Lifeboat Foundation

The 3 key ingredients for attracting investors to your crowdfunding (ICO/STO) campaign

Below is a redacted and slightly edited and updated version of a memo provided to a client regarding how to attract investors to their business, in mid 2017. For background, they’re a 5 year old private investment firm, whose stock is traded OTC and who invest in startups focused on blockchain tech. To further this model they were exploring additional ways to raise capital, specifically to acquire more startups. Below is a high level framework of what investor “whales” are looking for. This is not investment advice. These are redacted insights into what you should be considering if you’re looking to also engage potential investors in your business enterprise.

If you don’t have time to read it all, I’ll summarize: It still takes money to make money.

Note — all crowdfunding campaigns (regardless of if you call them ICOs / STOs) require a legitimate business model, tangible solutions to real problems, market size worth investing in and the potential for 100x returns. Otherwise, whales aren’t interested in 10x returns.

Continue reading “Magic Whale Formula” »

Today, I was asked to answer this question at Quora:

“What sets each cryptocurrency apart from the others?”

“Cryptocurrency” is a broad term. It refers to payment coins, of course—such as Bitcoin and Litecoin. But, because most tradeable tokens attain an asset value, the word is often used to refer to smart contract devices, such as Ethereum, a host of other blockchain based tokens, functional Internet-of-Things tokens, and even ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings). Since people treat ICOs and IOT tokens as investment instruments even if they are useless as a payment mechanism, they all fall within the realm of a cryptocurrency.

So, before addressing the question, let’s distinguish between Altcoins and ICOs. I assume the question refers to Altcoins, and not ICOs…

Continue reading “What sets cryptocurrencies apart from each other?” »