About Us
What we do
Odyl helps authors and publishers engage and grow their audiences using Facebook, transforming their passionate readers into vocal evangelists. Our audience development platform enables authors to tap into Facebook’s 900 million members, and to reap the benefits of Facebook’s amazing sharing capabilities.
Our proven technology is used by the Big Six publishers and individual authors alike, growing authors’ platforms, and building the basis for real-world sales. Odyl’s apps will create deeper connections between readers and the authors who inspire them.
Who we are
John Corcoran
Chairman
John provides overall strategic direction and guidance for Odyl’s data and analytics work. Odyl leverages John’s extensive experience with his own company, Trinity Partners, in handling and transforming large data sets.
John is the founder and CEO of Trinity Partners, a leading life sciences consulting company, and its subsidiary, Trinity Pharma Solutions, a data management and software development company. John also co-founded biotech communications software company AkutaLabs, where he now serves on the board of directors. John was also a co-founder of Soteira, a venture-backed medical device company that has pioneered innovative solutions for treating vertebral compression fractures caused by osteoporosis, cancer, and traumatic injuries, and is a member of the company’s board of directors. Also active in the not-for-profit world, John is a member of the board of directors of the Sports Legacy Institute, which is studying the effects of concussions and other sports related brain injuries on athletes worldwide.
John graduated from Harvard College and has graduate degrees from the Kennedy School at Harvard and Northeastern. He lives on Boston’s north shore with his family and their three cats.
Michael Taylor
CEO
Mike brings more than a decade of early-stage technology experience to Odyl, including repeated award-winning innovation with content management systems delivered as SaaS. He played critical early roles at HotJobs.com building the company that would be acquired by Yahoo! in 2002 for $436 million.
At HotJobs, Mike’s roles included sales, product development, and investor relations. HotJobs developed a highly scalable SaaS platform for content management, publishing, and analytics in the recruiting space. As one of the few first-generation web companies to develop a lastingly successful business model, HotJobs reached over $100 million in revenue at 75 percent gross margin before its acquisition.
Mike also co-founded biotech software company AkutaLabs, which develops a highly scalable SaaS platform for field communications and analytics. He now serves on the AkutaLabs board of directors.
Mike graduated from Harvard College with a concentration in mind-body medicine. He lives in downtown New York with his wife and yoga master Tara Stiles. Mike teaches yoga and climbs a few mountains in his spare time.
Josh Wolf
Director of Technology
Josh oversees development and support of Odyl’s platform product.
After time spent at the Princeton Review, where he developed some of the earliest data-driven, personalized websites, and InterWorld, where he helped launch enterprise e-commerce products for companies like Toys ‘R’ Us and SoftBank, Josh took a senior role in product management at HotJobs.com, where he began his longtime relationship with Mike and Neil in developing scalable SaaS platforms for content and data management. Prior to Odyl, Josh was VP, director of doftware development at leading healthcare branding agency Cline Davis & Mann.
After graduating from Columbia with a degree in History, Josh converted into a devoted Brooklynite. He lives with two cats and a girlfriend who doesn’t quite understand his obsession with playing obscure board games.
Neil Baptista
Director of Product Strategy
Neil defines Odyl’s product vision and business model, aligning the company with the needs of authors and publishers.
He began his career as a systems engineer working at enterprise software companies at Powersoft then Sybase, supporting Wall Street clients that needed rapid application development and extreme performance. He then moved into consulting at Icon Solutions gaining invaluable experience on full life-cycle, custom software projects involving large teams, integration of enterprise technology and aggressive project schedules. While consulting, he solved complex business problems in publishing, health care, media and financial services.
At HotJobs.com, he translated his enterprise experience matched to web technologies to create a white label product for HotJobs.com. This business delivered huge revenue and profits as a pioneer SaaS offering (with global customers including Merrill Lynch, UPS, Pepsi, Lucent and UBS).
At iconmobile, whose customers include global brands and Europe’s largest telecoms, Neil focused on technology and strategy for mobile campaigns. He worked with world class User Experience designers, gaining specialized insights into user centric application design and measurement of mass consumer engagement.
Neil’s detailed approach to technology and business is informed by perspective and passion. He rants about all-nighters, mainframe to client server to web 2.0, Skytel timeport to iPhone, and Applelink to Facebook. He is a technology innovator who can deliver truly great products and back it up with business strategy to launch them.
Neil has an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Alberta in Canada. Outside of Odyl, he has been known to photograph everything from temples in Cambodia to backstage antics at Paris fashion shows. He lives with his daughter, wife and cats in the LES of Manhattan.