by These days, a blockchain The startup founder should expect to navigate difficult waters. Even in the best of times, founders need to prepare for a bull market and be ready for possible bear territory.
Having a solid roadmap, real-world use cases, and a war chest are 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 opens up differently.
Here are tips that every blockchain founder should consider before getting started.
Consider market conditions
Bear Markets look more attractive to startup blockchain businesses. But before they suit up for the winter, founders need to assess whether it’s worth waiting to launch until market conditions improve.
In the web3 world of horizontal technologies, you will be running against the wind if you wait to build relationships until you build a technology.
Evaluate your startup with the same criteria that investors use during a bear market. Investors want to see a strong roadmap with deadlines and benchmarks that don’t just come and go without activity, as this is a signal to investors that a slow blanket withdrawal is underway.
Having a diversified war chest to draw from is vital, especially when delivering returns on locked-in assets is the primary driver for achieving liquidity. Additionally, analyze the market situation from a technical point of view: A bear market is an attractive time to trade, but it is also a time to clear your head and focus on building your product.
No matter the market conditions, use our rewards programs for loyal community members, offering staking rewards, airdrops and gifts without having to raise additional capital, similar to the traditional business world.
Choose longer vesting schedules
In the non-crypto startup scene, it is common to include compensation packages as an incentive for employees to perform well. Blockchain startups do this during the presale period of an initial coin offering using a method called staking, where they lock and release assets (usually in the form of tokens) for a certain period. In doing so, they give their team, investors, and advisors the right to certain assets, such as retirement and stock options.
If you choose this route, set up your token counts and vesting period to phase out those tokens in a way that doesn’t put too much pressure on the token itself. Many crypto projects unlock and distribute their tokens every three months and find private investors dumping them in the market, which is bad for the team and the community. In turn, retail investors also start selling in advance because they know a dump is coming.
Choose longer vesting timelines – between three and five years – to show you have a financial incentive to continue developing the project. Separate token release: Release private sale investor tokens one month, advisor tokens the next month, and team tokens a month later. If everything is in one month, the risk for private investors will be very high.
