Summer Update
It’s been a huge summer for adbank — find out what the team has been up to!
As always, the update will cover the following sections:
Outlook and reflection from the CEO
Update on key areas of the business
- Tech
- Team
- Runway
- Marketing / Sales
Our 2019 Goals Progress — OKR progress
Jon (CEO) Outlook:
This summer we have overcome one of the biggest challenges we faced to date, the removal of BLADE from Chrome store. We are now back in the Chrome store permanently and have also launched BLADE on Firefox. Next up is more press coverage than we have had in a long time, including coverage in Forbes for the second time in under one year!
What has me most excited are the strategic partnerships with other projects aiming to achieve similar results. These are not going to be the typical “crypto” partnership — but partnerships with real utility addressing one of our key problem areas.
While many other projects have slowed down or stopped completely, we continue to push and deliver!
Key Areas of Business Activity Quick Update:
Tech
- The entire tech team has done a great job with both the Chrome and Firefox extension builds and we’re thrilled to have the extensions live for both Chrome and Firefox!
- There were several big announcements this summer, you can catch up on all of them in this blog post:
Announcements include:
- New BLADE website!
- Dashboard live for BLADE
- BLADE extension live in the Chrome Store
- BLADE extension live in the Firefox Add-Ons store
- Referral links available for Chrome & Firefox extensions!
Coming up: adbank.network is getting a re-design! Stay tuned for the launch date.
Team
Over the summer, we experienced delays with BLADE. We are thrilled that BLADE is now live for both Chrome and Firefox, and with extensions in place, user acquisition is now the top priority in driving the success of the adbank project. In August we bid farewell to Mike Bishop the Sales Lead — His contributions to adbank are significant and we appreciate all of the hard work and expertise he provided to the project. We wish him the best! Sales efforts are now being handled by Narcis and Jon for the interim. Once we have ramped up the users on BLADE, we will bring on a dedicated Sales Lead with industry experience and shift resources back to sales. With this adjustment in resource allocation, the team will be able to commit to more aggressive user acquisition strategies.
You can see everyone on the team on the website at adbank.network and you can read about the final re-org in this blog post.
Financial / Runway
Slightly ahead of plan, meaning runway model still projects well into 2021. The increase in value in crypto offset the revenue being behind plan.
Marketing
BLADE is live for Chrome and Firefox and we are so excited to share this with the world! There are several promotions that are booked and coming up that we are very excited about.
Referral Links
The new Chrome and Firefox BLADE extensions have referral links! The community asked for it and we’re happy to have them live! Learn how they work here:
New Video Series
Narcis and Catherine are hosting a brand new video series on our Youtube channel! Meet the adbank team and learn about industry topics like disruption, working on an ICO and more!
Coverage/Mentions this summer:
- Our second Forbes profile in under one year! “3 Startups Changing How Entrepreneurs Do Business And What We Can Learn From Them”
- CryptoBenelux ADB giveaway!
- Interview with CEO Jon in the most recent issue of Blockchain Business Magazine. These issues were all over the Futurist Conference!
- adbank was a media partner for the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto. Catherine attended both days and met up with some old and new friends, adbank community members, and more!
- New advertiser spotlight and exchange listing: Bitcratic!
- “Tokenizing Engagement: Blockchain Growth Hacking” via ValueWalk.com
- The organic content of BLADE referral videos and articles keep coming!
Upcoming Mentions/Coverage — Tentative and Booked:
- Several promotions booked in July & August, so there’s a lot to look forward to!
- A profile in an international business publication, TBD
- CEO Jon has recorded a podcast, release date is TBD
- Exploring promotional partnerships with two different crypto projects — TBD
- More Youtube sponsored promotions, from 9k to over 700k
In case you missed it, you can see a roundup of previous media coverage in the Q1 roundup in this blog post. You can see a full list of our partnerships on the Partnership Map.
The sales pipeline is still full with a lot of interest since announcing Firefox as the next browser to receive a BLADE extension! There are 20 new companies interested in running campaigns on BLADE.
Progress Against Core Objectives Update:
1. Objective — BLADE adoption — adbank ad block extension that allows only adbank powered ads through, while rewarding you for viewing those ads!
1a. Key Result — #1 ad block/reward extension used by the crypto community. Attracting many users and a dominant presence within the crypto community especially!
Summer Update — Back in the Chrome and Firefox store with user base consistently growing. Now we need to ramp up our installation rate!
2. Objective — Pilots, Pilots, Pilots — Our pipeline has never been more full and we are bringing on additional team members to help handle!
2a. Key Result — Consistent monthly pilots similar to the Austria & Red Bull pilot, growing to several per month
Summer Update — Similar to the last update there continues to be a shift away from pilots for the sake of blockchain and our team focus has been on BLADE.
3. Objective — Utility driven by operating AdNetworks (Signed agreement to bring some of the largest crypto publishers inventory available on IntergalacticAds.com)
3a. Key Result — IntergalacticAds.com and other vertical ad networks #1 or #2 by market share in their verticals.
Summer Update — ECig has run into some temporary headwinds with the recent FDA rulings against some sellers. While the dust settles from the recent research we will continue to be the leader in the space.
Don’t forget to join the Telegram channel here to chat with the team and get all the news first!
