Episode 021 - Oddup; FOCUS ON FINTECH; James Giancotti, Founder & CEO

Introduction

• Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger
• Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.

Episode Introduction:

• Welcome back everyone.  I am excited about today´s program because I have the pleasure of welcoming to the show James Giancotti who is the Founder and CEO of a really interesting company called Oddup.  
• Oddup is a provider of a data-driven, intelligence platform that helps users more efficiently evaluate and understand the startup ecosystem and for digital assets it includes a proprietary Cryptocurrency Rating System.  Oddup provides users with powerful tools and proven methods of data collection and insights for making investment decisions in a more efficient manner…[My attempt at describing the co. and what you do…feel free to give me the succinct, company-preferred version]
• And, we´ll get into all of that in greater detail….
• James, thank you for making the time to be with me on the podcast today…
• So, before we dig into the meat of what Oddup is and its key offerings, I thought it would be useful if you could tell us a bit about your background and about your journey, more broadly, that ultimately led to the formation of Oddup…

Topic Areas Covered:

• AI and data driven approach, what was the impetus, thesis for developing this into a company in the first place?
• What is the end-product offering actually and how has it evolved over time?
• Is it investment research on steroids…or how would you best describe it?
• Talk about the offerings in more detail;  What is the Startup Rating System, other offerings and services, i.e., Crypto-custody? 
• Talk about major Customers:  Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg, Google, etc.
• Key Partners?
• How would you assess the competitive landscape?  There seems to be a number of newer startups entering this space in different ways
• Competitive advantages of Oddup offering…Key Value proposition?
• • ´Our main advantage is we have been right often on our valuation assessments which has given our tools and platform credibility as a go-to source.´  Particularly, more recently, we have been very accurate at assessing and valuing crypto and digital asset sectors.
• How do you get access to all of the detailed information and analysis for what are mostly private companies?
• Let´s discuss Forge Global, a major private exchange allowing investors to trade shares and evaluate secondary offerings of innovative private companies.  They also offer custody, tools and data in addition trading.  They announced a public offering via a SPAC in September.   Do you view them as an enabler, competitor or other?
• Is there an interesting story behind the company name?
• Discuss your recent equity round - $12.8MM Series C 
• • We actually raised the round a year ago.  COVID and pandemic related factors kept us from announcing it until recently.  However, we used the proceeds to build really innovative and quality data analytics tools, especially in the crypto and digital asset sectors.
• Future plans for capital?

Closing Remarks

• James, what is a good way for those seeking additional information about Oddup to get in touch? 
• • Oddup website:  www.oddup.com
  • Other contact methods you would like to include;

Thank you for joining me for this edition of DVC.  I hope you found our discussion today with James Giancotti and Oddup interesting and it gave you things to think about regarding your ability to evaluate, analyze and invest in new economy companies.  I look forward to joining you on my next edition of DVC,  Thank You…

Bio:

James Giancotti, CEO and Co-founder Oddup
James Giancotti is the founder and CEO of Oddup, an early-stage startup ecosystem rating system. James began his career in investment banking and research roles at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. After nearly a decade of researching companies’ financials to determine their value and assessing investment risks and opportunities, he saw firsthand the challenges that most institutional investors constantly confronted. The biggest obstacle was a lack of reliable, collated analyst insights that overcome subjectivity, so he created Oddup to address this problem by giving investors more transparency and objective insights to make the most informed investment decision. 

James holds both a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Intelligence and a Bachelor of Law in Intellectual Property from La Trobe University.