Combining two great companies to create Brazil’s premier digital bank for SMBs — A while back, a former manager and mentor told me something about FinTech lenders that changed my whole perspective: “To survive, FinTech lenders either need to become a bank or partner with a bank.” FinTech has created tremendous transformation in banking, but some things can’t change. In order to lend…

Comparing Brazil’s PEAC Program to the U.S. PPP Program — Brazil’s Small Business Aid Gap Over the past year, governments around the globe have focused on supporting small businesses as a way to sustain their economies and create jobs. The U.S. led this effort with the first Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) which closed in August of this year after distributing $525 billion in forgivable loans…

WEEL’s COVID Score and the future of credit modeling — For credit risk professionals like myself, COVID-19 has been an extremely humbling experience. Our job is to predict the future, and black swan events like this simply cannot be predicted. …

Anunciando o Lançamento Beta do WEEL Analytics — A Nota Fiscal Eletrônica (NF-e) brasileira é arquivo que documenta a compra e venda de mercadorias e seus movimentos. Todas as empresas no Brasil são obrigadas a apresentar suas NF-es em um formato XML padrão, administrado pela SEFAZ (Autoridade Tributária Brasileira). …

Announcing Beta Release of WEEL’s Invoice Analyzer — (Link to Portuguese Version of this Article) The Brazilian Nota Fiscal Eletrônica (NF-e) is an electronic invoice that documents the purchase and sale of goods and their movements. All companies in Brazil are required to submit their NF-es in a standard XML format managed by the SEFAZ (Brazilian Tax Authority)…

I’ve been on literally thousands of Zoom calls since I became a loyal Zoom customer in 2016 (P.S. Zoom, I’m reminding you again that you owe me a free t-shirt, size medium!). At least once per day, one of my kids invades during a meeting. …

I HATE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) SOFTWARE! TABLEAU, LOOKER, COGNOS, etc. I HATE ALL OF YOU! Wow, I’ve been waiting 20 years to get that off of my chest. It feels great to declare that publicly. Dear reader, go for it! You’re in a home office after all. …

I am a data nerd. I have vigorously resisted upgrading to the “data scientist” title that has become popular recently. I’m sticking with the title the jocks gave me back when I was high school, “DATA NERD.” The beginning of my love affair: BigQuery As a data nerd, I’m generally…

Years ago, I heard an amazing story from Rabbi Zelig Pliskin. A chiropractor decided that in addition to giving his clients physical comfort, he also wanted to give them a boost of joy during their visit. For every client that entered his office, he started the appointment by finding one…