Angana Jacob - Data as the True Competitive Moat (S7E26)

Today, I am speaking with Angana Jacob, Head of the Research Data group within the Enterprise Data business at Bloomberg.

We talk about Angana’s career path through quantitative research and data platforms, and how the industry has evolved from a world dominated by bespoke models and backtests to one where many models have become increasingly commoditized. A central theme of our conversation is the idea that while models are easier than ever to replicate, data — how it’s sourced, cleaned, standardized, linked, and delivered — has become the true competitive moat.

We discuss what it means to “do data correctly,” how Bloomberg decides which datasets to build or sunset, how modern quants think about their data pipelines and tech stacks, and why aligning research data with production and back-office systems matters more than most people realize. Throughout the episode, we focus on Bloomberg’s goal of shortening a client’s time to alpha, and what that looks like in practice.

At its core, this episode is about a simple but powerful idea: when everyone has access to similar models, durable edge increasingly comes from the data beneath them.

Please enjoy my episode with Angana Jacob.