In The Room With Zubin Koticha
In this week of The Room, Madison and Claudia sit down with Zubin Koticha, CEO and Co-Founder of Opyn, a marketplace for decentralized finance (DeFi). Opyn recently announced its $6.7 million Series A led by Paradigm. Zubin walks us through fundraising during difficult times, navigating a pivot, and of course, a whole lot on crypto, DeFi, and NFTs.
Also a fun fact…Zubin and Claudia are actually close friends from high school! Let’s open the door.
Key Takeaway 1: A speed round through crypto
There’s a lot to know about the crypto world, but Zubin walks us through a bit of it. Financial options is a three hundred trillion dollar industry — yes trillion! Retail investors are becoming more and more excited about option markets, now larger than stock markets in terms of volume trading. While a few centralized entities could turn off trading and control marketplaces, decentralized markets do not control the market. It’s a whole different mental paradigm. Opyn’s aha moment was realizing that users can lose a lot of money with unhedged trading. With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, the hypothesis of Opyn was confirmed as crypto markets crashed harder than stock markets. Building hedging infrastructure in crypto was absolutely necessary to mitigate risk.
Key Takeaway 2: Fundraising during difficult times
When Opyn was fundraising for the first time, there was little capital available in the crypto space. While it was an uphill battle fundraising during such times, Zubin advises that with persistence and hustle, the money will come. When it is easier to raise money, Zubin also warns to keep your ego in check; a lot of success is based on the market and what it’s looking like at the time. The fundraising process has its highs and definitely its lows. Remember that during moments when it’s not necessarily working, it will force you to both 1. Think more critically on your product 2. Reinforce your product thesis and reinvigorate confidence.
Key Takeaway 3: Navigating a pivot
Zubin and his co-Founders Alexis Gauba and Aparna Krishnan, both of whom he met in college, relied on one another and their respective strengths in navigating a pivot in their product. When they first started Opyn, it focused on margin trading. Eventually, they switched to building this hedging infrastructure. It was with over-communication, absolute trust, and transparency that has led the Opyn leadership team to success. It’s only fitting that this open culture is the DNA of Opyn.
