Soon Robots Will Pitch IPOs

I used to be a capital markets banker, which means that I went around to companies trying to persuade them to issue securities. (Convertible bonds, in my case; other capital markets bankers try to persuade companies to issue equity or investment-grade bonds or high-yield bonds.) There are two main skills for a capital markets banker1:

The second part is just a matter of generic sales and interpersonal skills that are not at all specific to the financial industry. Once, when I was a banker, I left my office briefly to buy shoelaces or something, and the guy who sold them to me talked me into getting a sit-down shoeshine, an experience that I find uncomfortable and would never actually seek out and also did not have time for. But he was very persuasive, and I did it, and hated it, and walked back to my office with the unsettling certainty that the shoeshine guy would be better at my job than I was. The convertible-bond stuff can be taught; the sales skills are hard.