In July 2022, our Board member Sashi Edupuganti was humbled and honored by CxO Outlook as one of the 10 most inspiring entrepreneurs. While we celebrate his achievement, we want to give our community a chance to get to know him better.
Every time you or I go online, the trail of our digital footprints gets bigger. With the ever-growing volumes of data being processed by social and media sites and streamed daily, data brokers have found new methods to make vast profits as they sell the same data many times over. Now, however, enterprises are turning to data monetization to build brand loyalty and trust.
This journey began for Sashi, who is Founder & CEO at ODE Holdings, when his youngest child, then eight years old, in 2019, wanted to become a social media influencer and star. As a parent, he felt a sense of duty to support his children’s dreams while simultaneously protecting them from the perils of social media. As he was exploring the risk and dangers of the digital landscape, he started to develop a hypothesis about how to create a world where we all could trust our digital footprints on the web.
The company was founded with the vision to create a new ‘Future of Consumer Data,’ creating a balanced and ethical data ecosystem. ODE uses state-of-the-art and emerging technologies to solve problems that widely impact consumers and corporations. While developed nations will benefit tremendously, the company expects that developing nations will reap the rewards of being able to monetize their data and create economic balance as they have not yet experienced the impact of the potential threat. “Not only are we helping enterprises grow, we are creating a micro-economy for a large portion of the world; the ability to get meaningful dollars into their pockets makes a big difference in their lives. This, in addition to addressing the fundamental data privacy and compliance exposure for the stakeholders,” says Sashi.
Sashi tells us how ODE has surpassed most of the existing and new market players with its blockchain and AI-powered integrated platform, Web 3.0. ODE is one of the only players in the market with the mission to disrupt the world of data and to create a two-sided marketplace where enterprises and consumers mutually benefit from data protection, organic compliance, and a shared monetization strategy.
ODE uses permissioned data from the consumer to support Enterprise analytics needs. The Enterprise sets up funds that are decremented every time analytics are run while monetizing the consumer who has consented to allow use of their data for analytics. Under no circumstances will data that is personally identifiable (PII) or private be revealed.
Data monetization offers benefits such as cost reductions, revenue growth, and opportunities to develop new services. Enterprises which build trust with their consumer community will build more brand loyalty leading to future success.
The ODE mission is to develop the data layer for Web 3.0 in which the data is decentralized and is stored in the consumer secure data vault. Data is only shared when consented by the consumer leading to data sovereignty and data privacy. This allows for the storage of data and the analysis of the data to provide insights while reducing risks and significant penalties based upon emerging legal requirements and regulations.
If companies wish to monetize data resources securely and ethically, they must do so in a way that protects the privacy of both the consumer who uses the new monetization service and the data itself. This necessitates enterprises clearly defining and comprehending what it means to use data safely. The adoption of a data-centric approach to security is becoming more common as a result of this discovery process.
Imagine a world where large organizations give consumers the capability to secure their data inside a secure vault. Only the consumer decides which data to share, and when they share, they receive compensation, can monetize, and rightfully get paid for what is theirs in the first place – their own data. We, the consumers, are the rightful owners after all!
In the words of CXO Outlook magazine, “ODE has forged deep relationships with prominent, well-known brands worldwide, making moves in the Telecomm, Financial, and Healthcare industries in a short period.” And according to Sashi, “Conditions are right for consumer data monetization. Web 3.0 plus regulations plus high costs of data breaches – we have the perfect conditions for change.”
We couldn’t be more proud!
More about Sashi Edupuganti.