Financial markets are the seas we all navigate as founders, operators, and investors.
Sometimes they’re calm, other times… not so much.
Financial markets are where primal forces collide to shape the future—power, psychology, ambition.
Backtest dives deep into the major turning points in market history and brings them to life with riveting storytelling and actionable lessons.
We study full cycles—how booms build the foundation for the future, how busts clear away the speculative excesses, how institutions and individuals navigate the ups and downs, and how lessons from the past apply to the present.
Join us as we gather insights from the past to navigate the present and prepare for the future.
The Podcast
Backtest is a narrative podcast. Each episode tells the story of a turning point in financial market history. From the South Sea Bubble to the Dot Com Boom and the Global Financial Crisis, we explore how participants behaved, what worked and what broke, and why it applies to today.
We don’t just tell you what happened—we craft the story to show you how it unfolded and why it matters.
Each season combines deep research with storytelling, unpacking everything from GDP growth and interest rate policy to IPO booms and credit spreads. You'll meet the founders, investors, CEOs, politicians, and unsuspecting traders swept up in the madness.
We often feature guests—investors, founders, policy-makers, journalists, and professors—to give us a visceral appreciation for what it was like to navigate these cycles and how we can apply the lessons today.
We invest hundreds of research hours to bring you a new series every month.
The Newsletter
The companion newsletter to the podcast dives deeper into the ideas, data, and decision-making across financial market history.
Each article organizes frameworks and lessons into actionable insights. We unpack investor psychology, policy decisions, market structure, capital flows, and the leading indicators. The goal is to help us—and the Backtest community—develop robust mental models to navigate market cycles successfully.
What to expect:
Data-driven breakdowns of historic crashes
Lessons in capital allocation, market structure, and investor behavior
Frameworks and mental models for navigating cycles
Curiosity—and market events—drive our writing to bring you an article every week.
The Team
Daniel Gamboa led investment operations at Divvy Homes until being acquired by Brookfield in February 2025. Prior to that, he worked across engineering, product, and finance at several high-growth startups and energy ventures. Daniel is based in Texas.
Matt Harris is the co-founder of venture-backed startup Arcatar. Prior to that, he spent 15 years in the investment world—10 as a mezzanine investor at Blackstone and five as a principal at Silicon Valley-based venture firm Draper Associates. Matt is based in Connecticut.
