You make some really good points there TeeGee. I have never been involved in venture capital or similar before. But I had always assumed that successful venture capitalists don't just hand over money at milestones. I always thought they would boost their chance of success by providing business advice as well. But just because this would be the logical thing to do, doesn't mean it happens. So I'm interested to know how far DNotes are thinking of going above and beyond the standard, and what the current VC standard behaviour really is.
I imagine that there will be another benefit of DNotes being selective about projects with potential and then providing further guidance. If projects running with DNotes assistance are typically successful and provide a good return on investment, the DNotes brand will quickly come to signify a good investment. This is always a good thing, but in the current ICO environment where there are far more options than can be diligently analysed, a trusted brand like DNotes would be very powerful.
It is common for VC to help their investment projects with support in some way, normally a seat on the board and their expertise depending on the size of the company, and the stage of growth it is in.
There are several components:
Business;
Venture Capitalists or investors;
Product platform;
Capital raising platform (for ICO or even standard investment);
Consulting services;
Current iterations in the market can cater for product and capital raising agent, for say, an ICO -- however we've seen that very few ICOs are successful or credible in their claims. For the ICOs out there who do have good products, there is still little chance that they will beat the low odds of long-term business success because of other prevailing factors like management, marketing, employee satisfaction, company culture etc. There are also no platforms offering the consulting services to maximize their success -- let alone any capable of doing so. I imagine this is likely because developer and ICO platforms are more product-centric, and the fees (in dollars or crypto) from consulting probably can't yield the 10,000% returns possible by with a quick ICO pump and dump. If they were thinking longer-term, they'd see that products born on their platform that reach heightened levels of acclaim will reach much larger returns, but there is a much higher personal investment involved. This approach would align the long-term interests of the platform, investors, and business.
I wouldn't be the person making any decisions on this, but I will offer my vision of how this could look several years in the future:
TimMarsh holdings is a startup that wants to enter a highly competitive market with its own take of a popular energy application, where leftover solar power collected from off-the-grid homes can be collected and then automatically sold on a peer-to-peer market place. The barebones of the application interface have been built, and the trading credit system designed, but you need 5 million dollars to expand the idea into a working platform. You could use the DNotes platform to list an 'unverified' ICO, and go it alone, procuring your own team of expert crypto advisors from LinkedIN, or blockchain "experts" who are already onto their
4th project in 18 months, but your preferred approach is to approach DNotes Global to run a verified ICO that allows access to more choosey and wealthy investors who select on quality, or even operate one in partnership with us.
DNotes Global meet you, and if you passed all preliminary checks, we would extensively review and verify all your personal details and scrupulously research your business idea, potential market, and your competitors and see if there is a viable business case that we could help you build a business plan for that we would be willing to put forward to our list of accredited investors (this list could be those accredited by US law, or a set of investors that meet our own conditions, but we will continue as though it is the former).
The ICO for example could be split into two pools:
Pre-ICO = for accredited investors, who get first right of refusal on all ICO offerings on the platform. There are benefits to having first right of refusal: always being able to purchase before soft/hard cap on ICO is reached, with spillover eating into the standard ICO token pool; the first right to any bonus tokens; and all token offerings that include attached sale of equity would be included in this round to meet securities laws. One example would be purchasing 50k of equity in the business, and also purchasing 50k of tokens used in its economy. Another would be having "mastercoins" that are issued in the pre-ICO round that stake and produce normal coins based on coin age instead of having 'investment bonuses' for early buyers, which will encourage them to not dump their holdings instantly once they hit the exchange. Just highlighting potential solutions to obvious problems in the current market.
After the pre-ICO, DNotes could look among your investors for those who would be able to offer their expertise in areas needed by your project (in a capacity commensurate with their investment + further pay), we could factor this self-interest into decisions we make when building an advisory team of experts in various fields from business strategy, marketing, operations etc. We could also have a network of DNotes employed professionals with skills from writing business & press releases, through to legal, accounting, economics and graphic design. The more businesses that join our network, or partner with us, the wider the number of skills within the system becomes. All of this could be done for a set fee based on hours worked, or monthly retainer, but another option for select businesses of our choosing would be to officially partner with DNotes Global, where these services are provided in exchange for an agreed amount of equity in the business tokens. Suddenly bright people with great ideas, but no team around them to make it happen have access to a powerful network of highly skilled and highly driven business professionals to make their business idea come to life, and have a much higher chance of succeeding.
Main ICO happens = Everbody not on the verified list can invest, no securities (tokens for equity) can be exchanged here, but normal tokens can. If the TimMarsh holdings wanted, they could include a small "bonus" for early investors as is the current norm (not that I'd see the point).
DNotes then helps the business to build their application and implement it on the DNotes blockchain. We would aid in verification and validation phases, and then help them to market & manage the release of their product.
The DNotes team of assembled consultants and professionals will continue to meet keep in touch with the ICO issuer and ensure everything is running smoothly, auditing the business where need be, and our business analysts will be looking for ways to improve process efficiency and find further opportunities for growth.
Over time, DNotes builds a reputation for successful projects, this means more promising individuals would come to DNotes to achieve their future success, and also give investors more confidence that due diligence has been done, and that the businesses long-term prospects are maximised due to DNotes Global's involvement.
**Just one way it could look in the future**
Thanks for your comprehensive response TeeGee. I have never been as excited about the future of DNotes as I am right now, as a result of your conjecture. I know it is just your perspective, but because it makes such sense, and because DNotes take care to make sensible decisions, I can't see you being too far from the mark.
My mind has been brim full of ideas since before I was old enough to express them. By eighteen years of age, I had formulated a plan to attract and incubate ideas into successful businesses. This was long before I had ever heard of venture capitalistsaround 1987. Ever since then, I have had this concept lurking and developing in my idle thoughts. Then for a large part of my career, I worked designing business systems as a consultant. So you may have some sense of the excitement I feel at the idea of this being done properly.
And of course I'd like to add to it. I see great value in recognising the most suitable and best value tools for running a business with. For example, such a kit might include Slack, BaseCamp, GitLab, Trello, IFTT, Zapier, Automation Anywhere, Bizagi, and much more. It might also include more rudimentary tools like a full-stack setup that combines all business data in MySQL, sitting on a server setup, with a front end running through Joomla, or Drupal, or Wordpress and so on. Once the ultimate kit has been selected and tested, the interactions between these tools could be shared as they are developed. It is surprising how many of the core requirements of running a business efficiently are exactly the same regardless of which industry they serve.
So imagine the incredible amount of work that would not need to be duplicated for each business if they could install "The Ultimate Business Kit" on a suitable server of their choice, and then with some basic configuration, are able to scan in invoices, have them auto recognised and added to their accounting system, automatically get processed according to conditions to sit in an approval stack. At a single click they are paid, remittances are sent, cost projections updated, stock levels updated, go-ahead requests sent for processes waiting on the stock, and everything else. Then as a new component is added, e.g. employing a new staff member, all of this functionality can be rolled out to existing kits and be available in new ones. Business success is largely dependent on efficiency and effectiveness. Providing a kit like this would give businesses an incredible advantage. Many businesses running the same system would also have the advantage of bench-marking off each other to flag situations going out of control.
Another area where I see DNotes using blockchain to simplify and automate their system, is in consultant payment. If consultants can see tasks, agree with how outcomes are to be verified and the remuneration being offered, accept the task, complete it, have their outcome verified, and get paid, all through a distributed autonomous system, the overheads of managing and scaling such a huge operation would be vastly simplified. And clients would have a higher level of satisfaction because all completed tasks are verified before payment. Coding all of this into a blockchain, whether it is a functionality offered by DNotes2.0 or if some other cryptocurrency is used, would mean that detecting and paying out on verified completion could be automated. And the transaction history immutable.
I really would like to see DNotes develop and roll out such a comprehensive system and I think it would do a great deal to improve the odds of any business' success.
Very true, Tim. That is one of the reasons why I wrote the book. Technically it is possible to develop a very complex system with many interrelated subsystems to help manage any company more efficiently and not overlook critical steps. However, that alone is not sufficient to make a company successful. In fact, I believe that the biggest cause of business failure is ignorance of the human side of the enterprise: this includes you the entrepreneur and leader; your employees; and your customers. They are all extremely important to achieve business success, irrespective of any systems installed.
The entrepreneur must have a viable idea, be it a service or a product that has significant potential for sustainable growth and probability if executed well. That vision must be clearly articulated to the extent that others can understand, and, be inspired to follow you and help you realize that vision. Your employees are extensions of you. Your customer must see your solution as the best option in fulfilling their needs and wants. When a business can take care of the human factors well; when integrated with the management/operation system you mentioned - it could do wonders.
Business is not complicated but few recognize that it is a complex system with many interrelated subsystems or components. Being great at one or two things is not enough to make a company successful. Just like your car, it doesnt run as well when certain components parts are not at optimum performance or failing.
Tim, you continue to amaze me. It reminded me of what George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "
I was born with that curiosity, but must add that it is much easier to dream than to translate the dream into reality. Over the years I came to realize that no matter what business you get involved, somethings always held true, it is almost always more difficult, cost more, and takes more time than you thought. Hold that thought for my next post, scheduled for this evening.
