My new workout regime encourages “never miss a Monday”. It was creeping up to 9:30 and I still didn’t make it to the gym. This was it, now or accept my defeat. It was a push, especially on a dark and rainy night but I made it just in time to complete the workout before closing.
I climbed the stairs up to my apartment around 10:50pm. Sweaty and ready to wind down the rainy day, I was craving a hot shower and some ginger tea. The kettle takes around 7 minutes to boil so I put it on so I’d have just enough time to rinse off. I go to turn on the shower and nothing happens. I spin the handle off then on again. Same thing. No water, not even a drop.
A hot shower was clearly out of the question. The tea was using water from the morning. But everything else - washing my face, drinking a glass of water, flushing the loo, and washing the dishes were all competing for the last half gallon of water I had in my fridge.
I started making mental trade offs, well I can mix the remaining hot teapot water and cold water to clean off. I can put the sudsy water near the loo to refill the tank. I can pour some to drink and some to wash my face. Small decisions that made me really appreciate how important clean water is in so many of the things I do. Gallons per shower, toilet flush or preparing a meal in the kitchen. How do people without access to clean water use the little amounts they have to get through each day? When you don’t have a lot, it’s such a precious resource.
I’m lucky though. I could pick up gallons of fresh water at the 24 hour store next door. I could shower at a friends or just wait a few hours for the clean water to pour from the faucets with a small switch. I’ve never had to worry about access to clean water in my lifetime, but millions of people do.
I recently finished the book Thirst by Scott Harrison. It’s the story of a charity:water an organization that builds well to provide clean drinking water to those most in need. To date the organization has raised over $300M dollars to bring clean water to 8M people around the globe. The best part, every dollar donated to Charity:Water goes to development in the field. All of the organizaton’s overhead costs are sponsored separately. So money in goes directly to those in need.
The Thirst book tells the story of how Scott went from club promoter to starting and growing one of the most impactful water charities. I loved reading about Scott’s journey because I had the chance to meet him in his promoter days and get to hear about his journey from the early days to today. I recommend you read this book. It’s also a great gift idea to aspiring entrepreneurs and philanthropists. All net proceeds go to charity:water projects so an even better reason to gift one this year.
On this #GivingTuesday, I’m donating to fund water projects with charity:water. I encourage you to check out there mission and the Thirst book.
Whatever causes you care about, there are organizations in need. Find the one that’s right for you using #GivingTuesday.
Here’s what experienced entrepreneurs have over first timers. A plan.
If your only special sauce is the plan in your brain that you can’t articulate to your team or investors, you’re in for a bumpy ride. No matter how much time you spend on hiring or honing a product, it will be a waste if you don’t have a clear vision, an actionable plan, and a commitment to communication. You will repeat that vision over and over and over and over until you feel like a preacher.
Before anything else, get out and make a plan, test it against reality and then get to work. Find customers, know who they are before you even build the product. They will help drive it. Recruit the best people around you to build the vision.
Building a team is gasoline, not an engine.
September 11, 2018, 9:32pm
2 notes
5 ways to fund your blockchain business without an ICO
Innovative ideas need diverse funding mechanisms. Looking beyond the ICO, there are lots of Web 3.0 funding options that expand opportunities and will encourage business diversity.
As an early stage investor, I’ve met too many entrepreneurs who struggle to launch because they have a good idea but see vc funding as the only mechanism to help them build. This mindset is limiting — it restricts the scope of projects to only those with $B+ scale potential.
Too many startups today are chasing difficult but obvious ideas like “the new Yelp”, “better marketing automation”, and “ai for X industry” so they can raise venture capital. Developers look for potential to scale instead of real opportunities with revenue potential. Bootstrapping is always an option but even it could use some new approaches.
In 2017, we saw the rise of the ICO which shook up the idea of early project fundraising. It is imperfect and an attractive funding mechanism for scammers, but it’s rise in popularity helped create a new conversation about project funding in Web 3.0. ICOs seem here to stay, but like venture capital, it isn’t the right funding path for the majority of projects.
Developers and startups have realized there is still a gap in funding early work. Fortunately, there are a number of mechanisms being tested to help builders find capital to build what’s next.
Fund your project without fundraising or an ICO
1) Bounties — Open source contributions are in demand and want to compensation developers for their work. Platforms like Gitcoin, a marketplace to match open ethereum bounties with developers, make bounties easier to find. Join their network to see paid contributions from projects like Decentraland, Ethereum Network, LivePeer and Gitcoin itself. They’ve hosted 235k of bounties on the site so far. Bounties range from $10 to $10,000+.
2) Grants — Apply for a grant to fund your project if it relates to the goals of a protocol foundation. The Ethereum Community Foundation has put together an extensive list of grant opportunities across different networks like Aragon, Blockstack, and IPFS. Full list here.
3) Decentralized network services — Build software to services in a new network. For example, Steem.it is a content network like Reddit, powered by the decentralized network Steem. Developers have created upvoting bots that publishers pay to promote their posts in the network. Steemit has paid out $40M in rewards itself, which does not include the bot payouts that work as a parallel market.
4) Generalized mining — New protocols are emerging that provide economic incentives for supplying compute to validate their networks. Generalized mining focuses on building software for competitive advantage, and does not rely solely on specific hardware. Proof of stake networks like Livepeer and Tezos have validator networks that reward participants for being nodes in the network or staking in the network.
5) Venture tokens — Well funded layer 1 protocols are getting into the venture business by providing venture capital in the form of tokens if you are supporting the growth of their ecosystem. The diligence process may be similar to traditional VC, but the expectations on ROI is more about “growing the ecosystem” then just return on capital invested. The EOS Block.one fund has 1B dedicated to this category, but will be deployed by a number of different firms, including $325M managed by Galaxy in New York City.
We need new innovative funding mechanisms just as much as we need new business ideas. Whether you are building in the blockchain ecosystem or just looking to fund your project with the proceeds, these sources can generate runway for your ideas. Best part, you get to keep ownership.
I am excited about creating more opportunities for entrepreneurs. If you’ve seen other new Web 3.0 funding mechanisms, please share in the comments blow. If you want to learn about more resources like those mentioned above, drop a line in the comments or reach out @br_ttany.
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September 10, 2018, 8:00am
It’s fun to discuss the promise of AI technology and all that it will be able to do for future generations. It’s also fun to find ways to use AI for play. I was especially reminded of that by Siraj Raval’s stick figure dancing to Drake.
What’s even better, this is just a small snippet of the things that Siraj creates to teach artificial intelligence to people interested in using the technology to build new things. You can check out his extensive YouTube channel which includes music videos, a 4 minute class on neural nets, and YOLO object detection.
According to your his website, he’s also been called:
Bill Nye of Computer Science
Kanye of Code
Beyonce of Neural Networks
Osain Bolt of Learning
Chuck Norris of Python
Jesus Christ of Machine Learning
Not your traditional whiteboard lecture video, it’s high energy and high content. Not for everyone, but definitely a great way to get different types of learners to become builders.
If we want to build the future with great technology, we need more people to understand it. Creating fun and engaging content spreads ideas rapidly through the internet, so why should education stay traditional and boring?
I’ve been focused on blockchain for the past few months and it’s a lot of whitepapers and expert talks. Lots of content, but not a lot of fun. Are there channels or people do you like to follow that are making interesting content focused on education - blockchain or other technical topics? Let me know @br_ttany!
When I was building gtrot in 2010 I had no idea how to build a startup. Yes, I did go to an undergraduate business school, but they conveniently left out the parts about negotiating fundraising term sheets, hiring a technical team, growing for scale, and prioritizing what comes next. Thankfully, I found about about the Startup Leadership Program! Even better news, the program is better than ever.
SLP is the MBA crash-course if it were built exclusively for entrepreneurs. In a few hours in the classroom you learn everything from getting started to how to exit. Applications are open for the NYC program this fall. I highly recommend it for early stage entrepreneurs who are building their team. When I was part of the program our company was in the process of fundraising, hiring, and growing our customers. The course was almost perfectly aligned so that when we were discussing “negotiating term sheets” with the cohort, I was right in the process of doing exactly that! I got lucky, but I know that my peers in the cohort had similar things line up where it was exactly what they needed when they needed it. Great how that works!
That said, when I’ve been asked what I liked most about SLP, it’s definitely the entrepreneurs and peers I met as part of my cohort, and as part of the global alumni group. It’s a peer run program so they do an excellent job in keeping alumni involved and continuing to provide connections long after the class room ends. I’m been an Alumni for 8 years and they still invite me back to the classroom! It’s awesome to see it continues to provide value for builders.
Want to learn more? Here’s more about the program:
The Startup Leadership Program SLP - a fellowship for early-stage founders focused on education, mentorship, and community. The program is unique since it focuses on the founder rather than the company.
SLP is a 7-mo program now in its 11th year with an alumni base of 2,500 fellows, +$550m raised, and 18 cities worldwide. SLP is a non-profit that takes 0 equity and is run by founders providing an interactive curriculum on starting a company, access to mentors/investors, and a lifelong global network.