BUIDLing Binance Labs Incubation Program Season 1 Mid-Review
It’s already Week 4 here in Binance Labs Incubation Program Season 1, out of our 10-week Journey.
We had 2 months to BUIDL and ship — from building website, formulating selection process, inviting mentors, drafting a founder-friendly SAFE-T, and sourcing co-working space, etc,. And now,
Season 1 is running with amazing 8 BUIDLers, 10 Mentors, 20+ Guest Speakers and Binance.
Though the ground works took 2 months, this entire program was designed from our learning from not-too-short 6 months time in crypto space. Read more here.
Our purpose was clear — Becoming a platform and network, connecting the dots for Blockchain innovations through our amazing resources. Focus was even clearer — Helping great BUIDLers of the world to ship a working product/service with a product/ market fit as soon as possible.
The reason we call ourselves a “Program” is because we have a set period of time BUIDLers gather up with a certain system, but we’re not just a program.
We help crypto “projects” go further along than just becoming a short-term projects but provide relevant resources to help them become a successful company/organization and share necessary mindsets in crypto. Because, the goal for a successful crypto startup shouldn’t be just getting listed on Binance and drift it’s market cap — but building a Great team and company. We’re sharing these mindsets so that short-term metrics are not confused with the goals.
Thanks to the community, despite the relatively short 4 week application window, we were able to carefully review 500+ applications across the globe. And we’re humbled and thrilled by the BUIDLers of our Season 1 who have come through such a rigorous process.
Season 1 launched Oct. 8th, 2018 in San Francisco, and all our BUIDLers gathered up in SF. Our BUIDLers are in stealth mode until BUIDLers Day, which is the last day of Incubation Program Season 1 (Dec. 14th, 2018), this is in order to provide them the best environment to focus on BUIDLing.
Program Details — What Happens during the 10-Week Journey?
- Mentoring Session
BUIDLers have 1 on 1 Mentoring Sessions with our Mentors. Mentors are comprised of respected figures with extensive experiences and knowledege in blockchain technologies/ cryptocurrency and also startup.
What we seriously considered when inviting over external Mentor Group was identifying those who are not just well-known or famous but mentors who would take our BUIDLers’ concerns seriously, sit down together sharing their own experiences. Also, as the needs of each BUIDLer is very different, we searched for the best experts in each field we thought were critical in BUIDLing a successful Blockchain startup.
We asked our portfolio companies and founders to learn what their pain points are when building a blockchain startup. Through these procedure, we were able to accommodate not only technical design, but startup formation, regulatory/legal advice, recruiting, fundraising, marketing/PR and others in the program.
As a result, we were able to on board the best mentors in the space as below.
- Viktor Radchenko: Founder of Trust Wallet (Acquired by Binance)
- Lily Liu: Co-Founder of Earn.com (Acquired by Coinbase)
- Eric Meltzer: Founding Partner at Primitive Ventures
- Ross Barbash: Head of Blockchain at Atrium
- Jon Choi: Former Researcher at Ethereum Foundation
- Michael Ma: General Partner at Liquid 2 Ventures
- Danny Yang: Founder of Blockseer
- Ronghui Gu: Founder of CertiK (Invested by Binance Labs)
- Cindy Cheng: Investor at Vy Capital
- … and others who prefer staying anonymous!
2. Weekly Fireside Chat
We are hosting Weekly Fireside Chats every Wednesday to discuss a specific theme — either related to startup or cypto. The event starts from 1.5 hrs of Weekly Updates from our BUIDLers: What they aimed to acheive, What they ended up doing, What the obstacles were, and What the next week’s goal is. This is done in a casual setting, but also very private — everything said in the room stays there, in order for everyone to be comfortable sharing stuffs.
Then we’ll invite over our Guest Speaker to the stage for a conversation, followed by a Q&A session.
For our Weekly Fireside Chat #1, Will Warren from 0x and Teck Chia from Binance Labs came over to discuss Decentralization; 1) Meaning of Decentralization for Blockchain Projects/ Startups, 2) Paradox of Decentralization: Difficulty in Governance, Parts we need Decentralization Vs. Parts that just add more frictions by decentralizing.
For our Weekly Fireside Chat #2, Two Founders from Binance Labs’ Portfolio Companies — Kendrick Nguyen from Republic and Harry Zhou from Koi Trading came over to discuss “Legislation, Regulation and Innovation”.
We have a great line-up for the rest of the weeks too.
3. BUIDLers Day
BUIDLers Day is the last day of the Incubation Program. BUIDLers are asked to define their expected deliverable for the BUIDLers Day when they first apply on the application form, Opening Day and continuously iterate during the program. Having a specific target, though it evolves during the 10-Week Journey, is extremely important.
BUIDLers Day is a key Milestone for our BUIDLers, as it is when they come out of the water to present themselves to the public. However at the same time, we will make the BUIDLers Day slightly private too, invitation-only event for strategic investors and partners. As it is part of Binance Labs’ work to help them identify investors who can value-add beyond financing.
These are few… but many more that happens inside.
Thinking around the Incubation Program
Thought 1. Founder-Friendliness
While designing the program, we deliberated around the balance between the details of the programs and BUIDLers’ time.
Also, we put ourselves in the shoes of BUIDLers, instead of investors’ perspective of just evaluating the upsides in terms of financial returns. We are long-term HODLers, who make bets on the team.
We are willing to commit and bet on the next 5–10 years with the BUIDLers we support.
Our deal structure was also an outcome of such mindset given the market situation and the stage of our BUIDLers are at. Binance Labs Incubation Program’s metrics are also not set for the success of the BUIDLers Day but the long-term success of our BUIDLers. Thus, BUIDLers Day truly is just another beginning for Binance Labs too.
Thought 2. Team and our Relationship
We started off our Application Form by asking “Why do you exist?”. The entire Application form reflects our thoughts and value system, as it works as the first virtual interaction with applicants.
Many compare Investment to Marriage, as it is building a very complicated yet close relationship between two parties or more. What we want to understand is not just the idea and the progress, but Founders’ motivations and attitudes about life in general. Earnestness, Determination, Objectiveness, Intellectual Honesty, Relationship/ Balance among Co-founders, Creativity, etc,. were all considered during the interview process.
There were a lot of Founders beyond expectation, and don’t necessarily think our decisions are correct all the time. It’s extremely difficult to judge an early-stage startup in short time, and we are humans, we also make mistakes. We will continuously strive to build a more systematic way by adding grains of experiences too along the way to capture the best talents.
For those who were not able to come join us in Season 1, stay tuned because Season 2 is coming soon too.
Also, Investment Opportunities are widely open for startups with working products/services too.
Binance Labs: REALIZING FULL POTENTIAL OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES
Website: http://www.binancelabs.co
Medium: https://medium.com/binance-labs
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BinanceLabs
