Recap from OST LIVE with Nicolas Van Hoorde, CEO of Delta — Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracker
Nicolas Van Hoorde is the CEO of Delta, which produces the Delta free Bitcoin and cryptocurrency portfolio tracker app. Van Hoorde discussed his success with Delta’s growth and provided advice for blockchain-based projects.
Van Hoorde has experience working on products at various companies. One day, he remembers, he connected with a lead developer at his job at the time to discuss savings and investments, looking into stocks and cryptocurrencies. Van Hoorde and his colleague, Filip Minev, had been using Blockfolio to track their cryptocurrency investments. Although it worked well, they felt they could build something better, and they were eager to work in the emerging fintech industry. They presented their idea to the founders of their employer, Realo. Realo helped fund a project called Opus Labs, founded by Nicolas Van Hoorde, Filip Minev, and Realo co-rounder Nicolas Van Eenaeme. Opus Labs was eventually renamed Delta. They started working in August 2017 and launched the application on 1 October 2017.
Dela — Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tracker
Delta is a portfolio tracking application for cryptocurrency investors. Without a product like Delta it’s hard for investors to keep track of all their investments, especially if they have a diversified crypto portfolio. This is because there are many different exchanges and many different coins. Some coins are only available on certain exchanges, and that makes it challenging to keep track of investments. In October 2018, the Delta team launched Delta Direct, a communication channel to allow token teams to connect with Delta’s 1.2 million users. Users who are subscribed to a token team on Delta can opt in to receive notifications when an update is posted. Delta Direct now lists about 375 token teams.
This week, Delta is planning for a 2.0 release that will enable discoverability for token projects so that projects that are communicating frequently will have the potential to reach a new audience. This is something that Van Hoorde believes will bring value to the cryptocurrency scene.
Three Months, 500k Users
There were a couple projects building cryptocurrency portfolio trackers in 2017, including CoinCap, Blockfolio, and coins.live. Founded in 2014, Blockfolio is the veteran in cryptocurrency portfolio tracking. Despite these existing products, the market was much less crowded in 2017 and there was an opportunity to add value to the space.
Delta’s founders expected to reach 50k users within one year. Delta reached 500k users between October 2017 and January 2018. The app’s time-to-market was a major help, as the market cap of crypto reached over $800 billion in January 2018.
Van Hoorde attributes Delta’s success to user experience and innovation. User experience was frankly terrible in 2017, Van Hoorde says. “‘Designed by engineers’ means that it works great, but there hasn’t really been a thought process of how the user would use it in the most optimal way.” Delta prioritized UX and won the Webby Award for best mobile app user interface in 2018. Regarding innovation, Van Hoorde attributes Delta’s success to making subtle, detailed upgrades on key areas that make using a portfolio tracker easier. People not only switched apps, but actually became ambassadors of the app, creating word-of-mouth viral elements that helped Delta grow.
Advice for Blockchain Projects to Persevere
Van Hoorde says it helped Delta a lot to be very communicative toward the cryptocurrency space. The cryptocurrency space is quite unique, he says, in that sense that you can directly interact with the people who are using your products, believing in what you do, and giving active feedback. The cryptocurrency community is there for projects to engage with. Van Hoorde suggests that project leaders go on Reddit and Telegram, being as open as possible.
“If people notice that you’re working hard and being communicative in an open and transparent way, then they’ll become your channel for marketing in some way, and it’s entirely free.” — Nicolas Van Hoorde
Van Hoorde believes that being transparent allows people to see and appreciate how you work. Projects under development should release updates monthly, rather than working on bigger releases and being silent for six months. Projects can split up releases in chunks so they always have something to show and something to deliver.
Delta is available on IOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and Mac. Be sure to subscribe for OST updates on Delta Direct.
Coming Up Next on OST LIVE: Joseph Pallant
Joseph Pallant has been active in the carbon market since 2004, providing project development expertise and strategic direction across private, public, and NGO endeavors. He is the founder of CPS Carbon Project Solutions Inc., a pioneering offset-development firm, and Blockchain for Climate Foundation, putting the Paris Agreement on the blockchain. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch live and meet community members in the live chat. You can also find OST LIVE on your favorite podcast app, including: iTunes, Alexa, Spotify, CastBox, Google Play, TuneIn, Stitcher, PodBean, Overcast, and Player FM.
About OST
OST blockchain infrastructure empowers new economies for mainstream businesses and emerging DApps. OST leads development of the OpenST Protocol, a framework for tokenizing businesses. In September 2018 OST introduced the OpenST Mosaic Protocol for running meta-blockchains to scale Ethereum applications to billions of users. OST KIT is a full-stack suite of developer tools, APIs, and SDKs for managing blockchain economies. OST partners reach more than 300 million users. OST has offices in Berlin, New York, Hong Kong, and Pune. OST is backed by leading institutional equity investors including Tencent, Greycroft, Vectr Ventures, and 500 Startups.
