Delicia ICO: grounded before take off!

We aimed to solve the world’s food waste problem using AI and Blockchain trying to ride the wave of crowdfunding that took the world by storm with the novel new concept of ICOs. No doubt ICOs democratized the startup funding landscape by giving an opportunity to a common man to directly benefit from the new tech revolution which hitherto was only accessible to elite few with deep pockets and connections.

After trying to raise funds via ICO for Delicia we have decided to put a break to these efforts, take a pause, introspect and decide on a path forward. Also, let us explain what happened along the way.

What went wrong?

• Wrong timing: We started off with this idea late last year when the overall ICO and stock market was at zenith. While we were busy preparing for the launch we failed to see the bigger picture of ICO market going bust. The total crypto market valuation is less than a third since January 2018 and the future prospects of most of the ICOs seem grim.
• No product: There is no doubt that if we had a demonstration or MVP product the prospects may have been higher. But, there is only as much as one could do in the available constraints. When we looked around we found quite a few ICOs raising significant amount of money based only on ideas.
• Lack of institutional support: We didn’t have any business connections and again, without product, it proved to be difficult to convince investors about the business model and product potential. While this in itself is not a cause of failure, every factor compounds the odds of success especially in adverse market conditions.
• Increasing regulatory uncertainty: With few notable exceptions, most of the government and financial organizations are going after the ICOs all around the world. While this doesn’t quality ICOs as illegal, it does deter investors. Delicia tokens (DFT) were going to be listed as utility tokens as we were not offering equity. However, recent SEC statements are increasingly pointing to the fact that most the ICOs could be classified as securities and its only a matter of time before any such official decision is made. This puts small companies like Delicia at a disadvantage due to the increased regulatory burden. In favorable market conditions we could address this by only accepting funds from countries supporting ICOs or lesser regulatory overhead.

Lessons learned…

• Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Nothing new here, its an age old proverb. But, everyone has to go through the experience themselves to realize its importance. Always be prepared for everything going south and have a plan for graceful exit.
• Not everyone is a true friend or well wisher. We learned, it is not always in bad times that one can find out who is a true friend. People are helpful or sympathetic when you are running with everyone in the rat race. Once you decide to follow your dreams people will respond to it in a variety of ways. The response will help you determine if its someone you could count on. While this experience is more at a personal level we wanted to share it with everyone as organizations are more often extensions of individual aspirations, at least during the early startup phase.
• Never lose hope but don’t be hopelessly hopeful to ignore all the signs of things not working your way. This implies being pragmatic while trying to make dreams a reality.
• Not all lessons learned were negative. We received quite a bit of community support and help came from often unexpected ways. A lot of our friends and well wishers tried to help in all possible ways and it would not have been possible even to come this far without their support.
• Perseverance prevails. This was especially true when we were trying to engage with the digital innovation unit of United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization. We received very positive feedback and inputs from them about our business idea. We found UN to be very friendly, open and receptive to work with any organization which can help further their humanitarian goals.

Was the ICO a scam?

Lets ask ourselves, what constitutes a scam? The most prominent sign is accepting money and providing nothing or of less value in return. Delicia has refunded all the funds raised through friends and did not accept any funds from investors. Part of the reason we did not release our smart contract yet is to avoid being termed as scam. We had planned on the smart contract release only if we see higher chances of meeting the soft cap. Since those prospects didn’t improve the smart contract didn’t see the daylight. It is up to an individual to reason with himself/herself and conclude where we stand.

Next steps:

• Prepare a stronger business case for deeper engagement with investors.
• Work on a demo or preferably MVP.
• Work with few initial pilot customers to assess the market potential.
• If the ICO market improves then relaunch the ICO.
• Seek funding via traditional routes.

Epilogue

The fundamentals of our idea still hold true. World food waste continues to be an issue and while lot of isolated efforts are underway a concerted solution is required to tackle this menace. We came across a variety of technical solutions addressing this problem, none of it seems to be able to meet the breadth and depth of the demand. So need for a decentralized global food network remains.

World’s wealth and resources continue to be distributed disproportionately. The wealth of richest individuals continue to grow and so does hunger and poverty around the globe. It often makes one wonder, how difficult it is for these powerful people to use their money and resources to put an end to the world’s problems? How could they sleep peacefully knowing that millions of children around the world are unable to go to bed due to hunger. The answer is not simple. In a capitalist world its all about profitability, often at the expense of humanity and compassion. Profitability inherently is not bad, after all it provides the drive and motivation to break the norms and come up with innovative solutions and business ideas. The problem starts when we stretch it far enough to lose touch with the reality.

Lets remember that the cryptocurrency revolution started around the last financial crisis aiming to decentralize the wealth and loosen the strong grip of financial institutions on everyone’s lives and livelihood. So the promise still holds and lets be hopeful that it will be able to deliver on its promise and we usher into an era driven more by sustainability and not only by profitability!