DuckDAO AMA Session recap with SparkPoint
SparkPoint team meets the DuckDAO community!
It’s been a while since the #SparkPoint team became guests on #AMA Sessions with the partners!
Last August 27, our CTO, Mr. Rico Zuñiga, and Senior Marketing Specialist, Mr. Carl Andre Bongalos participated in the AMA with DuckDAO to talk about the SparkPoint’s origin, achievements, plans and responded to all the questions from the community.
Before the Recap, let’s have a short overview about the DuckDAO.
DuckDAO is one of the recent partners of SparkPoint. The Duck community is said to be different anything the financial world has seen before. Their community is made up of investors that are looking to support projects in the long term.
Their involvement with projects can be classified into three distinct tiers:
Tier 1 (Incubation Level): They work with projects from their very beginnings up until the points they are listed on an exchange — plus more in aftercare. Incubated projects benefit from a range of marketing, advisory, and listing services to help catapult the project to success.
Tier 2 (Strategic Contribution Level): They assist projects with social media strategy, including Twitter and Telegram.
Tier 3 (General Contribution Level): DuckDAO manages OTC sales and community requests — there is no direct involvement with the project.
Know more about the DuckDAO here.
The Recap
Introduction
Host: Welcome everyone to another DuckDAO AMA. Today we Welcome the Team from Spark Point. Hello,Rico and Andre!
Rico: Hello everyone!
Host: Hey there! Super excited to have you here.
Rico: Same here, thank you for this opportunity!
Carl Andre: Hello everyone! Nice to be here with you all.
Host: Our pleasure!
Before we get started with the AMA, can you please give us a brief background of yourself both in the crypto space as well as traditional?
Rico: For my traditional background, I’ve been in the tech industry for almost 20 years, mostly with startups, some with multinational IT companies. In crypto space, I’ve been exposed to bitcoin since 2011 but only started taking blockchain development seriously in 2017.
I ‘ve worked on games, enterprise software, e-commerce apps, SaaS platforms, and of course, blockchain apps.
HOST: Nice. I hope you bought some btc in 2011! But it’s good to see that you experienced the bull and bear market since you started working in 2017.
Carl Andre: I am Drei, I am one of the Senior Community Specialist, handling the general marketing of SparkPoint. I previously worked in the advertising and creatives industry. With more than seven years’ worth of experience, expanding from multimedia works, graphics design plus layout, organizing and directing events, and marketing for SparkPoint Technologies. A tech and gadget enthusiast and now advocates for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Host: Awesome! Pleasure to have you here Andre!
Can you briefly at a high level explain what Spark Point is about before we dive into some deeper questions.
Carl Andre: SparkPoint or officially, SparkPoint Technologies Inc., is a duly registered corporation in the Philippines under the SEC. The project was launched on October 5, 2018 and is one of the pioneer cryptocurrency startups in the Philippines. The project aims to fast-track mainstream adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency through an ecosystem of practical products and services.
Rico: SparkPoint right now is different from what we’ve initially planned it to be. This is because of our constant experimentation and continuous improvement approach. Right now, SparkPoint serves as a software development and marketing arm of our ecosystem of solutions which include decentralized finance, gaming, remittance, e-learning, and venture investments.
Host: That’s ok too. In crypto you have to adapt. The point is you’re registered under the SEC and you have stood the test of time. I see this as a strength.
Rico: I agree, we need to adapt, improve, and evolve to be able to survive this cutthroat industry!
Carl Andre: SparkPoint started with initial funding of $50,000. With only this minimal capital combined with discipline, determination, and hard work, the team was able to launch various blockchain-based products and services including SparkPoint Wallet, SparkLearn, SparkPlay, SparkEarn, and SparkDeFi.
Host: Very impressive. Such little capital and you accomplished so much. I know projects in 2017 that raised $50m and didn’t stick around.
Rico: True, this is one of the accomplishments we’re most proud of.
Making every cent count.
Host: The community appreciates more projects like you!
Q&A Portion
Q: With so many use cases that your project brings, what was the original vision and why did you expand?
Rico: The original vision was too broad so we’ve reduced it to a few areas that we have a fighting chance of competing in. This includes e-learning, our Blockchain Developer Bootcamp is ongoing and is one of our more profitable endeavors. Andy and I, as well as Melissa who leads the bootcamp, have university teaching backgrounds and we wanted to apply this experience in SparkPoint.
Decentralized Finance via SparkDeFi, we strongly believe that this will change the financial landscape in the next 5 years. Traditional financial institutions who fail to embrace this innovation will be disrupted.
Gaming, because of my game development background and we all love games! And then there’s investments in the crypto space via SparkPoint Global Ventures to diversify and mitigate some of the risks.
Host: Impressive. And yes I feel that you’re ahead of the curve when it comes to teaching/training more users about blockchain. So many projects want mass user adoption but do nothing to contribute towards it. So bravo!
Q: What’s the goal of the partnership that you have set out with DuckDAO and how will Duck members as well as current $SRK holders benefit from this partnership?
Carl Andre: This AMA session is just the start of the many things that will come in our partnership with DuckDAO. By doing introductions in each other’s community, we are able to present our vision and mission to fast track the mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology through our products and services. I am pretty sure that this wouldn’t only benefit our community members but also the people outside SparkPoint and DuckDAO. We will be revealing more soon so please stay tuned to our channels. 😎
Host: Most definitely!
Q: What are some of the top milestones that SparkPoint plans to close in on this year? What are some of your longer term goals?
Rico: One of our biggest targets this year is to scale up our team and explore other markets. So far we’ve completed the first step of starting operations here in Toronto, Canada, which I recently moved to. We believe that with Canada’s great infrastructure, access to talent, and strong government support, we will be able to compete on the global stage. There are several factors in the Philippines including infra, government, COVID handling, talent, etc. that can limit our growth as a company.
Long-term, we’re looking at expanding here in North America, raising funding through VCs, becoming profitable as a company not just through token value appreciation, and become the first bona fide Filipino unicorn startup.
Host: Sounds like a lot of work but if anyone can do it then you guys can! Welcome to North America!
Rico: Thank you for the welcome! My family and I are loving it here!
Rico: Other milestones include, launching SparkDeFi, SparkPoint Academy’s Blockchain Developer Bootcamp, investments in other promising projects like Ownly, Spores, Project Seed, Chronicle, and more, and continuously growing our team in the Philippines.
Host: Fantastic. I can’t wait to see your vision towards more completion even though there’s already so much you’ve already delivered.
Q: Since you’re a little different then our usual projects that are soon to be launching and you guys have been around for a while, what are some of the toughest things you’ve faced in your crypto journey?
Rico: Definitely one of the most challenging is surviving the crypto winter and bear markets of 2018–2019 with very little capital. We had to make every cent count, deliver all our targets, and not run out of funding. Sacrifices were made by the early team members, special shoutout to Harvey and Medard. Also worth mentioning the intrinsic challenges of operating in the Philippines, like I mentioned earlier, the infrastructure, government inefficiencies, lack of available talent in the blockchain and crypto space, and too many bad actors casting doubt on our industry.
Host: I can’t even imagine. The ones who haven’t really experienced 2018 don’t know the pains we went through. Bull markets erase a lot of what was sacrificed in the Bear markets…..but I do think that those projects that have survived bear are the ones that can accomplish monumental achievements.
Because they are the ones that the community is behind and the ones that are delivering what they said they would.
I applaud your efforts.
Rico: Thank you! Much appreciated!
Q: Since Launchpads weren’t really a thing when you guys originally came on, how did you build such a strong ecosystem of users, partners, and content creators, bringing best-in-class digital services to emerging markets?
Host: We see now how it really takes a movement for some projects to gain awareness…but you guys did it on your own.
Rico: Big thanks to Andy, our CEO, he has done a great job of reaching out and connecting to our partners and the community as a whole even way before we launched. And now we’re grateful to have Andre to help out as well, we appreciate his passion for connecting with the community and our partners.
I believe it all boils down to authenticity. We don’t pretend. What you see is what you get. And I think our community appreciates that.
Host: I would have to agree! Authenticity matters!
Carl Andre: On a serious note, I can say that our company’s leaders are all brilliant and experienced people. Their expertise in our field has really contributed to the success we are having right now. Their guidance in our every work, their management and their cooperation on leading us to accomplish every item in our weekly, monthly and quarterly roadmap, I’m out of words on how amazing they are. The teams and members that collaborate within the company are in harmony. Personally, I can see how carefully things are planned and how it’s being executed.
Host: This is such a nice and encouraging message. Strong leadership matters and you will bring about the best talent in the industry!
Q: What is your strategy to attract new users and investors to your project and keep them long term?
Rico: On the technical side, we try our best to deliver our targets. My belief as the CTO is that, if we’re able to continuously and consistently deliver our targets, do what we say we’ll do, then users and investors will come and stay. It also helps that we have a strong marketing team headed by Andre but we don’t focus too much on hyping. We try to balance the hype with actual delivery of products and having a long-term vision instead of a quick pump and dump mentality.
Carl Andre: For me, it’s the honest work that we do on accomplishing our deliverables, and we just keep on doing that. Transparent work, gains us loyal supporters. Honest work gains us honest and sincere support. In the future we’ll keep on doing that.
Host: You have truly won me over when it comes to your humbleness. I agree. Deliver what you say you will and your community will follow you till the end!
Crypto communities are very loyal when it comes to following strong projects.
Rico: Thank you, I think it’s also because we value what the community has contributed.
We’re always aware that we owe the community what we have right now and this prevents us from wasting their money on frivolous things.
Q: Your Business Model indicates that Sparkpoint uses 70% ad revenue & 100% profit from SparkSwap to buy back & burn SRK tokens & ONLY remaining will be used for product developments? Do you think it will meet your project needs as per roadmaps?
Rico: Right now we have enough funding to sustain the company for the next 5 years. The Ad revenue and SparkSwap profit for buying back and burning may change as the situation changes but right now it works and has the most optimal way of benefiting the community. It’s still a small amount right now but it’s continuously growing and we’re looking at a more profitable year 2022.
Host: Nice. Yes I agree…2022 should bring about more bullishness. You did cover this question earlier but if there’s anything to add to it please do:
Q:What’s the predominant geographical focus of Spark Point? Are your users mainly from the Phillipines and if so, are you trying to expand your global footprint?
Rico: Yes, we’ve always had a global audience but the base of operations is in the Philippines, thus the immediate geographical focus would be in the Asian market, particularly SEA (South East Asia). And right now we’re starting to explore the North American market starting with Canada. Toronto in particular has a very large Filipino population (at least 200k) and money remittance from overseas Filipino workers is a big industry in the Philippines (worth billions of USD) which we also plan to explore through the use of blockchain and crypto technologies.
Host: In Toronto are you focusing on the Filipino community?
Rico: For the potential remittance service we’re exploring, yes. This is also in relation to our VCE (Virtual Currency Exchange) license application with the central bank of the Philippines.
We’re required to have that license to be able to exchange crypto to fiat and vice versa in the country.
Host: Understood.
Q: $SRK is one of the few cryptocurrency projects from the Philippines that is actively traded on exchanges.
“I am from the Philippines and recognize that there are only a few Filipinos who are familiar with cryptocurrency. How do you plan to continuously promote SparkPoint to our Filipino population?”
Rico: Right now, through our Blockchain Developer Bootcamp and other educational content we’re producing and uploading to our YouTube Channel. At least half of the students in the Boot Camp are from the Philippines. Also, we’re partnered with local non-profits like Bicol IT (which I also co-founded) that advocates technology as an economic driver. They conduct free seminars about technology including blockchain and cryptocurrency in the Bicol region which has a population of around 6M people.
Carl: We have plans and activities in the pipeline to promote and get more partners in our local community. We are also currently working on converting our education platform, SparkLearn to a full fledge academy in order to have more Filipinos onboard on crypto and blockchain. This academy would give more people the basics and fundamentals that everybody needs to have entry in this field.
Host: Nice! That should cover a lot of ground
Before we wrap up the AMA, Is there anything else you would like our community to know that I may have missed and you would like to highlight?
Also please feel free to share your telegram channels
Rico: I would like to personally thank everyone in the DuckDAO community for having us as guests today. As for highlights, watch out for exciting announcements in the coming months in relation to our expansion here in Toronto and other targets. Follow us on our social media accounts and our telegram. Andre will provide the details. Thank you again everyone!
Host: Thank you so much, Rico . I am extremely impressed with your project and your team. You guys are the real deal. You have shown tenacity in times where other teams gave up. I applaud your efforts and look forward to a growing relationship between your community and the Ducks!
Welcome to the Duck Family
Carl Andre: Thanks! We are inviting everyone to please follow us on our official social media channels. We are everywhere on social media!
https://www.facebook.com/sparkpointio
https://www.twitter.com/sparkpointio
https://t.me/SparkpointOfficial
https://medium.com/theecosystem
https://www.linkedin.com/company/sparkpointio/
https://instagram.com/sparkpointio
And also our SparkDeFi Social media Channels!
https://medium.com/theecosystem
Host: Thanks Andre! With that said, the AMA is now complete. Bye and we look forward to your upcoming Announcements.
Carl Andre: We are really thankful to you and to your team in DuckDAO! I’ve been working to connect with you guys and atlas! We’re here and meeting everyone in your community!
Thank you very much!
About DuckDAO 🦆
That’s all for now with the DuckDAO and SparkPoint partnership. The AMA is just the start of this partnership because there’s more that are just about to be unveiled! And yes, you’ve read them right! #SparkPoint will continue to expand its services and leverage the full potential to make this massive adoption a success!
I hope that this recap has educated you about the SparkPoint and its team and we’re glad to introduce to you the DuckDAO project. 🚀
Stay tuned, #Sparkies! ✨
Learn more about SparkPoint and SparkDeFi from the following links:
SparkPoint Website: https://sparkpoint.io/
SparkDeFi Website: https://srk.finance/
Trade SRK: https://srk.sh/trade
Trade SFUEL: https://srk.sh/tradesfuel
SRK-ETH on Uniswap: https://srk.sh/uniswap
Telegram Announcements (SparkPoint): https://t.me/sparkpoint
Telegram Announcements (SparkDeFi): https://t.me/SparkDeFiOfficial
SparkPoint Community on Telegram: https://t.me/SparkPointOfficial
SparkDeFi Community on Telegram: https://t.me/SparkDefi
SparkPoint Twitter: https://twitter.com/sparkpointio
SparkPoint Facebook: https://facebook.com/sparkpointio
SparkPoint Instagram: https://instagram.com/sparkpointio
SparkDeFi Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SparkDeFi
SparkDeFi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparkdefi/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sparkpointio
GitHub: https://github.com/sparkpointio
SRK on CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sparkpoint/
SFUEL on CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/sparkpoint-fuel/
