Johan Moonen Team Interview (PART 2): Discussing the Potential of the iExec Marketplace
Part 2 of our discussion with Johan Moonen, who recently joined iExec as COO. Last time he talked about his background, iExec as a whole, and how he’s using his knowledge to make sure the team is well-positioned to employ his strategy. In case you missed it, read PART 1 of the interview introducing Johan:
In Part 2 of our interview, Johan discusses the Decentralized Marketplace, what that actually means, and some of the questions he’s keeping in mind as he builds iExec out — what does iExec need to consider? And what could the iExec Marketplace look like in the future?
In Part 1 of our interview, you said, “We have this really cool marketplace. It started off as a decentralized cloud. Then we found that we could build out a decentralized marketplace.” So everyone is on the same page, can you you define ‘decentralized marketplace’?
The iExec marketplace is an online store consisting of blockchain-based apps that utilize iExec technology. In this store, “users” (we’ll get into all the definitions next) buy services offered up by other users. These offers are value-added — they solve a need — which leads to transactions paid in RLC.
Who are the different players in the marketplace?
We have two types of users: those who sell services and those who demand/use/consume services. On the demand-side users can be called buyers, consumers, customers, clients, requesters. On the supply-side, users are known as sellers, suppliers, developers, providers.
Where does iExec fit in?
We’re the intermediary. We build the marketplace, operate it, and define the rules of engagement. These rules include outlining the levels of regulation we need to abide by. Figuring out how much due diligence we will be doing. How centralized or decentralized will the marketplace be. Centralization vs decentralization is not absolute; there are more like 10–15 parameters that need to be defined.
You’ve talked about the stadium analogy in iExec meetings. Can you elaborate on that for our community?
(Laughter) Sure. To me, we’re like a strategically placed piece of land. This piece of land is in a great location and has the potential to attract a great deal of business. But to do so, we have to transform this land into a stadium. That’s where we’ll host providers and requesters.
In your opinion, what’s more important — requesters (buyers) or providers (sellers)?
That’s easy — requesters (laughs). The more requesters we have, the more providers will come.
We need to solve requester needs in a better way than how requesters solve their needs right now. Maybe they don’t have a blockchain solution, maybe they’re stuck with a Web2 solution. Or maybe they purchase what they need from someone else. Their need will probably come down to growing their top-line or increasing profit. We could also help reduce the cost of operating.
There are four ways we can achieve this. We call these “the levers of conversion.” Be cheaper, have better performance, have something no one else has, or we offer something that can be more easily found. And of course, as we focus our efforts around requesters, we need to focus on our differentiator to get customer loyalty and repeat level of traffic.
How do you envision commercializing and scaling the marketplace?
Firstly, our focus is on more transactions. To achieve this we must create a marketplace that is easy to understand and simple to use. We identify the users and get them familiar with our marketplace.
Acquiring new customers is very costly. We need to make sure the right people are using our marketplace, so it’s also a question of who should we offer this to? Who do we need to reach out to so we get traction? And once we do, how do these users become repeat customers? We do that by showing them the iExec Marketplace addresses their needs better than anywhere else.
But let’s think outside the box. Maybe we will expand our marketplace offering. Maybe we offer multiple marketplaces for different clients, each with its own purposes. These marketplaces could have their own requesters, their own workers, be specific to a certain industry or geographic location.
It seems like a lot of the focus is going to be on the customer. Can you talk a little about how iExec is going to support marketplace users?
To have satisfied customers that are advocates for our marketplace, that evangelize about how great it is to get services off our platform, we may need to set up customer service and technical support. iExec needs to be cognizant of how we onboard, how fast we onboard, and how hard we push the RLC agenda.
We’ll also need to differentiate our marketplace intrinsically. By this, I mean we need to be clear about what’s actually on the marketplace, what will be unique about it? Will blockchain be the only defining feature? When we get more services to offer to requesters on the iExec Marketplace, they’ll need to be able to actually find these services they are looking for vs the experience of looking for something in a horrible junkyard. There are many different ways to help our customers find the right products: algorithms, prioritization buttons, dedicated sites with dedicated communication. My point is that we have to plan all this out for an optimal customer experience.
How do you see our marketplace getting traction?
There’s been a lot of focus on the what — the “what are we going to do.” Let’s not forget the question of “how” — how are we going to operate? We’re working on what we need to focus on. But it’s important to ask how: How are we going to do this? How are we going to get traffic? How are we going to manage participants in the marketplace? How are we going to go about product management, and category management? How are we going to monetize, run the website, and run customer service? If we can work these out in greater detail, we’ll get much of the foundation in place.
Are there any specific areas that you’re focusing on?
There are 12 different areas we’re working on. But talking about these means going into the deep weeds. Because to be successful, we need more than to state “this is what we’re going to do.” We lay out the roadmap as much as possible, and execute. And focus on performance metrics to provide a stellar, superb user experience.
Rather than a lecture about all the areas and the sub-areas, what if you just give me some key insights/questions that arise from this approach?
Sure. For example, we need to be strategic about how to convert traffic into transactions. How can we do this while playing around with the levers I highlighted earlier (e.g. selection, price, performance, merchandising)? We obviously will not refuse apps, but we are looking for a specific assortment of apps on the marketplace. The apps we’re looking for:
- have a great value to requesters (so they pay a decent price for the app)
- are frequently used (so that requesters want to use them, and use them often)
- apps address a big volume of requesters in all kinds of industries
How do we get RLC to change hands?
The best way to get a lot of RLC to change hands is to get apps on the marketplace that do these 3 things at the same time. This optimizes the use of RLC. When we organize the marketplace, the apps have to be organized in a way that these 3 key features are leveraged. These are obviously things we can control, that we can influence. These are attributes of a good assortment.
With a good assortment, we do a variety of things. We can ride top-selling items like fashionable keywords (“NFT”) and brand names (“Apple”). We can upsell using the good-better-best model (“basic apps are free, premium apps offering TEE need to be bought”). We can bundle apps (“buy 10 transactions and get 10% off”). You get the picture. These are things we need to plan for.
We need to make these kinds of choices to figure out what we prioritize. So we get a transaction and the rocket gets off the ground. Do we want transactional buys vs recurring… What is better? APPs that are bought on a pay-per-use basis vs those that work like subscriptions? We need to figure out the right agenda, together and by discussing with our users.
Another area of focus is connecting and engaging the right audiences on the supply and demand side.
Supply and demand management is about hunting and farming providers, hunting and farming requesters. We are laying out how we’re going to do this, the resources we’re going to need, the approach, and how much money we’re going to spend.
Can you provide some insight into how you see the Oracle Factory and cNFTs fitting into the marketplace?
The oracle factory, confidential NFTs… these are products. Let’s take a step back and discuss product management. We need to ask ourselves, what is the definition of a product? When we publish a product, what is this product really about? Why do we need products, what purpose will they serve?
To me, a product is a piece of tech that facilitates the building of apps. Developers add their own code to our products so that the resulting app enables a value-added service for requesters. When we offer great pieces of tech, we’ll end up with a lot of developers creating superb apps; and that will help us scale the business.
Kind of like a lego brick?
Exactly. Our products are bricks that make it easy for third parties to build apps. We want to make it easy for third parties to build apps, because the easier we make it, the more apps we’ll get. So to me, a product is not finished; it’s merely a component.
For example, the iExec Oracle Factory is really a bunch of tech that’s ready to be configured. Developers can configure our product into a price feed or coronavirus data. That combination of our oracle and the developer’s work becomes an app that provides a service to whoever needs it.
Who do you envision building products and apps in the future?
I think iExec, given we understand the tech stack well, will focus on Products. Some developers may develop products but most will create Apps. As a next stage, I can see software companies and/or blockchain projects building more and more Apps.
How do we figure out what to build?
It’s important to think about requesters and their pain points; and what are their needs. What types of apps could we imagine solve those pain points in such a great way that customers will flock to our marketplace. And when that’s clear: how we can help developers or providers to publish apps to the marketplace, what bits of tech can we help them with to create apps with ease. It is from that vantage point that we’re exploring how our products shall support the marketplace. As part of this logic, we’re identifying priority markets and understanding what’s required in Banking, Healthcare, Government, Energy; and how does it pan out in different geographical areas (Spain, France, US, etc) in terms of go-to-market approaches.
With that great way of re-laying out the business, where are you taking us, Johan?
It may feel a bit daunting and complex. But it is really simple. Think Uber. We connect drivers with riders who want to go somewhere asap. Right now, we are acquiring drivers (developers). Next we’ll focus on getting riders. The ride (the app) is a service to take you where you want to be, meaning a place where our customer has received their KYC result in a flash.
That concludes Part II of our interview with the new COO. We hope you enjoyed the content. Thanks for reading!
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