How I AI

How AI Is Transforming Legacy Industries: Finance and Memorial Services

• Brooke Gramer • Season 1 • Episode 24

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Welcome to a Power Series episode of How I AI — a special format where I feature two or more shorter conversations, highlighting real people using AI in unique ways across different industries. If you’re curious about how AI is quietly transforming traditional industries and how people with deep domain expertise are guiding that shift than this episode is for you.

This episode spotlights two powerful use cases for AI in financial advisory and funeral services, featuring real-world insights from Daniel Yoo and Walker Posey. 

Walker Posey is a fourth-generation funeral director who is integrating AI tools like aftercare video services, and even early-stage hologram memorials. He serves as a national spokesperson for the NFDA, advocating for thoughtful modernization in the industry.

Daniel Yoo is a former senior financial advisor who managed $800 million in assets at TD Ameritrade before pivoting into the tech world. Now the founder of FinMate AI, Daniel builds custom AI agents for financial professionals. 

🔑 Topics We Cover

  • Creating automation tools to enhance client service
  • When AI tools make sense and when they do not
  • The risk of lookalike products and how to stand out
  • Building custom AI agents for niche professionals
  • The value of slow, intentional tech adoption

Guests Featured:

Walker Posey
Website: poseycares.com

Daniel Yoo
Website: finmate.ai

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"How I AI" is a concept and podcast series created and produced by Brooke Gramer of EmpowerFlow Strategies LLC. All rights reserved.

Brooke:

Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people, real stories, and real AI in action. I'm Brooke Gramer, your host and guide on this journey into the real world impact of artificial intelligence. For over 15 years, I've worked in creative marketing events and business strategy, wearing all the hats. I know the struggle of trying to scale and manage all things without burning out, but here's the game changer, AI. This isn't just a podcast. How I AI is a community, a space where curious minds like you come together, share ideas, and I'll also bring exclusive discounts, and insider resources, because AI isn't just a trend, it's a shift, and the sooner we embrace it, the more freedom, creativity, and opportunities will unlock. How I AI is brought to you in partnership with the Collective AI, a space designed to accelerate your learning and AI adoption. I joined the collective and it's completely catapulted my learning, expanded my network, and showed me what's possible with AI. Whether you're just starting out, seeking community or want done for you solutions, the collective gives you the resources to grow your business with AI. So stay tuned to learn more at the end of this episode, or check my show notes for my exclusive invite link.. Hi everyone. More and more of you have been reaching out, wanting to share your stories, how you're using AI, what you're experimenting with, and what you're building, and honestly, I love it. This is what How I AI is really about not just big moments or big names, but the ripple effect. It's about highlighting the quiet builders, the innovators in unexpected spaces and amplifying each other as we grow together in this new era of possibility. So today we're diving into a Power Series episode. These are gonna be shorter conversations with incredible guests from varying industries. Showing us how AI is being adapted and creative, intentional, and sometimes really unexpected ways.. Alright, let's dive into today's Power Series episode. For my next guest, I'm joined by Walker Posey who's bringing thoughtful innovation to one of the oldest and most emotionally sensitive industries in the world. Whether you've ever thought about the role of AI in end of Life services or not, this next interview might surprise you. Today's guest is Walker Posey. He's a fourth generation funeral director using creativity, technology, and compassionate leadership to modernize one of the oldest industries on earth. Welcome Walker. I'm so happy to have you on How I AI today.

walker:

Thanks, Brooke. It's great to be here and, looking forward to our conversation.

Brooke:

I'm so excited to dive into everything that you're doing today in regards to AI and technology. But first, can we share with the listeners today, expand a bit more on yourself and your background?

walker:

Sure. Like you said, I'm a fourth generation funeral homeowner. My great-grandfather started our business in 1879, so we go back a long way. I came back about 20 years ago with my family and took over and bought the business about 10 years ago. And I can tell you that the industry that my great grandfather was in is vastly different than what I'm in today. Um, But we. enjoy serving families in our community making big differences in their lives. And over the last 20 years, I've worked really hard to use technology to better serve those families and to create more meaningful and more viable experiences for'em.

Brooke:

Beautiful. I'm sure that this is one of those industries that really needs better tech, and I'd love to first dive into. How you support yourself, using tools like technology and artificial intelligence. What really sparked your interest to get into streamlining and automating and using technology specifically in your line of work, which has been around for so long?

walker:

It has been around forever. And I'll tell you for us, it's not easy to find people who wanna be in our

Brooke:

Mm.

walker:

So, uh, a, as time has gone on, technology's allowed us to use a little bit of automation in the back of the house to make some things easier for us to do more with less

Brooke:

Okay.

walker:

But my interest in technology and AI. been longstanding. When I first came into the business, we, this is honestly like pre websites, this is a while ago. As we began to, create for example, we created the first memorial page that anyone a digital memorial page. And so all of our families, and now most funeral homes in America, when you have a death, there's a digital memorial page to go to where that person's memory can kinda live on forever. We know it's awkward on social when someone passes away

and their Facebook. page's there, their Instagram's

walker:

there forever and ever. What do you do? This is a place where you could go and tell stories, share memories. Now you can watch the live stream of the service. But this was done originally as a hope to just be one more way to help folks have a place to go, to remember, and to serve their grieving and healing process. So that started a long time ago, and since that time we've evolved into. Not just live streaming and memorial pages, but into actually using AI in our software for running our business and trying to make a useful tool for efficiency and to make the process better for families. I.

Brooke:

Could you share about how you're using automation systems, whether it comes to, training your staff or hiring? Are there any specific platforms or tools that you're specifically using? I know a lot of people gravitate towards chat GPT but every industry is unique, especially when you're in a realm where relationships really matter, and this is like very sensitive and emotional time for a lot of people. So I'm curious how exactly you are adapting and automating with ai, but still keeping that, that emotion and that relationship at the forefront. I,

walker:

You're a hundred percent correct. The human emotion and connection are at the core of what we do. And as good as technology can be people need us to be there for them, like

Brooke:

yeah. Yeah.

walker:

the real us, and to connect, early on we were using ChatGPT for like obituary writing, let's say. And now our all the management softwares in our business have a AI obituary writing tool. However, if you don't. Put the right information in or get to know the family enough to know what to put in. You have a very generic piece. I was listening to your last show, I think Tianna was on talking about using emails with ChatGPT and how they can be really impersonal or whatever. The same's true for obituary writing and other tools that we use. Our job is to get to know the family and to try to create an experience That's really meaningful for them as a point of reference to deal with their grief. And as we have that conversation about their life and what they're doing. We can take that data, put it into the tools like ChatGPT or the AI Obit writer. It can help us with the phrasing, but it's really on us to gather the information. We're still gonna be the main information gatherer and also we're in a relationship business. It's very important that, when I'm writing an obituary, which personally I use chat GPT very little in my obituary writing. I think I've done it for so long that I have a nuance that I'm with, but my younger directors who may, have a hard time phrasing certain things, could use it quite a bit. But having the right data is important. But there's a lot of other tools that we're using besides just a obituary writer. For example, we have a software called Afterward that is our back of the house management software, and they've used, they've created a AI assistant called Grace that we can, talk to and ask questions. For example, we could say, tell me any other relatives that I've served in this family who are related to John Smith, and it'll bring up, oh, you served his grandfather, you buried his grandmother, his sister. That helps us then have more data and information and understanding of, okay. This is what we did for these family members. This is their religious tradition. This is who, so when they come in, we're more equipped to like, not just be an order taker, but actually be prepared to understand their relationship and history. Our business especially, we've been there since 1879. I can't remember everyone in the world we've ever served but they, you feel like a shirttail relative because you're walking them through a very difficult emotional time. So it's helpful to have some reminders and things that. Can prompt those relationships and you can connect the dots. So that can be very helpful use of automation, I think.

Brooke:

It reminds me of those tools like ancestry.com. Those at the end of the day are dealing with algorithms and AI and. That's really nice that you're able to lean in it and you've found solutions and software specifically to you that are working. Could you maybe share some of the benefits that you're seeing? So when you create these digital memorials and these live streams and those video tributes, do you feel like this saves a lot of time or it's more efficient?

walker:

Absolutely it does those things and I'll come back to'em. But the biggest benefit it has is it gives the family a place to go to permanently

Brooke:

Hmm mm.

walker:

One. So we live in a very mobile society. Our society's totally different than it was five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. And we're seeing that so the current trend towards more people being cremated than buried as risen. One driving factor of that is, is that people don't live in the same place they grew up. And so some, a lot of times families go, well, gosh, we've lived in five cities. I don't know that I wanna pick a plot of land to be buried in permanently. So maybe if I don't do that, I can, take the urn with me, whatever the case may be. But having a place online to go, or a digital place to. To feel the community's love for you is really important. It used to be when you had a death, your neighbors made food and brought it over, and people gathered at your house and you had this whole support community. And so that digital space gives us a place to create a virtual, community of care so that your friends in, one part of the country who aren't your neighbors, but are still your close friends can share in that and can participate. Part of grief and healing is feeling that community support, which comes through interaction and the digital space, gives us a chance to. Widen that net and not just see your local friends from your current community, but it encapsulates your entire life and all those relationships, so that's really important. From a time saving standpoint it's huge. For us, when you have a family that's had a death, it takes us about two or three hours to initially meet with them and take the data we need for things like death certificate and information, and then to actually plan the service. And there's probably as many decisions with a funeral. Planning a funeral as there are with a wedding which is hard to believe. Usually you plan your wedding over a year or something, or a couple years with the service, funeral service. Usually it's, we're planning it for a few days from

Brooke:

Hmm.

walker:

And so using technology to help us just gather data, forms all of these type things helps us because really, truly is a shortage of. funeral professionals in the US and so as we know, we have to do more with less people. So it helps us to be able to do that.

Brooke:

Have you felt like there's been any pushback or challenges when it comes to using technology and things as you've been modernizing the industry a bit with AI and these tools that you've been using?

walker:

I think the challenge has been with my directors who may be from a different generation to adapt and learn the value of those things. It's really important though, to always be upfront that, hey, listen our point here is to make this the most personal and most meaningful experience you can have with this family So if I have someone who doesn't like to use a computer or a laptop in the conference, I say, don't do that. Write it down by hand and then we take a picture of it and use OCR to get the data into our

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

walker:

Let's say, which is really helpful because as long as your handwriting's somewhat legible, they can take a picture and can populate the fields and can be in good shape. And so these tools have helped us streamline that and make the process efficient for the family.

Brooke:

that's nice. Have you played around with voice notes or audio notes or even just recording and transcribing when it comes to taking down this data? I.

walker:

We have, it's funny. Our, the next update we get from our management software, we'll have the note feature on there in beta trying it. So it'd be really helpful for us to be able to dictate or to just have it, listen to the conversation and

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

walker:

Things. You're talking my dream here. This is the less typing I have to do the better it will be. And the technology's there clearly. You know, since our profession is pretty old, it took us a while to get vendors who understood the flow and our workflow to create in that space. But now there's so many technology vendors and the technology business around funeral care is huge. You're seeing a lot of private equity get into that and buy and sell companies, but I think that the more players there are in the space, the better it is for us because they tend to be a little more forward in their development

Brooke:

Yeah, absolutely. This is one of my favorite questions to ask is if you were able to wave a magic wand so you know your personal pain points more than anyone, and your repetitive process and work. So if you were to create a software or a solution, something using the help of ai what would you create that would be a big benefit to your role?

walker:

So this is a back of the house solution, but it's very simple. I would create an interface where our management software so that we input data into the system can then speak to all the states for their death certificate

Brooke:

Mm.

walker:

This process is so antiquated and so difficult that, we're having to enter data two and three times.

Brooke:

Wow.

walker:

if you don't use any kind of technology, you're sitting there taking the data in one software, then you're transcribing it to the state software for the death certificate creation, and then to whatever else you're doing. So I would take a magic wand and have every state communicate with our software to be able to. Automatically seamlessly, get the death certificate filed and certified. It's a big deal for the families we serve. That's a very

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

walker:

Because they really can't do any business until they have a certified death certificate. And so that's a big time consumer for us. The other thing would be interesting, and this is maybe controversial, there are companies now, Funeral One's a great example of this funeral. One's my personal tech supplier in our space. And I've been for 20 years helping, giving'em ideas and helping'em work on things that, could help us provide more value. They're actually working on the technology to have holograms present during

Brooke:

Wow.

walker:

Which is pretty interesting. So you could actually have your grandfather give his own eulogy in his words. Maybe some families wouldn't like that. Maybe some would, but when you talk about, what's being developed, there's some very forward thinking pieces to help bring more personalization and more meaning to funeral services.

Brooke:

I think this is so interesting, and I had a recent conversation with someone that works in the brand avatar space, and she's spoken about. These digital legacy tools that are coming out. And the only thing between a sci-fi futuristic movie and things coming to fruition is just time. And I can't recall the movie and maybe I'll look it up and link it in the show notes where, you know, people who are grieving their past loved ones, they're able to upload everything about them and still speak to them and grieve them when they've past. And so what you're sharing about the hologram just sounds so interesting to me of where we're headed now that we have this technology and this ability to not only be emotionally supported, whether that's through an online therapy app whether that's a real person or artificial intelligence behind it. But these really interesting technological creative advances when it comes to grieving. I'm curious to hear what your thoughts on that in this future that we move into and all of these new technologies that are gonna be coming out specifically in your industry.

walker:

So I'll tell you, 15 years ago, we created the first virtual aftercare solution for families. It's called E Aftercare, and myself and Funeral One built this. It's a place on our website where you can go and we actually, so long ago we had a real grief therapist, Dr. Virginia Simpson. We met her in Palm Springs. We filmed for three days. 15 to 20 minute segments on different types of grief. And then she'd ask you, you know, tell me what kind of death have you experienced? What kind of loss have you experienced? And he would select like, death of a parent, child, whatever. And then she could walk back up on the screen. And it's still on our website today. You can see it, but, and she would talk to you for 15 minutes or 20 minutes in your own home, just telling common things that, feelings you may have and different stories about how to deal with that. It's really helpful, I think, especially around grief. tools any, this can be very important because many people don't wanna go to a therapist, let's say, or they don't wanna go to a grief group. We have groups in person groups every day at our place, and they're busy, but there's some people who just go, I don't feel comfortable doing

Brooke:

Mm.

walker:

And to be able to interact. And if you're using a digital tool, you have to realize like, this is not the same as in-person therapy. You're not really speaking back to it at this point. I'm sure we could do that soon with ai, you have to understand what you're getting, but just getting information and knowledge. In the privacy ruin home at two o'clock in the morning when maybe you wake up and can't sleep is, there's a lot of benefit to that. And so we pioneered that fit a long time ago and are in the middle of revamping that now. Based on new technology

Brooke:

Yeah, that's such an important point, is being able to have access and support no matter what time or circumstances you're in. And being able to receive those comforting videos that you worked with. Her on. I can imagine that's such a great advantage for someone when they're selecting who they're gonna work with during such a sensitive time of their life. And I can imagine that you're gonna be adopting AI on an even deeper level because to your point, there's so much that goes into the planning of a funeral just as much as a wedding. And, all the little steps and things you have to remember. I just can imagine your conversation with me a year from now and how much you're gonna be adapting AI on a deeper level. I'm excited just to see what's next for you. I'd love to just open the floor what's one key takeaway you wanna have listeners who are in the AI space?

walker:

I think for me it's important to know that everything we do has to be designed with a family first and with the view of. we're doing has to bring healing and make the process better for those who are dealing with grief. That's the whole point. It's nice to make our jobs easier, to make it more seamless, but the real point is the things we're developing have true value to the consumer who's the family who's had a death. And I'm excited about the things that are to come because. I can really see how in the next couple of years, or hopefully before we'll have even better tools. And little things even currently now selecting merchandise for a funeral is overwhelming. There's hundreds of casket options and hundreds of urns. So as AI can know who this family is and can look at what their buying habits are and can see what their likes and their colors they like, we scale those choices down and make it more simple and making it seamless and making it, them more free time to spend with

Brooke:

Hmm.

walker:

They shouldn't be spending all this time just in planning an event. They need to be really. the, The support of their community. And that's the point of what we do as funeral directors. And that's the point of technology and funeral service.

Brooke:

Thank you for that. Such key points. I love just amplifying case studies and expanding individuals. I imagine your work is quite regional. But if you wanna share how listeners can reach out to you, where you offer your services, what's the best way to contact?

walker:

Well, two things. I am a funeral director in South

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

walker:

And

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

walker:

But my today in the capacity of a spokesperson for the National Funeral Directors

Brooke:

Oh.

walker:

So, NFDA is the national funeral Directors Association. You go to nfda.org, you can find a funeral home in your local area, and you could determine who would provide the best services. My personal side is Posey Cares. P-O-S-E-Y-C-A-R-E-S dot com. Happy to answer questions or just give folks advice on how they can, select the proper funeral home for them and how they can be prepared. When the time comes to to sit in that seat, to deal with it in the proper way.

Brooke:

Thank you Walker so much for sharing insight into, a space a lot of us will come up against at one point in time throughout our lives. It was very interesting to hear how you're utilizing AI in such a unique way and I appreciate your time and I can't wait to share this episode with listeners.

walker:

Absolutely. And I think the, my final takeaway would just be, hope the public knows that, their stereotypical idea of what a funeral director is, has changed. And there are many qualified professionals who really want to provide the highest level of care and provide the best experience they

Brooke:

Yes.

walker:

they're in good hands.

Brooke:

Thank you so much Walker.

walker:

Thank you.

Brooke:

My next guest features a grounded and refreshing perspective from the heart of Silicon Valley. I'm joined by Danielle Yoo, a former senior advisor at TD Ameritrade, who managed over 800 million in client assets before making a bold leap into the tech world. He's now the founder of FinMate AI building custom AI agents for advisors and financial firms. But what sets Daniel apart is his human first approach to tech. This one's packed with sharp insights, real world use cases, and a grounded to take for what's next in ai financial services and beyond. Enjoy. Daniel, thank you and welcome.

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah. Thanks for having me, Brooke.

Brooke:

I would love to introduce yourself.

Daniel Yoo:

So my name is Daniel. I used to work for TD Ameritrade as a senior advisor for them. Managed about 800 million of client assets and did that until the Schwab takeover ended up happening. I had been doing a master's program at Johns Hopkins using AI to do stock price prediction, modeling. Thesis advisor happened to be a guy who worked for our regulatory agency. and let me know about the maintaining qualifications program that would let me partially leave the industry while keeping my licenses active. And so ended up going into tech. My financial advisory practice was mostly in the Silicon Valley area and had always been interfacing with folks in tech and so was curious about that world and ended up jumping in then, and started a Finmate soon after basically to fill some needs. I thought that the financial advisory industry. Had,

Brooke:

Okay, cool. So tell me more about that first initial step into the tech space, because a lot of people are experiencing this moment in time where they're pivoting and they're pivoting more into technology and integrating AI systems. So bring me back to that first moment where you were a big time financial advisor and you decided to make that pivot.

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah, it's a. Great question. I mean, you know, Post Schwab merger, I had a decision to make, right? Whether I wanted to stay in the industry or go try something else out. I've only ever been an advisor before that, and so I figured, hey, now's a pretty good time to see. What else is out there? Again, most of my clients were either in the tech world or tech adjacent, and the question was always I wonder what it's like to sit on that side of the table instead. And given my kind of technical training and background I ended up joining another startup just to learn the ropes on how to be part of a startup. Did that for about a year and then moved on to start on my own after that. And yeah, really had about a year of training under another startup.

Brooke:

That's awesome. I'm a firm believer in your environment and your network, right? And a lot of individuals when they're first starting their career or wanting to shift industries or make a pivot. It's super important to be putting yourself in the right environment, and it sounds like you were in the right ecosystem to really just start soak in so my next question for you is before developing your own software solutions such as FinMate AI, what were you playing around with? What is your technology stack outside of the software that you created? I'd love to just get a behind the scenes look into what it is that you use day to day because we're also individual.

Daniel Yoo:

Got it. Well, really, the usage of AI came more with, us developing out Fin Ate the notetaking part of it. back when I was at that previous startup and I would be talking to a number of vendors, I did notice that they were using an AI notetaker even back then, right? In 20 22, 20 one timeframe. So when I left to start FinMade originally, we were actually doing a different app Div Income, where basically we wanted to help the retail investor. Invest in income generating stocks, right? Because if you remember back then. The interest rate was near zero, right? And so bonds were not paying much out. There was plenty of tools out there for the growth oriented advisor in the robo space, but I felt like there was nothing really for the income advisor. And so that's what we were gearing up to build. And then as we were trying to expand that out, the interest rate environment completely changed rates skyrocketed. And know, dividend producing stock as an income plan no longer made sense. And so when we were looking to pivot and, I was remembering back to those ai AI note takers at that previous firm, I wanted to take a look to see if I can make that more applicable to my previous industry as an advisor. And I quickly realized that a lot of the generic note takers were not specific enough to access that seamless transition from advisor client meeting to, compliance notes. And so this was back in the day of ChatGPT. And I don't know if you remember like DaVinci back in those days. And so that's where it got started and that's when we started jumping into AI. And yeah, it's been very crazy rapid ride since then.

Brooke:

Thank you for sharing. I'd love to just go back to what was it like adopting and restructuring your workflow? Was there any resistance when you first started integrating ai?

Daniel Yoo:

Yes, obviously financial advisory is a very traditional kind of environment. and so when we first launched FinMate, we were the first AI note taker for the advisor marketplace. And just custom built for only that market. And so initially there was a lot of pushback, right? It's new, it's unregulated. People don't know and so when we designed it out, we designed it to be as data minimalist as possible. So we don't read people's, client CRM data. We auto delete everything from our system. We don't let anyone keep anything long term on our side because we don't want to be considered books and records, and follow under those regulations. And so we did our best to try to alleviate a lot of the technology security concerns. But I guess what I didn't realize was how quickly the industry would change, right? I think when people are seeing money they. End up putting aside their security concerns. it's been very interesting shift to watch in the industry as there's been a wide spectrum of responses where some firms are still very careful with adopting AI tech. And I think some firms have gone too quick in letting AI into all of their systems. So yeah, there's been a

Brooke:

Mm. You bring up such a valid point. About. The industries that are slow to adapt are the ones that are most reliant on those relationship based clients. Maybe we could chat a little bit more about that. How are you overcoming that? How are people trusting their money and their investments in robots and technology and bots.

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah, so people think of AI and financial advisory investment, I think automatically people's minds go to, oh, the AI is investing for us. that hasn't really been the case. There's a couple of companies out there that are trying, but that really hasn't been the majority use case. The majority use case for AI in a slower, methodical industry is more in operational efficiencies, So paperwork filing, data transference, that kind of thing. For investments, the closest thing I've seen so far being used more widely is using AI to do sentiment analysis, market research, right? Uh, You know, we live in an environment where there's just a deluge of data and information always being created day by day. And so a human analyst just doesn't have the time to. Get the lay of the land daily, right? So what I've seen people come up with is a, AI that reads through the market news and then gives relevant updates to the analysts so that the analyst can then go back in and double check. but I'm not on that side of the ai. I'm firmly on the side of operational efficiencies right now.

Brooke:

Yes, operational efficiency is the way to really adapt ai and I'm seeing, and of course you can speak more in this as well, is a lot of people finally getting into AI agents, and I know you've started to create or have already built a lot of custom AI agents for advisors. Can you share a little bit more about that?

Daniel Yoo:

I think this is a problem that everyone in the AI space is going through right now. I guess a bit of background on the market conditions leading up to where we're in this current moment. If you remember back to Corona Times. Even before then there's been a lot of funding sitting on the sidelines because venture capital and private equity just really didn't know where to put money into, right? There's nothing hot on the horizon that they really were trying. I think crypto had its moment for a little bit, and then that kind of, most of it ended up not working out long term, and there's been a lot of dry powder waiting to be deployed post Corona. Again, that pressure kept mounting where no one really knew where to put money into. During Corona, you know, e-commerce and retail e-retail really had its heyday because everyone's in their homes and basically just shocked with stimulus checks. But again, post. Everyone coming back into the real world. There's been a lot of cutbacks, right? You've seen a lot of tech companies that have hired, a lot of people end up laying off those very same people two years later. And so this stage is set, right? This, there's this new rising technology that everyone is excited about and it has like a lot of industry implications. Ai, you have a bunch of people who are engineers entering, being unemployed because of all the layoffs, and so you have a large lot of talent and you have all this money sitting on the sideline waiting to get deployed, and so all of a sudden you have this very hot market where you have workers, you have funding, you have an opportunity. So everyone is jumping into this AI gain, which is great for the consumer. Terrible for businesses at the end of the day because if there's a hyper competition, there's less and less profit to be had. But unfortunately, because of all the venture capital and private equity dollars flowing in there's a lot of companies out there with a lot of money and questionable futures, right? And a lot of the valuations, talking to some of the more established, companies, a hundred years old kind of giants in the financial space. I've talked to a lot of their venture arm folks, and they're all not excited about the incredible valuations. That's really the private equity and venture capital markets that are jumping into it. Not really the established players, right? Why is that? Well, the reason is there's no moat, right? AI has developed so quickly. There's no way to copyright or patent anything really in this space at the moment, right? And so you have all this talent, you have all this money. rushing to make product. And so now there's thousands of these products with no moat. And so everyone's copying everyone. and that's the current environment we're in. And so the question on everyone's minds is how do we protect kind of our IP or our value proposition to clients when AI is moving so quickly that everything is getting obsolete and everything is getting copied by people with more money. And back to your question about, personalization that human element. The solution that I came to is we need to build personalized AI agents for firms, especially in the slower moving industries.'cause ultimately I've seen companies make these great platforms where you can build your own agentic ai. most people in these. historic industries don't have the technological know-how even set it up properly. And so I think there's value in creating these custom AI agents for folks in this industry. Because the biggest question that I'm getting right now from clients is, Hey, Daniel, I know you know the industry. you know Ai. There's a thousand of these AI tools out there. Now tell me what I should want. So that's what we're trying to answer.

Brooke:

I think that's important when it comes to packaging and messaging and communication of what it is that your value prop is, and especially. in the crowded market, which you said something that really stuck with me on our intro call, you said A blue ocean becomes a red ocean very quickly and it's going to be really hard to differentiate or understand what it is that you need to be adapting and adding into your systems and your operations, your infrastructure. So my next question for you is to go a little bit more into what differentiates your business and how do you stand out in a copycatting environment?

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah. Great. Great question. I think this is the question on everyone's mind in light of. No moat, not every blue ocean becomes red ocean immediately, but when there is no moat it goes red ocean very quickly. Right? And I think the key differentiator is if you are just a simple technology platform product, you're going to have a hard time because you're going to have competitors that are slightly vigor, slightly smaller, right? All across the board attacking your business. So the only way to do it, I think is on the service end. things, right? Again, building the relationship with your clients, understanding how they operate, not just on an industry level, but on their firm level because everyone has a different tech stack at the end of the day. Everyone has different standard operating procedures. So if you can build an AI agent that works with that company internally, that's a hell of a lot more useful than a broad platform that doesn't really work. And so that's our differentiation is we. Take care of each client and build out a custom solution for them. Understanding that they are not the most technical people, and so this needs to be as easy as possible to use. Giving them a gigantic configuration page where they're going to need, to get a college degree in your software isn't really helping anyone. And so I think our differentiator is because we haven't fundraised and we're bootstrapped, we're able to take it a little slow. We're able to not need to go shoot for the moon and have these incredible, insane valuations. But really just take care of individual firms that come along our way.

Brooke:

That's great. I'd also love to touch on trends and where you see the industry.'cause it sounds like you're very effectively positioning yourself now. How long does that remain effective and where do you see the next six? Yeah. Right. It's like something you have to think about

Daniel Yoo:

absolutely.

Brooke:

does the next, what does the next six months to a year look like in remaining competitive in this environment?

Daniel Yoo:

I think that's a very good question. I think you're going to see a lot more AI consultants come into play. I would broadly put future upcoming AI consultants in three categories. Maybe four. So first is people that know AI but don't know the industry, And so their trouble is going to be really in understanding whoever clients whatever clients that they're servicing they know the ai, but do they know the industry will want to custom create things that work well for them? Or are they going to try to fit their clients into their kind of box? Right. End of the spectrum is people who understand the industry but don't understand the ai, right? So they're going to be stuck just recommending a set of tools and products that won't necessarily fit together because they're disparate products and they'll push themselves as AI experts in AI technologies and say, here's the 3, 4, 5 tools you should have. they won't be able to necessarily chain those together in a meaningful fashion. the fourth I'll touch on briefly is people with neither AI expertise nor. Industry expertise, but know that this is a trend. And so they'll try to market themselves as AI experts. I don't know how well they'll do, but I'm sure there'll be some out there that make good money, because that's the trend, right? what we're trying to position ourself is that third category of where we have the industry expertise and we have the AI expertise. We built FinMate note taking and now we're building, this agentic tool. And so the. Thing that will keep us in business is the fact that we understand both the fact that this is not really a hyper scalable business, right? So if you look back, software as a service SaaS has been the main driver for a lot of technology companies,

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

Daniel Yoo:

Are platform based and those can get copied easily, right? And so because that, that AI SaaS is such a red ocean this consultative way of doing business is a lot slower. It's a lot less scalable. And so there can be a many more players in the marketplace because when we're developing a solution for one client, not able to develop a solution for another client. And so I think we're going to be moving into an environment where this high level of service there will be a lot more players in this space to be able to provide this high level of service.

Brooke:

You bring up a valid point about how we're gonna need to have very strong discernment when it comes to putting our dollars behind investors and founders and adapting and using specific softwares or technologies or agents and really doing the research behind who they are, why they're doing what they're doing. You know, I would much rather work and use a tool like FinMate AI with my financial investments or. Advisory from someone like you who's worked in the industry and knows the ins and outs, versus someone who vibe code with no financial background or have never been in the industry and maybe he or she made a product that is, more affordable or easily integrated. Really using that discernment to look into what it is that you're gonna spend time and invest in, whether that be your money or your energy. Or your portfolio. So really important point there. You talked about your next projects and the evolution of where you're headed to next. One of my favorite questions to ask guests is if you could wave a magic wand and create something with AI that doesn't exist yet, and this can even be how you're thinking of already expanding in the market and vertical you're in, or it can be a completely exciting passion project. I would love to know where your creative brain goes when it comes to the endless possibilities of ai.

Daniel Yoo:

man. Yeah let me talk to the practical, grounded reality level for now. basically the problem that any software stack has is in the integration up and down, right? And as anyone who's bought software will tell you never really works the way that it's sold, right? It never really talks to each other the way it should. And so I think in an ideal state, an AI that can actually connect all those disparate systems together in one seamless I think that would be probably the ultimate in any kind of technology, right? The AI doesn't necessarily need to do everything itself, but as long as it can Intelligibly talk or have different softwares talk to each other, I think that would be the ideal. It probably won't happen because. Many of these big software companies are gatekeeping access to their systems and, paying for API, things like that. And so it won't really happen on a business realistic level, but I think, and just in a very grounded dullish, not really sexy, but operationally efficient perspective, having that would be amazing.

Brooke:

I try to think of one thing to share. I like the idea of something. What is it called? It's not called starlink, the chip, where people are putting it in their brains

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah.

Brooke:

Neuralink Okay? So first of all, I would never do that, ever but second of all, I am getting so tired of holding my phone and speaking to my LLMs all day. It's a bit of a stream of consciousness at this point. But how can I more easily integrate these tools and technology beyond attaching it to my body because I don't think I would do that.

Daniel Yoo:

Well, Neuralink is a step really far. I think the next. Natural step is on wearables, right? So there's been

Brooke:

Yeah.

Daniel Yoo:

out there that tried to do like a lapel pin where you just attach something to your chest. Doesn't really work out because if you're wearing casual clothing, there's really nowhere to put it. I think maybe the next step would be in a wrist wearable, right? So a smartphone, right? So you're not holding a whole phone or smart smart watch, so you can just talk into it. I know Meta is doing some stuff with glasses. AR glasses, right? Augmented reality glasses. Issue with that is as someone who wears glasses, I can't really use that. And it's very bulky and heavy still, right? And so

Brooke:

Ah.

Daniel Yoo:

I would say the most probabilistic thing will be like a wrist wearable, or whether it's integrated into your smartwatch, or it's like a separate band that you can talk into and that Your phone as the main processing center. That might be the way to go. I have seen some stuff out there where it's not. Chip in brain, but it's chip in wrist. I don't know if you've seen that out of Asia where you can

Brooke:

No.

Daniel Yoo:

checkouts and things like that with your, either your palm or your wrist and there's like a little thing that they embed. Again, I'm as it might be to hear, I'm a bit of a ludite myself. I adopt technology relatively slowly in my personal life.

Brooke:

Okay.

Daniel Yoo:

I think that comes from the fact that if you watch carefully, these tech giants. And see what they do with technology. They don't let their kids use it. So I am very cautious and careful of anything. I think back in college I used to make fun of people, who put tape over the webcams

Brooke:

Mm-hmm.

Daniel Yoo:

Zuckerberg taped his webcam. And I was like, oh, so this is not some conspiracy theory, this is an actual. Thing. And so I started, buying webcam covers after that. And so very much so I would just say like, watch what the big players are doing and, you do what they do, not what they say or market.

Brooke:

Yes. I also cover my cameras I cover it on my phone along with my computer. And I have looked into wearables, but I am pretty conscious about EMFs. So I haven't gotten the Apple Watch and, you know, I'm pretty mindful with EMF in my home. But.

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah.

Brooke:

something comes soon. I've seen what you've talked about, the pins, the lapels. But I thought that was a little unethical. If someone doesn't know that you, they're speaking to you and you're recording without their consent, like that was a little gray and murky.

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah.

Brooke:

My next question for you, there are a lot of people entering the tech startup space, would you like to share one key, main takeaway? Because a lot of people are finding themself in that amazing opportunity, becoming a first time founder.

Daniel Yoo:

Sure.

Brooke:

I.

Daniel Yoo:

know if I'm the best person to ask. We're going the slow, methodical, route, i've chosen to go down the route of no venture capital, no private equity funding, right? And so I'm not really like a traditional startup guy. I've been a financial advisor for most of my career industry. You build your book of business very slowly through over time building relationships. Not really sure if I'm the best person to ask, frankly for that. But if I were to give my 2 cents of the subject, I think, going for broke, hyper scalability. That's amazing. That's awesome. but I think it's incumbent on each founder to determine if that's the life they wanna lead. Is that the kind of business you want to run? Where you jack up the price, go for a quick exit, right? Is that the kind of person you want to be? Great. But I think there's space in the industry now for people like me who like things a little bit slower, likes to move things a little slowly. And so if you are in that category in camp I would still say, give it a shot. I think, again, there's space in the industry for people that aren't trying to hyperscale, but just scale. Well, like in the olden times. Yeah.

Brooke:

Yeah, bringing that happy medium. Not everything is meant to, move at lightning speed or have an immediate exit with the first year, or have, goals that don't feel aligned with you. So. Such a key point there. So maybe I'll pull it back if you wanna share your closing remarks. And it doesn't have to be for the tech startup field. It could be people in the financial space, people just entering AI for the first time.

Daniel Yoo:

I think this is a lesson I've learned in the investment space and I think that has carried out well throughout, thinking through everything. A very good cell signal is when everyone is talking about something that you would not expect them to be talking about it. I think, that's when you know, you hit peak hype. And I mean it was the same thing for kind of the meme stocks, right? GameStop, It was the same thing for crypto. When your aunt who never knows anything about technology, suddenly talking about Bitcoin might be a sell signal and I think same thing for ai, right? Just be cognizant of who's talking about what and see what is just all hype and see what actually has real value inside of it. And I think that'll help, buyers, users, sellers, creators steer away from meaningless hype and steer into something that can create some lasting value.

Brooke:

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And last but not least, I'd love to hear if listeners wanna reach out to you, what's the best way to connect with you? I.

Daniel Yoo:

Yeah. You can reach me at daniel@finmate.ai. That's D-A-N-I-E-L at F-I-N-M-A-T-E.ai Always happy to chat. There's a. Booking thing on our website as well, if you wanna book some time with our team. but yeah, always happy to share with folks even people not in the industry.

Brooke:

Well, thank you so much for your time today. I really enjoy just getting a little bit more of an insider look of how things are going in Silicon Valley with wearables and tech and have real conversation about what it means to have discernment and embrace this technology with balance and level mindedness. So thank you. I appreciate you, Daniel.

Daniel Yoo:

appreciate you having me on today.

Brooke:

That wraps up this special power series episode of How I ai, huge thank you to today's guests for sharing how they're showing up, experimenting and making AI their own. And a special shout out to you, the listeners, for reaching out and saying, I wanna share my story too. That energy is exactly what makes this community so meaningful. If you wanna be featured in the next Power Series and share how you're integrating AI into your work or your personal life, shoot me a message. Email me directly. I'd love to hear from you. Let's keep amplifying real voices and real use cases. We're all shaping the space together, and until next time, stay curious, stay human, and keep exploring what's possible with ai. This episode was made possible in partnership with the Collective AI, a community designed to help entrepreneurs, creators, and professionals seamlessly integrate AI into their workflows. One of the biggest game changers in my own AI journey was joining this space. It's where I learned, connected and truly enhanced my understanding of what's possible with ai. And the best part, they offer multiple membership levels to meet you where you are. Whether you want to DIY, your AI learning or work with a personalized AI consultant for your business, The Collective has you covered. Learn more and sign up using my exclusive link in the show notes.

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