These days, blockchain A startup founder should expect to navigate challenging waters. Even in the best of times, founders should be prepared for a bull market and possibly a bear market.
Having a solid roadmap, real-world use cases, and war chest is only a small part of a blockchain startup’s survival strategy. Founders should also be aware that while non-crypto startups can offer useful and transferable startup strategies, the path to success in the blockchain industry is laid out differently.
Here are some tips that every blockchain founder should consider before starting.
Consider the market conditions
Bear markets look more attractive to startup blockchain businesses. But before gearing up for the winter, founders should assess whether it’s worth waiting to launch until market conditions improve.
In the Web3 world of horizontal technologies, if you wait to build relationships until you build technology, you’ll be running against the wind.
Evaluate your startup with the same criteria that investors use during bear markets. Investors want to see a solid roadmap with timeframes and benchmarks that don’t just come and go without activity, which is a sign to investors that gradual carpet pulling is taking place.
Evidence of the various war chests that can be raised is important, especially when it comes to recovering foreclosed properties, which is the main motivation for obtaining the amount of money. Also, analyze the market conditions from a technical point of view: Bear markets are an attractive time to start, but it is also a time to focus on bottoming out and building your product.
Regardless of market conditions, leverage your rewards programs for loyal community members by offering rewards, airdrops, and giveaways without the need to raise additional capital similar to the traditional business world.
Choose long-term allocation programs
In the non-crypto startup space, it is common to include compensation packages to incentivize employees to perform well. Blockchain startups do this by locking up assets (usually in the form of tokens) for a certain period of time during an initial coin offering using a method called vesting. By doing so, they give their team, investors and advisors access to certain assets, such as pensions and stock options.
If you choose this route, set the token parameters and idle time in a way that doesn’t put too much pressure on the token itself. Many crypto projects launch and distribute their tokens every three months, and are finding private investors dumping them into the market, which is bad for the team and the community. In turn, retail investors know a dump is coming, so they start selling ahead.
To demonstrate that you have the financial incentive to continue project development – choose longer allocation schedules – three to five years. Split the release of the tokens: release the private sale investors one month, the advisor the next month and the group tokens one month later. If it all happens in one month, the risk for retail investors will be very high.
