Are You Playing Truth or Dare With Your Approach to Being a FinTech Startup?
Are you being honest, asking the right questions and taking the right approach in the early stages of your fintech, blockchain, decentralized finance, or crypto startup?
Are you being honest about your identity as an organization and what you can deliver? Or are you just looking to take a shot? Investing in FinTech transformation, and new development projects is a complex and risky endeavor when you are well capitalized and ready to put in the time and effort…but if you are not taking a hard look in the mirror and able to ask and answer some key questions, then you may be in for a bumpy ride and not so happy an ending.
Questions to ask yourself about your fintech project:
Number one reason most new businesses fail is there is no market for the product.
- What’s the problem your looking to solve?
2. Have you spent time conducting interviews with your potential customers focusing on defining their problems so you have a clear understanding of their unmet needs?
3. Have you used existing solutions to understand your competition?
4. Can you explain the problem you solve; your project’s purpose in one sentence?
5. How do you define your identity?
6. Do you have a focused problem-solving solution, or are you trying to be all things?
7. Have you pivoted your focus in another direction because of a recent trend? Does this align with your core purpose?
8. Have you developed a realistic business case?
9. Is there a market for your solution and can you realistically monetize your solution?
10. Is your whitepaper an accurate depiction of your technology and the value you bring with your technology? Does it demonstrate a working solution? Are you disruptive? An improvement on a current offering? Both?
11. Do the key stakeholders, i.e. your team members, investors, and community members believe in the solution and feel confident promoting your project beyond the token price?
12 How do you define success? And how would you measure success?
13. Do you have an actual go-to-market plan with specific benchmarks, measurable goals?
14. Have you planned around market volatility?
15. Does your budget align with your strategy? Do you foresee any gaps? Do you have the necessary resources to deliver your project?
16. Is your project built on current market realities or are you planning ahead taking into account market changes?
Stakeholder Buy-in on Company Mission and Identity
Business development and go-to-market marketing strategies will be more successful if all the key team members/stakeholders are on the same page with company messaging. If there is a disconnect, it will affect the overall success of your initiative and company and your reputation. If you can’t communicate precisely what problem your product solves, no marketing or business development strategy will lead to successful growth.
For a growth strategy to succeed, the team needs to have a clear understanding of the competitive landscape and to build rapport, gain support and insight from other team members and your community. In short, to identify the path to transforming the business into an industry leader, the customer journey, user experience, and engagement levels throughout the ecosystem need to be best in class. Your leadership directive should be to develop a foundational framework from which a clear and defined road map can be developed that provides near and mid-term milestones, with respect to (including, but not limited to) organizational identity, business direction, optimal organizational structure, organizational culture, financial objectives, product development and road maps, project focus, branding and messaging for your project/product depending on scope.
5 Steps to take to craft your fintech, blockchain, DeFi, or crypto startup story and lead your team for the win.
The path to success includes creating a compelling story where your project is the ‘hero’, delivering to your target market a solution they need whether they know it or not. Craft your story first, then build your marketing and business development strategy around your story.
1. Create a meaningful, powerful vision that everyone can share across the company. Translate your technology story into clear terms that anyone can share the vision and the passion.
2. Examine the market realities. Be open to listening to naysayers and advocates to gain an honest perspective of what’s happening with your project with the realities of what’s happening in the marketplace.
3. Form an ‘Alliance of Support.’ Assemble a group of champions, advocates, influencers, and ambassadors, including team founders, that will be vocal about your project through the entire product life cycle.
4. Build momentum by planning around short-term wins — reward advocates, ambassadors, and team members who consistently share your story across multiple marketing channels.
5. Ingrain your project passion and infuse fun into your work culture. Become a destination for like-minded individuals when growing your team.
It’s not enough to have a great idea. To stand out and succeed you will need a solid business plan. Sounds complicated? We can help simplify.
