How small firms compete with giants

How can small teams now match, and even outperform, the output of much larger organizations? The team at Fourth Wall Advisors shares how AI-driven workflows, intentional design, and diverse, non-overlapping expertise are reshaping how work gets done. From reducing friction to unlocking deeper creativity and faster iteration, they explore why the future of high performance belongs to small teams built for curiosity, adaptability, and human connection.
 

Joseph Thumpasery is the Managing Partner of Fourth Wall Advisors. He brings over 15 years of experience on Wall Street, with the last 10 spent running 9-figure portfolios for macro hedge funds. Most of Mr. Thumpasery's buy side career was spent as a Portfolio Manager at Bluecrest Capital, which was arguably the top macro hedge fund in the world while he was there, posting returns ranging from 20% to 153%. He has never hit his 5% "stop-loss" during the course of a trading year and has never finished the year down money, in over 10 years of money management. The strategy currently deployed at Fourth Wall Advisors LLC was researched and run by Mr. Thumpasery at multiple hedge funds.

Samantha Rhoads is the Head Data Scientist of Fourth Wall Advisors. Passionate about studying human behavior, she began her journey as a quantitative social scientist during her joint Bachelor’s/Master’s program at Columbia University, before moving into the people analytics sphere. After 7 years spearheading diversity analytics, machine learning, and automation projects at a NYC law firm, she's now leveraging her experience in a new domain of human behavior: finance. Samantha has a keen interest in mixed methods: supplementing the quantitative with the qualitative, which is one of Fourth Wall's key tenets.

Anika Harode is a Financial Analyst at Fourth Wall Advisors, where she contributes to investment research and portfolio strategy. She studied Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Virginia, bringing a quantitative foundation and a deep interest in applying data-driven methods to financial markets. Prior to Fourth Wall, Anika worked as a machine learning researcher at the University of Virginia. She has worked on projects analyzing and decomposing long-term, value-oriented investment strategies. Anika is a driven self-starter and contributes heavily to the research library at Fourth Wall.

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced, edited and mixed by Ria Tobaccowala

Artwork designed by Ben Damiano

Additional music licensed through Premium Beats

LINKS

Explore more about the new frontiers of work at Rethinkingwork.io

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This show is also available on YouTube which includes visual supplements. 

Rishad's Book Rethinking Work is available in print and audio. Click here for where to buy.