MVP
Use web3 and solve the problems you encounter
Story #1:
Seb Audet, Founder of Zapper, was a very active DeFi investor. The problem back then was that it was hard to calculate your Synthetix and Uniswap staking rewards. As he was hanging out on Synthetix's Discord channel with other hardcore DeFi investors, he noticed that he's not the only one having this problem.
So he decided to solve this problem. He found a way to calculate impermanent losses and pools and shared it on Discord. Quickly people started asking for more protocols such as Compound and Aave. Today Zapper is one of the most popular web3 app, with over 1M users.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #26, Seb Audet, Co-Founder & CEO @ Zapper
Non-timestamped: Apple
Story #2:
When Gnosis was preparing for its ICO, they realized they need a way to secure funds. It would also increase the people's trust in the project since back in the day, many ICOs ended with founders running away with the money.
So they built a multi-signature wallet for storing the money they raised. It was an instant hit - many other projects started using it, without even asking Gnosis if its been audited. Golem, the project that raised 400,000 ETH, used it even before Gnosis' ICO.
Today GnosisSafe is the world's most popular multi-sig, securing over $40B in assets.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #42, Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO @ Gnosis
Non-timestamped: Apple
Story #3:
Most new products by Zora have been developed to solve their needs.
They wanted to support aggregating every NFT on Ethereum. To do that they needed to build an API that will help them do that. And so they built an in-house API that they also offered to other companies.
They were exploring what it could look like to launch the ZoraDAO. And since they were excited about the NounsDAO model, they wanted to build a tool that anybody would let anyone start a Nounish DAO. Including Zora of course, since they wanted to learn all of the shortcomings, advantages, quirks of launching a DAO in this model. And so they released NounsBuilder.
Same with Zorbs - they wanted to let people collect their brand-related NFTs and it turned out that the same open edition model have been used by brands such as Coinbase, Rainbow and Gnosis.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #45, Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ ZORA
Non-timestamped: Apple
Follow the growing market
Story #1:
ZORA started by selling physical goods like t-shirts and prints. It was a good business but when they saw that a lot of their artists - mainly photographers and illustrators - started exploring NFTs.
Since the team was already deep in crypto, they followed artists and built a protocol to easily buy and sell NFTs on Ethereum. Today ZORA is one of the most popular web3 apps.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #45, Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ ZORA
Non-timestamped: Apple
Story #2:
One of the Paul Graham's essays said: "Bet on small markets that you think will be huge in the future."
Seb Audet from Zapper found out that DeFi not only has a huge potential but it also has a very dedicated userbase which stuck to it despite the bear market. The main problem they decided to solve - tracking your assets - would only get more complex with more protocols and more diverse market.
That's why he decided to bet on this feature.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #26, Seb Audet, Co-Founder & CEO @ Zapper
Non-timestamped: Apple
Adapt the well-known solutions to blockchain
Story:
In 2018, traditional NFTs worked well for unique collectibles and art but did not cater to models requiring recurring payment, such as subscriptions. And it seemed obvious that many projects won't be able to live off one-time payments.
To tackle this, Unlock developed NFTs with an expiration timestamp date on-chain. With this feature, the NFT would give you access to some exclusive content but when it expires after a specific period, you lose it mimicking a real-world subscription's expiry.
Up to this day, over 300,000+ membership NFTs have been minted.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #43, Julien Genestoux, Co-Founder & CEO @ Unlock
Non-timestamped: Apple
Focus on key features for your early adopters
Story:
Although today Gnosis Safe is known for its great UX, when the Gnosis team first built the Safe, they prioritized security over user experience.
The initial versions of these tools were complex and challenging for non-developers to understand. However, security was the team's primary concern—they needed to build something secure first and then improve upon it. A
nd having this bare bones architecture helped to gain the credibility among developers who could easily check the code themselves.
Only after the team iterated the products and addressed less sophisticated users, they added more convenience features to make the tools more readable and user-friendly.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #42, Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO @ Gnosis
Non-timestamped: Apple
Tinker around to build your product
Story:
In the early days of Zapper there were no advanced tools to fetch data on the blockchain. This lack of information made it difficult to develop the product and integrate new apps such as Compound.
So Seb took on the role of an on-chain detective, reverse-engineering the process and analyzing Infura calls to understand what functions and smart contracts should he call to get the necessary data to the dashboard.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #26, Seb Audet, Co-Founder & CEO @ Zapper
Non-timestamped: Apple
Simplify your design process
Story:
At Zapper, the design process involves Jasper, their mobile designer, and Seb, who actively designs and codes simultaneously.
When testing new UI elements, the Zapper team starts with quick mock-ups on Figma before moving on to building and testing different versions internally. The entire team, who are all active users of Zapper, tries out the product, allowing them to catch potential issues before the launch.
Although it's scary to change too much in the UI since it might annoy the users, they try to test new versions quite often. Thanks to that they can improve the product by understanding what people like and what they don't like.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #26, Seb Audet, Co-Founder & CEO @ Zapper
Non-timestamped: Apple
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