When we talk about a large corporation we say ‘it’, whereas the ‘Mom-and-Pop’ convenience store at the end of the street gets ‘they’. That’s because while Amazon or IBM may be (almost) faceless ‘entities’, we feel familiar with the staff of our local shop, or the guys across town who design websites. This difference between the impersonal corporate approach and the very personal attitude we have to smaller businesses is all about people, and human contact.
When the crowdfunding movement began, the connection was always to feelings, because we wanted to help someone with their medical bills, or get an exciting new band into the studio to record their first album. The process was certainly about money, and finding funds, but the crowd approach wasn’t big on investment. If someone could be helped to get through an illness, then that was reward enough, or if the band produced a killer album then maybe they’d send us an autographed copy to say thanks for our support.
Then came the Initial Coin Offering, a brilliant way of fundraising, somewhere along the line between crowdfunding, and Initial Public Offerings. ICOs had to look and behave more corporately of course, because now the funds which were being looked for were actual investment, rather than just support from the heart. So the ICO industry expanded at lightspeed and everyone got very corporate, and for many enterprises, the ‘they’ pronoun became ‘it’. In other words, the people part of the equation became diluted.
Of course if, for instance, the ICO is for a new banking initiative then it’s reasonable to expect very high standards with the offering. If the ask is for multi millions of investment, then there should be a matching level of corporatism about the whole deal. This is something that I’ve welcomed over recent times, as the larger ICOs become increasingly professional in their approach, with their adoption of properly qualified advisers. Now it’s not only visionaries and ‘mavericks’ who are launching ICOs, but the bankers and financial professionals too, the clarity and solidity of offerings has greatly improved.
Everyone is now becoming ‘corporate’ though, that’s the only downside. When I read an ICO whitepaper, sometimes I can tell that the enterprise is really just the two guys across town that design websites, except now they have to ‘big up’ their ideas, because that’s what ICOs do, isn’t it? Every offering must be about to change the world as we know it, and create fabulous ROI. Every offering will be ‘seamless’ and ‘grow exponentially’, and so on. You know the phrases, you’ve read the whitepapers. But actually, we know that these claims are not necessarily the case, but the ICO format dictates that such claims must be astronomic. Then hey, if the ICO fails to meet those claims, people scream ‘scam’ – once again – and the whole ICO concept is seen as faulted.
I don’t agree with that view. Yes, I want honesty and professionalism from every ICO, but I think it’s time we got around to recognizing the scalability of offerings, and that just because a new enterprise is a ‘Mom-and-Pop store’ doesn’t mean that it’s not valid. The two web designers across town may have come up with a brilliant concept, and maybe it won’t rule the world, but it could be a truly useful application which will find its place in the market. They and their investors may not become gazillionaires, but they can still succeed in creating and retaining wealth. And yet there will always be that pressure for them to talk up their project as if they are the next Sergey Brin and Larry Page combo. It’s possible that they may be, but remember that the Google founders were also just two guys from across town once upon time!
I have been thinking along these lines for some time, while my team and I have been very involved in, and focused on, the big corporate-like ICOs. That’s where all the glamour, and let’s face it – potential earnings – are, and yet I also feel a great kinship with the founders and entrepreneurs whose offering isn’t necessarily going to change the world overnight. They are the backroom people who may have a great idea, which in the pre-ICO days might have been minimally supported by crowdfunding, but who now seek investment through an Initial Coin Offering. It almost goes without saying that their attention is heavily concentrated on the product or service, with very little time being devoted to strategy, or the steps which will take them to a successful ICO. It may seem like an obvious fact, but very few entrepreneurs do more than one ICO. If they are successful, then great, they go on to operate their business. If unsuccessful, the smaller enterprises will retire from the scene, wounded, and quite possibly earn themselves the title of ‘scammers’ from the press and social media. So for almost everyone entering the territory of doing an ICO, it’s an unknown area. That’s why people need advice, and the more corporate an organization is, the more advice they can buy from people who’ve been there before – such as financial analysts and marketing experts.
If a corporate-like ICO comes to my team, they get a readymade marketing department which ticks the box of every marketing function, a one-stop shop with a skillset for every step of the way. That’s a service that a smaller startup simply can’t afford, or even need, but what they certainly will need is help with some of the steps. That much is unarguable. So I’m now launching a ‘pick and mix’ marketing approach which is aimed at satisfying the needs of the less corporate players – for the two guys across town with a great idea, but limited resources. I believe this is very much what is needed in the cryptoverse, and here’s why:
Read reports from the United Nations and many Non-Governmental Organizations around the world, and you’ll see that there is a growing excitement about cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. In particular the UN sees the potential for the millions upon millions of people who are ‘unbanked’ to receive wages into their crypto wallet. As and when this gains widespread adoption – and it will – the whole nature of how crypto is used in the world will change, forever. Right now we look at the dizzy yo-yoing of crypto values and tend to view crypto solely as an investment instrument. If so, it’s not a very reliable one! If on the other hand some cryptocurrencies will truly become world currencies, and over time stabilize, then the promise of the decentralization and democratization of finance will start to be realized, most significantly for the poorer members of societies.
Coming with that will also be the growth of ‘lower end’ tokenized offerings which create real value in the world, but which aren’t necessarily going to create vast wealth for their founders and investors. Perhaps we have to re-adjust expectations and start accepting ‘normal wealth’ as acceptable.
As the normality of buying a mortgage or a cup of coffee with a cryptocurrency becomes ever-closer – and it will as a critical mass of the users which the UN is predicting comes onstream – then the normality of ‘Mom-and-Pop’ ICOs will also increase. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the Lamborghini-styled, ‘Atom bomb’ ICOs which promise to change the world forever! Perhaps they will, and my team and I want to be there to help them do it. But there’s also a very strong word to be said for supporting the smaller enterprises, the visionaries whose eyes aren’t necessarily focused on the financial markets, but who believe in what they’re doing, people-to-people, and heart-to-heart.