Metcalfe
We help companies grow by funding their online marking spend
While working at a blockchain company called Origin Protocol, I understood their protocol and other similar blockchain protocols values were dependent on other DApps being built on them. In Origin's case. these DApps would pay in Origin's token, OGN, to utilize their protocol to build peer to peer marketplaces on Ethereum. The protocol would allow for developers to quickly whip up marketplaces, create listings, user identities, messaging, arbitration, etc, on the blockchain. For every DApp that was built on the protocol, the protocol's cryptocurrency would become more valuable.
Therefore, Origin's and many other protocols success would be dependent on the successes of the DApps who choose to build on them. Each and every DApp would need capital to fund their development efforts. Regardless if they failed, every DApp would need capital. If nine of ten projects were expected to fail, how was Origin going to incentivize enough entrepreneurs to build on their protocol so that they could get fast growth and adoption?
They could create an "Innovation fund", but this would be very restricting to entrepreneurs and not sustainable. My proposed solution was more similar to the replication of Ethereum's growth model, which allowed entrepreneurs to raise their own capital with virtually no restriction via an ICO. This is what enabled Ethereum to be adopted in the first place and is what led to the boom of innovation and talent appearing in the blockchain space. It all was from the ICO. If Origin were to grow at any substantial rate, I figured they should try to mimic Ethereum, since it was the only capital formation model that had proven itself.
I proposed Origin have a strategic partner who operated independently of Origin but whose sole purpose was to act as a capital fundraising engine to constantly produce new projects on Origin. Given that Origin had already created a marketplace framework, this strategic partner already had bones. This strategic partner would allow entrepreneurs to legally raise their own equity crowdfunding that would be compliant with the SEC, via Reg CF, which allows companies to raise up to $1M from non-accredited investors. The tokens would be real securities, like equity, and therefore be called Security Token Offerings (STOs) instead of ICOs. It would be decentralized and built on Origin, of course.
Here was my brain dump on the idea: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aa6oXKcd8vUWJNMG1U9ScE9-J0qKVtlxkS3kbk82zf4/edit?usp=sharing
My premise for my research has been the following: how can companies looking to grow get capital? It's a simple question and concept, but there's surprisingly not many good ways to go about it.
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