James Beattie CEO of tFOSE with Matt Bird at Greenwich Economic Forum

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James Beattie, CEO of tFOSE Group on capital market, alternative and impact investing with Matt Bird at Greenwich Economic Forum (Greenwich, CT)

HIGHLIGHTS

  • tFOSE is using a technology to build a derivative exchange that delivers liquidity to the underserved
  • tFOSE in compromised of 3 operating companies designed to drive liquidity and address excess demand for investments
  • James has over 20 years experience in the risk capital industry

FULL COVERAGE

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: James Beattie, CEO of tFOSE Group with Matt Bird

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 00:00

Welcome back to the Traders Network Show broadcasting worldwide from Greenwich, Connecticut. I’m Matt Bird covering the 2019 Greenwich Economic Forum. And my next guest is James Beattie from tFOSE. James, welcome to show. So tFOSE.

James Beattie – CEO, tFOSE Group: 00:15

Toronto Futures Options Swaps Exchange. We are building a derivatives exchange clearing house and technology company to bring liquidity to the illiquid assets of the Canadian Chinese ex-path market. Obviously subject to regulatory approval. But that’s our opening value proposition.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 00:33

Very exciting. Which James, listen, we’ve been here in the foyer while the main room and the forum has been going on and the editor in chief Gillian Tett and just did a prolific interview. You want to tell us a little bit about where some of your takeaways from that.

James Beattie – CEO, tFOSE Group: 00:55

Well, anytime you can hear Gillian interview anyone. It is so insightful because of her ability to go right to the core of the story to get the real story right. And basically our last speaker told us to take our MBA and CFA rip it up, throw it out and look at risk differently, right. Everything to do with what we’ve learned on risk academically, professionally, throw it out. And anytime someone says to you, question all of your assumptions, question the way you look at things, pay attention.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 01:15

Interesting. You know the stuff that you’re working on, this event, public, private partnerships are playing a huge part in economic development. How important is it for you and what you’re doing in Canada?

James Beattie – CEO, tFOSE Group: 01:26

It’s very important because we are building in Canada an exchange that will be global, but it is to serve the underserved needs of Canadian Chinese ex-paths, other groups. But these are Canadians who do not have their basic trading needs from a derivatives perspective addressed by anyone. And they have a huge preponderance of illiquid assets and we are simply providing tools that organically they want for their portfolio, trading for their liquidity of their assets and to bring liquidity to those assets.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 01:58

You know, did you attend yesterday? You know, there was the governor of Connecticut there who had pleasure in moving. We had just Chuck Davis, Steve Case, Rubenstein. It was, I mean it was, it was packed full of global leaders. What were some of your big takeaways from yesterday?

James Beattie – CEO, tFOSE Group: 02:20

I would say the fireside chat with Byron Allen if I have it correct. We’re talking about chutzpah. We’re talking about make the calls, you know, the man built a huge global empire from his home. You know, he tells a story in his underwear. It’s, you know, going back to the previous speakers of what skin in the game, how do you actually build something? Have you picked up a phone? Have you made a call? Have you have banged on the door? Cause if you haven’t, it’s a bit of an academic exercise and you should probably check the assumptions that go with that. So I would say that was probably the most powerful story. You know, it’s about a young fellow who you know, happened because of the good fortune of his mother’s academic and professional career to be around, you know, Johnny Carson and such. But he was smart enough, he had streets smarts and used it to build a huge conglomerate that I think is going to become much larger.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 02:50

You know, my big takeaways from that very similar to you and as an entrepreneur, as we all are entrepreneurs and doing it in different industries for sectors, but ideas are mental constructs until you actually put them into practice. And the path to get to the goal is never a straight line and every single deviation goes here. That’s an actual failure and it is whether you can navigate this failures and learn from them through them path. And he did a great job to bring it full circle of it was painful, it was really painful. But I got there and I’m still learning and I’m still going and I’m still growing and people are letting me learn and letting me fail. Looking at that as intellectual property.

James Beattie – CEO, tFOSE Group: 03:38

One of my mentors and favorite people is Richard from zinc in California. He talks about now and next and most entrepreneurs live in next and they have no concept of now. Speakers we’ve heard here, understand now and if you are able to figure out now you will get to next. And you know like if you’re, if you’re building a business, you have to pay the rent, you have to make the payroll, who’s paying for the health benefits, all those things must be done. So wonderful strategy, wonderful execution going to fall. If you’re not paying attention, what do you have in front of you? What do you really have? Do you have skin in the game? Do you understand your P, and L? What’s driving your revenue? What’s driving your costs and how are we going to make it grow? So I personally love working with entrepreneurs. I love learning to grow with them. If they cannot stay in now, I can’t work with that. You need to have the ability to execute fantastic ideas.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 04:28

You know, someone actually came up with this idea of a funnel to actually figure out the cost of new ideas so it doesn’t bottleneck. There’s a bottleneck at current innovation. Innovation, it’s far too common in startups and emerging growth companies. But this is really fascinating. Listen, I know you’re being torn a few different directions. Tell me a little bit about what we can expect out of tFOSE.

James Beattie – CEO, tFOSE Group: 05:14

tFOSE is going to build. We’re going to use technology to build a derivative exchange that delivers liquidity to a vastly underserved clientele. It is going to be compliant. It is going to be subject to regulatory approval and we are going to build something that is for the net benefit of Canadians, which will then grow to a global stage. Our clients are looking for organic growth in derivatives. They do everything on a phone, you know, they trade on a phone, they want to be able to trade volatility on a phone and they want to be able to punch it. And so you, I’ve been doing business a long time and it’s always about people. The one thing that has never changed is people do business with people they like. Period. Everything else has changed. And what I’m noticed now is that people are doing business with their phones. So it’s about replicating that relationship. And I know that sounds a bit out there, but we have to figure out how to replicate that rapport, that community, because out of that is a pretty powerful P and L motivation.

Matt Bird – Host, Traders Network Show: 05:58

I love it. You know what I want to stay in contact, I want to get an update. Thank you James. I’d love to see the progress you make up there. And as somebody used to live in Canada. I actually lived in Seattle. So I’m very much aware of that economic development opportunity up there and it’s massive. Wonderful. It’s great. All right. You’re watching the Traders Network Show. We’ll be right back after these messages. And special thanks to our network affiliate partners, ABC, NBC, Fox and CVS. Don’t go away. We’ve got more coming up.