing broad and at times divergent viewpoints.

Below is a recap of some of the most interesting conversations and key takeaways:

Panel: The Future of Alternative Data

Moderator: Mark Fleming-Williams, Head of Data Sourcing, CFM

Rado Lipuš, Founder & CEO, Neudata

Kirk McKeown, Co-Founder, Carbon Arc

Auren Hoffman, CEO, SafeGraph

Christina Qi, CEO, Databento

An insightful conversation that brought up some uncomfortable truths about the state of the data industry today and some possible outcomes. 

Key takeaways: 

Data liquidity needs to go up - as we enter the next stage of data consumption, there needs to be a unified market, pricing etc. With that being said, data supply is going up way quicker than demand - especially in the alternative investment space where the number of buyers hasn’t changed all that much in the past 5/10 years. Combined with AI, you can actually see data prices go down - a race to the bottom that doesn’t really benefit anybody. 

It’s becoming a lot harder to be a venture backed data company - the good news is you don’t need a lot of startup capital to get going but, if your plan is to get VC funding, good luck. 

On a positive, there’s a path of data/ai adoption with quant funds leading the way. What this means is that as data becomes more ubiquitous and easier to obtain, process and analyze, you can expect the methodologies pioneered by quant funds to expand into the wider corporate world potentially increasing overall demand for data.

Does Generative AI hiring look different for finance compared to tech?

Ben Zweig, Founder and CEO, Revelio Labs

Using the data compiled by their platform Revelio Labs looked at if there's a difference between the pace of AI hiring in tech vs finance.

Spoiler alert - absolutely! 

Key takeaways: 

The market for AI hiring remains incredibly competitive:

But there are stark differences in the industries where these experts are found

And recognizing this imbalance, the buy side (and PE) in particular is attempting to close the gap:

Fireside Chat: How to Build a Successful Quant Business From the Ground Up

Moderator: Ian Webster, Managing Director, Neudata

Paul White, CEO and Co-Founder, Quantbot Technologies LP

A quick and succinct overview of how to build a business where data is the only true differentiating factor. 

Key Takeaways: 

  • The three Ps People, Platform and Partners are key. The good news here is that given the recent advances in cloud and compute it is easier to build a quant business today than it was 30 years ago. People - still hard, Platform - much easier, Partners (data) is where you can really differentiate yourself and easier to uncover and incorporate. 

  • Building the data plumbing is a waste - let providers do that.

  • You have 30 days to assess a data set to see if there’s alpha. 

  • There are data sets out there that have been around for 25 years plus that still contain alpha - sadly, Paul did not share what they are. 

Keynote: US Equity Market Outlook & Key Themes

‍Michelle Weaver, US Thematic Research Strategist, Morgan Stanley

An incredibly insightful look into how Morgan Stanley is looking at the impact of AI on the overall economy and what to expect from the election and beyond.

Key Takeaways:  

Looking at historical data, volatility during election years doesn’t really tick up until September and then quickly subsides after inauguration.

While we are beginning to see real impact of AI on certain areas of the labor market (Customer Support, Coding, Writing and General Productivity) 

We are still in the early stages of adoption with most companies still in the exploratory phase with the majority of adoption expected to take place 2H 2024 onward. 

Using Alternative Data to Predict the US Elections

Barney Bruce-Smythe, Senior Associate, Neudata

2024 has been described as The Super Election Year with a quarter of earth’s population having already gone or going shortly to the polls. Neudata dug deep to see what we can learn from the available data. 

Key Takeaway: Data doesn’t need to be expensive: 

1 + 1 = 3: Best Practices to Unlock the Power of Data in Your Investment Operations

Shawn Kenyon, Senior Director, Head of Cloud Product Strategy, SS&C Technologies

Matthew Carroll, Head of Data Lens Sales, SS&C Technologies

SS&C has an incredible amount of data that can power a lot of insight - how to best surface that data has been the challenge. 

Key takeaway: The decision Build vs Assemble doesn’t have to be binary:

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