Fund Yourself Now is one of the most interesting ICOs that we have seen in a while. They state in their Whitepaper that:
“Our main competitors are existing players in the crowdfunding space, with the biggest being Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Growth in the crowdfunding space has been explosive over the last few years and is projected to continue growing at 26% a year till 2020”
I think that their market goes way beyond what Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are offering. First let us watch their video on who they are:
Fund Yourself Advantages
When we think of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo as their competition, this would be in the non-blockchain related industries. As we know the real money today through crowdfunding is in the Initial Coin Offerings that many projects are going through, like Fund Yourself Now is. Fund Yourself Now is facing the challenges that all ICOs do and are working their way through them one by one.
With this experience, they will be fully equipped to bring other ICOs, who do not have that knowledge, through this process in a more efficient and smooth manner. Many of the projects that are launching ICOs do not have the expertise to take their project from conception to completion through an ICO. Fund Yourself Now has a full one-stop solution.
Fund Yourself Addresses Three Major Needs
As per their whitepaper (link in Resources section bellow), there are three major challenges that companies starting through a Crowdsale face.
- Lack of Control once crowdfunded money is disbursed
- Lack of Support /Mentors
- High Transaction Costs
To address the first issues, instead of the project leaders having full control of the project funding at their fingertips when it comes to FYN the release of the funds for the given project will be set through smart-contracts based on milestones. If the company doesn’t reach the milestones given, the users can vote to delay or cancel future milestone payments. This gives them some protection and the chance to recoup funds where possible.
To address the second issue, let’s see what FYN says in their whitepaper:
“Many good crowdfunding projects also get put on hold or fail to get the required funding due to a lack of marketing support. For example, most of them would not have the budget or expertise to make a good marketing video, do translations in different languages and promote their product on social media networks.
Our platform will allow project creators to seek project help from the community for their existing ideas/projects. Project helpers will be reward with Bounty credits, which can be exchanged for Project Tokens, which are created during the project crowdfunding place. Project Tokens entitle backers to access the rewards listed on the project page. They will be tradable through our internal cryptocurrency exchange, so helpers can eventually convert their tokens to virtual currency and eventually actual cash if they wish to.”
The third issue is addressed simply by lower fees, while the typical Kickstarter campaign can cost up to 9% including transfer and listing fees, FYN fees are a set 5%
The Fund Yourself Now Team
We do not usually go into the team of most of the ICOs we profile but we just wanted to point out some of the makeup of the team which attracts us to this ICO. We are impressed that the top level management has brought Advisors with experience in both Venture Capital and Blockchain Technology to their team, which will enable them to fulfill their mission of taking projects from inception to market
Jack Ser – Founder: who is a serial entrepreneur and is also the founder of Pinnacle Digital which is a full solutions company that specializes in providing in-house web design services, eCommerce web site development, mobile application development and branding design.
Kenneth Tan – Co-Founder, COO: Kenneth has extensive experience in software development and is currently the COO at Pinnacle Digital.
Carlos Salas Co-Founder, Nogle – Acting in an advisory role, he is the co-founder of http://www.nogle.com/ who are product designers and company builders. They team up with entrepreneurs and early-stage startups to turn ideas into products and companies by offering technology, funding, and connections.
Dana Coe – Founder, Bitlox – Acting in an advisory role, Dana L. Coe is a pioneer in the cryptocurrency security sphere and has been involved with Bitcoin since 2013. He was a part of the first wave of internet start-ups in the early 2000s, and this gives Mr. Coe a unique insight into business strategies and how to frame the discussion as to what direction a company should move in.
Fund Yourself Now Development and Campaign Milestones
The companies list various milestones and what they can achieve through the different milestones reached. If they reach their minimum goal of 1.5 million dollars they state that they can:
• Launch of FundYourselfNow Platform (FYN) MVP
• Marketing and Branding Campaign to attract backers
•• FYN backers are able to use FYN tokens to invest directly in projects at preferential rates
These ICO milestones are detailed in the whitepaper as well, up to the milestone of raising over 5 million dollars through their ICO. The Spending Overview is shown below.
Fund Yourself Now Spending Overview for Fund Raised
Funds raised from FYN crowdsale is planned to go into the following 3 main categories:
- Research & Development (25%)
2. Marketing and Business Development (50%)
3. Operations & Legal (25%)
Marketing and Business Development can include but not limited to:
1) Running online advertising campaigns, such as Google adwords and Facebook advertisements
2) Running promotions to attract customers to use our platform and refer their friends to sign up
3) Cost to hire and maintain an in-house business development and marketing team, or engaging an outsourced vendor for business development/marketing purposes, whichever is more cost effective.
4) Cost of running speaker and networking events that we organize for the FYN community
5) Press Releases
6) Co-Investment into selected project that will help build the FYN ecosystem (>5m raised)
Research & Development can include but not limited to:
1) Redesign and improvements to UI/UX
2) Having FYN Tokens listed on the various virtual currency exchanges
3) Development of FundYourselfNow initial feature set for launch
4) Development for new features post FYN launch
5) Cost to hire and maintain a team of expert advisors and coders for product development
Operations can include but not limited to:
1) Cost of to maintain operations team. This includes customer service support, finance department and project review team who will engage with our platform users on a regular basis.
2) Rental, furniture, utilities and equipment hardware cost for locations in which we have an office set up.
3) Server and Hosting costs for FYN platform
4) Legal and Compliance costs, to ensure our business is compliant with the laws which we operate in
5) Coordinate with expert legal providers to support project creators for their ICO projects.