16 August 2022
Have you ever thought about launching a token or creating an NFT collection? What was the real intention of this idea? While the crypto market was in the bull run, there were so many projects where the only goal of creating token or NFT was to make quick money. Some succeeded, but most did not. Why so? There are many false beliefs about “easy” ways of making money in crypto, and those not experienced often get into this trap.
1. False belief: Token or NFT project does not need substance.
Ok, I agree there are meme tokens where the substance is hard to be noticed, but it is still there. The substance of any successful business is that it solves the target audience’s needs. There are only ten reasons why people spend their money - to make money, save money, save time, avoid effort, escape pain, get more comfort, get better health, gain praise, feel more loved or increase social status. Under each of those reasons, there are pain points that can be grouped based on the audience. As a result, any sales - also crypto investments need to solve the pain points of its target audience to hit the market with success. But what often happens is either the team is solving their own pain points, or the identified target audience’s pain points are not real but are just a perception of the team.
So how to make sure it is real?
Testing! When building a new business, testing should be done on each step. Living based on assumptions is like putting all your money on luck.
2. False belief: To launch a token or NFT project is super easy - make it and sell it
As a founder of the business idea and an opportunity to get out of the previous systems, we often are so deep into the project idea then we believe everyone should buy it. Based on Statista, there are more than 70 million blockchain wallets, but how many are real investors and how many of those are taking the high-risk stakes to invest in the presales, launches and mints? I have more than ten blockchain wallets for security reasons. In the riskiest part of the businesses, also called start-ups, there are additionally plenty of scams or other risks to be managed. Therefore, the actual market is still very tiny. This is just one part of the equation.
The second challenge comes in communication and letting investors know why they should invest in your project. After listening to hundreds of sales pitches, I can conclude that founders often cannot formulate why people should invest their money into their project, at least not in a convincing manner. And then, we go back to the question, why does this project exist at all?
For those who perfectly know what pain point of their audience they are solving and that solution comes in the right time and format, the remaining part is really only about telling about the project to as many people as possible. Is it so easy? Usually, it takes an effort of weeks or months… can it be called super easy? It depends on what means easy for each of us individually.
3. False belief: A token or NFT can be launched with almost zero funds
Yes, many token projects tend to have seed sales, private sales, presales etc. Where the founder team is finding opportunities to raise investors’ funds before they even start building the business. For those projects, the sales pitch might be excellent, and the substance of the problem they are solving with their solution is hitting the target. In most cases, when deciding to launch a project on the blockchain, it is pretty costly. Why?
Successful projects need a team of believers of your business idea or hired professionals; everyone needs to pay the bills at some point. When researching projects, I am very reserved about the big announcements of the teams who claim they work for free. It is amazing if they made a fortune on other businesses. Still, otherwise, this is not sustainable, and I have seen where projects fall apart because of delays and people unable to continue to invest their time in the pure idea.
The second biggest or maybe THE most significant expense is marketing. When you launch a small business in the WEB2 space, you can sell one item each day, and your business will start growing slowly and steady. In the crypto space, you need to build the momentum for a successful launch and keep the momentum ongoing to continue developing. All this requires market presence. Of course, as in every business, there are free methods to market, but that takes more effort (check again false belief Nr.2).
This list is not absolute but could be the primary false beliefs I have observed.
At the same time, it does not mean you should forget your dream to build a business on the blockchain. I genuinely believe this is a fantastic opportunity to be in front of the mainstream. Just think of this business as a REAL business, not just money generating machine, be ready to invest your effort, time and money. Those who believe they can do it and take it seriously, get the most amazing rewards.
Some great tools to challenge yourself down the road:
