Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry Jack Kokko – Building the Google of Finance at AlphaSense (EP.461)
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Sep 25, 2025 
Jack Kokko, co-founder and CEO of AlphaSense—a market intelligence platform hailed as the 'Google for finance'—shares insights from his journey from an investment banking analyst to leading a cutting-edge AI-driven company. He discusses his early frustrations that inspired AlphaSense, the evolution of its technology, and the intersection of AI and investment decision-making. Jack reveals how LLMs enhance research productivity, the challenges of building AI interviewers, and his vision for a constantly evolving intelligence machine that transforms the finance landscape.
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Match Model Style To Audience
- Different user personas and domains require different model styles and tone, not a single universal model.
- AlphaSense optimizes models for finance buy-side vs corporate audiences accordingly.
Organic Corporate Adoption
- Word-of-mouth from hedge funds brought AlphaSense into investor relations and then through corporate functions.
- The tool spread into strategy, product, and C-suite roles seeking the same competitive info advantage.
Intelligence Drives Cost Structure
- The main cost variable is how much LLM-driven intelligence (tokens, agents, automation) a client consumes.
- Pricing must balance predictable fixed fees and usage-based models for heavy API-driven workflows.