Stonks Go Moon

Markets feel louder than ever, but somehow less clear.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Matt Ober, Managing Partner at Social Leverage, to unpack what’s really happening beneath the surface of today’s markets.With AI-generated research flooding Twitter, Substack, and trading platforms and capital pouring into anything labeled “AI” even professional investors are struggling to separate real signal from machine-amplified noise.Matt brings a rare perspective shaped by:Building data systems inside quantitative hedge fundsBuying and operationalizing alternative data before AI was mainstreamServing as Chief Data Scientist at a major activist hedge fundNow backing early-stage founders simplifying finance instead of overcomplicating itIn this conversation, we break down:Why “alternative data” is no longer alternative, it’s just dataHow AI is changing market sentiment, research, and investor behaviorWhy email, ownership of audience, and direct distribution still matterHow consumption-based data pricing could reshape finance and AI economicsWhat founders misunderstand about AI, noise, and real leverageIt’s a grounded look at how markets, media, and investing are evolving in an AI-saturated world and what still actually matters.

Most founders still believe scale means hiring faster.Amos Bar-Joseph doesn’t.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, we break down how Swan AI is building what may be one of the first truly AI-native companies — a business where autonomous agents handle outbound sales, lead qualification, research, and execution, while just three humans focus on strategy and creativity.We go deep into:Why the traditional startup “hire → burn → raise” loop is breakingHow AI agents can replace entire go-to-market teams without killing qualityThe idea of revenue per employee as the real metric that matters nowWhat “zone of genius” actually means in an AI-first workplaceWhy future companies may scale intelligence instead of headcountThis isn’t theory.This is a live experiment in how businesses may actually run over the next decade.If you’re a founder, operator, or investor trying to understand where AI is really going — this conversation will challenge how you think about work, teams, and scale.

Founders love talking strategy.But strategy doesn’t break companies; people do.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Chris Hallberg, a military veteran, entrepreneur, and EOS coach who has scaled and exited companies through some of the toughest economic cycles in modern history.As AI accelerates execution and pressure inside companies intensifies, Chris explains why leadership failures show up long before financial ones and how weak systems, misaligned teams, and tolerated bad behavior quietly kill growth.This is a grounded conversation about what actually breaks when companies scale.In this episode:Why the right people matter more than perfect systemsHow culture degrades when leaders avoid hard decisionsThe six core components that determine whether a business scales or stallsWhy vision without execution is hallucinationWhen remote work works and when it failsHow AI exposes leadership blind spots instead of replacing humansWhy smaller, aligned teams will outperform bloated orgs in the AI eraThis episode is for founders, operators, and leaders navigating growth without losing control of their company or themselves.

$2.7 TRILLION erased from the S&P 500 as Bitcoin plunges to a 7-month low around $88K. Is this the end of the bull run... or the perfect coiled spring for a massive rebound?In this explosive episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, host Rocco Strydom goes deep with Wenny Cai, COO of SynFutures – the #1 decentralized perpetuals DEX on Base and one of the fastest-growing DeFi derivatives platforms.Wenny pulls back the curtain on what REALLY happened beneath the headlines:Why derivatives amplified the drop (and cleared out excessive leverage)The key difference between retail panic and sophisticated players' calm hedgingWhy open interest and funding rates show this is an orderly deleveraging, not a full-blown crashSmart money already bidding at $70-75K – signaling a maturing marketAltcoin season? We might have missed it (AI agents peaked, now RWAs are next)SynFutures' massive upgrades coming Q1 2026: Own infrastructure, tokenized stocks/RWAs, bridging TradFi & DeFi liquidity

On this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, host Rocco Strydom sits down with Tamara Laine, founder and CEO of MPWR, to break down how AI and behavioral data are reshaping access to credit for gig workers, freelancers, creators, and underbanked founders.Tamara started as a freelancer, won top journalism awards, and now runs a fintech startup building AI-driven lending infrastructure for the new economy. We unpack why banks still struggle with irregular income, how agentic AI models assess real creditworthiness, and why ethical AI decisions now sit squarely with founders.In this episode:Why traditional banks fail gig workersHow AI models assess thin-file and irregular incomeThe rise of agentic systems in fintechWhy female-founded companies still face funding gapsEthical AI in finance and who is accountable