Startup Founders Learning the Science Behind the Numbers

By his own admission, Devon Myers (MFE ’22) just loves numbers. A native of South Africa, he immigrated to Southern California as a teenager and eventually checked the usual undergrad (California State University, Northridge) and MBA (Pepperdine Graziadio Business School) boxes, with high marks. After tours of duty in investment banking, operations, and eventually financial analysis at industry giant PIMCO, he realized he wanted to understand the science behind those numbers that were crossing his desk every day—and find a way to build upon it.

After some soul searching about whether he wanted to become a student for a third time, he began hearing about UCLA Anderson’s Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) program. After a number of conversations with people in and around the program, he was struck by the high caliber of both the faculty and the students he’d be studying alongside. Fifteen months later, Myers completed his MFE and now works in venture capital. Like me, he also serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Anderson’s Venture Accelerator, where he helps early-stage startups apply the lessons he learned in the classroom to the real world.

I recently sat down with Myers to discuss his journey to and through the MFE program, his involvement with the Accelerator, and why Bruins seem to always want to give back.

So I’m a words guy, you’re a numbers guy. But I think our career paths mirror each other in a way—we saw what was out there for a while and decided to chart a new course and a new way of doing things. What was the turning point for you, which eventually led you to Anderson’s MFE program?

Finance is a passion of mine, but finance can be so broad. Oh, you could be a financial advisor, you could work in real estate, you could be a loan officer. Finance is quite a broad stroke. What I enjoy more is investing. That's the part of finance that just makes my world go around. And it could be investing in anything, actually. I know folks that just love equities. For me, it's investing as a whole. So whether it be fixed-income bonds or mutual funds or hedge funds, or in the private sector, real estate or private equity or venture capital—yes to all of that. For me, just investing and the due diligence and understanding that, because there is a quantifiable way to see who wins. Versus, “Oh, we did good.” Well how do we know you did good? “Well, our clients are happy.” No, I'd like to see the numbers, whatever they might be. I want to quantify it somewhat.

That sparked an interest in “quant”—quantitative finance.

Whilst at PIMCO, I began noticing how quantitative finance was slowly picking up in the rest of the world. OK, so here I am, in my late twenties, I have an MBA, I've got a pretty solid resume. But I'm going, “Alright, I've now got another, what, 35 years ahead of me for some investment role?” But I know nothing about quantitative finance, and it's only getting larger. It might not take over, but it definitely is growing. It's billions of dollars now, if not a trillion.

And I said, "Let me take a step back." That's when I began looking at schools, and the MFE program, and this and that. But the original reason wasn't for me to become a quant. It wasn't for me to go work at a quant hedge fund or at a quant fund. The goal was to understand it, versus go into it. So if I'm somewhere and someone shows me something that's quant, I understand it.

Of course, that search landed you in Westwood. Aside from all that’s great about Anderson, it was the Master of Financial Engineering program that intrigued you most. What convinced you to jump back into school?

I was introduced to Anderson by a colleague of mine at PIMCO who knew a couple of Anderson MFEs that he worked with. He ended up introducing me to a couple of MFEs, one from Anderson and one from Berkeley, actually. So I got to hear from both sides. I eventually connected with Leanna Cortez[1] , the admissions officer. She basically has been here since the beginning of the program and she's the gatekeeper, in essence, but she understands who to let in—not just who’s smart, but who can succeed.

After having a conversation with her, you could tell, “Oh, these are top-quality people coming through Anderson.” And then I had a conversation with Alysa (Turkowitz) and was kind of like “Ok, wow, people aren’t messing around here.” And I already have my MBA, so it's not like there was this drive for me to go to grad school. This is business school 2.0 for me.

Often, the 2.0 version is better than the first. How was your experience at Anderson in general and in the MFE program specifically?

Just the quality of the people around you, I think, is a big thing. The dirty little secret of business school is it's not necessarily what you learn, but it's who you meet. Your network. And obviously Anderson has an amazing network.

But the quality of folks that are coming in here is just top. Everyone's a killer. Like, you can walk in and say, “Oh, I was the top of my class.” Ninety percent of people can say the same thing. "Oh, I was the math recipient of this award." Yeah, so was everyone else. Or whatever. Which is amazing, right? But also it humbles you very quickly. You can think you're very good, but there's always someone better. So I think that's also the largest reason why I came to UCLA. I knew the quality of the students. I mean, it's Anderson, we can assume that the faculty's going to be amazing, but we've all been in class with someone that we're like, "How did you get in here?" I knew that all wasn't going to happen at Anderson.

The decision obviously worked out well for you. For those out there mulling a similar one—potential applicants, those already at Anderson looking for a change—what exactly is an MFE?

The way I describe it to people is that it's basically three master's degrees in one. It's a master's in mathematics, a master's in computer science, and a master's in finance, all smashed into one. Using mathematics and computer science to help financial institutions, whether it be predictive analysis or machine learning. There's a lot of patterns going on within the markets. People see, “Oh, this stock went up $10.” I start seeing, “What are the returns over the last 10 years and can I start predicting that? Is there some correlation between something else?” All that is one giant mathematical equation and that's kind of what the MFE really is—using math, along with these computers that are just beyond. The computer of 20 years ago is napping. There's enough memory on my iPhone to put us on the moon.

I can solve an equation, the machine can solve a thousand. It takes me 10 seconds, it takes the machine one. But I can kind of point it in the right direction and say, "Go." And I think that's kind of what the true essence of the MFE is, making the things around you significantly better, especially within the finance perspective. And it’s quite applicable to all areas of finance, whether it be risk or investment or research. We are living in just this huge data dump, and no one really knows how to properly use it. I think MFEs are right at the top.

How has the MFE helped you now that you’re back out in the real world?

Well, besides the Anderson networking opportunities, it has helped me in the financial world in a large way. Most folks understand the basics of finance, but MFE’s can do such a deep dive on most to all topics of finance and get down to the grassroots of it. Most people discuss derivatives such as options, and we discuss the Black Scholes equation (the fundamental basis on how options are priced). An analogy would be a baker. Most people you know understand how to make a basic cake; eggs, flour, sugar etc., but we understand how to bake EVERYTHING and understand how to raise the chickens to get the eggs you use! That’s the difference. This helps in the real world because many people, even those that work at financial firms, don’t truly understand these concepts at such a deep level. They only see the top level which they’ve done. We see the top, middle, and lower levels too. Once hiring managers understand that, they start to see how useful and versatile we can be. It’s the application of what we’ve learned in class to the real world is the key. People ask what’s my degree and I say MFE. They automatically know I am a ninja with finance, but it’s up to us to take the conversation further to get the job. It does help you get your foot in the door, and that’s all we’re asking for. 

We’re both Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at the Venture Accelerator, which is how we first met. And I think how we landed in those roles is one of the best things about Anderson—you sort of get involved in one area of the school and wind up contributing to another. In my case, it was judging the Loeb Awards for several years, which led to an introduction to the Accelerator team, and the rest is history. How did you end up getting involved with the Accelerator?

I actually first learned about the Accelerator before I became a student at Anderson. I got introduced to Trish Halamandaris (’92), the director, through people in the VC world. We were chatting, going back and forth, and she says, "Oh, I wish you were on campus all the time, because we'd just love to pick your brain." And I was like, "Actually, I'm going to be in about a couple of months." She goes, "What do you mean?" I said, "Oh, I'm going to go back and be a student. I'm going to be in the MFE program."

What’s the experience been like? How have you helped integrate MFE with the Accelerator?

I knew it was going to be great because I could do classes in the morning or afternoon, and then I'll just walk down to the Accelerator and do work there and bring some of the MFE students along. We could study in the open areas there and it was an opportunity for me to introduce the MFEs to entrepreneurs that are coming through the Accelerator. Because that could be your next employer. And everyone's always got questions.

And now crypto has become a big thing, and if you're going to discuss crypto, discuss it with an MFE and they'll chat your ear off on it, because that's mathematics and computers and finance. That's literally our bread and butter. So definitely the crypto folks that were in the Accelerator at the time, they definitely got a kick out of having some MFE students around.

I wear many hats, I have many projects, but I always say my role at Anderson and the Accelerator is my favorite. Clichéd as it may be, there’s something that just feels good about giving back. I’ve been here long enough to realize that’s built into the Anderson DNA. You may not be a student anymore, but you’re not leaving campus anytime soon.

I’ll definitely be hanging around the Accelerator to help people. I'm forever grateful for my experience at UCLA, because everyone's been so helpful. I was fortunate enough to be chosen by my class to speak at graduation. And no joke, at the end I said, "The best advice I can give you is, 'How can I help you?'"

And that's just Anderson at its core, I think. "Hey, you want to hit up an alum? All cool, which one do you want to connect with? Where do you want to work?” Nine times out of 10, everyone's super happy to have a conversation. And that's all it takes. You just need to get your foot in the door somehow. The fact that everyone wants to give back and help—to me, that's the end all, be all.