New York-based AI startup Mosaic is creating a new kind of Wall Street, one with human hours where all-nighters no longer need to exist.
Mosaic has created software that does the grunt work of building financial models. This is a painstaking task involving complex calculations that has been carried out by young bankers for many years. Now, all you have to do is enter your key numbers and the software will do the heavy lifting for you, making financial projections and predicting your company's future.
“The only way to really reduce the physical work is to leverage technology,” Mosaic founder and CEO Ian Gutwinski told NYNext. “Our technology reduces tasks that would take more than 14 hours to 15 minutes.”
But Gutwinksi, 35, is quick to reject the idea that this would pave the way for the elimination of human jobs. He believes the software increases employee productivity and satisfaction and increases the overall volume of transactions bankers can complete.
“What we're doing is automating the low-value-add parts. Some of the time we're spending on this work doesn't fit into the actual high-spirited elements of the job.” he said. “It's about formatting different PowerPoint presentations. It's not high value.”
And Gutwinksi is keen to highlight anecdotes about how the tool is already changing lives in the financial industry.
“I received an email from someone who said he had built one of our models from the delivery room where his wife was giving birth,” he said.
Gutwinski received another email from someone. “If we didn't have access to Mosaic, we wouldn't have made it through Thanksgiving weekend…The contract came in the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but without Mosaic it would have taken us the whole weekend.”
“People work non-stop in this industry, and anything you can do to shave a few seconds off your day is very, very helpful,” he added.
And it comes as Wall Street grapples with its brutal work culture. Last year, the tragic death of former Green Beret and Bank of America analyst Leo Lukenas, who died from a blood clot while working 110 hours a week, prompted many bankers to draw parallels to their own experiences. It became a flashpoint.
The newspaper previously reported that senior executives at major companies don't respect young employees' time, which can lead to them working 100-hour weeks and getting just a few hours of sleep each night.
“This is an apprentice business. And there's this [management-level] Growing up in the hierarchy, I felt like I had to do this unilaterally — so the juniors had to do it, too,” Gutwinski said of Wall Street culture. spoke.
Of course, Wall Street has seen many technological advances over the years, but its culture has changed little to nothing.
Gutwinski himself is a Wall Street veteran who started his career in Canada, where he spent a grueling time as a junior analyst. He moved to New York in 2014, took a leave of absence to attend Harvard Business School, taught himself to code, and created an early version of Mosaic for a class project.
After graduating in 2021, Gutwinski's boss at his former employer, Onex, encouraged him to continue building Mosaic rather than return to private equity, and he purchased the software for use at Onex.
Gutwinksi returned to Manhattan to continue building the company, primarily because of the accessibility it offered. “We are a 10-minute walk from 10 of our largest customers,” he said. “I don't think this business exists anywhere else in the world.”
While the technology was created to help those in the private equity space (Gutwinski's own background is in PE), bulge bracket investment banks have also been exploring ways to implement the technology. Gutwinski said to expect announcements from major companies in the coming months.
Private equity funds Warburg, CVC, New Mountain and Bridgepoint are all clients.
He notes that many programmers are attracted to building consumer apps or taking easy jobs at big tech companies rather than working on niche technologies used by a small number of junior employees. acknowledged.
But interest is already growing as 2025 begins and Wall Street prepares for a booming new year with big business, he said. We expect the volume to increase.” He explained.
Gutwinski isn't naive enough to think Wall Street will gradually change, but he's optimistic that his firm can help it evolve.
“Like any technology, there is an adoption curve…” he said. “But ultimately, this is how people will do things in the future.”
This article is part of a new editorial series called NYNext, which focuses on innovation across various industries in New York City and the people leading the way.
