Product Development
Find your product truths
Story:
When developing Zapper, the team considered what product truths would remain constant over time, similar to how Jeff Bezos decided to bet on broad offering, fast delivery and low prices.
They determined that people would always want to see what's in their wallets, and this simple truth guided the product's evolution.
As user behavior changed and they began using Zapper as an exploration tool, the team recognized the need to not only help people to see what's in their wallets but also what's happening onchain.
They shifted their focus from creating a portfolio tracker to building an account profile that incorporated various wallet aspects, like reputation and identity. This made the whole product more accessible and made exploring blockchain more accessible to average user.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #26, Seb Audet, Co-Founder & CEO @ Zapper
Non-timestamped: Apple
Understand which areas of the market are underserved
Story:
Gnosis insight that led to running their chain was that Ethereum is one of the few networks which really runs at capacity all the time. One of the reasons is that Ethereum is very decentralized which means it can be trusted with bigger sums of money.
So instead of competing with other networks which provide cheap and fast blockspace, Gnosis decided to bet on making the network as credible neutral and decentralized as possible so they can become home for financial applications and people's savings.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #42, Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO @ Gnosis
Non Timestamped: Apple
Tax the right people
Story:
ZORA initially generated money by taking 5% from every mint. The artists were dissatisfied, feeling like the platform took the money directly out of the creator's pocket.
So ZORA found out that if people are already paying for a mint or gas, they might be less sensitive to a $1 minting fee. The fee works great and helped ZORA to generate $2.5M in 4 months.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #45, Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ ZORA
Non-timestamped: Apple
Bet on your vision of the future
Story:
In the early bull run of 2021-2022, much of the market activity occurred off-chain, with platforms like Nifty Gateway running fiat-based off-chain marketplaces. However, Zora decided to remain purely on-chain, aligned with their belief in the future of blockchain.
While this decision meant a considerable trade-off in UX including complexities in onboarding users and getting them accustomed to setting up wallets, Zora held firm to its philosophy.
With a massive number of new users being onboarded onto Ethereum, the market caught up with Zora's vision. This resulted in Zora reaching 700,000+ collectors, validating their early bet on a fully onchain model.
To mitigate some of the onboarding challenges, Zora used tools like Magic Link, which simplified the wallet setup process. They also organized drops with popular artists like Grimes to encourage concert attendees to set up wallets and engage with NFTs, successfully onboarding around 5,000 new users in one instance.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #45, Dee Goens, Co-Founder & COO @ ZORA
Non-timestamped: Apple
You don't need to build everything yourself
Story:
Gnosis team decided to establish their own blockchain, but bootstrapping networks takes a lot of time. So instead of building Gnosis Chain from scratch, they merged with xDAI - an existing Ethereum sidechain, known for hosting POAPs.
They changed the technical roadmap of xDAI to follow the Ethereum roadmap and established a zk bridge with Ethereum to increase the compatibility between the two chains.
Today Gnosis Chain is growing fast, being one of the most decentralized chains in the space.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #42, Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO @ Gnosis
Non Timestamped: Apple
Reinvent your startup to grow
Story:
Initially part of ConsenSys, Gnosis was created with a vision to develop highly decentralized prediction markets, one of the most anticipated applications for Ethereum at the time.
Despite the buzz and capital they raised, the reality was that people didn't care much for these markets.
So while working on their ICO, they built Gnosis Safe which became leading multi-sig in crypto. After a few years they developed CowSwap, a protocol to trade with MEV protection. Then they decided to spin out Gnosis Safe and invest in building Gnosis Chain.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #42, Stefan George, Co-Founder & CTO @ Gnosis
Non Timestamped: YouTube, Spotify, Apple
Make your product easy to understand
Story:
Crypto is full of technicalities which might be often hard to understand for outsiders. So Unlock decided to name their gating smart contracts "Locks" and their subscription NFT "Keys", so even an average Joe can get it.
They also added Apple & Google Pay as well as walletless airdrops, where you can airdrop an NFT to an email address that corresponds to a generated wallet address. The recipient can then use this information to claim their NFT.
Source:
Web3 Talks, Episode #43, Julien Genestoux, Co-Founder & CEO @ Unlock
Non Timestamped: Apple
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