Since my update in May, the labor market has begun showing meaningful signs of a slowdown and there is a 96.1% probability of a rate cut at the end of the Fed’s two-day meeting on Wednesday afternoon. In some ways, that will be a positive for Augment Analytics. We have several mortgage clients who benefit from a slowdown since refinance activity picks up. Also, we have a strong risk/collections background which becomes more important to clients as delinquencies rise. But, we’ll wait to see how the economy plays out as the resilience of the consumer continues to confound economists.
Augment at a Glance
In the past 4 months, we have signed 4 new clients, we added 2 consultants at existing clients, 4 team members were extended, and 1 more extension is anticipated imminently! We also had 2 consultants wrap up projects which I will also detail below. Finally, we have added 8 net new consultants to the platform, and, today the platform of available consultants stands at 109.
New, Existing, and Prospective Clients
We have formally entered direct relationships with two clients that we previously supported through third-party managed service providers. One is a top 30 bank and the other is a large tax preparation company. I am hopeful that these new relationships will open up additional opportunities to Augment and our team members in the near-term.
We signed a boutique brand/marketing agency to provide fractional support across analysts and program management. So far, we have participated in 3 projects with more hopefully on the horizon.
We also signed a boutique law firm to provide recruiting support.
In July, Augment began refitting a model that one of our team members built for a private equity client in 2024.
Finally, one of our analysts has been onboarded to the second line risk team at a top 30 bank to provide effective challenge support for the bank’s credit, pricing, and collections/recoveries programs.
As I previously mentioned, two engagements recently came to an end. In Q2, our large hospitality client brought in a new senior executive to lead analytics. As a result, all staff augmentation support has ended and we are waiting to see how changes in the organization could result in new/different opportunities for Augment Analytics going forward. Also, our fractional SEO analytics work for a public InsurTech wrapped up as the client appears to be shifting away from SEO and into generative chat. That is an interesting development which could have profound implications for other companies that are heavily invested in SEO.
The Work Behind the Scenes
We’ve also seen an uptick in the number of opportunities for Augment over the past 3 months although the speed and success in matching against the specifications of the support needed remain challenges. Hopefully this update helps give everyone an idea of the work behind the scenes that does not always result in a filled role.
A select list of opportunities we have worked on that have not (yet) come to fruition:
- Data and analytics and process manager roles with a GSE through a partner consultancy: The GSEs were very picky about the candidates and required them to commit to being in an office 5 days a week related to federal declarations.
- Multiple roles with a bank through a partner consultancy for individuals with credit card BIN reconciliation experience: The consultancy is still waiting to hear whether or not the bank will approve their proposal.
- Role with a Midwest bank looking for someone with credit experience for small business bank branch approval rates: They chose to go with FICO instead of an analyst so they can get data as a part of the engagement.
- Model risk role at top 30 bank: They haven’t decided whether or not to move forward with interviews.
- CECL / allowance analytics role at a top 30 bank: They haven’t decided whether or not to move forward with interviews.
- Model risk role at a publicly traded, lease-to-own financier: They submitted an inquiry through our website but have not returned any of my messages.
- Bookkeepers for a privately held mortgage insurance start-up: This is not historically a core area of expertise for Augment and a combination of timing and skillset mismatches have held up our ability to find the right candidate.
- Collections analytics at an AI start-up: The client has not been able to obtain the necessary budget from corporate.
- NPV model building at a community-focused lender: The client is traveling and won’t be able to facilitate job fit interviews for several weeks.
- Model validation at a credit card fintech: Job fit interviews are under way.
In-Demand Job Families
Regarding our highest priority resource needs, I would appreciate it if you would please pass along available individuals with the following areas of expertise. Our main focus is people who want to be consultants, not seeking full-time jobs, but we are happy to speak to anyone with the right skillsets:
- Model validation
- Credit risk analytics
Looking Ahead
We are entering the final phase of 2025. This is a time when business leaders realize that they are not on track to deliver on their 2025 commitments. It is also hopefully a time when they see that they have some extra budget available. Hopefully we will hear about some new opportunities in the coming weeks. That includes the broad array of job families that we now represent with our 109-person strong platform.
