We have all witnessed it. A new crypto startup launches. The excitement in the air. Everyone has high hopes about the future of the coin and the product. The chat is full. Everyone is anticipating success. Fast forward to three months. Everybody has left. The team has gone silent and the social media accounts receive no more impressions.
Coming up with the idea is easy. Anyone can do that. However, how many people can execute an idea successfully? Very few. In this article, we would like to talk about software development and business operations as a startup. Why? Because we would like to explain to our community not only what we are building, but that building a good product takes a lot of sweat, tears, and blood.
The Dilemma
When you as a software company are in the process of development in the startup phase, there is a lot of excitement, generating much enthusiasm and curiosity from the community (hint hint … Solicians). This naturally leads to a temptation to deliver the product as fast as possible as a company.
After all, you don’t want your community to lose interest, you don’t want to keep them waiting, so that’s a good thing, right? Well not always. In fact, most of the time that is not the case.
Most of the time what will happen is that businesses trying to please their myotic user base will release a half-broken, half-developed product. It goes without saying that this will inevitably lead to a crash of the whole system and therefore failure. Building a good product takes a lot of time, and resources and comes with trial and error.
This is why for instance, we, at Solice have a roadmap with specific release dates that are divided into separate timelines. This way we can minimize the potential risk of accounting for a glitch. I stress the word minimize because errors will and some will argue should happen. It’s a normal part of what we call the development journey and comes with developing a successful product. Two steps forward, one step backward.
Another mistake that many startups make, particularly crypto startups, is relying on discord bots and third-party tools/software when it comes to creating assets. It’s nearly impossible to find truly original products in the crypto sphere. This usually attracts not only the wrong type of people but also leads to people to quickly losing their interest in it — and perhaps rightly so.
This is why Solice has decided right from the start to take a completely different approach. In the past quarter, we have built custom implementations, scrips, and interfaces for all of our NFT mint, distribution, and sale. This may sound counterintuitive at first, but as a project and development team, we have learned a lot.
It has been a bumpy start, but we are finally getting the hang of it. All of our developers have experience building on other blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero. Building on Solana is different to say the least.
We’re not just another NFT project. In fact, in the virtual reality metaverse NFTs are just a minor technical tool that we use to build this ecosystem on the blockchain. Don’t get us wrong NFTs will be constantly evolving and becoming more solidified and known as we progress further, but it’s important to remember that Solice is much more than just those assets that will reside on the Solana blockchain.
Startup Failure
Having said that, it does not come as a surprise that nearly all of the startups give out. In fact, the numbers are staggering, from 20% of failure after the first year to 70% within the first decade. The hard, cold truth is that most people won’t even hear the business’s name, let alone have an actual engagement with the company. So what’s the reason for such a high number of startups’ failures? What are then the key components of triumphant companies that prevail? What are the early indicators that you as a user can look for when trying to determine the startup’s fate? And lastly, where does Solice fit in this picture?
The Comfort of Being Funded
As you may or may not know, Solice not only has garnered quite a large community of supporters but also attracted a lot of financial investors. To list a few, but not all: Animoca Brands, Three Arrows Capital, and DeFiance Capital.
Why is this worth mentioning, you ask? This specific type of financing, called venture capital is provided to small businesses and startup companies that show high potential for exceptional long-term growth. This clearly indicates to users that the company is set up for a long-term expansion.
In the words of Arthur Cheong, Founding Partner, DeFiance Capital:
“We are excited to lead this fund-raising round for Solice as the leading metaverse VR platform. The metaverse space is poised to grow exponentially going forward and Christian and team are amongst the most experienced veterans of Virtual Reality we’ve met, we believe they will be able to create a phenomenal and immersive VR user experience in the Solice metaverse,”.
Solice has a strong foundation. It is heavily funded meaning that we can focus 100% on developing the coming year. This is an important point to understand because it means that we do not have to focus on marketing as much as on other projects. Instead, we can go straight to development; skipping an entire phase. That doesn’t mean, we won’t do any marketing after the product is ready to launch. That’s when we actually will start gearing up our marketing front.
The Waterfall
To get a better understanding of how software development plays out in the real world, one should get familiar with the waterfall cycle of development. The idea behind the waterfall is that development never stops. There is no start nor end. The software can always be better.
This is both the beauty but also the dangers of software development. You have many startups that release too early, as discussed above, but also many startups that release too late — because they are so focused on delivering the perfect product.
This is a large reason why we have created the roadmap. It’s to not only divide the tasks into smaller, more attainable goals, but also to set milestones and limits — keeping us to our promises.
It’s worth noting that with the waterfall method, there is no such thing as the end. The maintenance is constant work, and during that phase new problems or changes might arise, leading back to phase one. Again it’s all-natural and expected as a part of growing a healthy, long-term functioning ecosystem.
The Final Word
Do not forget that patience is a virtue, as they say. As time passes, and Solice will keep hitting its long-term roadmap targets it is most likely that the price of the token will correlate with the development and success of the product. That’s simply how it usually goes. We’re in for a long ride and I can promise you it’s going to be a good one. So stay patient, dear Solicians, and you shall reap what you sow.
