Building an AI-Native Platform to Take On the Bloomberg Terminal — with Aidan McConnell

Send us Fan MailMost conversations about AI in finance stop at "we use AI." This one goes deeper.Aidan McConnell started as a data science intern at Sezzle in 2019, worked his way up to Head of AI/ML, then left to build QuantLink AI — a vertically integrated data and analytics platform for investors. Think premium market data, quant workflows, and institutional-grade charts, made accessible enough that a first-time investor can actually use them.In this episode, Arun and Aidan trace the build using Arun's five-stage framework for sustainable success — and Aidan gets specific about the decisions most founders gloss over:Why 100% of QuantLink's software is written by AI — and the ontology and deterministic validation that stops it from hallucinating "slop"The gap he saw in a market already crowded with Bloomberg, Merrill, and SchwabWhy exposing all of their code became a trust strategy for a young company with no institutional track recordThe surprise: customers didn't come for the AI — they came for the charts and the reportsWhere the platform goes next: an open marketplace for data, models, agents, and templatesHis bet on the future of AI architecture — deterministic graphs over generated codeChapters 00:00 — The thinking gap: why organizations fall behind on AI 00:28 — Meet the guest: Aidan McConnell, QuantLink AI 01:08 — Arun's five-stage framework for sustainable success 02:34 — Finding the niche: the gap in a saturated market 05:49 — Flipping the game: letting users build their own signals 08:30 — The B2B shift and user responsibility 09:51 — Transparency as a trust strategy 11:27 — Building the core: AI-first, human layer on top 12:24 — Ontologies and deterministic validation 16:00 — The eval harness: data-fetching vs. product layer 21:30 — Diversification: charts, reports, and the "boring" wins 28:28 — Becoming a platform: the open marketplace vision 31:20 — People and the ownership mindset 35:10 — Affiliates and incentives 36:37 — R&D: vertical models and the future of AI architecture 41:03 — The external environment: regulation and consumer education 44:21 — What's shipping next + how to try itListen, then send it to one person building in the intelligence economy.Subscribe and leave a 5-star review — it genuinely helps the show reach more builders.🎧 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-comes-next-with-arun/id6788060249 🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033KRXb9RHJJIDSoE2KjYF ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDBiRxvJWaSA 🌐 arunansupattanayak.com 📘 Future Proof Your Business: https://www.amazon.com/FUTURE-PROOF-YOUR-BUSINESS-Strategic-Framework-ebook/dp/B0H8MKQTKCGuest: Aidan McConnell QuantLink AI (https://www.quantlink.ai/) · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-mcconnell-341259108/ · X: https://x.com/Aidan_mcconnellSupport the show Arun's book, Future Proof Your Business: https://www.amazon.com/FUTURE-PROOF-YOUR-BUSINESS-Strategic-Framework-ebook/dp/B0H8MKQTKC