…but we’re still incredibly excited and optimistic about the future of crypto.
A Retrospective
From back-of-the-napkin drawings in 2016, to production mobile apps in 2017, to seed investments in 2018, to pivoting our way through 2019… building and growing this wonderful community has been one hell of a ride.
I'm sure you can all relate!
The Beginning
In 2017, Cheddur was launched in response to countless cries for help from cryptocurrency novices all around the world who simply needed a better way to get started.
Crypto had broken into the mainstream consciousness for the very first time, and as an industry, it felt like we were finally on the map. And in hindsight, we were… but for all of the wrong reasons.
People were taking out loans to buy bitcoin, dozens of new coins were launching every single day, scammers were everywhere, and pretty much nobody knew what they were doing. It was madness.
And I am proud to say that for tens of thousands of people, Cheddur filled the void in their lives as their very own personal guide to crypto - the expert they could rely on to not only get started with crypto, but to guide them every step of the way on their crypto journey.
Screenshots from the Cheddur iOS app:
The Middle
Our rapid growth in 2017 and early 2018 landed us a spot in the Desai Startup Accelerator's S2018 cohort, where we worked tirelessly with fellow tech entrepreneurs and business professionals to turn our simple app into a sustainable business (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
September 12, 2018—Pitching Cheddur at Demo Day:
The End
Through a series of pivots, what had started as "your personal guide to digital currency" eventually became "the social network of money". But like many other crypto companies over the past 2 years, we were ultimately defeated by our inability to find product/market fit—our inability to grow.
Cheddur will be shutting down on January 31, 2020.
Some of The Bets We Lost
- We bet that cryptocurrency ecosystem would expand throughout 2018 and 2019, both in terms of the number of coins, apps, and users. It contracted. 📉
- We bet that Steemit would release a production-ready Smart Media Tokens (SMT) protocol, and that SMTs on Steem would rival ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. Neither happened. 🚫
- We bet (hoped) that retail interest in cryptocurrency would pick back up in 2019. Whoops! 🤣
Lessons Learned
We've learned so much over the past 4 years while building Cheddur, so this section is by no means exhaustive. These are just some of the battle scars we have acquired, learned from, and will be carrying forward with us to our future endeavor(s):
1. Vet your idea thoroughly.
Don't assume that just because you like your idea, that other people will too. Talk to potential customers before writing a single line of code. Set up landing pages to gauge interest. Do market research.
Validate your idea before you decide to fully commit to it and hunker down for the long haul.
2. And then vet your idea some more.
I can't stress this enough. You may have come up with a novel solution, but is it solving a true "hair on fire" problem that has a big enough addressable market for you to grow?
Think twice about this, before you potentially spend your time and talent on the wrong idea.
3. Don't go alone.
Startups are incredibly hard. You'll only make it 5 times harder (and more stressful, less likely to succeed) if you try to do it alone. Find a co-founder. I wish I had brought Jozsef on sooner.
4. Choose your platform wisely.
Is your solution best delivered through a mobile app? A website? A podcast? A blog? Modifying human behavior is really hard. It's much easier to identify where your customers are already living online, and to meet them there.
5. Don't underestimate your competitors.
The way your competitors look today is not the way they will look tomorrow. Just as you will grow, so will they. Anticipate radical changes.
When we started working Cheddur in 2016, Coinbase was just another exchange where you could buy and sell crypto. But today, it's now a full-blown social/financial network with much of the same features and functionality that had originally separated Cheddur from the pack.
6. Seek to be good, not perfect.
Perfection is a myth, especially when it comes to software. Don't be afraid to release your product or feature because you're afraid that it sucks. Because you're right… it probably does suck… but so does the version that's going to take 4 more weeks to be "ready".
Just ship it and get feedback, because chances are, you're building the wrong thing anyway.
7. Agile, not waterfall.
Don't take a year (or more) to get your idea into the market. Compress timeframes. Focus on days and weeks, not months. Build → ship → test → and repeat.
The faster you get feedback, the more likely you are to find product/market fit. The slower you are to get feedback, the more likely you are to build a bunch of useless stuff that over-complicates your product and wastes your #1 most precious asset—time.
8. The best people don't work for free.
So get profitable or seek funding early on. Bootstrapping can only take you so far. A small team can only carry so much weight.
From the start, you should have an actionable plan in place to acquire the cash needed to scale your team and grow.
9. Trust your gut, especially when hiring.
After you've interviewed a new candidate for the first time, deep down in your gut you know whether or not it's going to work out. Ignore short-term needs and fancy resumes. In fact, ignore resumes entirely.
Think long-term and trust your gut, because a bad hire is cancerous to any company.
10. Fire fast.
Once it's clear that a new hire is not working out, it's time to cut bait and run. Delaying the inevitable will only hurt you (emotionally), the company, the culture, and the new hire.
When I knew I needed to do my first fire, I agonized over it for weeks. Just rip the bandaid off—it's better for everyone involved, and it's not nearly as bad as you think it's going to be.
11. You don't need a mentor.
Just Google It.™
12. Don't build a project. Build a business.
When you're working on your passion, it's easy to blur the line between "this is a project" and "this is a business". Always be building a business. A project turns into a labor of love and is generally un-investable. A businesses can actually scale.
13. Don't forget to have fun.
As a wise man once said, "A good life is just a series of good days." If you stop having fun, you start losing good days. And when you start losing good days, you start losing the goodness in your life.
Don't give up your hobbies. Don't stop going to the gym. Don't be ashamed to step away from time to time.
Travel. Experience. Live.
Your family and your older (and wiser) self will thank you for it.
Thank You
- Thank you to our wonderful community for sharing our deep passion for cryptocurrency and for inspiring us each and every day to build a better industry. We wouldn't have made it nearly this far without all of you. 💙
- Thank you to the amazing folks at Desai for their unwavering support and for believing in us. Angela Kujava, Katy Lind, Satish Malnaik… there are too many names to name here. I am indebted to each and every of you, and I hope to one day pay it back tenfold. 🙏🏻
- Thank you Jozsef Csepe for all of your trust, hard work, and dedication over the years. Cheddur simply wouldn't have made it through 2018 without your heroic efforts, and I am forever grateful to have you as a colleague and as a friend. 🤝
- And finally, thank you to my beautiful wife, Michelle, for all of the love and support you've given to me over the years. Building Cheddur has been a wild rollercoaster, and you rode it with me the full length of the way, from Day 1. You checked my ego through the highest of highs. You picked me up off of the floor through the lowest of lows. You even rolled up your sleeves when we needed a part-time designer/developer on our team. I simply can't express just how lucky I am to have you in my life. I love you. 😽
What's Next?
For me? I don't know for certain… but I bet it involves crypto. 😎✌
W️here you can find me: