Why did I ask my employer for a pay cut
And what you should do with your money
Let me introduce myself first
My name is Rafael Salmon and I proudly represent the Chief Marketing Officer role at Taylor, a new startup which is developing a smart cryptocurrency trading assistant with a mobile app interface.
Plus, it is launching its own cryptocurrency (also described as a token), called TAY. Or, as you could say in the startup or crypto world, just another day at the office.
I’ve been building digital businesses for the last 6 years and I’ve been creating software for the last 19. In a recent past I started to dive deeper in what I believe to be a couple of the industrial revolutions currently taking place: blockchain/cryptocurrencies and big data.
When I was first introduced to the Taylor concept by its current CEO, it was love at first sight.
To make sense of my story, I have to introduce you to a couple more people
Fabio Seixas, currently the CEO and co-founder at Taylor, is a seasoned entrepreneur with many digital entrepreneurship success stories and someone I know and care deeply about for as many years as I’ve been in entrepreneurship.
Thiago Régis, CTO and co-founder at Taylor, is an experienced developer with many business practice years who I’ve met during a one-month entrepreneurship immersion program also about 6 years ago. He was the one to tell me the vision he had for the company when Fabio brought us back together that many years later.
Now let’s get down to business.
Long story short, here I was at this very same place where I’m writing this article from: the new Taylor headquarters, with a front ocean view, a beer cup in my hands and a lot of thoughts in my mind. I came here to negotiate a potential role in Taylor after several contacts before.
I had sent a counteroffer through a Facebook message to Fabio. Thiago and him presented me with their final offer. I took it.
The pay cut
The deal was: I was going to get a pay cut.
That’s right. You read it. A pay cut. Before even entering the company or having done anything wrong. And I asked for it!
The point was to reduce the salary I could be earning in any given company and, in exchange, receive the yearly projected difference in TAY.
Now what would I do such a thing and, most importantly, why do I even want to buy more TAY tokens during the crowd sale?
Let me show you my reasoning and I’ll let you decide if I’m crazy or not.
The reasons
Reason # 1:
Scarcity: TAY tokens are very limited and will be issued just once
This is a one-time-only token sale. Contributors in the first week get the biggest discount, followed by contributors in the second week, and so on.
In the worst case scenario, crowd sale will take place during 30 days. In the best case, it won’t last the first week. The number of tokens issued is little and the amount they represent in contributor’s dollars is also, when compared to most crowd token sales.
No new issuance of tokens will be made and no airdropping (giving tokens for free, like other companies do) will take place. If you get it during the token sale, you get it. If you don’t, you will have to purchase from other contributors, when they want to sell it and for the price that they want to sell it.
Check reason number five for additional arguments on the scarcity subject. Reason number five is about the utility of the TAY token and the value of keeping it for yourself.
Reason # 2:
No hyped fundraise: Taylor is only raising what it should
Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, says: “the only thing worse than little money for a startup is too much money.” Or something like that.
Too much money corrupts team and founders into a spending frenzy that shows no relation to the bottom line and, ultimately, responsibility towards investors.
Most crowdsales of tokens (usually referred to as cryptocurrencies) raise an amount of money in an amount of time that are unprecedented.
Don’t get me wrong, I love token crowdsale mechanics and the way it is disrupting the venture capital industry. It just seems that most startups are raising more money they should.
Taylor is one of the smallest fundraises due to knowing exactly how the resources will be used to bring profitability and early growth for the company, and thus, value for the token holder. It knows it because it is not starting from scratch. See reason number four to check the company’s track record.
Reason # 3:
Company ROI: Low costs, global team and entrepreneurial experience
As an Estonian company, we have people working for us from Europe, United States and a few States in Brazil, where most of the team is from.
The dollar to Brazilian reais ratio is now USD 3.23 and it has been pretty stable for a long while. It goes with local and foreign policy and economy, so rest assured it has little room for big change in short term.
That means we have a good opportunity to work with world class team members and infrastructure for roughly a third of the price you would get in, let’s say, the U.S.A.
All three company executives including the two founders have a track record of building startups from scratch and working on tight budgets. We know this is an opportunity to work with funds that are comfortable to work with even at a lower hard cap (the total amount of dollars being raised) than most token crowd sales.
The low cost of the company makes the amount being raised more than enough.
Reason # 4:
The track record of the (early stage) company
You don’t see token crowdsales out there with a product developed that can be tested by its users. You can count them on the fingers of one hand, even if you are former Brazilian president, who only has four of them.
Taylor did not start with a token sale of a startup that wants to build a product that may or may not address a need in the marketplace. It started with an application developed by one of its founders who has been used by fellow professional crypto investors who — guess what — made real money using it!
Even though we now call this first application developed a proof-of-concept application, it is called that exactly for what it does: proves that the concept works!
The procedure automated by this application, called a bot (which is nerd language for automated software that catches information from a source and delivers to you from time to time in a way that is useful and purposeful), still consists a core element of the product the company builds, which is signaling investors of a good trading opportunity between two different cryptocurrencies.
The best validation of the concept was having its users buying tokens before there was a token sale in a pre-sale fashion to support the early company’s activities. And we are not talking about chip change here.
After that validation and only then, the crowdsale plan took place. With the first round of money already raised, a first version of the product validated and a team of talented people formed and growing.
The plan for the use of proceeds (use of the resources raised by the token sale) was then robust: bring the product to market, bring the company to early break even and sustainable growth and giving it a kick start in the more ambitious plan to disrupt the cryptocurrency industry.
Its vision: allow any investor, from rookie to experienced, to consistently make money taking advantage of this admirable new market of ups and downs and fast-paced growth and, exactly because of it, filled with opportunities.
Reason # 5:
It’s the product, stupid!
Some people buy tokens because other people are buying the same tokens. Some others buy tokens because it seems like other people will buy them. This is called a hype. Or, you may also say, a herd effect. There is definitely a reason to follow a hype, but there is not necessarily a long term reason to do it.
If you check some ICO ratings that were published about Taylor on specialized media, you may find some good graded hype indicators, such as the growth rate in social media followers. It does serve the merit of accelerating our token sale and guaranteeing its success, but it definitely isn’t the point while we are in token sale phase.
The key here is the interpretation: hype isn’t the point. Followers that represent a fast growing and active community, that is the point, or one of them. But it only comes after and because of the first one.
The first point is actually the product. And man, what a product. Imagine being able to see in a glimpse how much money you have made and what is your balance in dollars by having the app convert the values in crypto from your full cryptocurrency portfolio. Simple idea, isn’t it? Try finding anywhere else.
Imaging having lunch and while you wait for the menu you get a push notification, accept the transaction and… enjoy the meal! Imagine you come back to work and you get notified that you just made money. What a profitable fish and chips you had! Imagine not losing money because you were too busy to check your trade, but the app interrupted it for you. Imagine all the people living life in peace. Uhum… You may say I’m a dreamer. With 8.000 registered contributors and a vibrant community, I’m not the only one.
Let’s just say It solves a real need and it does it brilliantly.
If you want to know how this team pays attention to detail, just take a look at our website and all the material we publish.
The release version of the mobile app is getting ready to be beta tested during the token sale. Which is the best step in the company’s track record, which is described in reason number four.
Did I mention the user experience? Well, I just did.
Reason # 6:
The value in keeping TAY tokens for yourself (as known as “the utility”)
Many tokens being launched have little to no practical application to the ecosystem of the company that launches them.
TAY tokens, on the other hand, are a great asset and a pretty good deal for someone who’s into investing in crypto. I will break it down and tell you why:
a) TAY is a method of payment to use the Taylor mobile application. If you use it, you get access to premium features and your subscription costs 25% less than you would normally pay for a standard subscription. Crazy, right?
b) You don’t have to spend your TAY when you pay to use the app. Instead, you just have to prove that you have it. It’s a method called proof of stake, but it has nothing to do with meat. It means that you allow Taylor to know if you have TAY tokens and that you are not trading them at the moment. Like showing that you have a season ticket when you go to the stadium to watch your team play the semi finals and then lose to Barcelona;
c) If you hold at least 1.000 tokens you don’t have to pay for the app. Period;
d) If you hold at least 3.000 tokens you don’t have to pay for the app AND you get access to premium features, such as priority opportunity notifications and higher investment limit.
The more people hold tokens, the more it becomes scarce in the market. Which throws us back to reason number one: scarcity. I’ll go even further: exclusivity. Bear with me…
The bundle deal is: you become part of an exclusive community of scarce token holders who do not pay to use amazing app features that allows them to make money by trading other cryptocurrencies while they are working on something else to make more money to invest in cryptocurrencies. Get it? Good.
Reason # 7:
Last but definitely not least: the trust that I have in the team.
When I was studying entrepreneurship at Babson College near Boston, MA, USA, I had a teacher who was (or still is) a venture capitalist and mediated a video meeting with a very energetic Brazilian entrepreneur.
Before the meeting we were crunching venture capital investment details and criteria, but I will always remember what the teacher said when the meeting was over: “this is what I like to invest in. Someone like him. Because problems will arise, and this kind of person will find out what to do.” Or something like that.
This is a team that I know by heart that no matter what comes as a challenge will be defeated with intelligence and seamless work ethic. It is also a team in which I put my trust and faith. And also my career, reputation and money. But those are minor details.
I hereby welcome you to our great adventure and appreciate you being with me until the end of my thoughts. Wish you a very good decision and the best time making trades your friends will not let you forget.
If you enjoyed this article, please like and/or clap and, most importantly, follow me. I’ll be writing more about our latest news and adventures!
Sincerely,
Rafael Salmon, proud Taylor’s CMO.
