The CFA Women’s Network arranged a breakfast presentation on July 12, 2022, featuring Jenny Just, CFA, co-founder of financial services and technology firm PEAK6 Investments. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Just was not available the day of the event. Stepping in for Just remotely was her professional partner and husband, Matt Hulsizer, co-founder of PEAK6. Emily Hahn, an investment consultant at Aon, moderated the virtual discussion with Hulsizer.
Below are highlights of the discussion. We invite you to watch the entire conversation, which can be found on our YouTube Channel.
- Hulsizer and Just started their careers on the floor of options exchanges, where trade orders and processing were very manual. They saw the benefits of automating options trading.
- Even today, the most common thread in PEAK6’s investments and ventures are transforming older businesses. Hulsizer characterized PEAK6 as an engineering firm, rather than a sales-led firm.
- Hulsizer and Just invest in more than options and Crypto. They are involved in Dating, e-Sports, regular professional sports, Insure-Tech, Broadway Musicals and more.
- Poker! PEAK6 launched Poker Power, an educational platform created to teach one million women to play poker, and thereby develop skills in risk-taking, capital allocation, and identifying bluffing.
- Keep an eye out for a future poker event hosted by the Society and PEAK6
- Hear Hulsizer talk about a 2008 call with a “wacky Paypal kid” (his words, not this reporter’s!) trying to sell Hulsizer and Just equity in his electric vehicle company.
- Crypto/Blockchain/De-Fi. PEAK6 is directly involved in Crytpo through its APEX business, which helps customers hold it as an asset class.
- The utility of Crypto as a currency is relatively lower in the US, where there are lots of good payment systems, than in other parts of the world, where the need is great.
- Hulsizer is skeptical of De-Fi
- What does “romance” mean for Just in Hulsizer and Just’s relationship?