Q&A Series - Chat with FAS
Chat with our founders is a Q&A Series published twice a month on Thursday where FAS's founders share their tips, advice, best practices to SMBs as well as their point of view on the hot topics in the Blockchain and Fintech industry.
Q9: Banking for Kids: What is It?
Elena Obukhova: It appeared that younger generations tend to have more struggles with their finances. Many parents don’t have enough time or knowledge to teach their kids how to manage money. Banking for kids is not only allowing the younger generation to have a simple solution to pay their daily expenses but also to learn about other important products like saving and investing.
The earlier you learn how to manage your finances the easier it will be further on. Kids now can have multiple options and make their own financial decisions. They can quickly spend their allocations today or they can save/invest to have more money for later.
In most banks, parents can also control the allocations and set up spending limits for their kids from their “parent” accounts. “The best way to learn is to start trying” and that’s completely true for younger generations.
Fintech is here to help!
Q8: In your opinion, what is the future of NFTs?
Sergey Ivanov & Elena Obukhova: The NFT market continues accelerating in 2021. The trend of NFTs has been surging and even surpassing Defi Google searches lately. We have witnessed the largest transaction in history with Beeple’s “Everydays: the first 5000 days” for $69M, Banky getting into space, and even Jack Dorsey selling his first tweet for $2.9M.
As with any trend, there comes a period of hype and cooldown, but it is important to remember that NFTs are primarily a technology and can have many more applications beyond its current use and hype. Particularly, its applications in the Intellectual Property market may greatly impact the issuance and transfer of patents. NFTs may be used to give additional bonuses to its holder, which will be defined by its creator.
For example, access to VIP zones at concerts, or even selling real estate together with an art piece. The gaming industry may undergo the greatest evolution due to NFTs by incorporating items with limited supply and creating a real in-game economy. There can be hundreds of other applications to this technology, but one thing that we can be sure about is that Non-Fungible Tokens are here to stay.
Q7: The webinar “How to Launch Your Blockchain Startup?” took place successfully with the participation of more than 100 attendees all over the world. As an organizer, what would you say about it?
Sergey Ivanov: Big thanks to our speakers and organizers. I think it was an insightful event with around 100 attendees joining from all over the world. Elena Obukhova, Dr. Chong Li, and @Gabriel Cardona covered very important points that founders should keep in mind if they want to be successful with their blockchain startup. As Gabriel said, “There is no box”, so thinking outside the box is not even considered by the most innovative thinkers. They look for most game-changing applications rather than having a benchmark.
Personally, I believe that understanding what benefits blockchain technology brings to your startup is the key behind a great value proposition, if founders incorporate blockchain only because of a buzzword, they are setting themselves for failure. The Q&A section was very interesting, and in my opinion, the highlight of it was the question “Which blockchain trends are currently underappreciated?”. With so much noise around different trends, it is important to remember what is the core value of blockchain and by remembering it and noticing undervalued applications we can predict and shape the future of blockchain.
Q6: FAS | Fintech Advisory Services will host a webinar on the topic: How to Start Your Blockchain Startup?. What makes this webinar worth attending?
Elena Obukhova: Are you thinking of starting your own blockchain company or exploring the field? Then you will definitely get some ideas on how to do it from our webinar. I, together with Chong Li（李崇）and @Gabriel Cardona, will cover major challenges and the ways to overcome them when you are building a blockchain startup as well as share practical tips and insights on how to do it efficiently. This webinar aimed to provide founders with a structured framework for launching a startup that includes business and strategic planning, insights from an investor’s perspective, and a case study of launching a successful blockchain project from Ava Labs. E-see you on March 24th!
Save your seat here 👉 http://ow.ly/pnvE50DWkQD
Q5: How to Choose the Right Market for Your Blockchain Startup?
Elena Obukhova: Trends are shifting quickly in the blockchain. Lately, we heard a lot about NFTs, STOs, DeFi, and Yield Farming along with Healthcare and Supply Chain applications. The growing number of startups always comes with a growing number of failed projects. Thus, I always recommend starting your Blockchain startup from validating that idea. Do people really need your solution? If so, how much do they want to pay for it and how soon do they need it? Those are the questions to begin your project with. I will be talking in more detail about how to plan your business for a smooth launch in our upcoming webinar “ How to Launch Your Blockchain Startup?” on March 24th, 2021.
Sergey Ivanov: While the success of a startup revolves around many different things, it is ultimately about the product itself, its technical differentiation, and the value it brings to the world. It is important to keep in mind how to architect a solution that would be scalable and secure. Founders have to keep in mind different functionalities they want to include in their product, and most importantly why. A project may choose to deploy a token on existing blockchains such as Ethereum, Cardano, Polkadot, Avalanche or they could develop their own blockchain, so it is important to be aware of the differences between all of the choices. In some cases, there is no need for a token but occasionally founders include it in the business model only because of recent trends. Staying on top of different technologies in the blockchain ecosystem and remembering what the core solution and value you bring will allow you to stay on track and deliver a product that is optimized and focused.
Q4: How to Choose the Right Market for Your Fintech Startup?
Elena Obukhova: I know many entrepreneurs have this same question when they’re starting with the business. The right market is the one where your target audience is, people that urgently need your solution. It’s a scalable market where you can grow and sustain your business in the long-term. An ideal market is where you also have expertise, connections, and resources. Talking about building a fintech startup, it’s also important to consider the legal aspect of the business. Many crypto and fiat-related companies are facing some complications along the way such as compliance and licensing. Hence, you will also need to find a compromise between business “wants” and legal “don’ts”. I shared more guidelines on this topic in my article “How to Choose the Right Market for Your Fintech Startup?” which is available on the FAS website and my medium.
Q3: What is the main advantage of #outsourcing over a full-time employee for #SMBs?
Elena Obukhova: I would say it's flexibility and access to consulting company's resources. Outsourcing a project group can save you time, funds, and protect you from hiring a wrong fit. It gives a company more flexibility and operational efficiency. Let's say you need assistance with your financial statements this month and next month you realized that you need asap help with business operations, market validation or you need an introduction to specific companies. FAS, for instance, offers a project group of industry talents on a project-basis as well as a monthly-basis and can change professionals based on required skills for each specific assignment. Additionally, there can be different perks that you can get from consulting companies when you outsource their specialists. For example, we equip our clients with all our resources including a large professional network of blockchain and fintech companies.
Sergey Ivanov: In many cases, a required assignment is not recurrent, and only has to be done once, so hiring a new person to handle it would be inefficient in the long run, except if there are a lot of other relevant assignments to give. Nevertheless, outsourcing an assignment allows it to be done more efficiently and thoroughly because you essentially hire a team that is under strict supervision for quality.
Q2: Gamestop case - Do you think there are any interesting trends that we could expect to appear after all?
Elena Obukhova: I think we can see arise of decentralized exchanges and decentralized organizations. Frankly, while all media were covering #Reddit and GameStop, I saw one decentralized exchange project immediately announcing its launch.
Sergey Ivanov: Like Elena said, DeFi will be a growing and promising space. People need access to institutional grade financial services, and with greater financial education, we can expect an evolution of the finance industry. Access to borrowing and lending tools for the general public will bring a more even and fair infrastructure, resulting in a more balanced society.
Q1: Gamestop case - Considering events of the last week, where do you think it could all bring us now?
Elena Obukhova: I believe we're experiencing a switch from institutions to masses and Reddit community was a great example of that. We see that individuals together can also affect major trends and decisions. Internet was making those things easier and quicker for a while, but I believe now people realized how powerful that truly can be. Individuals and smaller businesses are becoming more and more significant as they're not only the drivers of the economy but also decision-makers no one can ignore anymore.
Sergey Ivanov: Totally agree with Elena. To add to that, I think recent events will bring great change to financial markets not only due to the realization of power people hold, but also due to mass coverage of this situation which inevitably will lead to higher financial education.