Continuing the discussion of “how I’m making money in 2019”, I think it’s pertinent to discuss project evaluation.
While it’s no secret that I’m anti-ICO and all about STOs these days, that does not mean I’ve given up on looking at tokens.
Just like how the market has evolved, so too has my criteria for what I’m potentially investing in. Back in the heyday of ICO’s, working products were optional. A whitepaper and a dream was all that was needed.
But, you would never see professional startup investors put money into a startup with no working product. In fact, you’ll rarely see them put money into companies with only a working product.
Professional investors don’t want to see just an “MVP” (Minimum Viable Product). They want to see an MSP — Minimum Sellable Product.
A MSP means that the product is something that consumers or businesses will actually pay money to use today or in the very immediate future. While a Minimum Sellable Product in and of itself should not be enough to invest in a project’s Token Sale, the fact that a team was able to ship a product that people are willing to pay for speaks volumes on their technology acumen and follow through. Bonus points if the company does continuous development, shares product updates on their website, and is building towards a better user experience with higher revenue potential.
After all, we want to see a sustainable business model moving forward. Too many ICOs are and were unsustainable, and with only ~15% of ICOs ever making it to exchanges, we certainly saw that to be true.
Part of being sustainable is being able to be sellable.
Now it’s important to now that the market for the product doesn’t have to be huge in this moment, but you have to be able to discern whether the product itself can make the market huge.
Great examples of markets that didn’t exist prior to the product existing are AirBnb and Algolia (sleep in other people’s homes? Search as a Service?). Before these products came along, there was virtually no market or demand for that industry. But the products created that demand and built themselves a huge following as a result.
Another thing to look for is that market size should be huge or about to be huge. What I see time and time again is that many novice investors fall in love with the product and team, but overlook the market size or future market size of a potential product.
This often happens when an investor says “I could see myself using this product”. But they ignore the next question of “Could I see a lot of other people using this product?”
Without loads people using this product, or without at least several businesses paying a lot of money to use this product, the company has no chance to scale. The good news is that technology as a whole is so much more scalable than service businesses are, so our challenge is surmountable.
That said, the fear that we’re not out of the cryptocurrency bear market is still with us, and it’s understandable why there’s a lot of investors who are scared to put more money into cryptocurrency and blockchain companies right now.
But don’t confuse the speculation and hype train that tanked this market with the real businesses that are going to pull us out of it.
Real businesses with real fundamentals have real staying power. They’re not going anywhere. Buying into them when the market is low is exactly the place you want to be as an investor. It all comes down to a very simple equation:
Business with solid fundamentals + Bear market = Your best buying opportunity
If we are the smart money, as we aim to be, we know that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction on the best opportunities, and it’s our job to take advantage of retail investors’ confusion. Again, don’t conflate overall market conditions and solid company fundamentals.
The smartest investors stand to gain the most when the market rebounds. Uber, AirBnb, Snapchat, and WhatsApp were all founded during The Great Recession of 2008–2010. A $25,000 investment into Uber back in 2010 is worth over $250,000,000 today.
One can only imagine what the best projects will look like coming out of the crypto recession.
To compound upon this, we’re opening up a new Discord chatroom devoted to discussing crypto projects, sharing research, and identifying opportunities. Premium members only. We look forward to seeing you there!