Is That Odd, Inc

IsThatOdd.com is a social media website that rewards its audience with a virtual currency called Odd Coins. Odd Coins enable consumers to try out new product samples.

The website boasts a uniquely tuned user interface for capturing those moments when a woman shares a story with her friend, and then leans in to ask, “Is that odd?” The site is designed for women to share these stories, create polls, vote, rate and engage with each other. 

IsThatOdd.com reflects the dynamics of a TV talk show updated for the modern Internet era.  The site was designed to capture the aspects of a TV talk show set.  We call this Talk Show 2.0.

Cindy Engstrom, CEO

Cindy Engstrom (formerly Cindy Smith) is the CEO of Is That Odd, Inc., a company that has built a social media advertising platform on an evolved website concept, Talk Show 2.0. IsThatOdd.com delivers an audience rewarding way for consumers to engage in the advertis- ing value chain while equally empowering brands to drive customer acquisition.

Is That Odd is Cindy’s fourth start up company.

Cindy has worked in technology since her first tech job in 1997 when she fell in love with the Internet. Since that time, Cindy has been on the leading edge of new consumer technologies carving award win- ning (CES, TechTV, Mobile Innovation) marketing paths with a dot com company called @mobile, a wireless application service provider, and then Wildseed Ltd., the innovator of the precursor to the iPhone. Both companies were acquired for their innovative technologies.

Cindy is very passionate about the consumer’s role in the advertising value chain. She has published a white paper on her thoughts regarding the emerging category she identifies as Advertising Relations (on advertisingrelations.com). Observing the shifts in online advertising and consumer sentiment in the last decade, Cindy identified a huge market opportunity and thus co-founded Is That Odd with Chief Creative Officer Dianne Dominguez.

Cindy studied business administration at Marquette University, earning her MBA. She also studied at the University of Antwerp in Belgium and earned her BA at the University of Toronto.

Last year she wrote and recorded her first music single. She most recently was in the studio recording the fun launch song for the company called “I’m a Shopping Woman.”

She holds two patents. She holds a purple belt in Kung Fu. And, her favorite, she proudly holds the hands of her two little girls and her husband.



Dianne Dominguez, Chief Creative Officer

As Chief Creative Officer, Dianne Dominguez is responsible for driving the creative vision and overall design strategy at Is That Odd. By identifying and cultivating the principles that support effective design, she helps drive value into the company’s online presence and product offerings. Cindy and Dianne began working together at Wildseed Ltd in 2002.

Dianne has over twelve years of experience in the software industry, with a focus on user experience design. Prior to joining Is That Odd, she worked for Microsoft, where she focused on concept development and product design within several consumer software applications for Vista, Windows Media and Windows Mobile. Following her work at Microsoft, she spent four years at Palm where she worked on a number of new product endeavors, including revolutionary core user interface models for the Palm Pre. In her last year at Palm, she moved on to help lead the Marketing team in a company-wide rebranding initiative.

A seasoned start-up veteran, Dianne has helped shape the online presence of several new companies, leveraging emerging technologies and setting the tone for user interface design and e-commerce solutions.

Dianne is a multidisciplinary designer who has a passion for crafting delightful interactive experiences. Her work spans multiple platforms and her client roster includes many of the world’s largest brands, including Amazon, AOL, AT&T, Palm, Sprint and Microsoft to name a few.

Dianne’s portfolio can be viewed at her namesake website diannedominguez.com. Dianne holds several patents for innovations in user interface and wireless technologies and has received numerous awards for her work.

In her free time, Dianne enjoys oil painting and spending time with her husband and two dogs on the trails and beaches of sunny California.



John Crumley, Vice President of Engineering

John Crumley is the Vice President of Engineering for Is That Odd Inc. He is responsible for SIRCLE, the demographic and psychographic tracking system which utilizes a sophisticated economic model to enable Is That Odd to match information, products, and advertisements from brands with users who are actually interested them. John’s background in building software for stock exchanges and trading firms makes him well suited to build the SIRCLE advertising platform.

In addition to his work with Is That Odd, John runs TBA Enterprises, Inc which provides high end technology consulting services (strategic technology planning, system architecture, project management, and rapid implementation services) for small and medium sized companies primarily in the financial services and logistics industries. In this role, John is continually involved in a variety of high pressure, resource restricted situations ranging from running technology and development services for successful start-up companies such as YardView, to taking over broken, business critical software development projects for stock exchanges and trading firms and turning them into functioning products.

John is excited to be involved with SIRCLE and the challenge of creat- ing an elegant and understandable solution to implement the sophis- tication and complexity of the concepts within SIRCLE. In his role with SIRCLE, John is responsible for providing strategic and tactical direction insuring the robust and innovative functionality which is required for ITO’s revolutionary vision is delivered in a timely and cost effective manner without compromising future requirements for rapid growth, maintainability, and enhanced functionality.

Prior to starting TBA Enterprises in 2002, John worked for eight years in consumer manufacturing where he held a series of positions of increasing responsibility culminating with the role of vice president of manufacturing for a Fortune 200 company. His involvement in plant shutdowns and start-ups, product introductions and redesigns, and management of large budgets has given him an excellent under- standing of the “bottom line” to complement his extensive technology experience.

When not wishing there was more time to explore that latest innova- tive idea that popped up while grocery shopping, John can frequently be found sailing (he has completed the 300 plus mile race from Chicago to Mackinaw island five times) or hiking (slightly more than five Colorado fourteeners have been summated).



Angela Finney, Vice President of Operations

Angela is the Vice President of Operations. Angela’s mission for Is That Odd is to ensure everything legal, administrative and operational are astutely attended to. Angela is a seasoned software executive with over 13 years experience. She has extensive experience in defining and launching versions 1.0 and 2.0 products in emerging product categories.

Angela has created version 1.0 and 2.0 products for companies such as Lotus Development, IBM, Software.com and Openwave Systems.

Highlights include:

• Launched the first online commerce initiative for Lotus Development in 1995.

• Led product marketing for Lotus Domino, the Lotus/IBM first Internet server.

• Achieved $25 million in revenue in the first year-to-market with Software.com’s Intermail Kx, a scalable messaging server for mid- sized ISPs (Software.com merged with Phone.com to become Openwave in 2000).

• Defined the product plan and the sales strategy for Openwave’s first WAP 2.0 solution, which was then later adopted by the broader market.

Angela holds a BA Cum Laude from Tufts University.

IsThatOdd.com is a free social sharing website targeted at women over 35 years old, one of the most sought after consumer demographic segments in the world because they command household spending. The website features a new, patent pending, advertising model called SIRCLE (Social-media Incentives and Rewards for Content and Level of Engagement), which initiates a well-understood psychological feedback loop that will migrate the consumer from a sample to a full size retail purchase. Just as Google launched search as the core feature upon which to build an audience for delivering ads, Is That Odd has created a user generated content site to build an audience that will enthusiastically interact with the SIRCLE advertising platform.

Odd Coins enable consumers to try out new products by buying product samples.  Is That Odd delivers a product trial environment in the online world for personal care products (a $40 billion industry in the U.S.).  When the affluent female shopper isn’t browsing in stores or watching TV, the opportunity to introduce her to new products approaches zero.  Is That Odd creates a new way for brands to drive demand creation and customer acquisition.  These sales tools have never been available to marketers before.