What is Pivotal?
Pivotal is a newsletter of long-form essays about finance, AI, startups, and data, written by Abraham Thomas.
Here’s what readers have to say about it:
“There is no more thoughtful writer on financial topics today.” — global head of data, 10b AUM hedge fund
“Abraham Thomas is on a hot streak with his writing. Not sure anyone else is putting out clearer thinking. This is a MUST read.” — senior partner, 3b AUM growth equity firm
“Bravo. Likely the most lucid and accurate rendition of the space. Absolutely loved it. A little jealous that I didn’t write it.” — CEO, tech startup (near-unicorn)
“When Abraham Thomas writes, it’s worth stopping to read and be rewarded for the time spent.” — head of data and analytics, 100b asset manager
“Brilliant and enlightening.” — partner, top silicon valley seed firm
“I doubt if even the people doing this have this kind of clarity about their own industry.” — CEO, tech startup (unicorn, exited)
“A masterpiece” — writer, finance + tech newsletter with 50k subscribers
“Everyone can throw [words] around, some people can explain, but only a rare few truly master [their subjects]. Abraham Thomas is one of those rare experts.” — CEO, tech startup (acquired for $700m)
Let Me Read It First!
Here are some essays that proved especially popular with readers:
The Venture Arc
The Startup Arc
The Data Arc
Why Pivotal Exists
Pivotal exists to help you (and me) understand the world a bit better. Today, that means understanding technology, finance, and data:
Technology: Writing, agriculture, government, cities, money, industry: these and other technologies have impacted humanity in profound (and still evolving) ways. We’re living through another technological revolution right now: AI. And we’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can achieve.
Finance: Markets are the most effective and resilient mechanism we have found to solve a genuinely hard problem: how should society allocate resources in the face of incomplete information and uncertain outcomes?
Data: As a species, we are defined by our ability to manipulate information: language, writing, software. It’s not a coincidence that the word we associate most strongly with human evolutionary advantage — intelligence — means both raw data, and the capacity to act on it.
Within these themes, Pivotal aims to be concrete, detailed, observational, practical, and above all helpful.
Who Writes Pivotal?
Pivotal is written by Abraham Thomas.
I’m the founder and CEO of Windkey.ai, a venture-funded tech startup building at the intersection of finance, data, and AI.
Previously, I was the co-founder and chief data officer of Quandl, another venture-funded tech startup that built a data marketplace and pioneered the category of alternative data in finance. Quandl was acquired by Nasdaq.
Before Quandl, I was a researcher, coder, trader and portfolio manager at Simplex, a quantitative hedge fund headquartered in Tokyo. At Simplex, I built one of the bond market’s earliest high-frequency trading systems, over two decades ago.
There are people who know finance; there are people who know startups; and there are people who know data. There are not many people who know all three at a deep professional level. I’m one of them.
What Pivotal Isn’t
Pivotal is not technical. I write about complex subjects — AI and data economics, tech startups, markets and finance, venture capital — but at a level that’s accessible to curious generalists.
Pivotal is not marketing. Yes, I’m a startup founder, and yes, Pivotal’s themes overlap with Windkey’s. But Pivotal is not marketing for Windkey, and never will be.
Pivotal is not topical. I don’t write hot takes on current events or developments.
Pivotal is not overwhelming. I aim to publish 2-6 posts a year, at an irregular cadence.
Pivotal is not paid. I write because I want to.
Pivotal is not AI slop. If I can’t be bothered to take time to write something, why should I expect you to take time to read it?
What are you waiting for? Subscribe!
