INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Knowledge is the fuel of business
for insight, but also to experts in the wider world
Management consultants, research agencies, and data providers make hundreds of billions of dollars per year attempting to answer key
questions for business executives.Sometimes they are successful, but many times, finding the right expert can be vexing
For the most important decisions, having multiple experts or even hundreds of experts provide their opinion might be critical to
success.Germain Chastel and Sascha Eder know the problem well
oftentimes struggled to do so given the unique problems that confront those organizations
explained.In early 2017, the two left McKinsey and eventually joined forces with Anuja Ketan, and together the trio formed NewtonX
Clients answer a carefully calibrated series of questions to properly vet and scope a query, and then NewtonX farms it out to it network of
experts for insight.That rapid-response network has now gotten the attention of Two Sigma Ventures, the venture wing of the high-flying
algorithmic-trading hedge fund, which led a $12 million Series A round into New York City-based NewtonX
First is what it calls Expert Calls, which are similar to the traditional expert network offering of companies like GLG
Here, a client answers a series of structured questions to determine a single expert to talk to and get feedback from.The more interesting
With this product, the goal is to ask a business question to a wider number of experts who might provide a variety of responses
So, for instance, NewtonX could potentially answer a query such as how CIOs at large Fortune 500 companies are budgeting for cybersecurity
startup wants to build out a true knowledge graph that can better answer questions faster with each activity on the platform
As the platform gets smarter about knowledge, the idea is that on-boarding a new client or initiating a new survey or question will be
faster since the platform will already know many of the nuances of that particular field of business.Over the two and a half years since the
It counts Microsoft, 23-Me, and Gartner as public clients, and also has a list of 20 corporates already on the platform
Chastel told me that nine of the top ten management consulting firms have also used NewtonX services, and many top research firms have also
used the product.The NewtonX team
Courtesy of NewtonXEarly revenues has allowed the company to expand early
It has 32 employees at its offices near Grand Central, and Chastel noted to me that a majority of employees and a majority of managers are
the company intends to grow to 100 head count locally, and also expand out is client success and expert success teams.
