Wall Street's most important consultant might be its cloud provider
Happy hump day! It's Dan DeFrancesco checking in from the proud owners of second place of Group B in the World Cup!
Today we've got stories on a former top Wall Street executive's new gig, how a VC established itself as a key player in NYC, and why FTX might be full of Parrot Heads.
But first, let's talk about some synergies.
If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Download Insider's app here.
1. The new-age consultant.
Management consultants, you're on notice. There are some new kids on the block.
Public-cloud providers are quickly establishing teams focused on helping executives rethink how different parts of their businesses can be organized via the cloud.
Insider's Bianca Chan explored this trend with a piece on how cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are reimagining themselves as business consultants.
The inspiration for Bianca's piece was a recent comment from AWS CEO Adam Selipsky about how executives are more interested in speaking about transformation than technology.
"Digital transformation is moving to the cloud, which is driving organizational change and people are saying, 'Hey, how should I organize my company? And I can see my culture changing, how do I proactively shape that?'" Selipsky said in a recent interview with SiliconANGLE.
Many of the biggest cloud providers have stood up teams focused on interfacing with the C-suite to advise them on how a move to the cloud can be an opportunity to overhaul things.
It's not hard to see how this could end up being big business for the cloud providers. If a firm is committed to migrating to the cloud, why wouldn't they use that as an opportunity to reevaluate how they do business?
These days, most companies don't opt for a lift-and-shift approach whereby they simply move stuff that was on physical servers into the cloud. Instead, migrations are viewed as a chance to reset, as Bianca explains in her piece.
And if they wanted to make changes, who better than the people who know the tech best?
Cloud providers still have a long way to go to be a real threat to consultants, but there is potential there. Let's not forget that AWS started off as a small side business.
In other news:
2. Well, well, well if it isn't the consequences of my actions. Finance influencers are taking heat from their fans for promoting companies that ended up getting caught up in the FTX debacle. This is how some are responding.
3. FTX had too many cheeseburgers in paradise. New documents from FTX's bankruptcy case, which is the gift that keeps on giving, shows the company owes $55,000 to Jimmy Buffett's Bahamas Margaritaville beach resort. Here's how FTX got wasted away again in Margaritaville.
4. Tom Montag is back in the game. The former Bank of America COO was picked to run TPG's new carbon-credit business alongside fellow BofA vet Anne Finucane, who was the bank's vice chair, Axios reports. Read more here.
5. A top Wall Street trading firm is suing its regulator. Virtu is suing the US Securities and Exchange Commission to get details about its process for rewriting equity-trading rules, Bloomberg reports. More on Virtu's suit here.
6. What started as an idea over beers between college friends turned into a key VC player in NYC. Inside the rise of Eniac Ventures, which was an early investor in Airbnb, SoundCloud, and Hinge. Click here to read our profile.
7. Meet the PR folks getting attention for ultraluxury real estate. These publicists play a key role in grabbing the uberwealthy's attention for high-end homes. Check out our list of 13 PR experts.
8. Fantasy football for film buffs. This startup production company is crowdsourcing funding from everyday investors and giving them the power to vote on the movies it pursues. Here's its pitch deck.
9. A lawyer who was charged with helping Robert F. Smith evade taxes died right before he was set to go on trial. Carlos Kepke, who was 83, was facing federal charges of conspiring to defraud the IRS, Bloomberg reports.
10. So you wanna be a cowboy? For $131 a night on Airbnb, this ranch outside Las Vegas offers horseback riding, ax throwing, and cattle driving. Check out photos of Sandy Valley Ranch here.
Keep updated with the latest business news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief. Listen here.
Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.