It’s invigorating listening to builders talk about their ideas. The excitement never gets old! They usually have their protocol idea locked down, but ask for guidance on initiating a successful sale on Pilot or Ignition. If it’s their first time launching a token, the conversations follow a common thread. I consider the ingredients fundamental to any successful recipe are Community, Product Market Fit and Tokenomics, so we always end up discussing these. There are additional variables of course, but I’m focusing on these three as the core, and wanted to briefly summarise why they are so important to get right before the launch even starts.
Community
This word is thrown around crypto a lot! It means different things depending on audience and context. I’m referring specifically to the people aware of your protocol and token. If that awareness is manifested as willingness to become a user of your protocol you’re on the right track. Let’s group users, token holders and advocates under an umbrella term of “supporters” for now.
Supporters ask questions, and seek out answers. They care. They’re following you on social, reading your Litepaper, and listening to you discuss your ambitions on spaces and podcasts. And if they buy into the concept, they both encourage you and advocate for you. A good support base provides constructive input into the development process. You want supporters, and you have to work to attract them.
Bonus points for noticing the examples all reference engagement with content. Content is a catalyst. It’s how you attract attention and build your base.
Make it easy for them to find you. Engage with existing communities and build your own. It’s a process without an end point. It can be a grind sometimes, but it’s critical. The best time to start was yesterday. The second best is right now. There are two steps two building a support base:
- Share your ideas.
- Engage with those who reciprocate.
The rest develops organically. The gravity of your ideas attract those who share your perspective, and person by person a support base is built.
Product
Your product is your secret sauce. Supporters need to care about what you’re building. Regardless of whether you have an MVP, something on testnet, or a sketch on a napkin, constantly, repeatedly talk about it. We’re talking pre-launch, but you obviously also have to build it! That can come later.
What it does. How it works, why it’s needed, who uses it, what it’s capable of. Conduct long rambling interviews. Write concise posts on X. Discuss grand generalities and highly specific detailed terms. For technical peers and ELI5 masses. Each of those is a nugget of content, a kernel of conversation. It’s your job to help others share your vision. That takes a LOT of evangelizing.
The critical factor is whether people like your idea, think it’s viable, and want to support it. That’s the golden trifecta you’re after.
Pro-tip; when you are bored of talking about it, you’re just getting started. Push through! For everyone else, it’s the first time they’re hearing about it, and it should be as SUPER exciting for them as it was for you in the beginning. This takes perseverance and stamina, and it’s crucial.
This doesn’t mean open sourcing everything or giving away your IP. Your product is the engine sitting at the heart of your whole story. Without it, you have nothing. Make sure it purrs.
Tokenomics
You’ll likely go through many iterations before you settle on a design, so take your time figuring this out. Look for inspiration in other tokenomics. Study what works and what doesn’t and adapt that to fit your needs and circumstances. Starting can be daunting, but do it anyway, safe in the knowledge your first draft is very unlikely to also be your final one! Start, then iterate.
Your tokenomics are a component in the infrastructure of what you are building, and they need to work with both the product and the supporters, so take the long term view of how they functions and the role tokens play. Poorly integrated tokens hamstring a project’s potential. Ultimately it’s all about their contribution; do they positively add to the project?
Part of the challenge is that many are willing to share their opinion, whether you want it or not. Sifting through the noise to find signal is challenging, but it’s a task worth doing well.
Spoiler alert; it will never feel perfect! With the benefit of hindsight, you will always see ways you can make it better. It’s part of the process. Embrace this and you will have a much easier time.
Be assertive in seeking input, selective on who you listen to, and even more selective on whose advice you follow. Bad council is easily camouflaged by good intentions.
Initiating Launch!
A successful dApp doesn’t exist in a vacuum. When these three components work well together, you are in a good place to line yourself up for a successful launch. If you feel you’re weak in some of these areas, seek out partners and collaborators who complement your skill set and give you the best chance of success. Creating a sale can be intimidating, so make use of testnet and do a few practise runs before launching a sale on Pilot or Ignition. We have plenty of documentation to guide you, and it’s all here.
I believe a good head start on these three components is critical to building up momentum towards a launch. It helps build momentum, which leads to awareness, which leads to growth.
For teams who want to build something useful and valuable, paying close attention to community, product and tokenomics first, and letting the growth spring organically from there, will set you up for a great outcome! And of course, the Fuzion team is here to have the conversations needed to help get you going!