The Gatekeepers of Your Shares: What Every DESPAC Company Must Know About Transfer Agents

Chaz Churchwell: What's going on everybody? My name is Chaz. I'm your host of the D SPAC podcast. I do DNO insurance with Churchwell Insurance Agency, but today's not about me. Today is about Caitlin. Caitlin Van Valen from Odyssey Trust and Transfer. So here's what you're gonna find, Caitlin, is we talk about people saying moving a mountain is pretty powerful.

Caitlyn is actually the force that kind of creates the mountains, and she's the one. Who she moves the stocks, but she creates the mountains. And so everybody, today I wanna bring and introduce to you transfer agent and trust holder, Caitlyn Van Valen with Odyssey Trust. Caitlyn, how you doing? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Hey, Chaz.

Thank you. Oh my gosh, so kind. You also are moving your own mountains and so I so appreciate that. It's great to meet everyone. I'm Caitlyn Van Valen. I head sales here in the US for Odyssey Trust Company. 

Chaz Churchwell: And if you're not familiar with Odyssey Trust. First of all, you will be. But second of all, they're, they were number one in Canada and after they just crushed the market in Canada on TSX and SIBO and everything up there, they came down into the US and they have found a really powerful niche for themselves in the SPAC ecosystem.

It's not all that they do they're not limited to that, but they have become an absolute. Titan to be dealt with. And and so Caitlin, I'd love to hear first off just a little bit about what it is that your team at Odyssey is doing to differentiate yourself for the SPAC d spac ecosystem and keeping in frame, pardon me.

Our target audience is private companies looking at going public and considering a spac. To do that. So what is it you guys are doing that has really set you apart to have this explosive growth and why should people that are private looking to go public through a fat care? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah, that's, those are great questions.

I think. For anyone that knows the transfer agent and trust space, it's been a super archaic space for a long time. So my entire team actually came out of some of those archaic engines or big box transfer agents, as you wanna call them, because we were on a mission to do one of two things. One was we wanted to be client facing.

Again, this is super important in the SPAC ecosystem for private companies going public. Your transfer agent becomes an extension of your team when you go public, whether you're doing it traditionally through an S one filing, or you're doing it through a d spac. Post that corporate action event, your transfer agent is going to be there with you as you're under a microscope, you're one.

And so at Odyssey we took all these veteran players from the big box transfer agents who had worked on truly most of the large transactions over the last 10 years. So our team did five of the 10 largest transactions over the last 10 years. And we said we wanna be client facing again with our information.

We wanna be able to service our clients well. What has been the big red tape that has not allowed us to do that? And what can we do to change that? And three, technology needed to catch up. Like the transfer agent world, we were operating in the nineties we're, we're 2026. We were like, we can do a few small things that will make a huge difference in the lives of our shareholders.

And I, I really genuinely believe that through the partnerships we have formed with our sponsor teams, with other companies who, like Carta, who have a ton of private companies going public, we've created solutions for them to then help them navigate this new space they're in. And I genuinely believe that is why we have exploded.

Chaz Churchwell: Real quick, I wanna ask you about the technology here in a second. Before we do that, I think we need to do two things. Number one, I think it's important that I tell people you're private. If you haven't gone public before, you don't understand this yet. And hopefully you'll consider working with somebody like Odyssey and you'll never experience this.

But with most transfer agents, you feel like you're banging your head against a wall trying to get stuff done with them. Whether you're talking to somebody that's that's. Overseas because they've outsourced it or whatever it is. You get stuck in like this death loop to where somebody says they can't help you and they need to transfer you to someone else.

There's not a serious relationship that's there, which is what Caitlyn's talking about. And it is fresh wind. I'm not even joking you. If you're someone who can appreciate good customer service, please take that into account as you're really running through things. But the other thing is this calin, I would love if you could unpack what a transfer agent.

Does, what is your role for this company that is going to dpac? What, like what do you do for them that they're gonna be paying you lots of money for? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: So if a company is going through a D SPAC transaction, I would say the first thing I wanna highlight is make sure they're a transfer agent and a trust company.

You do not wanna bifurcate those two things. And when they do get bifurcated, that's typically when we run into litigation issues. And so Odyssey is both a transfer agent and a trust. We are one of. I think three in the us and so it's very difficult to obtain the trust license. That also gives the one, the sponsor team, but two, the target company, a level of comfort knowing that there's a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders, and we are the ones maintaining that from the transfer agent perspective.

The D SPAC is truly a corporate action event, right? Yeah. You have sponsor company, you've got Target company. They're coming into the new co. It's a name change. We're off to the races. What's really important during this time is communication. I can't stress this enough. Chaz just talked about this. One of the things with transfer agents is that a lot of it gets outsourced to call centers or to different countries.

We will not allow that to happen. That is super important to us. We built a model that made sure that does not happen. We operate in what we call a pod model. The pod model ensures that you are talking to your relationship manager or the two associates underneath them, and they are not overloaded with accounts where they are not able to service you in the 24 hour timeframe.

We. And so I will tell you over and over again, communication. Communication. Communication is the most important part of any corporate action event. And of course, it's communicating with DTC and with the brokers and with the sponsor team and legal Chas, like everyone's groups. But most importantly, it's to know that internally you have really good comms in place to streamline this process, to make sure it all goes smoothly.

So if you are a target company. You are about to enter into the firestorm that is a d spac, and then the public market one. Congratulations. Two is you're, we're gonna be a very integral part of your team and we are a very checklist oriented group that is going to make sure to look behind corners for you that you don't know to look behind, so that everything is streamlined and off the races.

The biggest thing that we notice is. The importance of shareholders, understanding where their posi their position is, how to access their position, and how to move it to brokerage accounts. And that's, that's something that we do really holistically and well at Odyssey. And it's something that has made a big difference in this space.

Chaz Churchwell: So how does this work? The company's gonna go, they're gonna launch it's gonna be it's gonna be them as this new go forward company. Yeah. What is the what's the typical. Process look like to where they start engaging with you? How does that conversation go? Like when is it right? Is it before the proxy gets filed that they start talking to you?

Yeah. Is it the day that they are now publicly trading? Like when is it that the two of you start really building your relationship and what are some of the key steps that actually happen through that in the process? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: So it depends. I wish there was one, one answer for this. Of course. It's just the nature of the beast.

If we are transfer agent and trust for the sponsor company, we will be talking to them very early as soon as the announcement is made. We then get involved with the target company to do record cleanups, making sure everything is in alignment for that corporate action event. So pri, prior to the proxy filing prior to the D SPAC taking place, we are coming in and we are handling records.

We're reconciling, we're doing our audit scrubs to make sure that everything looks like it's in place. So that when you know D-Day comes, everything is in alignment and ready to go. I will tell you that I have been engaged where we are not transfer agent and trust for the sponsor like two weeks before the D spac.

Our team can handle it. That's the best part about it is we're ready to go and we can do it. Is it ideal? No, but we certainly will. So I would say that if you are a Target private target company, you are looking to merge with a spac. One, reach out. Like we are more than happy to walk you through what that process looks like.

'cause a lot of the time you don't know. And so if we can be an advisory arm to you to help you walk through that process, we would love to be. And then whether you're with, if this sponsors with someone else or with us we're still here to help support. Because the end game for us is that public company.

A true public company moving forward in their lifecycle because that's who we support super well. 

Chaz Churchwell: Yeah. Okay, let's talk about this. Let's say that there's a company that they're looking through, the transfer agent agreement that's there in place with the sponsor. 'cause you mentioned that already being there.

What are some of the key things that they need to understand? Because TA agreements the transfer, the trust agreement. It's not super simple. There's a lot of complex terms that if you've been a private company. You are like, you're looking at this stuff and you're just glassed over on your eyes because some of it isn't, is not plain English.

So what are some of the key things that is important that they're finding and looking for in these documents when they're looking at it? Both things that are critical to have and things that are like trip wires to where you need to second guess. Who you're in bed with, if you see that you have that baked into the agreement.

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah, that's a good question. So the transfer agent agreement is a protection, right? It's a protection for the client and it's a protection for the transfer agent because, let's back up a step. What does a transfer agent do? A transfer agent, we are your gatekeepers of your shares. And so you can think of us like the auditors of your shares.

We maintain your registered position, so we're the ones that will issue new shares, transfer shares for you. You can buy and sell from the site. We handle your annual meeting, anything involving your shareholders, your registered shareholder base. We are the ones that are the now maintaining as a public company.

You'll enter into a share or a transfer agent agreement with your transfer agent and with the company. As Chaz pointed out, these agreements can feel a bit cumbersome. I would say in general, they're pretty standard. You deal with this with lawyers and printers and auditors, but here's what you need to look out for.

We are a service oriented company. That means, in my eyes, if you don't like the service you're getting from my team, you shouldn't have to stay with us. A lot of transfer agents have termination provisions. This means you were locked into a contract. For three or five years, and if you want to break that contract, let's say they didn't deliver on something, you have to pay the remainder of that contract and contract fees to get out of it.

Odyssey does things a little differently. Our motto is, if you wanna walk, you should be able to walk, and so we don't have any termination provision. This allows you to leave us whenever you want so that you are not locked into a contract. In its terms, I would say that is probably the biggest red flag that we run into continuously, is companies coming over to Odyssey and saying, I had no idea I had this termination provision with X transfer.

What can I do? And so that's just something I would look closely at. I'd also look at autorenew provisions. Autorenew provisions mean that the contract auto renews on the date that it was originally signed the next year, and so then you're locked in for the next year if you miss the, if you miss the provision window.

I don't know, in my eyes, Chaz I don't wanna get in bed with someone that's making me stay there. So I think that's probably the biggest thing I would look for. 

Chaz Churchwell: Yeah. And knowing that there is that lockup with a lot of 'em, I think that's something to really pay attention to. Yeah. So how do you how do you suggest if a private company is is looking to do this and they know who the agreement is with, how do they actually stress test it to figure out, is this somebody I wanna stay with or that I want to jump and give Kaitlyn a call?

Caitlyn Van Valin: So this is this that's a great question. It's super important. To think of it like this, you are a new company, so when post Dpac it is a new company, you're going to enter into a new contract with the transfer agent. Whether they tell you that's true or not, it's true. So no matter what, know that you have that flexibility.

Where we have seen issues in the past is with sponsor teams, you're signing. At the actual IPO, you're signing multiple contracts. You have the transfer agent contract, you have the IMTA. You can have a warrant agent agreement, you can have a rights agreement. And so it's super important that the target company talks to the sponsor team to get those contracts to take a look at how they're outlined and laid out, and then we're happy to review them and let them know what their options might be.

Chaz Churchwell: So that's huge. You could even go and say, if somebody wanted to, they could reach out to you and say, Hey, look, this is what we've got. Would love to, for you to take a look at it. We're with this big box guy, whatever. And if they do that, then you're able to say, Hey, here's some things FYI, you've got a good deal.

Or or we feel that we could do exponentially better for you or even yeah. You may this is great pricing, but you may want to make a phone call in and ask for something and see how much of a headache it is to actually get it done and like you could help figure those things out.

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah, I laugh a little bit now. I think it's been so ingrained in my head to talk about like the big box versus us. The reality of it is we are 1300 published, you becoming a big 

Chaz Churchwell: box 

Caitlyn Van Valin: and hundred 70 people. And so we're, we are quite large at this point. But I think what's so beautiful about Odyssey is that we operate, and Chaz you know this from the clients we've worked on together, like in a very boutique model.

And so even though we have grown to this size. We have made sure to hire, according to the growth with really experienced people, that has allowed us to still have this advisory instead of administrative approach. And so that's why we can hop on and say, Hey, your contract looks like this. Here's maybe what you can do or wiggle out or what we've seen.

So yeah, maybe I need to stop calling them the big box. 

Chaz Churchwell: Okay, let's, 

Caitlyn Van Valin: I'll give them another name. I dunno. Yeah, I gotta, 

Chaz Churchwell: you can just say the other guys. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: The 

Chaz Churchwell: other guys. But okay. Let's actually switch gears for one second. 'Cause as well as I do, people love doing business with people that they like, right?

So I want to give people an opportunity to get to know a little bit about who you are and not just. What you do. So for me, like I know that like you're this awesome wife and like you've got all of these other facets to who you are and your husband's amazing. But like I would love to hear if you are cool sharing, I would love to hear just the story about.

You and and how it is that you ended up in Colorado, because you are somebody who a lot of people may not know, but you were like born on Wall Street basically and it's, it's literally in your blood. Yeah. So I would love to hear just 'cause you know what I mean when I say that. I'd love for the audience just to know what I mean by that, and then just how it is you ended up living in Colorado.

Caitlyn Van Valin: Sure. Yeah. Believe it or not, I was actually born in Colorado. 

Chaz Churchwell: Wait. Yes. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yes, I was. And a lot of my family's here, which is why we ended up here. But I I also went to CU Boulder undergrad, so I am a, I'm a CU Buffs fan. If there's any Buff fans out there, I will obviously give you a one hell of a deal because you're family.

And I did undergrad there through the lead school and then I went to London School of Economics for my graduate program and then worked for private equity after that, and then was hired to roll out a corporate trust product for another transfer agent in the US who was coming into the US from a UK market.

And during this time we were in New York and then my husband worked for NBC as a sportscaster. He is way cooler than I am. He is done all the Olympics and the fun stuff. 

Chaz Churchwell: He is pretty cool. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah, he's, yeah, he's way cooler than me. It's fine. I'm happy to admit it. And then we started having babies and so we were, so the agreement was we'll come to Colorado where we have family to help.

We have three beautiful children who keep us on our toes, but Luke and I both. Love to work and are really passionate about the things that we're doing. And this was the place that we'd be able to keep it all together. We felt like if we raised him here, even though we're on the road, I'm pretty much in New York.

I am in New York now twice a month. The kids can still be raised here and have family and be around, everyone that we would want as a support system. And so that's been huge for us. Like our. Luke and I's life has always been traveling. He was a professional skier before he was an NBC sportscaster.

So I spent, we spent a lot of years traveling around the world and that was super important to us to provide that for the children, but we needed a home base, so Colorado felt like the best place for that. 

Chaz Churchwell: Now let me ask, are you guys going to Italy for the Winter Olympics? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: We're, this is the first Olympics missing.

I know, I'm, that just 

Chaz Churchwell: doesn't make sense to me for you. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: You wanna do You wanna know why? 

Chaz Churchwell: Yeah. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: My daughter is in a dance competition in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm not kidding. Okay. You know what though? Parents out there who feel my pain dance in the dance world, we are missing the Winter Olympics to go to Louisville, Kentucky for our 10-year-old ESPN filled dance competition.

Chaz Churchwell: You're not missing the Winter Olympics, like you're gonna show up and figure out how to stumble around there. You are missing the winner of Olympics, like your VIP access to every stinking thing that you go to. Because of who you and your husband are. And so that right there is is mind blowing. Like I'll tell you straight up, my daughter you're a better, you're a better parent than me.

Because I would be like, no, you're missing this one. You don't get to buy that dumb uniform. You don't have to learn that dance. You're out. We're going to Italy. So anyway. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: I know. Trust. Hey, trust me. The thought has crossed both of our minds multiple times, but we're big proponents for you put in the hard work, we're always gonna be there to support you first.

The other stuff is fun that comes next. So 

Chaz Churchwell: now you're just making it So 

Caitlyn Van Valin: praying for me while I'm there. I 

Chaz Churchwell: all, so that was solid. Now I want to come back to, 'cause we talked early on, you mentioned technology as a big differentiator for what you guys are doing. Why does the technology matter?

Why are you saying it's antiquated in other places? And what is Odyssey doing to where these companies that are looking to go public need to pay attention to it? Why does it matter to them? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Let's think of it this way. We're all used to a lot of access to technology at our fingertips, right?

We've got cell phones, we've got computers. We're do you and I are doing this right now over computer, over Zoom? 

Chaz Churchwell: Yeah. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Where the transfer agent World sat for so long was that many of the systems were on an old outdated system and that didn't have the ability to build layers on it, so they couldn't do any sort of upgrades.

The old transfer agents couldn't, but it was too expensive to move off of it. Or if you move off of it, you have to transfer all your clients. That's scary for them. So Odyssey was built on the idea of, okay, one, we can, we don't need to be on the legacy system. We can be on a new system that we have, and then we can build on top of it the things that the clients really need.

Think of, think about things like online medallion guarantees. Broker, 

Chaz Churchwell: okay, what's a, like what's a medallion? Because think about it. Private client. That they're foreign, that's foreign to them. What is medallion? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah so a medallion is something you need to remove a legend on your shares to clear them to your brokerage accounts.

They're very difficult to obtain. A medallion is something you would get from your bank. So you'd have to go into your bank and verify, Hey, I am who I say I am. Send the stock power form back to the transfer agent to then clear the shares. This has been a huge bottleneck. Huge in SPACs and just in clearing shares in general because a lot of banks don't wanna take the risk of giving a medallion if they don't know you super well, if you're not like a private banker with them.

And so we created a technology, we have a technology that we use that allows the shareholder to book directly through the relationship manager where they can obtain an online medallion all the way up to an ex medallion. That then allows 'em to clear the share seamlessly. So like foreign shareholders, this is massive for you.

This is a game changer because getting your shares on time, there's material loss that can occur. Making sure that you have your shares when you need to get your shares. And that's been, I think that's like the shining star. Everyone wants to talk about Italian, but it's such a little thing that we did that really helped to open up.

Open up this bottleneck in the market. And another thing we did was, we backed instantly. And this is gonna be an important thing for you too is when you need an activity report, as of the minute. There's we're though, I think the only transfer agent doing that right now. The other transit, you have to wait for the overnight for everything to batch to then be able to send it to your auditor.

It's just these little things that have made a big difference and we're gonna continue to build on our system to provide those services. 

Chaz Churchwell: And here's what I will tell you. The last thing that you want to have happen is have a major institutional investor who can't get their shares available to them when they're trying to make sure that they can do what they need to do with those shares.

Because if you all of the sudden cost them $500,000 because of the fact that you are because of the fact that you're a transfer agent. I couldn't get stuff done for them, and it took a week to turn things around. Then all of the sudden, you're hearing about it. They're in your ear, and and you just have to hope that it doesn't lead to something more aggressive.

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah. The more if we were to zoom out and I would, we're talking to private companies and you're, and you sit here and you go, okay, you're going to get pitched. The same. We all gotta get pitched the same thing in anything we do. My service is better, my technology is better.

I can do it better, faster, quicker, easier. It's right everyone's saying it. I do think at the end of the day and I think it's great that people truly believe that I believe that about our product, and I should, because this is the company I represent. 

Chaz Churchwell: Right? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: I think at the end of the day, it comes down to relationships.

So we will do it faster. We will do it for less. We will continue to build out products that make your life so much easier the private company. But when it comes down to it, wait till you meet my team. Like I, my team is what has made I always say like the first sale, so great. We have so much repeat business from the same people.

That has, that's what shows like. The service and the relationships there, and I think that's made all the difference. So yes, you're gonna get I think all the best, but then you're gonna have a relationship that you truly care about and that cares about you. 

Chaz Churchwell: That matters.

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah, 

Chaz Churchwell: obviously the repeat business matters for you, but but the reputation that comes through you garnering repeat business tells the story.

And I think that's really significant. So let me ask this. I would love to know what is the big, just. Pitfall or the big miss that you see with these companies whenever the DPAC happens, what are some of the big misses or pitfalls that you find that these companies are running into now they're public and they're trying to navigate these waters of understanding their relationship with you better?

Like as is germane to that. What's some of the big tension points that are there? Like maybe they just don't get it and it, there's that learning curve, whatever 

Caitlyn Van Valin: yeah. 

Chaz Churchwell: What are your thoughts? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: I'm just gonna it's communication. Bottom line. Most of these private target companies do not have experience in the public market.

How are they supposed to know what they don't know? 

Chaz Churchwell: Yeah, 

Caitlyn Van Valin: they're not they have no idea what they should be looking for, and so things become a fire drill very quickly. What I love about what we do is we come in with an advisory approach, and I mentioned this earlier. It's that checklist.

It's that looking behind the corner for you that you don't even know about. It's telling you what to expect in the coming month, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, and that has made such a big difference. We are huge communicators. Not only internally, but externally with our clients. Internally, if you saw the streamlined processes and the sheets, like all of the checklists that we work off of for each client to make sure no ball is dropped, it's because we have a team who cares and who's also gonna make sure this is done right.

So it's streamlined. Communication from an internal perspective allows us to streamline communication from an external perspective to then advise. Side so that they know exactly what they should be looking out for, especially year one when all of this is fresh. 

Chaz Churchwell: Lemme I thank you for that. That's huge.

Let me ask this. Who's the typical point, first point person for you guys? I think to myself about the I think to myself about with d and o, my normal per point person is the CFO. That's usually, yeah, that's usually the go-to for me, which it makes for a really funny dynamic because CFOs are usually very spreadsheet detail oriented people, and I'm more of a bull in a China shop, and so it always makes for a really interesting dynamic when we get together.

Oh, for 

Caitlyn Van Valin: sure. Yeah. 

Chaz Churchwell: But for the ta. And for the trustee, like how, who's your usual go-to? Is it the CFO? Is it a CEO? The COO? Who should they typically empower? Because I see in public markets, these new companies, they really struggle finding like, who's supposed to be responsible for what with all these new things that they've never really done before.

Caitlyn Van Valin: So it deci it, it depends on the size of the company to be honest. Controllers are usually the main point of contact with a transfer agent. So CFO controller in general will be I, and if they have internal ir. Will really be the one that owns the relationship with the transfer agent.

Chaz Churchwell: Okay. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: On a smaller sized company, I will see both CFO and CEO get involved. And that's, I think a preference thing, but I also think that just depends on the size of your team. 

Chaz Churchwell: Got it. Okay. So basically what we're seeing is it could be anywhere across the spectrum, but ultimately, if you're a CEO and you're watching this right now and your company is gonna be going public through a spac IPO, whatever, this is one of those things to where you should be feeling comfortable to offload this to your CFO into your controller because that is the normal.

Modus operandi for how it all rolls out. Yeah. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: That's who's, yeah. That's who's gonna be managing the relationship for you moving forward. And so it's important for them to build that relationship and then have CEO oversight, right? It's like that, that, that's always there. Board approval also is gonna be a part of this.

But yeah, I would say controller, CFO, by end of year one, they're gonna be, they're gonna know us well. In a good way. I hope 

Chaz Churchwell: I, I saw something recently with Jeff Bezos when he was talking about his day. Yeah. And he was like, my job as CEO isn't to make a lot of decisions. My job is to make very few decisions at a very high level and to execute them with excellence.

And so it's that idea of the CEOs need to offload things. They need to let things go, particularly as you're moving from private to public. And sometimes for some of these companies, for some of these operators, it's not easy to let go like that, but it's it's just too overwhelming. And this is one of those areas where they can.

With a degree of confidence. Like he said to him, he says, if I make three really good decisions a day, I feel like I've had a good day. Yeah. And most CEOs that I know, they're thinking, man, I'm making about a hundred decisions a day. The idea of three, that would be beautiful.

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah. So 

Chaz Churchwell: CEOs, 

Caitlyn Van Valin: it takes time to get there though.

It's like I always wanna encourage the smaller companies to know, like when people are wearing multiple hats within an organization and a lot and they're a lot, that growth period, that first one is the hardest. Like I, anyone will tell you that it really is I'm sure you've seen this, it's like the hardest, it's the hardest amount of money to make is a million dollars.

Then it then the second hardest is to get from a million to five. Then once you get to five, things start getting a lot easier. Things. It's just like there's the multiplication effect. That's true. And so I always wanna encourage the private companies that are maybe going public who are maybe on the smaller side, but have this huge growth trajectory.

To know, like it's okay to be involved in multiple things and wear multiple hats, but to also work to build out the team, right? So that when you hit the $5 million and you're ready to go, then you're, then you become the visionary and just the visionary and then everyone else can follow suit with their roles, which is usually more boots on the ground.

It's a lot more grainy. Yeah. 

Chaz Churchwell: Okay, so final question for you professionally. I wanna ask, obviously Odyssey has been clutch. You've captured a massive amount of the SPAC ecosystem and you guys are seeing, you're tracking, where things are trending right now, obviously. I think we have 25 SPAC IPOs just in January.

So there's a lot that's coming our, it's exciting in our industry right now. Where do you see things headed in the d SPAC space over the next 12 months for 20? By the end of 2026? What do you see on the horizon? 

Caitlyn Van Valin: I think this SPAC cycle is so different than the last one.

Chaz Churchwell: So true. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Yeah. And that's because we have a lot of private companies who stayed private longer 'cause the markets didn't support the go public and so they're a lot better prepared to go public one and two. There's, I think the statistic was like 70% of the IPOs out there. The SPAC IPOs are repeat SPAC sponsors.

So they've already tr they're tried and true, right? They've been through it and they've failed and they know what they need to look out for. And so that's, in my eyes, like a really great tri combination for a successful d spac and ongoing public company. I think we're gonna see a lot of successful d SPACs this year because we had a lot of spec IPOs last year, and yeah.

And we're already seeing some great announcements that are really promising with big companies. Like it's great to see that happening and I think we'll continue to see that happening throughout, throughout this year. I think it'll get really busy. Second half on D SPACs. That's my guess. 

Chaz Churchwell: I love it. I love it.

Okay. And then final question that I've got for you, we're gonna hit one more personal thing. Okay. I wanna know, do you ski or board? When you're on the 

Caitlyn Van Valin: slope, oh my gosh, how dare you even bring up boarding. I'm a skier. Through and through. The kids are required. They, yeah. I had my kids on skis at 18 months.

I They can't even look at a board or they're in trouble. 

Chaz Churchwell: Stop it. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Are you a boarder cha now I thought you are. 

Chaz Churchwell: I'm a borderer and I go goofy. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Oh my gosh, all. I'm not 

Chaz Churchwell: gonna, but I do hit the skis. I'll hit ski. 

Caitlyn Van Valin: Don't disc.

John won't tell Luke he'll be 

Chaz Churchwell: alright. Hey everybody again, this is Caitlyn Van Valen with Odyssey. My name is Chaz with Churchwell Insurance Agency, your host of the D SPAC podcast. So thankful that you tuned in today. Make sure that you subscribe, follow us because there's a lot more content coming from amazing people just like Caitlyn.

Stalk her on LinkedIn, find her, connect with her. She would be all elated to hear from you and to be able to talk to you about what Odyssey might be able to do for your team. Blessings, all the best.