Nick Jain

I am excited to release my Cost of Thanksgiving Dinner in Philly report, as a faster and more detailed alternative to @PhilaController TLDR Cost down about 2% YoY. Full analysis & data here: nickjain.com/blog/philly-tha…

One rule: if I, as CEO, couldn't figure out how to use something in our product, our customers couldn't either. IdeaScale sat outside the top 10 for a decade. 18 months later, a Gartner Customer's Choice Award. nickjain.com/blog/stupid-sim…

Philadelphia spent $9,250 on a mascot of Deputy Sheriff Justice. The recruiting ad cost $606,540 and went to a firm run by his former campaign manager. Then it asked Council for 54% more, $35.5M to $54.9M. nickjain.com/blog/sheriffs-o…

The 2018 City Controller audit found $33 million missing from the city's largest cash account and $924 million in bookkeeping errors. No one went to jail. No one was fired. They formed a committee. nickjain.com/blog/controller…

Two miles to Rivers, four round trip. Good exercise before sitting in a dark room for ten hours with no windows. And because the car's at home, I can actually have a drink at the table. nickjain.com/blog/why-i-stil…

Route 31 ran every 30 minutes from 76th Street through Overbrook Park and Mantua to City Hall, carrying 35 riders an hour. More than 32 other routes that survived the 2025 cut carried fewer. SEPTA eliminated it anyway. nickjain.com/blog/the-bus-th…

Philadelphia pulled in over $1.1 billion in NIH funding in 2024. CHOP alone took $152.9 million across 309 grants. Then a February 2025 directive capped indirect cost reimbursement at 15%. Penn puts that at about $250 million a year. nickjain.com/blog/nih-fundin…

The district said the ZIP-code preference was race-neutral. Its own officials testified the ZIP preference "was equity." The Third Circuit sent the case back for trial on February 2, 2026. nickjain.com/blog/what-were-…

A 40% edge heads-up is a 70-30 favorite. Add two more players and you're a 68% dog. After rake, closer to 27%. That's not a bad hand. That's a lottery ticket you bought by letting three other people in. nickjain.com/blog/isolation-…

Excited to share I was published in the @thephilacitizen for my research into rejected mail-in ballots and showing how counterintuitive groups are being disenfranchised (richer, younger) thephiladelphiacitizen.org/m…

The Army Corps designed a 15-foot levee for Eastwick against a 100-year flood. It would have flooded 328 structures in Delaware County, so they built an 8-foot version. It handles a 5-year flood. Building starts 2030. nickjain.com/blog/eastwick-f…

Really excited to have a front page article in the @thephilacitizen , for my analysis of how weird laws accumulated (e.g,. tuberculosis causing the anti-spitting laws in the 1890s) and why these lawas are stuck and accumulating on the books thephiladelphiacitizen.org/p…

The 55-year-old woman who I played w/ last week at Rivers in Philly is wonderfully pleasant - and she's crushed the table for 5 hours. Glad I made it with my wallet intact. nickjain.com/blog/saturday-n…

In 19132, Kensington, median income is about $28,000. For every dollar of tax debt owed, the city takes 31 cents in fees. In Logan Square it's under 5 cents. Ten zips, 45% of properties, generate 56.5% of fee revenue. nickjain.com/blog/you-pay-mo…

Philadelphia's vacant lot tax is 10% of assessed value, the highest rate in the country. On a lot assessed at $50,000 that is a $5,000 bill vs a normal real estate tax rate of about 1.4% on residential property. nickjain.com/blog/the-10-per…

Melville spent thirty pages on the tail of a whale. Just the tail. He also knew things about whale skin, eyes, and how they die that you can't learn without being one. The whale hasn't shown up yet, or has and I've forgotten. nickjain.com/blog/reading-mo…

Excited to share that I was published in the Citizen, for my research into the history of weird Philly laws (i.e., spitting illegal 100 years ago to stop tuberculosis) and how they're clogging up today's books! thephiladelphiacitizen.org/p…

The org chart is fiction. Here's how you figure out who makes decisions in your org. eaglerockcfo.substack.com/p/…

A pack in Philadelphia carries $5.61 in tax. $1.01 federal, $2.60 state, and $2.00 to a "school district" tax that is not a city tax. It raises $40 to $80 million a year. nickjain.com/blog/school-cig…

Philadelphia's realty transfer tax went from 3.278% to 3.578% on July 1, 2025. With the state's 1% on top, every sale pays 4.578%. On a $500,000 home that's $22,890. Boston's statewide excise is 0.456%. Chicago lands around 1.20%. nickjain.com/blog/realty-tra…