Geeks and Finance

It’s well known that many engineers typically don’t really grasp finance.

It’s well known that many engineers typically don’t really grasp finance.

I remember, a few years back, reading New New Thing, the fabulous book by Michael Lewis about the (extraordinarily successful) tech entrepreneur Jim Clark. The book adopts a ‘fly on the wall’ approach. In one passage, Lewis describes a meeting between Clark and a Financial Advisor. I’ll leave you to read it for yourself — and very funny it is — but it’s a neat exemplar of how bean counters and geeks often don’t speak the same language.

It’s not always the case though. And perhaps Clark, given his meteoric exits, didn’t really need much in the way of financial literacy. But it’s clearly the case that if an entrepreneur is raising some finance it’s useful to know some of the basics e.g. how to eat, and pay the mortgage, if cash burn goes off the rails.

I met with Neha Misra yesterday — having shared a panel discussion with her a week or so ago — to ask her about her initiative to bestow financial literacy on those that know that they need to know (about money and finance).

The FinLit Project team is based in India but, with the magic that is collaborative web technologies, customers can be just about anywhere. Neha has cut her teeth in the finance world in the USA. And India is also providing a ready-made prospect list given the dynamic tech world that’s getting funded and expanding to overseas markets.