Filling a Financial Data Gap
Shaun Abraham left J.P. Morgan to co-found Transaction Insights, a market intelligence company addressing a critical need in the financial sector.
Before joining Wall Street, Shaun Abraham worked in a recording studio, dreaming of becoming a producer. Today, his path has led him to fill a pressing gap in market intelligence for financial companies.
As former head of market and competitive intelligence for J.P. Morgan’s Payments division, Abraham gathered critical data and insights that helped the firm’s product teams develop innovative new solutions for clients to use to process payments.
But Abraham noticed an opportunity. Out of the many data gathering and parsing tools he experimented with, none were specifically geared toward the financial sector and the unique problems it was trying solve. Since he couldn’t find a good solution in the marketplace to fine-tune data and insights, he decided to make one.
“At the time, I believed J.P. Morgan was still my home, but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try this out,” he says of his move five years ago.
Now, Abraham is the co-founder and CEO of Transaction Insights, a company that taps into machine learning to create a suite of services that curates market and competitive intelligence for major corporations, banks and financial technology companies across the globe. It provides businesses with data so they can keep tabs on industry developments and more agilely serve their customers, grow and scale. Clients receive insights in the depth, frequency, and format they prefer—including email digests or even a daily podcast.
“It’s about making sure you’re getting the signals through the noise,” he says. “Then, teams can spend their time looking at the implications of information on their strategies rather than worrying that they’re missing something.”
Support from colleagues
Critical for getting his business off the ground five years ago, says the Tampa, Florida-based Abraham, were relationships that he nurtured at J.P. Morgan.
Abraham co-founded the company with J.P. Morgan alumna Wendy Humphrey. The two first worked together at Bank of America around the start of the credit crisis. Joining them as a third co-founder was Abraham’s grad school friend, Christopher Scheidel, who drives the development of their technology platform. The trio first connected in-person at Abraham’s wedding in India, then came together to start Transaction Insights in 2019.
Abraham credits his years at J.P. Morgan with sharpening his problem-solving and leadership skills, which were critical to starting his own business. His J.P. Morgan experience serving clients with integrity and always focusing on the customer were invaluable, as well, he says.
Abraham still remembers the inspiring words of support and encouragement a mentor at the firm shared with him just before he left: “I wish you the right amount of grit to be able to have the perseverance to get through hard times.”
Now, Abraham and his co-founders are focused on continuing to fine-tune their services to meet their clients’ evolving needs. That means not pushing to scale, but instead focusing on a smaller group of clients globally and growing with them and their evolving, nuanced needs.
When he’s not working on his business, Abraham spends quality time with his wife and two daughters and pursues his hobbies: his lifelong love of music and working on cars.
The power of networking
Key to Abraham’s success throughout his career has been networking, he says, and not just with financial sector peers. Abraham regularly connects with and is inspired by contacts in a variety of fields and industries, both former colleagues and classmates.
“There’s a cross pollination of insights that comes out of networking,” Abraham says. “It’s something to do all the time, and the benefits are just unlimited.” To get good at networking requires practice, he adds. It’s like a muscle you have to keep exercising.
In thinking about networking interactions, Abraham lives by the credo “you have to give to get.” He does his homework before engaging with others, learning as much as he can about their interests and what they’re working on. It’s also important to share insight with the people you’re speaking with, he adds, even if you’re not always on the mark.
“And then when you leave those meetings, you’re saying, what else can I do, and how else can I help you? People appreciate the effort.”
Recently, Abraham connected with another competitive intelligence professional through a fellow J.P. Morgan alumnus. It’s an occurrence that happens often, and proof that support from the firm lives on long past the day you left, says Abraham.
“Having J.P. Morgan in your past allows you to open doors,” he says. “There is no better network of people than J.P. Morgan’s.”
Abraham looks forward to connecting with fellow alumni and fostering meaningful connections. He can be reached at shaun@transactioninsights.com