Fintech exec/rock drummer. OG head of product @Sofi; payment czar @figure @bushelpowered @stellarorg; drummer for PumpkinHeads @y2k_Band @CheapLicks; Hokie
San Francisco, California
Joined December 2008
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I created divebar.info as an exercise to teach myself development with AI tools. I literally created V1 in about an hour last winter. There are two things I love about working this way.
Example 1 - I swapped out the Yelp API for the Google Places API while waiting for a plane at the gate about a month after launch. I was imaging the jira ticket, the engineers complaining i didn't give them enough detail, the QA, had I done this traditionally. Within a normal company, i finished a month's work in a spare hour I had waiting for a plane.
Example 2 - the UI is only one text box and a single radio button. I bet I have tweaked the behavior of the text box 100 times, emphasizing discovery while reducing google API costs(google ain't cheap). The iteration process has been my single most favorite part of this.
The funniest part of this is that Fred(my name for my AI tool) makes a lot of the same bad assumptions engineers but at times even worse. I have had to tell Fred multiple times that we want to reduce google API calls, and at times he will invent new features, which are cool but the way he builds them jack up my google bill, so he can be a lot like a real Fred, only faster. The constant digging on "how exactly did you do this" is similar to humans, but worse as Fred doesn't development intuition like an engineer does, when you work with a long time.
We now have 2000 cities in the system, and many neighborhoods in larger cities(SOMA, North Beach,etc).
Photos have been a disaster due to some Fred assumptions, but the problems will flush out completely over the coming months, so you may not see the bar photos consistently until Jan 2027.
Tony Morosini retweeted
Ten million people have watched a comedian accidentally destroy the entire TED talk industry.
He filmed the talk once at TEDxNewYork in 2014 and openly admitted he had nothing to say.
Speaking coaches charge $5,000 to teach the exact tricks he used in 6 minutes to say nothing at all.
His name is Will Stephen. He is a comedian from Late Night with Seth Meyers who was invited to give a real TED talk and used it to prove the format is a costume anyone can wear.
Every TED speaker opens with a question, tells a personal story, cites a scientist, and shows a chart. Stephen did all four in six minutes with zero content.
His entire formula fits on a napkin.
Gesture with both hands. Ask the audience a question anyone can answer. Tell a mildly embarrassing story so they say aww. Point to a stranger on a slide and call them important. Flash a chart of random numbers. Wear glasses with no lenses. The audience will think you are brilliant.
That last trick alone has probably cost the public speaking coaching industry a hundred million dollars in sessions clients should have skipped.
"If you watched me on YouTube with the sound off, you would think I was a genius."
That is Will Stephen on the TED stage, three minutes into the talk he was paid to give. He wasn't lying.
Executives pay $15,000 for a keynote coach and still open with a joke the room never laughs at. Founders rehearse their pitch for weeks and still sound like Stephen at minute four, saying "wagga wah, gabba gabba" with authority.
The talk is free on YouTube. The method is written across every TED speaker's playbook for ten years.
Stephen still writes for Seth Meyers. Almost none of the ten million viewers have stopped nodding at empty slides since.
The formula is free. The willingness to actually say something before your next keynote, pitch, or townhall is the entire edge.
Tony Morosini retweeted
🚨HUGE week for $XLM as Stellar's as Meridian 2026 conference kicks off in Lisbon this week!
Some of the biggest names in global finance will come together to discuss the future of money, payments and tokenisation!
Attending the conference will be the DTCC, State Street, BNY, Archax, US Bank, United Nations, and many more HUGE names, @StellarOrg is bringing everyone together!
We'll be covering everything from it, what are you most excited to hear about?
Love playing with these guys @Y2K_Band - from a show in September, covering Siva by Smashing Pumpkins
The opportunity for a Newman $HAWK joke was missed, but otherwise 😂😂😂
Tony Morosini retweeted
Technical moats are mostly over at this point. If you’re building something that is meant to be durable, the only moats now are:
• Proprietary data
• Network effects
• A physical component
Tony Morosini retweeted
There is a scam American companies are using to manipulate what ingredient gets listed as the first main ingredient on products
Take Smuckers, strawberries is the first ingredient. So you would think strawberries is the main primary ingredient, but that’s not true
American companies are using a food formulation technique known as ‘ingredient splitting’
For Smuckers, they divide the sweeteners up into 3 different ingredients. That way, each of them weigh less
This allows the word strawberries to be listed on the label as the first ingredient, giving the impression that it's mostly strawberries. In reality, it's mostly sugar.
This is a scam. It’s outright manipulation of our system and lying to customers
Ingredients splitting is a real labeling tactic, and it is legal. It’s allowed by the FDA
I included 10 more popular American foods where this same “ingredients slitting” scam tactic is being used at the end of the video
Tony Morosini retweeted
Today we officially announce the launch of @HelloNavra. Our goal is to bring retail and institutional TradFi dollars over to DeFi by delivering better user experience, keyless self custody and enterprise control. The dollars will flow into products like @Figure's Democratized Prime, but also into other DeFi lending, borrowing and trading platforms.
Thank you to @RibbitCapital for leading this oversubscribed round!
I'm still performing my Figure duties as executive chairman and am excited about the synergies between the two companies. Figure joins @jump_ as first strategic partners.
axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/…
Cal week has become my favorite Hokie game week #calgorithm
Maybe I'm excited about not having to travel 3,000 miles to see a game #VTvsCal
🤖 Made with AI
Y2K has availability for hard rock oriented holiday events 🤟
New promo video
youtu.be/g_kc_zfUMbQ?is=L2DB…
