Not because they are easy, but because they are hard!
If your blockchain is set for just one use-case, you better be the best. But if you are a blockchain platform, you can reach out to the best.
During the Space Race period, President of the US, John F. Kennedy delivered his historic speech in Houston, to gather support for the famous Apollo Program. Whenever you watch a movie that happens in that era or any space movie that includes the Apollo Program, usually has the famous quote below. But for blockchain “moon” is usually used for projects that provide huge returns in a short period of time. Especially for the projects during “the hype”, which increased their value for 10x or 100x, or even more.
We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
– John F. Kennedy
The age of hype for blockchain companies is over (for now). Even if you are not into the blockchain, you probably remember the huge hype that has been created around blockchain from late 2017 to mid-2018. The market cap of all blockchain projects was going nuts, even the people who don’t know anything about blockchain was investing in ICOs of blockchain projects with no future.
To be honest, I was one of those people. Even if I did my own research thoroughly before investing in ICOs, I was not thinking about the blockchain part. A blockchain-based project for easy B2B lead-generation… Shut up and take my $100! A project that combines AI and blockchain to increase the effectiveness and quality of space photographs… There you go $200! Even if those were great startup projects and most of the ones I invested in still lives to this day, they never “mooned”. They were not great blockchain projects.
Great project ≠ Great blockchain project
Vertical Challenge Programs that we did in the past were usually 1 to 3 day-long programs that allow entrepreneurs or employees from the company to find solutions to a specific problem or generate ideas in specific areas. For example, a pharmaceutical company may want to get into the agriculture or the agrotech field, by exploring innovative startups within the target space. They create a program and call only agrotech startups according to their vision. Rather than creating the experience within the company by trial and error, huge companies can benefit from the innovative mindset of entrepreneurs and either collaborate with the best ones or can choose to acquire them. As a result, they can add new products into their portfolio such as new medicine for animals, additives for crops, etc.
This same approach that we applied with huge corporations in various fields can also be applied to blockchain platforms that are looking to increase or explore the number of use-cases for their technology.
When we think of blockchain platforms with great projects developed on top of it, the most used ones are either gaming or DeFi dapps. But if you ask a professional, they all know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. As games and DeFi target consumers directly, they are the most downloaded dapps on any platform. Even if more users mean more profits most of the time, in the blockchain scene it is not about quantity, but the quality of your users. A blockchain project that solves an important problem for a niche business might generate more MRR than a game with 10K daily users.
It is not just about the blockchain
Vertical Challenge Programs for blockchain platforms generate great results. In Rezolute, we experienced various programs not only for blockchain platforms, but also for global brands, such as acceleration programs, demo days, corporate innovation programs and vertical challenge programs. During that time, we also observed blockchain platforms who tried to create their own programs within the company and failed most of the time.
The most common mistake we noticed for programs done by blockchain people who have almost no clue about what to look for in startup pitches, they just accept a project based on the elevator pitch. Elevator pitch is the shortest version of a startup presentation, which gives an idea to a potential investor or partner in just a few sentences. This is not enough.
In our past programs, we examined all aspects of a startup from the characteristics of the team members to their ability to execute on time, or from their market potential to financial projections. The key point here is to ask the right questions to the founders and find their weak spots. If they can be improved, no problem. But if there are a few red flags, most of the time, it is not worth your while.
Blockchain expertise and startup evaluation combined: Rezolute
We had gathered thousands of applications for our programs from all around the world and we interviewed at least a quarter of them. That is why our team members can evaluate a startup in all aspects with minimum margin of error.
Evey blockchain platform would love to get a project that runs on that specific platform to be a flagship for their technology. Because without proper use-cases that people or companies use in real-life situations, a blockchain platform will become obsolete, even if they have the best technology infrastructure in their area. For this reason, some rich blockchain platforms spend ridiculous amounts of money as incentives, without any measurable results.
It is not about spending money. It is about reaching out to the right audience with your program, to attract the best blockchain developers out there. If you can accomplish this, you can shoot for the stars.
