What it takes to be a Startup In the Blockchain Ecosystem — Genesis DevCon
Blockchain and it’s adoption by startups
With all the benefits of the very enabling blockchain tech , it’s no wonder why startups clamour to adopt blockchain tech and it’s innovative, industry-agnostic uses.
Moreover, this is the Era of the Startup culture in India, and it couldn’t be a more opportune moment to partake in the startup culture. With the government providing support with the Make In India and Startup India initiatives the only hindrance becomes the availability of a viable and Innovative Idea that adds value to the system.
We, at Genesis DevCon, put together a panel of experts in the domain, Founders and CXOs alike, from some of India’s best blockchain Startups. Members of the panel were : Jayanti Kanani — CEO and Co-Founder of Matic Network, Vikram Nikkam — CEO and Co-Founder of InstaCrypto, Mayur Relekar — Founder of Newfang, Nilotpal Mukherjee — CBO at Marlin Protocol, Moderated by someone with a knack for All things Crypto and Everything Blockchain, the host and founder at Hard Fork, Mr Shantanu Sharma
Let’s get to know the panel
Jayanti Kanani is the CEO and Co-Founder of Matic Network, A network dedicated to bringing massive scale to Ethereum using an adapted version of Plasma with PoS based side chains. With a team passionate about decentralisation, they aspire to see a world where Blockchain is a mainstream concept and anyone can interact with the ecosystem without worrying about its complexity.
Vikram Nikkam is the CEO and Co-Founder of InstaCrypto, an easy, simple and fast way to trade in crypto. InstaCrypto provides its users with the highest degree of security, privacy and autonomy by granting the users complete ownership of their cryptocurrency because InstaCrypto never holds their private keys, unlike other exchanges,
Mayur Relekar is the Founder of Newfang, a new decentralised cloud storage platform for dApps, powered by the EOS Blockchain. Newfang offers its users faster content serving stream video faster, by utilising edge computing and a decentralised network of storage nodes.
Nilotpal Mukherjee is the CBO at Marlin Protocol, a startup that aims at improving speeds across multiple blockchains by utilizing a “Bandwidth sharing marketplace”.
Shantanu Sharma is the host and creator at Hard Fork, India’s first Crypto and Blockchain TV Talk show where he interviews some major proponents of the blockchain ecosystem about their journey and outlook on blockchain , with significant experience in a wide spectrum of this industry Shantanu Sharma sparked some insightful discussions.
Some salient points of the discussion
This discussion centred around what it’s like to be a startup in the blockchain ecosystem and what kind of attitude one should possess while building a blockchain startup.
What makes a good startup idea?
The general consensus of the discussion was that it takes passion, grit and undying perseverance to really make your startup soar in the Industry. (as was displayed by the fine participants of this discussion).
Vikram Nikkam explained that a good startup idea is often-times a good improvement to an existing process eg. an improvement in speed or reduction in cost. Nilotpal from Marlin added that it could also be a good solution (latent or otherwise) to an existing problem. Jaynti Kanani also pointed out that in addition to all this there has to also be a natural Idea-Founder fit.
The next step? Building a team.
After identifying a viable idea, it is now time to execute this idea. The first step of which is identifying a competent team to help build the idea.
Vikram believes that the best way to find people of like-mindedness is to host meetups around a particular subject and network with the people that show up. ( Meetup.com makes this easier). Nilotpal Mukherjee stressed on the need for the personalities to be a fit. He added that since the first few people that you hire would impact your startup the most, they should be chosen with extreme care ie. to be judged based on not only their skill set but also their personalities. Jaynti Kanani also added that Twitter is a great way to reach people.
The team is ready. How soon do I need to take a product to market?
Nilotpal enlisted numerous factors to keep in mind while setting this goal, like the investors, the market’s acceptance, competitors and capability but with all this, in mind, he says that the underpinning needs to be strong, regardless of how long that takes. Mayur from Newfang added that in addition to speed, agility — in this case, the ability of your team to make the right decisions at the right time — is also something to keep in mind before taking your product to market.
How does one motivate themselves and their teams to commit?
Vikram pointed out that a good way to keep yourself motivated is to keep a track of the progress you have made no matter how small. Jaynti kanani personally follows a regimen of meeting a favourite mentor once a week or month just to talk and let out the stress. Mayur added that to keep your motivation from taking a hit, one must develop a “thick skull and thick skin” and not shy away from interacting with users and taking feedback impersonally and objectively.
Shantanu also pointed out that things become smoother with the right mentor that fits the idea and significantly more so if the mentor also happens to be your investor.
The Startup is ready, is the Ecosystem in India ready?
Nilotpal elaborated that given any new technology and companies innovating using them , the bottleneck is always some form of regulation. He believes that it is the duty of indigenous startups that have gone the global distance to support future pipelines in building a more robust and flexible regulation around blockchain as numerous other countries have done in the past.
Shantanu added that colleges and educational institutes must be on the front-lines of adopting this technology to inspire innovation and awareness in young developers.
