September 9, 2025 • 50 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brooke (00:03):
Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people,
real stories, and real AI inaction.
I'm Brooke Gramer, your host andguide on this journey into the
real world impact of artificialintelligence.
For over 15 years, I've workedin creative marketing events and
business strategy, wearing allthe hats.
(00:24):
I know the struggle of trying toscale and manage all things
without burning out, but here'sthe game changer, AI.
This isn't just a podcast.
How I AI is a community, a spacewhere curious minds like you
come together, share ideas, andI'll also bring exclusive
discounts, and insiderresources, because AI isn't just
(00:47):
a trend, it's a shift, and thesooner we embrace it, the more
freedom, creativity, andopportunities will unlock.
How I AI is brought to you inpartnership with the Collective
AI, a space designed toaccelerate your learning and AI
adoption.
I joined the collective and it'scompletely catapulted my
(01:09):
learning, expanded my network,and showed me what's possible
with AI.
Whether you're just startingout, seeking community or want
done for you solutions, thecollective gives you the
resources to grow your businesswith AI.
So stay tuned to learn more atthe end of this episode, or
check my show notes for myexclusive invite link..
(01:30):
Hi everyone.
More and more of you have beenreaching out, wanting to share
your stories, how you're usingAI, what you're experimenting
with, and what you're building,and honestly, I love it.
This is what How I AI is reallyabout not just big moments or
big names, but the rippleeffect.
(01:52):
It's about highlighting thequiet builders, the innovators
in unexpected spaces andamplifying each other as we grow
together in this new era ofpossibility.
So today we're diving into aPower Series episode.
These are gonna be shorterconversations with incredible
guests from varying industries.
(02:14):
Showing us how AI is beingadapted and creative,
intentional, and sometimesreally unexpected ways..
Alright, let's dive into today'sPower Series episode.
For my next guest, I'm joined byWalker Posey who's bringing
thoughtful innovation to one ofthe oldest and most emotionally
(02:35):
sensitive industries in theworld.
Whether you've ever thoughtabout the role of AI in end of
Life services or not, this nextinterview might surprise you.
Today's guest is Walker Posey.
He's a fourth generation funeraldirector using creativity,
technology, and compassionateleadership to modernize one of
(02:57):
the oldest industries on earth.
Welcome Walker.
I'm so happy to have you on HowI AI today.
walker (03:05):
Thanks, Brooke.
It's great to be here and,looking forward to our
conversation.
Brooke (03:08):
I'm so excited to dive into everything that you're
doing today in regards to AI andtechnology.
But first, can we share with thelisteners today, expand a bit
more on yourself and yourbackground?
walker (03:26):
Sure.
Like you said, I'm a fourthgeneration funeral homeowner.
My great-grandfather started ourbusiness in 1879, so we go back
a long way.
I came back about 20 years agowith my family and took over and
bought the business about 10years ago.
And I can tell you that theindustry that my great
grandfather was in is vastlydifferent than what I'm in
today.
Um, But we.
(03:47):
enjoy serving families in ourcommunity making big differences
in their lives.
And over the last 20 years, I'veworked really hard to use
technology to better serve thosefamilies and to create more
meaningful and more viableexperiences for'em.
Brooke (03:58):
Beautiful.
I'm sure that this is one ofthose industries that really
needs better tech, and I'd loveto first dive into.
How you support yourself, usingtools like technology and
artificial intelligence.
What really sparked yourinterest to get into
streamlining and automating andusing technology specifically in
(04:20):
your line of work, which hasbeen around for so long?
walker (04:23):
It has been around forever.
And I'll tell you for us, it'snot easy to find people who
wanna be in our
Brooke (04:29):
Mm.
walker (04:29):
So, uh, a, as time has gone on, technology's allowed us
to use a little bit ofautomation in the back of the
house to make some things easierfor us to do more with less
Brooke (04:38):
Okay.
walker (04:39):
But my interest in technology and AI.
been longstanding.
When I first came into thebusiness, we, this is honestly
like pre websites, this is awhile ago.
As we began to, create forexample, we created the first
memorial page that anyone adigital memorial page.
And so all of our families, andnow most funeral homes in
America, when you have a death,there's a digital memorial page
(05:00):
to go to where that person'smemory can kinda live on
forever.
We know it's awkward on socialwhen someone passes away
and their Facebook.
page's there, their Instagram's
there forever and ever.
What do you do?
This is a place where you couldgo and tell stories, share
memories.
Now you can watch the livestream of the service.
But this was done originally asa hope to just be one more way
to help folks have a place togo, to remember, and to serve
(05:22):
their grieving and healingprocess.
So that started a long time ago,and since that time we've
evolved into.
Not just live streaming andmemorial pages, but into
actually using AI in oursoftware for running our
business and trying to make auseful tool for efficiency and
to make the process better forfamilies.
I.
Brooke (05:42):
Could you share about how you're using automation
systems, whether it comes to,training your staff or hiring?
Are there any specific platformsor tools that you're
specifically using?
I know a lot of people gravitatetowards chat GPT but every
(06:02):
industry is unique, especiallywhen you're in a realm where
relationships really matter, andthis is like very sensitive and
emotional time for a lot ofpeople.
So I'm curious how exactly youare adapting and automating with
ai, but still keeping that, thatemotion and that relationship at
the forefront.
(06:23):
I,
walker (06:23):
You're a hundred percent correct.
The human emotion and connectionare at the core of what we do.
And as good as technology can bepeople need us to be there for
them, like
Brooke (06:32):
yeah.
Yeah.
walker (06:33):
the real us, and to connect, early on we were using
ChatGPT for like obituarywriting, let's say.
And now our all the managementsoftwares in our business have a
AI obituary writing tool.
However, if you don't.
Put the right information in orget to know the family enough to
know what to put in.
You have a very generic piece.
I was listening to your lastshow, I think Tianna was on
talking about using emails withChatGPT and how they can be
(06:55):
really impersonal or whatever.
The same's true for obituarywriting and other tools that we
use.
Our job is to get to know thefamily and to try to create an
experience That's reallymeaningful for them as a point
of reference to deal with theirgrief.
And as we have that conversationabout their life and what
they're doing.
We can take that data, put itinto the tools like ChatGPT or
the AI Obit writer.
It can help us with thephrasing, but it's really on us
(07:17):
to gather the information.
We're still gonna be the maininformation gatherer and also
we're in a relationshipbusiness.
It's very important that, whenI'm writing an obituary, which
personally I use chat GPT verylittle in my obituary writing.
I think I've done it for so longthat I have a nuance that I'm
with, but my younger directorswho may, have a hard time
phrasing certain things, coulduse it quite a bit.
But having the right data isimportant.
(07:40):
But there's a lot of other toolsthat we're using besides just a
obituary writer.
For example, we have a softwarecalled Afterward that is our
back of the house managementsoftware, and they've used,
they've created a AI assistantcalled Grace that we can, talk
to and ask questions.
For example, we could say, tellme any other relatives that I've
served in this family who arerelated to John Smith, and it'll
(08:03):
bring up, oh, you served hisgrandfather, you buried his
grandmother, his sister.
That helps us then have moredata and information and
understanding of, okay.
This is what we did for thesefamily members.
This is their religioustradition.
This is who, so when they comein, we're more equipped to like,
not just be an order taker, butactually be prepared to
understand their relationshipand history.
Our business especially, we'vebeen there since 1879.
(08:26):
I can't remember everyone in theworld we've ever served but
they, you feel like a shirttailrelative because you're walking
them through a very difficultemotional time.
So it's helpful to have somereminders and things that.
Can prompt those relationshipsand you can connect the dots.
So that can be very helpful useof automation, I think.
Brooke (08:41):
It reminds me of those tools like ancestry.com.
Those at the end of the day aredealing with algorithms and AI
and.
That's really nice that you'reable to lean in it and you've
found solutions and softwarespecifically to you that are
working.
Could you maybe share some ofthe benefits that you're seeing?
So when you create these digitalmemorials and these live streams
(09:03):
and those video tributes, do youfeel like this saves a lot of
time or it's more efficient?
walker (09:11):
Absolutely it does those things and I'll come back to'em.
But the biggest benefit it hasis it gives the family a place
to go to permanently
Brooke (09:18):
Hmm mm.
walker (09:18):
One.
So we live in a very mobilesociety.
Our society's totally differentthan it was five years ago, 10
years ago, 20 years ago.
And we're seeing that so thecurrent trend towards more
people being cremated thanburied 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 timesfamilies go, well, gosh, we've
lived in five cities.
(09:39):
I don't know that I wanna pick aplot of land to be buried in
permanently.
So maybe if I don't do that, Ican, 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 foryou is really important.
It used to be when you had adeath, your neighbors made food
and brought it over, and peoplegathered at your house and you
(10:00):
had this whole supportcommunity.
And so that digital space givesus a place to create a virtual,
community of care so that yourfriends in, one part of the
country who aren't yourneighbors, but are still your
close friends can share in thatand can participate.
Part of grief and healing isfeeling that community support,
which comes through interactionand the digital space, gives us
(10:21):
a chance to.
Widen that net and not just seeyour local friends from your
current community, but itencapsulates your entire life
and all those relationships, sothat's really important.
From a time saving standpointit's huge.
For us, when you have a familythat's had a death, it takes us
about two or three hours toinitially meet with them and
take the data we need for thingslike death certificate and
(10:43):
information, and then toactually plan the service.
And there's probably as manydecisions with a funeral.
Planning a funeral as there arewith a wedding which is hard to
believe.
Usually you plan your weddingover a year or something, or a
couple years with the service,funeral service.
Usually it's, we're planning itfor a few days from
Brooke (10:58):
Hmm.
walker (10:58):
And so using technology to help us just gather data,
forms all of these type thingshelps us because really, truly
is a shortage of.
funeral professionals in the USand so as we know, we have to do
more with less people.
So it helps us to be able to dothat.
Brooke (11:16):
Have you felt like there's been any pushback or
challenges when it comes tousing technology and things as
you've been modernizing theindustry a bit with AI and these
tools that you've been using?
walker (11:30):
I think the challenge has been with my directors who
may be from a differentgeneration to adapt and learn
the value of those things.
It's really important though, toalways be upfront that, hey,
listen our point here is to makethis the most personal and most
meaningful experience you canhave with this family So if I
have someone who doesn't like touse a computer or a laptop in
the conference, I say, don't dothat.
(11:51):
Write it down by hand and thenwe take a picture of it and use
OCR to get the data into our
Brooke (11:56):
Mm-hmm.
walker (11:57):
Let's say, which is really helpful because as long
as your handwriting's somewhatlegible, they can take a picture
and can populate the fields andcan be in good shape.
And so these tools have helpedus streamline that and make the
process efficient for thefamily.
Brooke (12:09):
that's nice.
Have you played around withvoice notes or audio notes or
even just recording andtranscribing when it comes to
taking down this data?
I.
walker (12:20):
We have, it's funny.
Our, the next update we get fromour management software, we'll
have the note feature on therein beta trying it.
So it'd be really helpful for usto be able to dictate or to just
have it, listen to theconversation and
Brooke (12:32):
Mm-hmm.
walker (12:33):
Things.
You're talking my dream here.
This is the less typing I haveto do the better it will be.
And the technology's thereclearly.
You know, since our professionis pretty old, it took us a
while to get vendors whounderstood the flow and our
workflow to create in thatspace.
But now there's so manytechnology vendors and the
technology business aroundfuneral care is huge.
(12:54):
You're seeing a lot of privateequity get into that and buy and
sell companies, but I think thatthe more players there are in
the space, the better it is forus because they tend to be a
little more forward in theirdevelopment
Brooke (13:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
This is one of my favoritequestions to ask is if you were
able to wave a magic wand so youknow your personal pain points
more than anyone, and yourrepetitive process and work.
So if you were to create asoftware or a solution,
something using the help of aiwhat would you create that would
(13:27):
be a big benefit to your role?
walker (13:31):
So this is a back of the house solution, but it's very
simple.
I would create an interfacewhere our management software so
that we input data into thesystem can then speak to all the
states for their deathcertificate
Brooke (13:43):
Mm.
walker (13:44):
This process is so antiquated and so difficult
that, we're having to enter datatwo and three times.
Brooke (13:49):
Wow.
walker (13:50):
if you don't use any kind of technology, you're
sitting there taking the data inone software, then you're
transcribing it to the statesoftware for the death
certificate creation, and thento whatever else you're doing.
So I would take a magic wand andhave every state communicate
with our software to be able to.
Automatically seamlessly, getthe death certificate filed and
certified.
(14:11):
It's a big deal for the familieswe serve.
That's a very
Brooke (14:14):
Mm-hmm.
walker (14:14):
Because they really can't do any business until they
have a certified deathcertificate.
And so that's a big timeconsumer for us.
The other thing would beinteresting, and this is maybe
controversial, there arecompanies now, Funeral One's a
great example of this funeral.
One's my personal tech supplierin our space.
And I've been for 20 yearshelping, giving'em ideas and
helping'em work on things that,could help us provide more
(14:36):
value.
They're actually working on thetechnology to have holograms
present during
Brooke (14:40):
Wow.
walker (14:41):
Which is pretty interesting.
So you could actually have yourgrandfather give his own eulogy
in his words.
Maybe some families wouldn'tlike that.
Maybe some would, but when youtalk about, what's being
developed, there's some veryforward thinking pieces to help
bring more personalization andmore meaning to funeral
services.
Brooke (14:57):
I think this is so interesting, and I had a recent
conversation with someone thatworks in the brand avatar space,
and she's spoken about.
These digital legacy tools thatare coming out.
And the only thing between asci-fi futuristic movie and
(15:18):
things coming to fruition isjust time.
And I can't recall the movie andmaybe I'll look it up and link
it in the show notes where, youknow, people who are grieving
their past loved ones, they'reable to upload everything about
them and still speak to them andgrieve them when they've past.
And so what you're sharing aboutthe hologram just sounds so
(15:42):
interesting to me of where we'reheaded now that we have this
technology and this ability tonot only be emotionally
supported, whether that'sthrough an online therapy app
whether that's a real person orartificial intelligence behind
it.
But these really interestingtechnological creative advances
(16:04):
when it comes to grieving.
I'm curious to hear what yourthoughts on that in this future
that we move into and all ofthese new technologies that are
gonna be coming out specificallyin your industry.
walker (16:20):
So I'll tell you, 15 years ago, we created the first
virtual aftercare solution forfamilies.
It's called E Aftercare, andmyself and Funeral One built
this.
It's a place on our websitewhere you can go and we
actually, so long ago we had areal grief therapist, Dr.
Virginia Simpson.
We met her in Palm Springs.
We filmed for three days.
(16:40):
15 to 20 minute segments ondifferent types of grief.
And then she'd ask you, youknow, tell me what kind of death
have you experienced?
What kind of loss have youexperienced?
And he would select like, deathof a parent, child, whatever.
And then she could walk back upon the screen.
And it's still on our websitetoday.
You can see it, but, and shewould talk to you for 15 minutes
or 20 minutes in your own home,just telling common things that,
(17:01):
feelings you may have anddifferent stories about how to
deal with that.
It's really helpful, I think,especially around grief.
tools any, this can be veryimportant 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 groupsevery day at our place, and
they're busy, but there's somepeople who just go, I don't feel
comfortable doing
Brooke (17:21):
Mm.
walker (17:21):
And to be able to interact.
And if you're using a digitaltool, you have to realize like,
this is not the same asin-person therapy.
You're not really speaking backto it at this point.
I'm sure we could do that soonwith ai, you have to understand
what you're getting, but justgetting information and
knowledge.
In the privacy ruin home at twoo'clock in the morning when
maybe you wake up and can'tsleep is, there's a lot of
(17:42):
benefit to that.
And so we pioneered that fit along time ago and are in the
middle of revamping that now.
Based on new technology
Brooke (17:52):
Yeah, that's such an important point, is being able
to have access and support nomatter what time or
circumstances you're in.
And being able to receive thosecomforting videos that you
worked with.
Her on.
I can imagine that's such agreat advantage for someone when
they're selecting who they'regonna work with during such a
(18:14):
sensitive time of their life.
And I can imagine that you'regonna be adopting AI on an even
deeper level because to yourpoint, there's so much that goes
into the planning of a funeraljust as much as a wedding.
And, all the little steps andthings you have to remember.
I just can imagine yourconversation with me a year from
(18:38):
now and how much you're gonna beadapting AI on a deeper level.
I'm excited just to see what'snext for you.
I'd love to just open the floorwhat's one key takeaway you
wanna have listeners who are inthe AI space?
walker (18:54):
I think for me it's important to know that
everything we do has to bedesigned with a family first and
with the view of.
we're doing has to bring healingand make the process better for
those who are dealing withgrief.
That's the whole point.
It's nice to make our jobseasier, to make it more
seamless, but the real point isthe things we're developing have
(19:14):
true value to the consumer who'sthe family who's had a death.
And I'm excited about the thingsthat are to come because.
I can really see how in the nextcouple of years, or hopefully
before we'll have even bettertools.
And little things even currentlynow selecting merchandise for a
funeral is overwhelming.
There's hundreds of casketoptions and hundreds of urns.
(19:36):
So as AI can know who thisfamily is and can look at what
their buying habits are and cansee what their likes and their
colors they like, we scale thosechoices down and make it more
simple and making it seamlessand making it, them more free
time to spend with
Brooke (19:51):
Hmm.
walker (19:52):
They shouldn't be spending all this time just in
planning an event.
They need to be really.
the, The support of theircommunity.
And that's the point of what wedo as funeral directors.
And that's the point oftechnology and funeral service.
Brooke (20:03):
Thank you for that.
Such key points.
I love just amplifying casestudies and expanding
individuals.
I imagine your work is quiteregional.
But if you wanna share howlisteners can reach out to you,
where you offer your services,what's the best way to contact?
walker (20:24):
Well, two things.
I am a funeral director in South
Brooke (20:27):
Mm-hmm.
walker (20:27):
And
Brooke (20:27):
Mm-hmm.
walker (20:27):
But my today in the capacity of a spokesperson for
the National Funeral Directors
Brooke (20:32):
Oh.
walker (20:32):
So, NFDA is the national funeral Directors Association.
You go to nfda.org, you can finda funeral home in your local
area, and you could determinewho 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 orjust give folks advice on how
they can, select the properfuneral home for them and how
(20:52):
they can be prepared.
When the time comes to to sit inthat seat, to deal with it in
the proper way.
Brooke (20:58):
Thank you Walker so much for sharing insight into, a
space a lot of us will come upagainst at one point in time
throughout our lives.
It was very interesting to hearhow you're utilizing AI in such
a unique way and I appreciateyour time and I can't wait to
share this episode withlisteners.
walker (21:19):
Absolutely.
And I think the, my finaltakeaway would just be, hope the
public knows that, theirstereotypical idea of what a
funeral director is, haschanged.
And there are many qualifiedprofessionals who really want to
provide the highest level ofcare and provide the best
experience they
Brooke (21:34):
Yes.
walker (21:35):
they're in good hands.
Brooke (21:36):
Thank you so much Walker.
walker (21:37):
Thank you.
Brooke (21:40):
My next guest features a grounded and refreshing
perspective from the heart ofSilicon Valley.
I'm joined by Danielle Yoo, aformer senior advisor at TD
Ameritrade, who managed over 800million in client assets before
making a bold leap into the techworld.
He's now the founder of FinMateAI building custom AI agents for
(22:02):
advisors and financial firms.
But what sets Daniel apart ishis human first approach to
tech.
This one's packed with sharpinsights, real world use cases,
and a grounded to take forwhat's next in ai financial
services and beyond.
Enjoy.
Daniel, thank you and welcome.
Daniel Yoo (22:21):
Yeah.
Thanks for having me, Brooke.
Brooke (22:23):
I would love to introduce yourself.
Daniel Yoo (22:26):
So my name is Daniel.
I used to work for TD Ameritradeas a senior advisor for them.
Managed about 800 million ofclient assets and did that until
the Schwab takeover ended uphappening.
I had been doing a master'sprogram at Johns Hopkins using
AI to do stock price prediction,modeling.
Thesis advisor happened to be aguy who worked for our
regulatory agency.
(22:49):
and let me know about themaintaining qualifications
program that would let mepartially leave the industry
while keeping my licensesactive.
And so ended up going into tech.
My financial advisory practicewas mostly in the Silicon Valley
area and had always beeninterfacing with folks in tech
and so was curious about thatworld and ended up jumping in
then, and started a Finmate soonafter basically to fill some
(23:11):
needs.
I thought that the financialadvisory industry.
Had,
Brooke (23:15):
Okay, cool.
So tell me more about that firstinitial step into the tech
space, because a lot of peopleare experiencing this moment in
time where they're pivoting andthey're pivoting more into
technology and integrating AIsystems.
So bring me back to that firstmoment where you were a big time
(23:37):
financial advisor and youdecided to make that pivot.
Daniel Yoo (23:41):
Yeah, it's a.
Great question.
I mean, you know, Post Schwabmerger, I had a decision to
make, right?
Whether I wanted to stay in theindustry or go try something
else out.
I've only ever been an advisorbefore that, and so I figured,
hey, now's a pretty good time tosee.
What else is out there?
Again, most of my clients wereeither in the tech world or tech
(24:02):
adjacent, and the question wasalways I wonder what it's like
to sit on that side of the tableinstead.
And given my kind of technicaltraining and background I ended
up joining another startup justto learn the ropes on how to be
part of a startup.
Did that for about a year andthen moved on to start on my own
after that.
And yeah, really had about ayear of training under another
startup.
Brooke (24:20):
That's awesome.
I'm a firm believer in yourenvironment and your network,
right?
And a lot of individuals whenthey're first starting their
career or wanting to shiftindustries or make a pivot.
It's super important to beputting yourself in the right
environment, and it sounds likeyou were in the right ecosystem
(24:41):
to really just start soak in somy next question for you is
before developing your ownsoftware solutions such as
FinMate AI, what were youplaying around with?
What is your technology stackoutside of the software that you
created?
I'd love to just get a behindthe scenes look into what it is
(25:04):
that you use day to day becausewe're also individual.
Daniel Yoo (25:08):
Got it.
Well, really, the usage of AIcame more with, us developing
out Fin Ate the notetaking partof it.
back when I was at that previousstartup and I would be talking
to a number of vendors, I didnotice that they were using an
AI notetaker even back then,right?
In 20 22, 20 one timeframe.
So when I left to start FinMadeoriginally, we were actually
(25:29):
doing a different app DivIncome, where basically we
wanted to help the retailinvestor.
Invest in income generatingstocks, right?
Because if you remember backthen.
The interest rate was near zero,right?
And so bonds were not payingmuch out.
There was plenty of tools outthere for the growth oriented
advisor in the robo space, but Ifelt like there was nothing
(25:52):
really for the income advisor.
And so that's what we weregearing up to build.
And then as we were trying toexpand that out, the interest
rate environment completelychanged rates skyrocketed.
And know, dividend producingstock as an income plan no
longer made sense.
And so when we were looking topivot and, I was remembering
back to those ai AI note takersat that previous firm, I wanted
(26:16):
to take a look to see if I canmake that more applicable to my
previous industry as an advisor.
And I quickly realized that alot of the generic note takers
were not specific enough toaccess that seamless transition
from advisor client meeting to,compliance notes.
And so this was back in the dayof ChatGPT.
(26:38):
And I don't know if you rememberlike DaVinci back in those days.
And so that's where it gotstarted and that's when we
started jumping into AI.
And yeah, it's been very crazyrapid ride since then.
Brooke (26:50):
Thank you for sharing.
I'd love to just go back to whatwas it like adopting and
restructuring your workflow?
Was there any resistance whenyou first started integrating
ai?
Daniel Yoo (27:04):
Yes, obviously financial advisory is a very
traditional kind of environment.
and so when we first launchedFinMate, we were the first AI
note taker for the advisormarketplace.
And just custom built for onlythat market.
And so initially there was a lotof pushback, right?
It's new, it's unregulated.
(27:24):
People don't know and so when wedesigned it out, we designed it
to be as data minimalist aspossible.
So we don't read people's,client CRM data.
We auto delete everything fromour system.
We don't let anyone keepanything long term on our side
because we don't want to beconsidered books and records,
and follow under thoseregulations.
And so we did our best to try toalleviate a lot of the
(27:46):
technology security concerns.
But I guess what I didn'trealize was how quickly the
industry would change, right?
I think when people are seeingmoney they.
End up putting aside theirsecurity concerns.
it's been very interesting shiftto watch in the industry as
there's been a wide spectrum ofresponses where some firms are
still very careful with adoptingAI tech.
(28:10):
And I think some firms have gonetoo quick in letting AI into all
of their systems.
So yeah, there's been a
Brooke (28:16):
Mm.
You bring up such a valid point.
About.
The industries that are slow toadapt are the ones that are most
reliant on those relationshipbased clients.
Maybe we could chat a little bitmore about that.
How are you overcoming that?
How are people trusting theirmoney and their investments in
(28:42):
robots and technology and bots.
Daniel Yoo (28:44):
Yeah, so people think of AI and financial
advisory investment, I thinkautomatically people's minds go
to, oh, the AI is investing forus.
that hasn't really been thecase.
There's a couple of companiesout there that are trying, but
that really hasn't been themajority use case.
The majority use case for AI ina slower, methodical industry is
(29:07):
more in operationalefficiencies, So paperwork
filing, data transference, thatkind of thing.
For investments, the closestthing I've seen so far being
used more widely is using AI todo sentiment analysis, market
research, right?
Uh, You know, we live in anenvironment where there's just a
deluge of data and informationalways being created day by day.
(29:29):
And so a human analyst justdoesn't have the time to.
Get the lay of the land daily,right?
So what I've seen people come upwith is a, AI that reads through
the market news and then givesrelevant updates to the analysts
so that the analyst can then goback in and double check.
but I'm not on that side of theai.
(29:50):
I'm firmly on the side ofoperational efficiencies right
now.
Brooke (29:53):
Yes, operational efficiency is the way to really
adapt ai and I'm seeing, and ofcourse you can speak more in
this as well, is a lot of peoplefinally getting into AI agents,
and I know you've started tocreate or have already built a
(30:13):
lot of custom AI agents foradvisors.
Can you share a little bit moreabout that?
Daniel Yoo (30:21):
I think this is a problem that everyone in the AI
space is going through rightnow.
I guess a bit of background onthe market conditions leading up
to where we're in this currentmoment.
If you remember back to CoronaTimes.
Even before then there's been alot of funding sitting on the
sidelines because venturecapital and private equity just
really didn't know where to putmoney into, right?
(30:43):
There's nothing hot on thehorizon that they really were
trying.
I think crypto had its momentfor a little bit, and then that
kind of, most of it ended up notworking out long term, and
there's been a lot of dry powderwaiting to be deployed post
Corona.
Again, that pressure keptmounting where no one really
knew where to put money into.
(31:03):
During Corona, you know,e-commerce and retail e-retail
really had its heyday becauseeveryone's in their homes and
basically just shocked withstimulus checks.
But again, post.
Everyone coming back into thereal world.
There's been a lot of cutbacks,right?
You've seen a lot of techcompanies that have hired, a lot
of people end up laying offthose very same people two years
(31:24):
later.
And so this stage is set, right?
This, there's this new risingtechnology that everyone is
excited about and it has like alot of industry implications.
Ai, you have a bunch of peoplewho are engineers entering,
being unemployed because of allthe layoffs, and so you have a
large lot of talent and you haveall this money sitting on the
sideline waiting to getdeployed, and so all of a sudden
(31:46):
you have this very hot marketwhere you have workers, you have
funding, you have anopportunity.
So everyone is jumping into thisAI gain, which is great for the
consumer.
Terrible for businesses at theend of the day because if
there's a hyper competition,there's less and less profit to
be had.
But unfortunately, because ofall the venture capital and
private equity dollars flowingin there's a lot of companies
(32:07):
out there with a lot of moneyand questionable futures, right?
And a lot of the valuations,talking to some of the more
established, companies, ahundred years old kind of giants
in the financial space.
I've talked to a lot of theirventure arm folks, and they're
all not excited about theincredible valuations.
That's really the private equityand venture capital markets that
(32:29):
are jumping into it.
Not really the establishedplayers, right?
Why is that?
Well, the reason is there's nomoat, right?
AI has developed so quickly.
There's no way to copyright orpatent anything really in this
space at the moment, right?
And so you have all this talent,you have all this money.
(32:49):
rushing to make product.
And so now there's thousands ofthese products with no moat.
And so everyone's copyingeveryone.
and that's the currentenvironment we're in.
And so the question oneveryone's minds is how do we
protect kind of our IP or ourvalue proposition to clients
when AI is moving so quicklythat everything is getting
obsolete and everything isgetting copied by people with
(33:11):
more money.
And back to your question about,personalization that human
element.
The solution that I came to iswe need to build personalized AI
agents for firms, especially inthe slower moving industries.
(33:32):
'cause ultimately I've seencompanies make these great
platforms where you can buildyour own agentic ai.
most people in these.
historic industries don't havethe technological know-how even
set it up properly.
And so I think there's value increating these custom AI agents
for folks in this industry.
Because the biggest questionthat I'm getting right now from
(33:54):
clients is, Hey, Daniel, I knowyou know the industry.
you know Ai.
There's a thousand of these AItools out there.
Now tell me what I should want.
So that's what we're trying toanswer.
Brooke (34:07):
I think that's important when it comes to packaging and
messaging and communication ofwhat it is that your value prop
is, and especially.
in the crowded market, which yousaid something that really stuck
with me on our intro call, yousaid A blue ocean becomes a red
ocean very quickly and it'sgoing to be really hard to
(34:30):
differentiate or understand whatit is that you need to be
adapting and adding into yoursystems and your operations,
your infrastructure.
So my next question for you isto go a little bit more into
what differentiates yourbusiness and how do you stand
(34:51):
out in a copycattingenvironment?
Daniel Yoo (34:54):
Yeah.
Great.
Great question.
I think this is the question oneveryone's mind in light of.
No moat, not every blue oceanbecomes red ocean immediately,
but when there is no moat itgoes red ocean very quickly.
Right?
And I think the keydifferentiator is if you are
just a simple technologyplatform product, you're going
to have a hard time becauseyou're going to have competitors
(35:14):
that are slightly vigor,slightly smaller, right?
All across the board attackingyour business.
So the only way to do it, Ithink is on the service end.
things, right?
Again, building the relationshipwith your clients, understanding
how they operate, not just on anindustry level, but on their
firm level because everyone hasa different tech stack at the
end of the day.
(35:35):
Everyone has different standardoperating procedures.
So if you can build an AI agentthat works with that company
internally, that's a hell of alot more useful than a broad
platform that doesn't reallywork.
And so that's ourdifferentiation is we.
Take care of each client andbuild out a custom solution for
them.
Understanding that they are notthe most technical people, and
(35:58):
so this needs to be as easy aspossible to use.
Giving them a giganticconfiguration page where they're
going to need, to get a collegedegree in your software isn't
really helping anyone.
And so I think ourdifferentiator is because we
haven't fundraised and we'rebootstrapped, we're able to take
it a little slow.
We're able to not need to goshoot for the moon and have
these incredible, insanevaluations.
(36:20):
But really just take care ofindividual firms that come along
our way.
Brooke (36:24):
That's great.
I'd also love to touch on trendsand where you see the industry.
'cause it sounds like you'revery effectively positioning
yourself now.
How long does that remaineffective and where do you see
the next six?
Yeah.
Right.
It's like something you have tothink about
Daniel Yoo (36:42):
absolutely.
Brooke (36:43):
does the next, what does the next six months to a year
look like in remainingcompetitive in this environment?
Daniel Yoo (36:49):
I think that's a very good question.
I think you're going to see alot more AI consultants come
into play.
I would broadly put futureupcoming AI consultants in three
categories.
Maybe four.
So first is people that know AIbut don't know the industry, And
so their trouble is going to bereally in understanding whoever
(37:11):
clients whatever clients thatthey're servicing they know the
ai, but do they know theindustry will want to custom
create things that work well forthem?
Or are they going to try to fittheir clients into their kind of
box?
Right.
End of the spectrum is peoplewho understand the industry but
don't understand the ai, right?
So they're going to be stuckjust recommending a set of tools
(37:32):
and products that won'tnecessarily fit together because
they're disparate products andthey'll push themselves as AI
experts in AI technologies andsay, here's the 3, 4, 5 tools
you should have.
they won't be able tonecessarily chain those together
in a meaningful fashion.
the fourth I'll touch on brieflyis people with neither AI
expertise nor.
Industry expertise, but knowthat this is a trend.
(37:54):
And so they'll try to marketthemselves as AI experts.
I don't know how well they'lldo, but I'm sure there'll be
some out there that make goodmoney, because that's the trend,
right?
what we're trying to positionourself is that third category
of where we have the industryexpertise and we have the AI
expertise.
We built FinMate note taking andnow we're building, this agentic
tool.
And so the.
(38:15):
Thing that will keep us inbusiness is the fact that we
understand both the fact thatthis is not really a hyper
scalable business, right?
So if you look back, software asa service SaaS has been the main
driver for a lot of technologycompanies,
Brooke (38:30):
Mm-hmm.
Daniel Yoo (38:31):
Are platform based and those can get copied easily,
right?
And so because that, that AISaaS is such a red ocean this
consultative way of doingbusiness is a lot slower.
It's a lot less scalable.
And so there can be a many moreplayers in the marketplace
because when we're developing asolution for one client, not
able to develop a solution foranother client.
(38:52):
And so I think we're going to bemoving into an environment where
this high level of service therewill be a lot more players in
this space to be able to providethis high level of service.
Brooke (39:03):
You bring up a valid point about how we're gonna need
to have very strong discernmentwhen it comes to putting our
dollars behind investors andfounders and adapting and using
specific softwares ortechnologies or agents and
really doing the research behindwho they are, why they're doing
(39:24):
what they're doing.
You know, I would much ratherwork and use a tool like FinMate
AI with my financial investmentsor.
Advisory from someone like youwho's worked in the industry and
knows the ins and outs, versussomeone who vibe code with no
(39:45):
financial background or havenever been in the industry and
maybe he or she made a productthat is, more affordable or
easily integrated.
Really using that discernment tolook into what it is that you're
gonna spend time and invest in,whether that be your money or
your energy.
Or your portfolio.
(40:05):
So really important point there.
You talked about your nextprojects and the evolution of
where you're headed to next.
One of my favorite questions toask guests is if you could wave
a magic wand and createsomething with AI that doesn't
exist yet, and this can even behow you're thinking of already
(40:27):
expanding in the market andvertical you're in, or it can be
a completely exciting passionproject.
I would love to know where yourcreative brain goes when it
comes to the endlesspossibilities of ai.
Daniel Yoo (40:41):
man.
Yeah let me talk to thepractical, grounded reality
level for now.
basically the problem that anysoftware stack has is in the
integration up and down, right?
And as anyone who's boughtsoftware will tell you never
really works the way that it'ssold, right?
It never really talks to eachother the way it should.
And so I think in an idealstate, an AI that can actually
(41:04):
connect all those disparatesystems together in one seamless
I think that would be probablythe ultimate in any kind of
technology, right?
The AI doesn't necessarily needto do everything itself, but as
long as it can Intelligibly talkor have different softwares talk
to each other, I think thatwould be the ideal.
It probably won't happenbecause.
Many of these big softwarecompanies are gatekeeping access
(41:27):
to their systems and, paying forAPI, things like that.
And so it won't really happen ona business realistic level, but
I think, and just in a verygrounded dullish, not really
sexy, but operationallyefficient perspective, having
that would be amazing.
Brooke (41:43):
I try to think of one thing to share.
I like the idea of something.
What is it called?
It's not called starlink, thechip, where people are putting
it in their brains
Daniel Yoo (41:54):
Yeah.
Brooke (41:55):
Neuralink Okay?
So first of all, I would neverdo that, ever but second of all,
I am getting so tired of holdingmy phone and speaking to my LLMs
all day.
It's a bit of a stream ofconsciousness at this point.
But how can I more easilyintegrate these tools and
(42:17):
technology beyond attaching itto my body because I don't think
I would do that.
Daniel Yoo (42:22):
Well, Neuralink is a step really far.
I think the next.
Natural step is on wearables,right?
So there's been
Brooke (42:29):
Yeah.
Daniel Yoo (42:30):
out there that tried to do like a lapel pin where you
just attach something to yourchest.
Doesn't really work out becauseif you're wearing casual
clothing, there's really nowhereto put it.
I think maybe the next stepwould be in a wrist wearable,
right?
So a smartphone, right?
So you're not holding a wholephone or smart smart watch, so
you can just talk into it.
I know Meta is doing some stuffwith glasses.
(42:50):
AR glasses, right?
Augmented reality glasses.
Issue with that is as someonewho wears glasses, I can't
really use that.
And it's very bulky and heavystill, right?
And so
Brooke (42:59):
Ah.
Daniel Yoo (43:00):
I would say the most probabilistic thing will be like
a wrist wearable, or whetherit's integrated into your
smartwatch, or it's like aseparate band that you can talk
into and that Your phone as themain processing center.
That might be the way to go.
I have seen some stuff out therewhere it's not.
Chip in brain, but it's chip inwrist.
I don't know if you've seen thatout of Asia where you can
Brooke (43:21):
No.
Daniel Yoo (43:21):
checkouts and things like that with your, either your
palm or your wrist and there'slike a little thing that they
embed.
Again, I'm as it might be tohear, I'm a bit of a ludite
myself.
I adopt technology relativelyslowly in my personal life.
Brooke (43:35):
Okay.
Daniel Yoo (43:36):
I think that comes from the fact that if you watch
carefully, these tech giants.
And see what they do withtechnology.
They don't let their kids useit.
So I am very cautious andcareful of anything.
I think back in college I usedto make fun of people, who put
tape over the webcams
Brooke (43:57):
Mm-hmm.
Daniel Yoo (43:57):
Zuckerberg taped his webcam.
And I was like, oh, so this isnot some conspiracy theory, this
is an actual.
Thing.
And so I started, buying webcamcovers after that.
And so very much so I would justsay like, watch what the big
players are doing and, you dowhat they do, not what they say
or market.
Brooke (44:18):
Yes.
I also cover my cameras I coverit on my phone along with my
computer.
And I have looked intowearables, but I am pretty
conscious about EMFs.
So I haven't gotten the AppleWatch and, you know, I'm pretty
mindful with EMF in my home.
(44:39):
But.
Daniel Yoo (44:39):
Yeah.
Brooke (44:40):
something comes soon.
I've seen what you've talkedabout, the pins, the lapels.
But I thought that was a littleunethical.
If someone doesn't know thatyou, they're speaking to you and
you're recording without theirconsent, like that was a little
gray and murky.
Daniel Yoo (44:54):
Yeah.
Brooke (44:55):
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 arefinding themself in that amazing
opportunity, becoming a firsttime founder.
Daniel Yoo (45:14):
Sure.
Brooke (45:15):
I.
Daniel Yoo (45:16):
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 noventure capital, no private
equity funding, right?
And so I'm not really like atraditional startup guy.
I've been a financial advisorfor most of my career industry.
You build your book of businessvery slowly through over time
building relationships.
(45:36):
Not really sure if I'm the bestperson to ask, frankly for that.
But if I were to give my 2 centsof the subject, I think, going
for broke, hyper scalability.
That's amazing.
That's awesome.
but I think it's incumbent oneach founder to determine if
that's the life they wanna lead.
Is that the kind of business youwant to run?
Where you jack up the price, gofor a quick exit, right?
(45:58):
Is that the kind of person youwant to be?
Great.
But I think there's space in theindustry now for people like me
who like things a little bitslower, likes to move things a
little slowly.
And so if you are in thatcategory in camp I would still
say, give it a shot.
I think, again, there's space inthe industry for people that
aren't trying to hyperscale, butjust scale.
Well, like in the olden times.
(46:19):
Yeah.
Brooke (46:20):
Yeah, bringing that happy medium.
Not everything is meant to, moveat lightning speed or have an
immediate exit with the firstyear, or have, goals that don't
feel aligned with you.
So.
Such a key point there.
So maybe I'll pull it back ifyou wanna share your closing
remarks.
And it doesn't have to be forthe tech startup field.
(46:43):
It could be people in thefinancial space, people just
entering AI for the first time.
Daniel Yoo (46:49):
I think this is a lesson I've learned in the
investment space and I thinkthat has carried out well
throughout, thinking througheverything.
A very good cell signal is wheneveryone is talking about
something that you would notexpect them to be talking about
it.
I think, that's when you know,you hit peak hype.
And I mean it was the same thingfor kind of the meme stocks,
(47:12):
right?
GameStop, It was the same thingfor crypto.
When your aunt who never knowsanything about technology,
suddenly talking about Bitcoinmight be a sell signal and I
think same thing for ai, right?
Just be cognizant of who'stalking about what and see what
is just all hype and see whatactually has real value inside
(47:32):
of it.
And I think that'll help,buyers, users, sellers, creators
steer away from meaningless hypeand steer into something that
can create some lasting value.
Brooke (47:41):
Beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that.
And last but not least, I'd loveto hear if listeners wanna reach
out to you, what's the best wayto connect with you?
I.
Daniel Yoo (47:53):
Yeah.
You can reach me atdaniel@finmate.ai.
That's D-A-N-I-E-L atF-I-N-M-A-T-E.ai Always happy to
chat.
There's a.
Booking thing on our website aswell, if you wanna book some
time with our team.
but yeah, always happy to sharewith folks even people not in
the industry.
Brooke (48:13):
Well, thank you so much for your time today.
I really enjoy just getting alittle bit more of an insider
look of how things are going inSilicon Valley with wearables
and tech and have realconversation about what it means
to have discernment and embracethis technology with balance and
level mindedness.
(48:34):
So thank you.
I appreciate you, Daniel.
Daniel Yoo (48:37):
appreciate you having me on today.
Brooke (48:40):
That wraps up this special power series episode of
How I ai, huge thank you totoday'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 mystory too.
(49:00):
That energy is exactly whatmakes this community so
meaningful.
If you wanna be featured in thenext Power Series and share how
you're integrating AI into yourwork or your personal life,
shoot me a message.
Email me directly.
I'd love to hear from you.
Let's keep amplifying realvoices and real use cases.
(49:21):
We're all shaping the spacetogether, and until next time,
stay curious, stay human, andkeep exploring what's possible
with ai.
This episode was made possiblein partnership with the
Collective AI, a communitydesigned to help entrepreneurs,
creators, and professionalsseamlessly integrate AI into
their workflows.
(49:42):
One of the biggest game changersin my own AI journey was joining
this space.
It's where I learned, connectedand truly enhanced my
understanding of what's possiblewith ai.
And the best part, they offermultiple membership levels to
meet you where you are.
Whether you want to DIY, your AIlearning or work with a
personalized AI consultant foryour business, The Collective
(50:05):
has you covered.
Learn more and sign up using myexclusive link in the show
notes.
Welcome to How I AI the podcast featuring real people,
real stories, and real AI inaction.
I'm Brooke Gramer, your host andguide on this journey into the
real world impact of artificialintelligence.
For over 15 years, I've workedin creative marketing events and
business strategy, wearing allthe hats.
(00:24):
I know the struggle of trying toscale and manage all things
without burning out, but here'sthe game changer, AI.
This isn't just a podcast.
How I AI is a community, a spacewhere curious minds like you
come together, share ideas, andI'll also bring exclusive
discounts, and insiderresources, because AI isn't just
(00:47):
a trend, it's a shift, and thesooner we embrace it, the more
freedom, creativity, andopportunities will unlock.
How I AI is brought to you inpartnership with the Collective
AI, a space designed toaccelerate your learning and AI
adoption.
I joined the collective and it'scompletely catapulted my
(01:09):
learning, expanded my network,and showed me what's possible
with AI.
Whether you're just startingout, seeking community or want
done for you solutions, thecollective gives you the
resources to grow your businesswith AI.
So stay tuned to learn more atthe end of this episode, or
check my show notes for myexclusive invite link..
(01:30):
Hi everyone.
More and more of you have beenreaching out, wanting to share
your stories, how you're usingAI, what you're experimenting
with, and what you're building,and honestly, I love it.
This is what How I AI is reallyabout not just big moments or
big names, but the rippleeffect.
(01:52):
It's about highlighting thequiet builders, the innovators
in unexpected spaces andamplifying each other as we grow
together in this new era ofpossibility.
So today we're diving into aPower Series episode.
These are gonna be shorterconversations with incredible
guests from varying industries.
(02:14):
Showing us how AI is beingadapted and creative,
intentional, and sometimesreally unexpected ways..
Alright, let's dive into today'sPower Series episode.
For my next guest, I'm joined byWalker Posey who's bringing
thoughtful innovation to one ofthe oldest and most emotionally
(02:35):
sensitive industries in theworld.
Whether you've ever thoughtabout the role of AI in end of
Life services or not, this nextinterview might surprise you.
Today's guest is Walker Posey.
He's a fourth generation funeraldirector using creativity,
technology, and compassionateleadership to modernize one of
(02:57):
the oldest industries on earth.
Welcome Walker.
I'm so happy to have you on HowI AI today.
walker (03:05):
Thanks, Brooke.
It's great to be here and,looking forward to our
conversation.
Brooke (03:08):
I'm so excited to dive into everything that you're
doing today in regards to AI andtechnology.
But first, can we share with thelisteners today, expand a bit
more on yourself and yourbackground?
walker (03:26):
Sure.
Like you said, I'm a fourthgeneration funeral homeowner.
My great-grandfather started ourbusiness in 1879, so we go back
a long way.
I came back about 20 years agowith my family and took over and
bought the business about 10years ago.
And I can tell you that theindustry that my great
grandfather was in is vastlydifferent than what I'm in
today.
Um, But we.
(03:47):
enjoy serving families in ourcommunity making big differences
in their lives.
And over the last 20 years, I'veworked really hard to use
technology to better serve thosefamilies and to create more
meaningful and more viableexperiences for'em.
Brooke (03:58):
Beautiful.
I'm sure that this is one ofthose industries that really
needs better tech, and I'd loveto first dive into.
How you support yourself, usingtools like technology and
artificial intelligence.
What really sparked yourinterest to get into
streamlining and automating andusing technology specifically in
(04:20):
your line of work, which hasbeen around for so long?
walker (04:23):
It has been around forever.
And I'll tell you for us, it'snot easy to find people who
wanna be in our
Brooke (04:29):
Mm.
walker (04:29):
So, uh, a, as time has gone on, technology's allowed us
to use a little bit ofautomation in the back of the
house to make some things easierfor us to do more with less
Brooke (04:38):
Okay.
walker (04:39):
But my interest in technology and AI.
been longstanding.
When I first came into thebusiness, we, this is honestly
like pre websites, this is awhile ago.
As we began to, create forexample, we created the first
memorial page that anyone adigital memorial page.
And so all of our families, andnow most funeral homes in
America, when you have a death,there's a digital memorial page
(05:00):
to go to where that person'smemory can kinda live on
forever.
We know it's awkward on socialwhen someone passes away
and their Facebook.
page's there, their Instagram's
there forever and ever.
What do you do?
This is a place where you couldgo and tell stories, share
memories.
Now you can watch the livestream of the service.
But this was done originally asa hope to just be one more way
to help folks have a place togo, to remember, and to serve
(05:22):
their grieving and healingprocess.
So that started a long time ago,and since that time we've
evolved into.
Not just live streaming andmemorial pages, but into
actually using AI in oursoftware for running our
business and trying to make auseful tool for efficiency and
to make the process better forfamilies.
I.
Brooke (05:42):
Could you share about how you're using automation
systems, whether it comes to,training your staff or hiring?
Are there any specific platformsor tools that you're
specifically using?
I know a lot of people gravitatetowards chat GPT but every
(06:02):
industry is unique, especiallywhen you're in a realm where
relationships really matter, andthis is like very sensitive and
emotional time for a lot ofpeople.
So I'm curious how exactly youare adapting and automating with
ai, but still keeping that, thatemotion and that relationship at
the forefront.
(06:23):
I,
walker (06:23):
You're a hundred percent correct.
The human emotion and connectionare at the core of what we do.
And as good as technology can bepeople need us to be there for
them, like
Brooke (06:32):
yeah.
Yeah.
walker (06:33):
the real us, and to connect, early on we were using
ChatGPT for like obituarywriting, let's say.
And now our all the managementsoftwares in our business have a
AI obituary writing tool.
However, if you don't.
Put the right information in orget to know the family enough to
know what to put in.
You have a very generic piece.
I was listening to your lastshow, I think Tianna was on
talking about using emails withChatGPT and how they can be
(06:55):
really impersonal or whatever.
The same's true for obituarywriting and other tools that we
use.
Our job is to get to know thefamily and to try to create an
experience That's reallymeaningful for them as a point
of reference to deal with theirgrief.
And as we have that conversationabout their life and what
they're doing.
We can take that data, put itinto the tools like ChatGPT or
the AI Obit writer.
It can help us with thephrasing, but it's really on us
(07:17):
to gather the information.
We're still gonna be the maininformation gatherer and also
we're in a relationshipbusiness.
It's very important that, whenI'm writing an obituary, which
personally I use chat GPT verylittle in my obituary writing.
I think I've done it for so longthat I have a nuance that I'm
with, but my younger directorswho may, have a hard time
phrasing certain things, coulduse it quite a bit.
But having the right data isimportant.
(07:40):
But there's a lot of other toolsthat we're using besides just a
obituary writer.
For example, we have a softwarecalled Afterward that is our
back of the house managementsoftware, and they've used,
they've created a AI assistantcalled Grace that we can, talk
to and ask questions.
For example, we could say, tellme any other relatives that I've
served in this family who arerelated to John Smith, and it'll
(08:03):
bring up, oh, you served hisgrandfather, you buried his
grandmother, his sister.
That helps us then have moredata and information and
understanding of, okay.
This is what we did for thesefamily members.
This is their religioustradition.
This is who, so when they comein, we're more equipped to like,
not just be an order taker, butactually be prepared to
understand their relationshipand history.
Our business especially, we'vebeen there since 1879.
(08:26):
I can't remember everyone in theworld we've ever served but
they, you feel like a shirttailrelative because you're walking
them through a very difficultemotional time.
So it's helpful to have somereminders and things that.
Can prompt those relationshipsand you can connect the dots.
So that can be very helpful useof automation, I think.
Brooke (08:41):
It reminds me of those tools like ancestry.com.
Those at the end of the day aredealing with algorithms and AI
and.
That's really nice that you'reable to lean in it and you've
found solutions and softwarespecifically to you that are
working.
Could you maybe share some ofthe benefits that you're seeing?
So when you create these digitalmemorials and these live streams
(09:03):
and those video tributes, do youfeel like this saves a lot of
time or it's more efficient?
walker (09:11):
Absolutely it does those things and I'll come back to'em.
But the biggest benefit it hasis it gives the family a place
to go to permanently
Brooke (09:18):
Hmm mm.
walker (09:18):
One.
So we live in a very mobilesociety.
Our society's totally differentthan it was five years ago, 10
years ago, 20 years ago.
And we're seeing that so thecurrent trend towards more
people being cremated thanburied 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 timesfamilies go, well, gosh, we've
lived in five cities.
(09:39):
I don't know that I wanna pick aplot of land to be buried in
permanently.
So maybe if I don't do that, Ican, 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 foryou is really important.
It used to be when you had adeath, your neighbors made food
and brought it over, and peoplegathered at your house and you
(10:00):
had this whole supportcommunity.
And so that digital space givesus a place to create a virtual,
community of care so that yourfriends in, one part of the
country who aren't yourneighbors, but are still your
close friends can share in thatand can participate.
Part of grief and healing isfeeling that community support,
which comes through interactionand the digital space, gives us
(10:21):
a chance to.
Widen that net and not just seeyour local friends from your
current community, but itencapsulates your entire life
and all those relationships, sothat's really important.
From a time saving standpointit's huge.
For us, when you have a familythat's had a death, it takes us
about two or three hours toinitially meet with them and
take the data we need for thingslike death certificate and
(10:43):
information, and then toactually plan the service.
And there's probably as manydecisions with a funeral.
Planning a funeral as there arewith a wedding which is hard to
believe.
Usually you plan your weddingover a year or something, or a
couple years with the service,funeral service.
Usually it's, we're planning itfor a few days from
Brooke (10:58):
Hmm.
walker (10:58):
And so using technology to help us just gather data,
forms all of these type thingshelps us because really, truly
is a shortage of.
funeral professionals in the USand so as we know, we have to do
more with less people.
So it helps us to be able to dothat.
Brooke (11:16):
Have you felt like there's been any pushback or
challenges when it comes tousing technology and things as
you've been modernizing theindustry a bit with AI and these
tools that you've been using?
walker (11:30):
I think the challenge has been with my directors who
may be from a differentgeneration to adapt and learn
the value of those things.
It's really important though, toalways be upfront that, hey,
listen our point here is to makethis the most personal and most
meaningful experience you canhave with this family So if I
have someone who doesn't like touse a computer or a laptop in
the conference, I say, don't dothat.
(11:51):
Write it down by hand and thenwe take a picture of it and use
OCR to get the data into our
Brooke (11:56):
Mm-hmm.
walker (11:57):
Let's say, which is really helpful because as long
as your handwriting's somewhatlegible, they can take a picture
and can populate the fields andcan be in good shape.
And so these tools have helpedus streamline that and make the
process efficient for thefamily.
Brooke (12:09):
that's nice.
Have you played around withvoice notes or audio notes or
even just recording andtranscribing when it comes to
taking down this data?
I.
walker (12:20):
We have, it's funny.
Our, the next update we get fromour management software, we'll
have the note feature on therein beta trying it.
So it'd be really helpful for usto be able to dictate or to just
have it, listen to theconversation and
Brooke (12:32):
Mm-hmm.
walker (12:33):
Things.
You're talking my dream here.
This is the less typing I haveto do the better it will be.
And the technology's thereclearly.
You know, since our professionis pretty old, it took us a
while to get vendors whounderstood the flow and our
workflow to create in thatspace.
But now there's so manytechnology vendors and the
technology business aroundfuneral care is huge.
(12:54):
You're seeing a lot of privateequity get into that and buy and
sell companies, but I think thatthe more players there are in
the space, the better it is forus because they tend to be a
little more forward in theirdevelopment
Brooke (13:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
This is one of my favoritequestions to ask is if you were
able to wave a magic wand so youknow your personal pain points
more than anyone, and yourrepetitive process and work.
So if you were to create asoftware or a solution,
something using the help of aiwhat would you create that would
(13:27):
be a big benefit to your role?
walker (13:31):
So this is a back of the house solution, but it's very
simple.
I would create an interfacewhere our management software so
that we input data into thesystem can then speak to all the
states for their deathcertificate
Brooke (13:43):
Mm.
walker (13:44):
This process is so antiquated and so difficult
that, we're having to enter datatwo and three times.
Brooke (13:49):
Wow.
walker (13:50):
if you don't use any kind of technology, you're
sitting there taking the data inone software, then you're
transcribing it to the statesoftware for the death
certificate creation, and thento whatever else you're doing.
So I would take a magic wand andhave every state communicate
with our software to be able to.
Automatically seamlessly, getthe death certificate filed and
certified.
(14:11):
It's a big deal for the familieswe serve.
That's a very
Brooke (14:14):
Mm-hmm.
walker (14:14):
Because they really can't do any business until they
have a certified deathcertificate.
And so that's a big timeconsumer for us.
The other thing would beinteresting, and this is maybe
controversial, there arecompanies now, Funeral One's a
great example of this funeral.
One's my personal tech supplierin our space.
And I've been for 20 yearshelping, giving'em ideas and
helping'em work on things that,could help us provide more
(14:36):
value.
They're actually working on thetechnology to have holograms
present during
Brooke (14:40):
Wow.
walker (14:41):
Which is pretty interesting.
So you could actually have yourgrandfather give his own eulogy
in his words.
Maybe some families wouldn'tlike that.
Maybe some would, but when youtalk about, what's being
developed, there's some veryforward thinking pieces to help
bring more personalization andmore meaning to funeral
services.
Brooke (14:57):
I think this is so interesting, and I had a recent
conversation with someone thatworks in the brand avatar space,
and she's spoken about.
These digital legacy tools thatare coming out.
And the only thing between asci-fi futuristic movie and
(15:18):
things coming to fruition isjust time.
And I can't recall the movie andmaybe I'll look it up and link
it in the show notes where, youknow, people who are grieving
their past loved ones, they'reable to upload everything about
them and still speak to them andgrieve them when they've past.
And so what you're sharing aboutthe hologram just sounds so
(15:42):
interesting to me of where we'reheaded now that we have this
technology and this ability tonot only be emotionally
supported, whether that'sthrough an online therapy app
whether that's a real person orartificial intelligence behind
it.
But these really interestingtechnological creative advances
(16:04):
when it comes to grieving.
I'm curious to hear what yourthoughts on that in this future
that we move into and all ofthese new technologies that are
gonna be coming out specificallyin your industry.
walker (16:20):
So I'll tell you, 15 years ago, we created the first
virtual aftercare solution forfamilies.
It's called E Aftercare, andmyself and Funeral One built
this.
It's a place on our websitewhere you can go and we
actually, so long ago we had areal grief therapist, Dr.
Virginia Simpson.
We met her in Palm Springs.
We filmed for three days.
(16:40):
15 to 20 minute segments ondifferent types of grief.
And then she'd ask you, youknow, tell me what kind of death
have you experienced?
What kind of loss have youexperienced?
And he would select like, deathof a parent, child, whatever.
And then she could walk back upon the screen.
And it's still on our websitetoday.
You can see it, but, and shewould talk to you for 15 minutes
or 20 minutes in your own home,just telling common things that,
(17:01):
feelings you may have anddifferent stories about how to
deal with that.
It's really helpful, I think,especially around grief.
tools any, this can be veryimportant 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 groupsevery day at our place, and
they're busy, but there's somepeople who just go, I don't feel
comfortable doing
Brooke (17:21):
Mm.
walker (17:21):
And to be able to interact.
And if you're using a digitaltool, you have to realize like,
this is not the same asin-person therapy.
You're not really speaking backto it at this point.
I'm sure we could do that soonwith ai, you have to understand
what you're getting, but justgetting information and
knowledge.
In the privacy ruin home at twoo'clock in the morning when
maybe you wake up and can'tsleep is, there's a lot of
(17:42):
benefit to that.
And so we pioneered that fit along time ago and are in the
middle of revamping that now.
Based on new technology
Brooke (17:52):
Yeah, that's such an important point, is being able
to have access and support nomatter what time or
circumstances you're in.
And being able to receive thosecomforting videos that you
worked with.
Her on.
I can imagine that's such agreat advantage for someone when
they're selecting who they'regonna work with during such a
(18:14):
sensitive time of their life.
And I can imagine that you'regonna be adopting AI on an even
deeper level because to yourpoint, there's so much that goes
into the planning of a funeraljust as much as a wedding.
And, all the little steps andthings you have to remember.
I just can imagine yourconversation with me a year from
(18:38):
now and how much you're gonna beadapting AI on a deeper level.
I'm excited just to see what'snext for you.
I'd love to just open the floorwhat's one key takeaway you
wanna have listeners who are inthe AI space?
walker (18:54):
I think for me it's important to know that
everything we do has to bedesigned with a family first and
with the view of.
we're doing has to bring healingand make the process better for
those who are dealing withgrief.
That's the whole point.
It's nice to make our jobseasier, to make it more
seamless, but the real point isthe things we're developing have
(19:14):
true value to the consumer who'sthe family who's had a death.
And I'm excited about the thingsthat are to come because.
I can really see how in the nextcouple of years, or hopefully
before we'll have even bettertools.
And little things even currentlynow selecting merchandise for a
funeral is overwhelming.
There's hundreds of casketoptions and hundreds of urns.
(19:36):
So as AI can know who thisfamily is and can look at what
their buying habits are and cansee what their likes and their
colors they like, we scale thosechoices down and make it more
simple and making it seamlessand making it, them more free
time to spend with
Brooke (19:51):
Hmm.
walker (19:52):
They shouldn't be spending all this time just in
planning an event.
They need to be really.
the, The support of theircommunity.
And that's the point of what wedo as funeral directors.
And that's the point oftechnology and funeral service.
Brooke (20:03):
Thank you for that.
Such key points.
I love just amplifying casestudies and expanding
individuals.
I imagine your work is quiteregional.
But if you wanna share howlisteners can reach out to you,
where you offer your services,what's the best way to contact?
walker (20:24):
Well, two things.
I am a funeral director in South
Brooke (20:27):
Mm-hmm.
walker (20:27):
And
Brooke (20:27):
Mm-hmm.
walker (20:27):
But my today in the capacity of a spokesperson for
the National Funeral Directors
Brooke (20:32):
Oh.
walker (20:32):
So, NFDA is the national funeral Directors Association.
You go to nfda.org, you can finda funeral home in your local
area, and you could determinewho 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 orjust give folks advice on how
they can, select the properfuneral home for them and how
(20:52):
they can be prepared.
When the time comes to to sit inthat seat, to deal with it in
the proper way.
Brooke (20:58):
Thank you Walker so much for sharing insight into, a
space a lot of us will come upagainst at one point in time
throughout our lives.
It was very interesting to hearhow you're utilizing AI in such
a unique way and I appreciateyour time and I can't wait to
share this episode withlisteners.
walker (21:19):
Absolutely.
And I think the, my finaltakeaway would just be, hope the
public knows that, theirstereotypical idea of what a
funeral director is, haschanged.
And there are many qualifiedprofessionals who really want to
provide the highest level ofcare and provide the best
experience they
Brooke (21:34):
Yes.
walker (21:35):
they're in good hands.
Brooke (21:36):
Thank you so much Walker.
walker (21:37):
Thank you.
Brooke (21:40):
My next guest features a grounded and refreshing
perspective from the heart ofSilicon Valley.
I'm joined by Danielle Yoo, aformer senior advisor at TD
Ameritrade, who managed over 800million in client assets before
making a bold leap into the techworld.
He's now the founder of FinMateAI building custom AI agents for
(22:02):
advisors and financial firms.
But what sets Daniel apart ishis human first approach to
tech.
This one's packed with sharpinsights, real world use cases,
and a grounded to take forwhat's next in ai financial
services and beyond.
Enjoy.
Daniel, thank you and welcome.
Daniel Yoo (22:21):
Yeah.
Thanks for having me, Brooke.
Brooke (22:23):
I would love to introduce yourself.
Daniel Yoo (22:26):
So my name is Daniel.
I used to work for TD Ameritradeas a senior advisor for them.
Managed about 800 million ofclient assets and did that until
the Schwab takeover ended uphappening.
I had been doing a master'sprogram at Johns Hopkins using
AI to do stock price prediction,modeling.
Thesis advisor happened to be aguy who worked for our
regulatory agency.
(22:49):
and let me know about themaintaining qualifications
program that would let mepartially leave the industry
while keeping my licensesactive.
And so ended up going into tech.
My financial advisory practicewas mostly in the Silicon Valley
area and had always beeninterfacing with folks in tech
and so was curious about thatworld and ended up jumping in
then, and started a Finmate soonafter basically to fill some
(23:11):
needs.
I thought that the financialadvisory industry.
Had,
Brooke (23:15):
Okay, cool.
So tell me more about that firstinitial step into the tech
space, because a lot of peopleare experiencing this moment in
time where they're pivoting andthey're pivoting more into
technology and integrating AIsystems.
So bring me back to that firstmoment where you were a big time
(23:37):
financial advisor and youdecided to make that pivot.
Daniel Yoo (23:41):
Yeah, it's a.
Great question.
I mean, you know, Post Schwabmerger, I had a decision to
make, right?
Whether I wanted to stay in theindustry or go try something
else out.
I've only ever been an advisorbefore that, and so I figured,
hey, now's a pretty good time tosee.
What else is out there?
Again, most of my clients wereeither in the tech world or tech
(24:02):
adjacent, and the question wasalways I wonder what it's like
to sit on that side of the tableinstead.
And given my kind of technicaltraining and background I ended
up joining another startup justto learn the ropes on how to be
part of a startup.
Did that for about a year andthen moved on to start on my own
after that.
And yeah, really had about ayear of training under another
startup.
Brooke (24:20):
That's awesome.
I'm a firm believer in yourenvironment and your network,
right?
And a lot of individuals whenthey're first starting their
career or wanting to shiftindustries or make a pivot.
It's super important to beputting yourself in the right
environment, and it sounds likeyou were in the right ecosystem
(24:41):
to really just start soak in somy next question for you is
before developing your ownsoftware solutions such as
FinMate AI, what were youplaying around with?
What is your technology stackoutside of the software that you
created?
I'd love to just get a behindthe scenes look into what it is
(25:04):
that you use day to day becausewe're also individual.
Daniel Yoo (25:08):
Got it.
Well, really, the usage of AIcame more with, us developing
out Fin Ate the notetaking partof it.
back when I was at that previousstartup and I would be talking
to a number of vendors, I didnotice that they were using an
AI notetaker even back then,right?
In 20 22, 20 one timeframe.
So when I left to start FinMadeoriginally, we were actually
(25:29):
doing a different app DivIncome, where basically we
wanted to help the retailinvestor.
Invest in income generatingstocks, right?
Because if you remember backthen.
The interest rate was near zero,right?
And so bonds were not payingmuch out.
There was plenty of tools outthere for the growth oriented
advisor in the robo space, but Ifelt like there was nothing
(25:52):
really for the income advisor.
And so that's what we weregearing up to build.
And then as we were trying toexpand that out, the interest
rate environment completelychanged rates skyrocketed.
And know, dividend producingstock as an income plan no
longer made sense.
And so when we were looking topivot and, I was remembering
back to those ai AI note takersat that previous firm, I wanted
(26:16):
to take a look to see if I canmake that more applicable to my
previous industry as an advisor.
And I quickly realized that alot of the generic note takers
were not specific enough toaccess that seamless transition
from advisor client meeting to,compliance notes.
And so this was back in the dayof ChatGPT.
(26:38):
And I don't know if you rememberlike DaVinci back in those days.
And so that's where it gotstarted and that's when we
started jumping into AI.
And yeah, it's been very crazyrapid ride since then.
Brooke (26:50):
Thank you for sharing.
I'd love to just go back to whatwas it like adopting and
restructuring your workflow?
Was there any resistance whenyou first started integrating
ai?
Daniel Yoo (27:04):
Yes, obviously financial advisory is a very
traditional kind of environment.
and so when we first launchedFinMate, we were the first AI
note taker for the advisormarketplace.
And just custom built for onlythat market.
And so initially there was a lotof pushback, right?
It's new, it's unregulated.
(27:24):
People don't know and so when wedesigned it out, we designed it
to be as data minimalist aspossible.
So we don't read people's,client CRM data.
We auto delete everything fromour system.
We don't let anyone keepanything long term on our side
because we don't want to beconsidered books and records,
and follow under thoseregulations.
And so we did our best to try toalleviate a lot of the
(27:46):
technology security concerns.
But I guess what I didn'trealize was how quickly the
industry would change, right?
I think when people are seeingmoney they.
End up putting aside theirsecurity concerns.
it's been very interesting shiftto watch in the industry as
there's been a wide spectrum ofresponses where some firms are
still very careful with adoptingAI tech.
(28:10):
And I think some firms have gonetoo quick in letting AI into all
of their systems.
So yeah, there's been a
Brooke (28:16):
Mm.
You bring up such a valid point.
About.
The industries that are slow toadapt are the ones that are most
reliant on those relationshipbased clients.
Maybe we could chat a little bitmore about that.
How are you overcoming that?
How are people trusting theirmoney and their investments in
(28:42):
robots and technology and bots.
Daniel Yoo (28:44):
Yeah, so people think of AI and financial
advisory investment, I thinkautomatically people's minds go
to, oh, the AI is investing forus.
that hasn't really been thecase.
There's a couple of companiesout there that are trying, but
that really hasn't been themajority use case.
The majority use case for AI ina slower, methodical industry is
(29:07):
more in operationalefficiencies, So paperwork
filing, data transference, thatkind of thing.
For investments, the closestthing I've seen so far being
used more widely is using AI todo sentiment analysis, market
research, right?
Uh, You know, we live in anenvironment where there's just a
deluge of data and informationalways being created day by day.
(29:29):
And so a human analyst justdoesn't have the time to.
Get the lay of the land daily,right?
So what I've seen people come upwith is a, AI that reads through
the market news and then givesrelevant updates to the analysts
so that the analyst can then goback in and double check.
but I'm not on that side of theai.
(29:50):
I'm firmly on the side ofoperational efficiencies right
now.
Brooke (29:53):
Yes, operational efficiency is the way to really
adapt ai and I'm seeing, and ofcourse you can speak more in
this as well, is a lot of peoplefinally getting into AI agents,
and I know you've started tocreate or have already built a
(30:13):
lot of custom AI agents foradvisors.
Can you share a little bit moreabout that?
Daniel Yoo (30:21):
I think this is a problem that everyone in the AI
space is going through rightnow.
I guess a bit of background onthe market conditions leading up
to where we're in this currentmoment.
If you remember back to CoronaTimes.
Even before then there's been alot of funding sitting on the
sidelines because venturecapital and private equity just
really didn't know where to putmoney into, right?
(30:43):
There's nothing hot on thehorizon that they really were
trying.
I think crypto had its momentfor a little bit, and then that
kind of, most of it ended up notworking out long term, and
there's been a lot of dry powderwaiting to be deployed post
Corona.
Again, that pressure keptmounting where no one really
knew where to put money into.
(31:03):
During Corona, you know,e-commerce and retail e-retail
really had its heyday becauseeveryone's in their homes and
basically just shocked withstimulus checks.
But again, post.
Everyone coming back into thereal world.
There's been a lot of cutbacks,right?
You've seen a lot of techcompanies that have hired, a lot
of people end up laying offthose very same people two years
(31:24):
later.
And so this stage is set, right?
This, there's this new risingtechnology that everyone is
excited about and it has like alot of industry implications.
Ai, you have a bunch of peoplewho are engineers entering,
being unemployed because of allthe layoffs, and so you have a
large lot of talent and you haveall this money sitting on the
sideline waiting to getdeployed, and so all of a sudden
(31:46):
you have this very hot marketwhere you have workers, you have
funding, you have anopportunity.
So everyone is jumping into thisAI gain, which is great for the
consumer.
Terrible for businesses at theend of the day because if
there's a hyper competition,there's less and less profit to
be had.
But unfortunately, because ofall the venture capital and
private equity dollars flowingin there's a lot of companies
(32:07):
out there with a lot of moneyand questionable futures, right?
And a lot of the valuations,talking to some of the more
established, companies, ahundred years old kind of giants
in the financial space.
I've talked to a lot of theirventure arm folks, and they're
all not excited about theincredible valuations.
That's really the private equityand venture capital markets that
(32:29):
are jumping into it.
Not really the establishedplayers, right?
Why is that?
Well, the reason is there's nomoat, right?
AI has developed so quickly.
There's no way to copyright orpatent anything really in this
space at the moment, right?
And so you have all this talent,you have all this money.
(32:49):
rushing to make product.
And so now there's thousands ofthese products with no moat.
And so everyone's copyingeveryone.
and that's the currentenvironment we're in.
And so the question oneveryone's minds is how do we
protect kind of our IP or ourvalue proposition to clients
when AI is moving so quicklythat everything is getting
obsolete and everything isgetting copied by people with
(33:11):
more money.
And back to your question about,personalization that human
element.
The solution that I came to iswe need to build personalized AI
agents for firms, especially inthe slower moving industries.
(33:32):
'cause ultimately I've seencompanies make these great
platforms where you can buildyour own agentic ai.
most people in these.
historic industries don't havethe technological know-how even
set it up properly.
And so I think there's value increating these custom AI agents
for folks in this industry.
Because the biggest questionthat I'm getting right now from
(33:54):
clients is, Hey, Daniel, I knowyou know the industry.
you know Ai.
There's a thousand of these AItools out there.
Now tell me what I should want.
So that's what we're trying toanswer.
Brooke (34:07):
I think that's important when it comes to packaging and
messaging and communication ofwhat it is that your value prop
is, and especially.
in the crowded market, which yousaid something that really stuck
with me on our intro call, yousaid A blue ocean becomes a red
ocean very quickly and it'sgoing to be really hard to
(34:30):
differentiate or understand whatit is that you need to be
adapting and adding into yoursystems and your operations,
your infrastructure.
So my next question for you isto go a little bit more into
what differentiates yourbusiness and how do you stand
(34:51):
out in a copycattingenvironment?
Daniel Yoo (34:54):
Yeah.
Great.
Great question.
I think this is the question oneveryone's mind in light of.
No moat, not every blue oceanbecomes red ocean immediately,
but when there is no moat itgoes red ocean very quickly.
Right?
And I think the keydifferentiator is if you are
just a simple technologyplatform product, you're going
to have a hard time becauseyou're going to have competitors
(35:14):
that are slightly vigor,slightly smaller, right?
All across the board attackingyour business.
So the only way to do it, Ithink is on the service end.
things, right?
Again, building the relationshipwith your clients, understanding
how they operate, not just on anindustry level, but on their
firm level because everyone hasa different tech stack at the
end of the day.
(35:35):
Everyone has different standardoperating procedures.
So if you can build an AI agentthat works with that company
internally, that's a hell of alot more useful than a broad
platform that doesn't reallywork.
And so that's ourdifferentiation is we.
Take care of each client andbuild out a custom solution for
them.
Understanding that they are notthe most technical people, and
(35:58):
so this needs to be as easy aspossible to use.
Giving them a giganticconfiguration page where they're
going to need, to get a collegedegree in your software isn't
really helping anyone.
And so I think ourdifferentiator is because we
haven't fundraised and we'rebootstrapped, we're able to take
it a little slow.
We're able to not need to goshoot for the moon and have
these incredible, insanevaluations.
(36:20):
But really just take care ofindividual firms that come along
our way.
Brooke (36:24):
That's great.
I'd also love to touch on trendsand where you see the industry.
'cause it sounds like you'revery effectively positioning
yourself now.
How long does that remaineffective and where do you see
the next six?
Yeah.
Right.
It's like something you have tothink about
Daniel Yoo (36:42):
absolutely.
Brooke (36:43):
does the next, what does the next six months to a year
look like in remainingcompetitive in this environment?
Daniel Yoo (36:49):
I think that's a very good question.
I think you're going to see alot more AI consultants come
into play.
I would broadly put futureupcoming AI consultants in three
categories.
Maybe four.
So first is people that know AIbut don't know the industry, And
so their trouble is going to bereally in understanding whoever
(37:11):
clients whatever clients thatthey're servicing they know the
ai, but do they know theindustry will want to custom
create things that work well forthem?
Or are they going to try to fittheir clients into their kind of
box?
Right.
End of the spectrum is peoplewho understand the industry but
don't understand the ai, right?
So they're going to be stuckjust recommending a set of tools
(37:32):
and products that won'tnecessarily fit together because
they're disparate products andthey'll push themselves as AI
experts in AI technologies andsay, here's the 3, 4, 5 tools
you should have.
they won't be able tonecessarily chain those together
in a meaningful fashion.
the fourth I'll touch on brieflyis people with neither AI
expertise nor.
Industry expertise, but knowthat this is a trend.
(37:54):
And so they'll try to marketthemselves as AI experts.
I don't know how well they'lldo, but I'm sure there'll be
some out there that make goodmoney, because that's the trend,
right?
what we're trying to positionourself is that third category
of where we have the industryexpertise and we have the AI
expertise.
We built FinMate note taking andnow we're building, this agentic
tool.
And so the.
(38:15):
Thing that will keep us inbusiness is the fact that we
understand both the fact thatthis is not really a hyper
scalable business, right?
So if you look back, software asa service SaaS has been the main
driver for a lot of technologycompanies,
Brooke (38:30):
Mm-hmm.
Daniel Yoo (38:31):
Are platform based and those can get copied easily,
right?
And so because that, that AISaaS is such a red ocean this
consultative way of doingbusiness is a lot slower.
It's a lot less scalable.
And so there can be a many moreplayers in the marketplace
because when we're developing asolution for one client, not
able to develop a solution foranother client.
(38:52):
And so I think we're going to bemoving into an environment where
this high level of service therewill be a lot more players in
this space to be able to providethis high level of service.
Brooke (39:03):
You bring up a valid point about how we're gonna need
to have very strong discernmentwhen it comes to putting our
dollars behind investors andfounders and adapting and using
specific softwares ortechnologies or agents and
really doing the research behindwho they are, why they're doing
(39:24):
what they're doing.
You know, I would much ratherwork and use a tool like FinMate
AI with my financial investmentsor.
Advisory from someone like youwho's worked in the industry and
knows the ins and outs, versussomeone who vibe code with no
(39:45):
financial background or havenever been in the industry and
maybe he or she made a productthat is, more affordable or
easily integrated.
Really using that discernment tolook into what it is that you're
gonna spend time and invest in,whether that be your money or
your energy.
Or your portfolio.
(40:05):
So really important point there.
You talked about your nextprojects and the evolution of
where you're headed to next.
One of my favorite questions toask guests is if you could wave
a magic wand and createsomething with AI that doesn't
exist yet, and this can even behow you're thinking of already
(40:27):
expanding in the market andvertical you're in, or it can be
a completely exciting passionproject.
I would love to know where yourcreative brain goes when it
comes to the endlesspossibilities of ai.
Daniel Yoo (40:41):
man.
Yeah let me talk to thepractical, grounded reality
level for now.
basically the problem that anysoftware stack has is in the
integration up and down, right?
And as anyone who's boughtsoftware will tell you never
really works the way that it'ssold, right?
It never really talks to eachother the way it should.
And so I think in an idealstate, an AI that can actually
(41:04):
connect all those disparatesystems together in one seamless
I think that would be probablythe ultimate in any kind of
technology, right?
The AI doesn't necessarily needto do everything itself, but as
long as it can Intelligibly talkor have different softwares talk
to each other, I think thatwould be the ideal.
It probably won't happenbecause.
Many of these big softwarecompanies are gatekeeping access
(41:27):
to their systems and, paying forAPI, things like that.
And so it won't really happen ona business realistic level, but
I think, and just in a verygrounded dullish, not really
sexy, but operationallyefficient perspective, having
that would be amazing.
Brooke (41:43):
I try to think of one thing to share.
I like the idea of something.
What is it called?
It's not called starlink, thechip, where people are putting
it in their brains
Daniel Yoo (41:54):
Yeah.
Brooke (41:55):
Neuralink Okay?
So first of all, I would neverdo that, ever but second of all,
I am getting so tired of holdingmy phone and speaking to my LLMs
all day.
It's a bit of a stream ofconsciousness at this point.
But how can I more easilyintegrate these tools and
(42:17):
technology beyond attaching itto my body because I don't think
I would do that.
Daniel Yoo (42:22):
Well, Neuralink is a step really far.
I think the next.
Natural step is on wearables,right?
So there's been
Brooke (42:29):
Yeah.
Daniel Yoo (42:30):
out there that tried to do like a lapel pin where you
just attach something to yourchest.
Doesn't really work out becauseif you're wearing casual
clothing, there's really nowhereto put it.
I think maybe the next stepwould be in a wrist wearable,
right?
So a smartphone, right?
So you're not holding a wholephone or smart smart watch, so
you can just talk into it.
I know Meta is doing some stuffwith glasses.
(42:50):
AR glasses, right?
Augmented reality glasses.
Issue with that is as someonewho wears glasses, I can't
really use that.
And it's very bulky and heavystill, right?
And so
Brooke (42:59):
Ah.
Daniel Yoo (43:00):
I would say the most probabilistic thing will be like
a wrist wearable, or whetherit's integrated into your
smartwatch, or it's like aseparate band that you can talk
into and that Your phone as themain processing center.
That might be the way to go.
I have seen some stuff out therewhere it's not.
Chip in brain, but it's chip inwrist.
I don't know if you've seen thatout of Asia where you can
Brooke (43:21):
No.
Daniel Yoo (43:21):
checkouts and things like that with your, either your
palm or your wrist and there'slike a little thing that they
embed.
Again, I'm as it might be tohear, I'm a bit of a ludite
myself.
I adopt technology relativelyslowly in my personal life.
Brooke (43:35):
Okay.
Daniel Yoo (43:36):
I think that comes from the fact that if you watch
carefully, these tech giants.
And see what they do withtechnology.
They don't let their kids useit.
So I am very cautious andcareful of anything.
I think back in college I usedto make fun of people, who put
tape over the webcams
Brooke (43:57):
Mm-hmm.
Daniel Yoo (43:57):
Zuckerberg taped his webcam.
And I was like, oh, so this isnot some conspiracy theory, this
is an actual.
Thing.
And so I started, buying webcamcovers after that.
And so very much so I would justsay like, watch what the big
players are doing and, you dowhat they do, not what they say
or market.
Brooke (44:18):
Yes.
I also cover my cameras I coverit on my phone along with my
computer.
And I have looked intowearables, but I am pretty
conscious about EMFs.
So I haven't gotten the AppleWatch and, you know, I'm pretty
mindful with EMF in my home.
(44:39):
But.
Daniel Yoo (44:39):
Yeah.
Brooke (44:40):
something comes soon.
I've seen what you've talkedabout, the pins, the lapels.
But I thought that was a littleunethical.
If someone doesn't know thatyou, they're speaking to you and
you're recording without theirconsent, like that was a little
gray and murky.
Daniel Yoo (44:54):
Yeah.
Brooke (44:55):
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 arefinding themself in that amazing
opportunity, becoming a firsttime founder.
Daniel Yoo (45:14):
Sure.
Brooke (45:15):
I.
Daniel Yoo (45:16):
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 noventure capital, no private
equity funding, right?
And so I'm not really like atraditional startup guy.
I've been a financial advisorfor most of my career industry.
You build your book of businessvery slowly through over time
building relationships.
(45:36):
Not really sure if I'm the bestperson to ask, frankly for that.
But if I were to give my 2 centsof the subject, I think, going
for broke, hyper scalability.
That's amazing.
That's awesome.
but I think it's incumbent oneach founder to determine if
that's the life they wanna lead.
Is that the kind of business youwant to run?
Where you jack up the price, gofor a quick exit, right?
(45:58):
Is that the kind of person youwant to be?
Great.
But I think there's space in theindustry now for people like me
who like things a little bitslower, likes to move things a
little slowly.
And so if you are in thatcategory in camp I would still
say, give it a shot.
I think, again, there's space inthe industry for people that
aren't trying to hyperscale, butjust scale.
Well, like in the olden times.
(46:19):
Yeah.
Brooke (46:20):
Yeah, bringing that happy medium.
Not everything is meant to, moveat lightning speed or have an
immediate exit with the firstyear, or have, goals that don't
feel aligned with you.
So.
Such a key point there.
So maybe I'll pull it back ifyou wanna share your closing
remarks.
And it doesn't have to be forthe tech startup field.
(46:43):
It could be people in thefinancial space, people just
entering AI for the first time.
Daniel Yoo (46:49):
I think this is a lesson I've learned in the
investment space and I thinkthat has carried out well
throughout, thinking througheverything.
A very good cell signal is wheneveryone is talking about
something that you would notexpect them to be talking about
it.
I think, that's when you know,you hit peak hype.
And I mean it was the same thingfor kind of the meme stocks,
(47:12):
right?
GameStop, It was the same thingfor crypto.
When your aunt who never knowsanything about technology,
suddenly talking about Bitcoinmight be a sell signal and I
think same thing for ai, right?
Just be cognizant of who'stalking about what and see what
is just all hype and see whatactually has real value inside
(47:32):
of it.
And I think that'll help,buyers, users, sellers, creators
steer away from meaningless hypeand steer into something that
can create some lasting value.
Brooke (47:41):
Beautiful.
Thank you for sharing that.
And last but not least, I'd loveto hear if listeners wanna reach
out to you, what's the best wayto connect with you?
I.
Daniel Yoo (47:53):
Yeah.
You can reach me atdaniel@finmate.ai.
That's D-A-N-I-E-L atF-I-N-M-A-T-E.ai Always happy to
chat.
There's a.
Booking thing on our website aswell, if you wanna book some
time with our team.
but yeah, always happy to sharewith folks even people not in
the industry.
Brooke (48:13):
Well, thank you so much for your time today.
I really enjoy just getting alittle bit more of an insider
look of how things are going inSilicon Valley with wearables
and tech and have realconversation about what it means
to have discernment and embracethis technology with balance and
level mindedness.
(48:34):
So thank you.
I appreciate you, Daniel.
Daniel Yoo (48:37):
appreciate you having me on today.
Brooke (48:40):
That wraps up this special power series episode of
How I ai, huge thank you totoday'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 mystory too.
(49:00):
That energy is exactly whatmakes this community so
meaningful.
If you wanna be featured in thenext Power Series and share how
you're integrating AI into yourwork or your personal life,
shoot me a message.
Email me directly.
I'd love to hear from you.
Let's keep amplifying realvoices and real use cases.
(49:21):
We're all shaping the spacetogether, and until next time,
stay curious, stay human, andkeep exploring what's possible
with ai.
This episode was made possiblein partnership with the
Collective AI, a communitydesigned to help entrepreneurs,
creators, and professionalsseamlessly integrate AI into
their workflows.
(49:42):
One of the biggest game changersin my own AI journey was joining
this space.
It's where I learned, connectedand truly enhanced my
understanding of what's possiblewith ai.
And the best part, they offermultiple membership levels to
meet you where you are.
Whether you want to DIY, your AIlearning or work with a
personalized AI consultant foryour business, The Collective
(50:05):
has you covered.
Learn more and sign up using myexclusive link in the show
notes.
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