When talented people experiment

Dave Harrison Smith, CFA
Chief Investment Officer
May 12, 2026

When talented people are given room to experiment, it is striking how quickly creativity can compound.

We typically reserve the Morning Macro note for economic news, market developments, and the forces shaping portfolios and financial affairs. This week, we’re taking a slight detour to talk about something happening closer to home: Bailard’s inaugural Hackathon, which concluded with its first demo day yesterday.

Like many worthwhile ideas, this one had humble origins. In an early morning conversation fueled by too much caffeine, several team members found themselves discussing the extraordinary pace of recent technological change. Each week seemed to bring another leap forward in the capabilities of artificial intelligence. The question quickly became: how could Bailard embrace this wave of innovation in a thoughtful, hands-on way? How could we better understand what these modern AI tools can actually do?

We decided to form two internal teams. Each team’s structure was intentionally cross-functional, mixing coworkers who rarely work together and combining engineers with client-facing professionals and research analysts. The teams were not competing in any way. Instead, we wanted to pursue multiple projects, learn independently, and share ideas through regular check-ins along the way.

The assignment itself was intentionally broad: take modern AI tools, find a problem within Bailard, and build something cool. What followed over the next two weeks exceeded even our most optimistic expectations.

Conference rooms were quickly filled with sticky notes. Teams huddled over laptops, energetically sketching and debating. Prototypes circulated throughout the firm for feedback, then were iterated, adjusted, and reworked in unexpected ways. One of the tremendous benefits of recent developments in AI is the ability to rapidly prototype ideas, allowing teams to compress weeks of development into mere hours and enabling rapid testing and iteration.

At yesterday’s demo day, the energy was palpable. What began as a learning exercise had clearly evolved into something much larger: a demonstration of unleashed creativity and collaboration. New ideas emerged as the group saw what others had built. Prototypes were re-imagined as production applications. The number of “that’s so cool!” and “wow!” moments may have broken a company record.

Our goal at the outset was never to build polished, production-ready applications. Instead, it was to learn by doing and better understand both the capabilities and limitations of these emerging tools. The fact that both teams created several applications remarkably close to real-world deployment was an added benefit.

From here, we plan to step back and evaluate what comes next. But one conclusion is already clear: the teams’ capabilities advanced dramatically in a remarkably short period.

I left the demo day energized and deeply appreciative. Once again, I was reminded of the creativity, curiosity, and capability of my Bailard colleagues. Innovation requires room to experiment, collaborate, and occasionally surprise yourself. Given that opportunity, it is remarkable what talented people can build together.

I’m incredibly grateful to work alongside a team willing to learn, experiment, and push themselves in new ways. I can’t wait to see what we build next.

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