What’s on our minds. 

Cybercrime is a booming business. Last year – in the US alone – the FBI handled over 800,000 complaints, with losses hitting $10.3 billion. And while some may be lucky to have a strong IT work security policy, most could improve personal and small business computer security practices.

Here are some resources that might help everyone sleep a little easier:

• The National Cybersecurity Alliance has resources, guides, events, and more to help individuals and businesses.
• The US FTC offers a library of cybersecurity resources for small businesses.
• Safeguard your machines and accounts with strong, randomly generated passwords.

Information overload has been stressing us out since we first started collecting data. As far back as the first century AD, people were already feeling the heat. Fast forward from ancient scrolls to modern memes, and now we’re in information overdrive!

This overload can be a real productivity killer, and in the long run, it can mess with your health. Businesses also feel the pain, with US companies waving goodbye to $900 billion yearly from lost productivity and innovation. That’s enough cash to send 6,000 people on tours to the moon or fund 6 million bachelor’s degrees. Crazy, right?

At USAM, we get how easy it is to get lost in the information avalanche. That’s why we created Sales Slicer – the right way to keep sales teams focused. It keeps data entry to a minimum, ensuring they’re not overwhelmed. Plus, it slices through the noise by giving sales folks friendly reminders of their “next steps”, helping keep their deals on the front burner. Check out all the action at Sales Slicer, or just give us a shout!

Modernizing legacy applications and addressing technical debt while driving forward new initiatives that fuel business growth is like changing tires on a moving car. It might sound impossible, but development teams face this challenge daily. The challenge intensifies with a shortage of skilled programmers, which puts the brakes on critical projects and relegates “nice to have” improvements like enhanced user experience and seamless system integration to the parking lot.

So, what’s the game plan? We have several strategies to keep your tech engine running at peak performance:

• Pick up the pace while managing costs by outsourcing coding projects and data management to the capital market experts at Version 1.
• Ensure the satisfaction of your business users by seamlessly integrating Windows applications through interop.io.
• Turbo-charge your modernization campaign with the help of an AI-driven platform that can expedite your projects from start to finish without accumulating additional tech debt.

Stay ahead of the curve, and remember, changing tires while driving is possible with the right approach!

At USAM, we understand the power of informed decisions. Whether for individuals or businesses, making good decisions starts with good information.

This month, we highlight National Financial Awareness Day, dedicated to enhancing financial literacy among Americans. Take the opportunity to review your financial goals and evaluate your progress. And spread the word! Empower someone you know with knowledge of budgeting, saving, and investing – free resources (like the US Financial Literacy and Education Commission) can help them secure their futures.

Wise words from an iconic 80s cop show that are just as relevant to today’s businesses as they navigate the complex and risk-filled online world.

At USAM, we take cybersecurity seriously, and our “A” rating from Security Scorecard shows that our customers, prospects, and partners can trust that we’re a strong link in the online chain that connects us all.

Want to know more about our security practices? Or hear about the cool tech offerings we represent? Or talk about joining our portfolio of great solutions to real business problems? Get in touch!

Last week, we were fortunate to gather the team for our first in-person educational and team-building experience since 2019!

In addition to great conversations about how to be better salespeople, better business partners, and better bowlers (!!), we had the honor of welcoming some incredible guest speakers.

First up was the amazing Mary Ann Pierce, who gave us the latest on MAP Digital’s next-level events software.

Next was a breakout session with the charismatic Simon Stillwell, who condensed a lifetime of experience into a neat discourse on sales and the necessary virtues of teamwork.

Not to be outdone, Version 1’s Colin Pattison, Kelly Scanlon, and Ketan Parekh joined us online for an enlightening deep dive session on innovative data and business intelligence solutions.

Quincy Data pulled out all the stops and put David Goebels, Drake Livingston, and Tad Beckelman in the room with us, while Drew Schreiber and Keith Pituley joined remotely for a highly enlightening discussion of wireless #marketdata at extreme #lowlatency.

And last, but by no means least, a big shoutout to Steve Smith for guiding us through an interactive sales strategy session. Your insights and strategies are gold, Steve!

It’s safe to say that USAM Week was a blast! We bonded, we learned, and the exchange of ideas and knowledge was invaluable. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Since 2014:

• ~ 33.5 million academic degrees were awarded in the US
• ~ 3300 planets outside our solar system were discovered, and Pluto was reclassified as a major planet
• ~ 115 countries held elections, with at least 41 regime changes

And closer to home and our hearts, USAM Group has been busy helping financial institutions find software and data solutions that solve some of their most vexing business problems! Since tracking activities on behalf of our vendor clients in late 2014, USAM has:

• Served 60+ vendors in a variety of sales and advisory capacities
• Reached out to 2,200+ prospective buyer firms
• Connected with 9,000+ buyers and influencers
• Devoted 41,000+ hours to help our vendors find their market fit and thrive
• Logged 73,000+ activities in pursuit of business opportunities

With an average deal size of nearly $200,000 and a cost of sales well below that of an in-house team, USAM helps our vendors bridge the gap between founder sales and direct hires. Happy birthday, USAM Group! To nine years of hard work and dedication, and to many more!

USAM is thrilled to share that Sales Slicer, our unique Sales and Business Intelligence Tool, has taken first place in the 2023 Queens (NY) Tech + Innovation Challenge.

Sales Slicer is the unique Sales and Business Intelligence Tool we built to bring transparency and accuracy to the sales process, making it more predictable with a combination of human input and data-driven AI.

We’re taking Sales Slicer to the next level, and we thank the QEDC, the competition sponsors, and the judges for a beautifully run program that’s helped us get underway.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and we’re proud to have so many great fintech solution providers in our portfolio of solutions.

We couldn’t be happier for Glue42 and Quincy Data for being recognized in two highly competitive contests:

• Glue 42 won first place in two categories at the A-Team TradingTech Insight Awards Europe and is shortlisted for two more in the upcoming FTF News Technology Innovation Awards US.
• Quincy Data is nominated in two categories in the TradingTech Insight Awards USA.

Head on over to our Offerings page for a better look into our portfolio of solutions.

While USAM represents multiple fintech vendors, there are plenty of instances where we find an opportunity for one vendor while pursuing a deal for another. Cross-pollination for the win! 

In a recent example, a broker-dealer implemented Jaid, an AI-driven tool that automates workflow for its high-volume shared email inboxes. When accessing its communications archive to train the models, the broker got a nasty shock: its surveillance vendor handed over a six-figure bill to extract its own data!

What a perfect opportunity to introduce SteelEye, another USAM vendor that offers a data-centric communications surveillance platform – and doesn’t hold client data hostage.

Visit our Offerings page for an overview of all the inventive fintechs in our portfolio!

Welcome Util, the newest addition to USAM’s portfolio of offerings! Powered by AI analysis of 120+ million peer-reviewed academic papers, Util delivers a whole new way to show that your investments meet your impact goals.

By using independently-sourced data, Util eliminates the inherent bias in company-reported information and shows how 50,000+ globally listed companies – and their products – align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

With unique insight and unparalleled transparency from Util, you can fine-tune your ESG offerings and show clients and regulators that investments align with advertised goals. Let’s talk about it!

Say hello to SteelEye, a modern, data-centric compliance solution that makes it easy to combine data from any channel into a single repository. So all your comms – across 85 channels – are integrated and securely stored and can be aligned with your trades, orders, and market data on a single platform.

Oh, and SteelEye’s robust analytics and language-based search make proactive monitoring and real-time reporting a reality.

Interested? Get in touch today!

Digitalization is reshaping the finance industry. While it continues to drive forward, where exactly are we heading? And how fast are we going?

USAM’s Feargal O’Sullivan led a panel of legal experts to discuss the benefits and risks of this evolving ecosystem and what regulators are doing to foster innovation while ensuring stability and inclusion.

After the panel, arranged by the EACCNY and hosted by ING, Feargal said, “I loved the different perspectives of a European-law expert, a US-law expert, and a corporate lawyer responsible for implementing everything. We all came away smarter from this session.”

Speakers:

• Feargal O’Sullivan, Founder & CEO, USAM GROUP [Moderator]
• Marcy Sharon Cohen, Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer, ING
• Neel Maitra, Partner – Fintech and Financial Services, WILSON SONSINI
• Liam Flynn, Partner & Co-Head of Financial Regulation, MASON HAYES & CURRAN

Banks have long collected and used a wide range of data to drive transformation, improve service and gain competitive advantage.  As the value of data continues to increase, financial institutions are turning to their proprietary data as a direct source of revenue, often finding that it’s not as simple as it sounds.

At the FISD #WFIC2022 in Prague last month, USAM’s CEO Feargal O’Sullivan joined a discussion of the phenomenon of banks as data vendors.  The panel helped the 600+ attendees better understand the effects of these new providers on the overall market data landscape and outlined the challenges to effective data monetization, from pricing and packaging to licensing and administration.

Let us know if you want to establish or improve your data sales workflows.  We’re here to help!

USAM data scientist Jiahui Lu was one of 70 women and girls who participated in a special afternoon of mentorship and innovation held in honor of the UN’s International Day of the Girl.

Created to provide young students with exposure to science, technology, and innovation, the workshop evoked design thinking, a team-based method of solving complex, human-centered problems. Participants applied these new skills and imagined technical solutions to hypothetical situations where girls were isolated or bullied.

Jiahui commented, “It was incredible how naturally the girls incorporated technology into their solutions, and inspirational to see the empathy they showed as they iterated their ideas. I am fortunate to have participated in this wonderful program and help girls see firsthand the impact they can have on the world.”

The afternoon culminated with presentations of each solution, followed by a networking social hour.

The business world has said goodbye to fully in-person events in favor of a new model of hybrid and virtual, and USAM partner MAP Digital has literally written THE book on the subject.

Throughout MAP’s 20+ years in the events business, they’ve created an interconnected ecosystem of support that gives all participants a flawless experience. The MAP Digital cloud-based platform does the heavy lifting, from marketing to content management to audience development, attendee tracking, and engagement data reporting.

Find out how to build strong relationships with attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors and create new revenue streams with MAP’s e-Book, which you can download here.

Once upon a time, financial transactions in the virtual world were the purview of gamers trading cloaks and spells inside their favorite games. Fast forward, and today people spend enormous sums on virtual assets.

For those not immersed in the metaverse, the financial plumbing underneath it is a mystery. Luckily, USAM’s Feargal O’Sullivan sat down with Jibran Ahmed of HSBC to discuss how it all works. With gratitude to the NY chapter of the EACC for producing this podcast, we invite you to listen in as Feargal and Jibs discuss everything from the governance of online communities to the effects of virtual finance on the real world – and vice versa.

Click here to access their conversation, which is entertaining and illuminating from start to finish. If you’d rather skip to the parts that interest you the most, scroll down to see the topics and timestamps. Hint: our favorites are #6 and #9, but judge for yourself!

You can also find the podcast on your favorite platform – search for EACCNY Pulse Future of Finance: The Metaverse.

Jaid is your secret weapon in the fight to conquer large volumes of inbound emails and chats.

Using AI, Jaid transforms unstructured communications into automated workflows that let your team focus on high-value work instead of administrative tasks like routing inquiries. With Jaid, you can improve efficiency by 50% for happier teams and customers – without adding staff.

Join us in welcoming the winner of the ‘Best Sustainability & ESG Thought Leadership’ award at the Inaugural WealthBriefing Wealth for Good Awards, Oxford Risk, to USAM’s portfolio of extraordinary fintech offerings!

Oxford Risk blends innovative behavioral finance, data science, quantitative finance, and technology that helps wealth advisors truly know and address their clients’ financial personalities. Going far beyond the standard suitability box ticking, Oxford Risk shows advisors how to deliver hyper-personalized services that improve client composure and make better financial decisions over the long term.

Let’s talk about how Oxford Risk can help you better understand your clients’ motivations and behaviors so you can better help them reach their financial goals. Get in touch today!

As we celebrate USAM’s 8th anniversary, we are delighted to think of how far we’ve come since 2014.

We’ve grown from one man with a vision for outsourced sales (thanks, Feargal O’Sullivan!) and one client (grateful to you, Quincy Data!) to a global team of 20 that have fueled the success of over 50 progressive fintech solutions.  Along the way, we also developed some notable technology of our own: SalesSlicer™️, which shortens buying cycles with data-driven insights based on our proprietary sales benchmarks.

We couldn’t have done it without the wonderful colleagues, forward-looking customers, tech-savvy vendors, and loyal friends who have been with us on our journey.  We thank you all and look forward to working alongside you for many years in the future!

With DataBP automating its online licensing and subscription management process, the Deutsche Börse has given its market data customers the gift of simplicity and autonomy. Users have direct control of subscription fulfillment and management, and the exchange is better situated to help its clients maximize their data budgets.

Kudos to DataBP for creating the data management platform for the future, to the Deutsche Börse for leveraging it, and to USAM’s Clive Furness for helping all parties navigate the complexities all through the process.

At USAM, we love happy endings, so we work hard to close deals for clients like DataBP. Get in touch if you’d like to talk about how we can help accelerate sales for your fabulous fintech offering!

If you’re trading in electronic Fixed Income or Derivatives markets, let’s chat about how TransFICC’s single API can keep you plugged into hundreds of venues – without the expense and hassle of keeping everything up to date!

Congratulations to USAM partner TransFICC on securing a $17 million extension to its Series A round. The new funding will help develop a new electronic trading system, increase venue connectivity and workflow automation, and expand its staffing footprint to support a rapidly growing customer base. As TransFICC’s sales provider in the Americas, we’re thrilled to offer even more value to the trading firms signing on to save time and money while improving execution.

If you’re trading in electronic Fixed Income or Derivatives markets, let’s chat about how TransFICC’s single API can keep you plugged into hundreds of venues – without the expense and hassle of keeping everything up to date!

As MarketAxess blazes trails with its fixed income data, we think their decision to implement DataBP’s licensing and administration platform for better customer insight and efficient operational scaling was a brilliant choice. We’re also proud of the hand USAM founder Feargal O’Sullivan had in making it happen. Congrats to all!

Closing deals for innovative fintechs is what we do, and we’d love to talk to you about how we can help accelerate sales for your growth-stage. Give us a shout!

We love it when good things happen to great companies, and eLoomina’s recent acquisition by NICE Actimize is a perfect opportunity to shout “Bravo!”

We’re proud of the work we did with eLoomina to raise its profile within our extensive network of influential fintech buyers and happy that NICE Actimize was able to see the added value of eLoomina’s insider fraud prevention framework to those customers and beyond.

Collaborating with the great team at eLoomina was a true pleasure, and we look forward to working with them in future ventures.

Congratulations, and best wishes for continued success!

Our colleagues on LinkedIn recently told us which technology they think is poised to drive real change in the near term – and no surprise, USAM’s fintech sales and marketing experts also had some strong opinions on the subject.

Find out what USAM’s team thinks in this short video, and then see what our wider community thinks in this one!

Bitvore has joined our roster of best-in-class technology and information suppliers that rely on USAM to drive revenue in new markets, segments, and geographies.

With Bitvore, investment teams can concentrate on investment selection or monitoring ESG adherence rather than waste time re-processing incoming news feeds, filings, and other research sources.

Read more in our press release, then head straight to our Offerings page and see our entire lineup of innovative information and technology services.

USAM owes its success to our team, each of whom has deep roots in capital markets and technology plus extensive experience matching users with great solutions.

In this first week of January, we’re jumping into 2022 by internally leveraging this great pool of knowledge. Over two intensive days, we’ll share hard-earned wisdom and best practices with each other so that we may all better serve our customers throughout the coming year and beyond.

All of us at USAM plan to do ’22 proud!

Our newest team members have hit the ground running.

They’re hard at work matching fintech consumers with the best solutions, refining our proprietary sales acceleration tools and workflows, and helping entrepreneurial founders coalesce their go-to-market messaging and strategy.

Read the news in our press release, and then head over to our Team page.

Congratulations to Singapore Stock Exchange on the successful launch of SGX Data Direct, their next-gen online market data licensing and admin portal powered by USAM partner DataBP.

Brought online in record time, this project is a great example of what teamwork can achieve. Kudos to the SGX market data team led by Joyce Tan and Parasuraman Nurani, the DataBP project team led by Ari Smulker, and to USAM’s own Charmaine Athaide, who brought them together.

Read more news about this great win in DataBP’s press release, and if you’re a Waters Technology subscriber, check out the article here.

This has been quite a busy year so far for USAM. We’ve added exciting new services to our exceptional selection of fintech offerings, beefed up our staff to help buyers find the best solutions to their most pressing problems, and even built a brand-new website to showcase it all.

Read the news in our press release, or head straight over to our Offerings and Team pages to see our full lineup of innovative information and technology services and meet the folks who match them with the customers that benefit most from adopting them!

Welcome to Bodo, the newest addition to our roster of inventive fintech vendors.

This unique solution lets firms prototype analytics in high-level code like Python and automatically get great performance at scale – without rewriting or spending extravagant sums on CPU cycles!

Bodo’s revolutionary JIT compiler lets your data scientists automatically scale and optimize their Python code for speed, and then it creates the binaries to distribute the processing load on as many cores as you provide. Oh, and if you’re using a Spark framework for scalability and speed, Bodo will optimize and accelerate there, as well.

Get in touch to learn more about how you can get your analytics scaled and into production faster and cheaper, saving time and money up front and over time.

USAM Group’s very own CEO and Founder, Feargal O’Sullivan, was featured in the European American Chamber of Commerce New York’s “Share Your Story” profile series.

Read the news here to learn about Feargal’s upbringing in Dublin, Ireland, his inspirations in pursuing his career path, and what made him reside in New York City.

We wouldn’t be here without you, Feargal!

USAM was thrilled to welcome three hard-working interns to our team this summer.

Our Sales Intern, Adam Morrow, spent his time working with internal teams to develop exceptional strategies that help improve the quality of the sales funnel. By creating prospect lists of contacts and accounts based upon buyer personas for each client, Adam gained a strong knowledge of USAM’s client offerings and ideal customer profiles.

The USAM team will miss you, Adam! We are eager to see the outstanding achievements you accomplish next.

Join us in extending a warm welcome to eLoomina, the newest of our amazing technology offerings!

Employee fraud and other damaging behaviors are usually discovered after the fact, but in 85% of the cases investigated, there were clear warning signs of trouble brewing.

eLoomina’s breakthrough behavioral science and AI let you look across a range of indicators to spot developing conduct risk – and proactively address risks before monetary or reputational damage is done.

Call us to learn more news about how eLoomina’s predictive analytics can help you stop trouble – before it starts!

USAM was thrilled to welcome three hard-working interns to our team this summer.

We want to highlight our Software Development Intern Samantha Taskale, whose accomplishments fulfilled in this short period have been positively exceptional. During her time, Samantha customized a new Linux server to support USAM’s CRM solution in a secure environment and automated USAM’s client on-boarding process to increase efficiency.

Samantha, we greatly appreciate your contributions to the USAM team, and hope you continue to utilize the knowledge and skills you have gained!

Welcome to Urvin.ai, the newest member of USAM’s family of innovative fintech providers!

AI and ML solutions can create real business value, but only when they accurately address the right business challenges – and don’t unintentionally introduce financial, legal, or cyber risks.

Urvin helps you do just that. Their services validate the best approach to your most pressing problems, help tame your unruly data, and evaluate the potential exposures, from model risk to cybersecurity weaknesses.

Let’s talk about how Urvin can help your business reap the rewards of your AI investment. Get in touch today!

USAM was thrilled to welcome three hard-working interns to our team this summer, where each member gained valuable insight into the financial technology industry in differing ways.

We have the pleasure of highlighting our Marketing Intern Selamawit K. Dessie, whose strong work ethic and contributions to our team have been truly impressive. Selamawit not only developed a marketing campaign to increase brand awareness, but she also generated impactful messaging presentations for our C-suite to reach revenue targets.

It was a pleasure having you on the USAM team, Selamawit! We wish you continued success in all your future endeavors.

USAM is pleased to welcome MAP Digital’s turnkey event management service into our growing family of first-rate vendor offerings!

Even as we return to in-person events, travel restrictions will require remote participation options to keep attendance levels high. And hosts will need to deliver equally engaging experiences for on-site and virtual attendees – something that’s far easier said than done.

Thankfully, MAP Digital is a service for these times.  They’ve been orchestrating high-quality hybrid events for more than 20 years, and their production values ensure that even your most complex multi-channel conferences come off without a hitch. What’s more, behavior insight and analytics give your event planners and business sponsors data and tools to maximize engagement before, during, and after the big day.

Get in touch to discover why the world’s largest banks rely on MAP Digital to flawlessly execute their mission-critical hybrid events!

Welcome to our newest fintech offering: TransFICC is in the house!

Trade execution platforms aren’t always the best way to connect to your electronic trading venues, but maintaining connections to all your favorite markets from all your in-house systems can be a nightmare.

TransFICC makes it easy: you write to their API, and they take it from there, handling the format and maintenance to keep you humming along.

If you’ve got complex trading needs that demand seamless connectivity across lots of markets, give us a call, and we’ll help you gain control and simplify at the same time.

If so, then you’ll want to listen in as market expert Brian Ruane of BNY Mellon shares his thoughts with USAM’s Feargal O’Sullivan during the STA – Chicago’s 95th Annual Mid-Winter meeting on Wednesday, January 13th, 2021.

See the full agenda here, and let us know if you’d like a complimentary registration code. Either way, be sure to tune in on January 13th at 11:00 AM Central!

Intix monitors and indexes in-flight payments at the message level, giving you status in near real-time, so you’ll always know exactly where each one is, no matter how complex your environment. With Intix, you now have a way to find the friction in your payment flows and address issues before they become a customer service problem – or worse.

We’re delighted to have Intix as the newest solution in our best-in-class fintech portfolio, and we’d love to speak with you about how it can help prioritize operational improvements, save money, and deliver a better customer experience.

Continuing their winning streak, Quincy Data was chosen for “Best Market Data Connectivity” in the HFM European Technology Awards, which recognize excellence in hedge fund technology, specifically those providers who exemplify quality with “exceptional client service, innovation, and strong and sustainable business growth.” 

Even under ideal circumstances, bringing innovative fintech solutions to New York (or any major financial center) can pose significant challenges, from culture to cost and everything in between. 

In a recent Irish Sunday Independent article, Feargal offers sage advice to founders on this topic:  Stay home and focus on your roadmap while USAM’s professionals handle the sales and marketing.  Our presence in all major geographies and our ‘fractional team’ model means fintechs can penetrate new markets without disruption of relocation or the expense of a direct hire.  Contact us today if you’d like to learn more! 

The awards keep coming!  Congratulations to USAM partner Quincy Data for taking home the TradingTech Insight USA award for “Best Low Latency Data Feed” in the “Direct” category.  We’ve always known they’re the best, and it’s great to see that A-Team readers agree!

See the full list of deserving winners here.

USAM’s Fergal O’Sullivan spoke about B2B sales in the US with Victoria Zavyalova of The Vertical, a publication dedicated to helping immigrants thrive as entrepreneurs in America. 

With our focus on helping fintech companies achieve sales momentum and real growth, it’s particularly satisfying when our clients score big. We’ve enjoyed helping USAM alums such as Axon FS, Better Credit Data and Incapture successfully position to become part of bigger things, and it’s wonderful to see the trend continue with Catena Technologies’ recent acquisition by IHS Markit.

We’re sure Catena’s regulatory reporting solution for OTC derivatives is a brilliant addition to the IHS Markit portfolio of quality post-trade services, and offer our congratulations and best wishes to all for continued success!

Congratulations to Quincy Data on being named 2020 Best Overall Market Data Provider in the European TradingTech Insight Awards. Read more news here.

The Security Traders Association of Chicago 94th Mid-Winter event was a great success, with over 400 attendees representing nearly 150 member firms, exchanges and vendors gathering for two days of catching up with colleagues, sharing successes and exploring new ideas.

As expected, Feargal’s panel on how to make complex data accessible for effective business decision-making was very well received. Delegates appreciated the experts for delivering business advice along with practical suggestions.

And as you can see from Feargal’s expression in this event photo, at least one very interesting idea was discussed!