Egalitarian Investing & Fair Launch 4 All | Launchpool AMA

If you are a retail investor in crypto, chances are you have been rekt by aping in as a new token hits an exchange, only to watch the red candles take over as early whales cash out 100x or 1000x gains.

Launchpool is among a growing number of solutions for retail investors keen to be part of the crowdfunding revolution, without having hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to commit.

This Slogging thread occurred in Hackernoon's Slogging official #amas channel and has been edited for readability.

Akasha RoseJun 22, 2021, 12:56 PM

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Let's welcome this week's AMA guests from Launchpool: Roxana Nasoi, Head of Growth, Laura Walsh COO, and Rich, CEO. Launchpool is an egalitarian project investment platform advocating for #FairLaunch4All, where community members can become their own VCs, stake into guaranteed allocations, and take part in regulatory compliant, private seed offerings.
Launchpool is one of the few pre-IDO launchpads that come with a minimum viable community of 30k investors.

Roxana, Head of Growth, is an entrepreneur, privacy advocate, technology and business strategist, startup mentor and Tedx speaker, with 10+ years of experience in the digital economy, digital marketplaces, global community-driven products, and an extensive business network across over 100 countries (Asia, Middle East, Europe), in industries such as: ehealth, banking, fintech, data economy, R&D. And a board member at SolRazr, Aimedis, CleanTech360, WeTheProject, Impulse4Women, Hong-Kong Israel Trade Association, The Data Union.

Limarc AmbalinaJun 22, 2021, 1:14 PM

Hey! Welcome to Slogging thanks for joining us. Can you explain what Launchpool is for people who are just getting into crypto? Why is such a platform necessary and how does it differentiate itself from others already in the market?

Hi there, I'm Laura, the COO of Launchpool and I'll do my best to answer this.
Launchpool is a pre-IDO launchpad. An IDO is an 'Initial Decentralised Exchange Offering'. You may be familiar with ICO's which are 'Initial Coin Offerings' - which launch coins but possibly without an exchange attached.
So Launchpool takes an ethos of 'FairLaunch4All' - traditionally, retail investors don't have access to early seed rounds to invest in projects, so they don't get the favourable prices that VCs/Funds get. Launchpool provides our retail investors with the same access as the VC/funds.
The fact that we do 'pre-IDO' and not an IDO launch is our differentiator.

Justin RobertiJun 22, 2021, 1:40 PM

Laura W It seems like there are a number of projects cropping up to fill the void once occupied by successful ICOs/IEOs/IDOs. Why do you describe yours as egalitarian -- is that referring to investors' ability to pick the projects they fund?

Second question -- where is your initial pool of investors coming from? Are they retail investors?

Justin RobertiJun 22, 2021, 1:43 PM

Laura W When you state that your project is pre-IDO -- is the benefit to users who can get closer to the "ground floor" of a project? Or is the goal to fund projects that wouldn't otherwise be funded? I'm not sure I've come across a similar platform that is post-sale, so how is that a differentiator?

You are correct with the investors' ability to pick which ones they fund. Also, we watch out for the little guy by having two pools, one for those that invest 300 LPOOL and one for unlimited. Those in the 300 pool get 2/3s of any allocation while those in the unlimited get 1/3. It's to level the playing field.
Yes to the second question, they are KYC'd retail investors. Launchpool is fully regulatory compliant.

Also yes, for the pre-IDO, you get in before the coin launches on the DEX. Obviously, this can mean a higher risk than waiting until after a coin launches and that initial rush of the initial listing, but this puts our community on the same level as those who are invited to seed rounds and private raises.

Roxana NasoiJun 22, 2021, 2:16 PM

Hi Limarc Ambalina. This is Roxana, Head of Growth at Launchpool, and Head of the Launchpool Labs incubator.

To answer your question, we go about how Egalitarian Investment is our mantra! We are an investment instrument that offers exposure to community support (for startups) and private seed prices and transparent vesting terms, as well as guaranteed allocations across different projects (pre-IDO) to the investor community.

Highlights:

Roxana NasoiJun 22, 2021, 2:26 PM

Justin Roberti, We have a dedicated in-house analyst team that filters, reviews, and makes the decision whether a project is a good potential investment. The funds invest on the same terms as the Launchpool investor community, and abide to the same regulatory requirements, vesting schedules, and terms & conditions.

This puts retail investors in a position of power, as Laura mentioned, and offers them the opportunity to be their own VC, with the given high risk - high rewards exposure. The rounds we offer are always for private seed, with vesting terms that are required for these rounds.

We set on this journey with Launchpool to democratise the digital asset investments landscape. The game felt rigged. The entry points were difficult to achieve unless you had the knowledge or the financial power to sustain a position in a crypto project. More experienced players (crypto funds, whales, exchanges) had the upper hand, making it impossible for an egalitarian offering, even if project teams would be open to it. Unless investors got into the project early, the returns were almost impossible to achieve. 

Launchpool was born out of a wish to support the entire ecosystem, from retail investors, to whales, funds, projects, marketers, and stakeholders alike. 
We created a unique investment instrument to support the decentralised economy of the future, by offering investors private sale opportunities, pre-IDO, with the same vesting schedules and bonuses as funds & partners received. 

Projects and founders would get access to community and a more mature investment ecosystem. Funds & strategic partners would join forces in supporting quality projects. Marketers and creatives would get to support and align their work ethos with that of Launchpool’s. 


Community is the core of Launchpool, $LPOOL is the access key that grants community access to unique rewards, private seed allocation opportunities, and DeFi features.

Roxana NasoiJun 22, 2021, 2:29 PM

For projects specifically, we found that diversifying the number of wallets that participate and hold their assets (tokens) is a healthy way of ensuring there will be longevity and better performance for their token economies.

Moving forward, we're launching the first community-centric blockchain incubator that empowers everyone to be their own VC.

The main vision here is Product + Community from Day 1 for Startups. Private pre-seed deals for the Launchpool investor community, high risk - high reward, and a unique experience to grow together and witness the journey from ideation/prototype to MVP (minimum viable product) and MVC (minimum viable community).

Justin RobertiJun 22, 2021, 3:35 PM

Roxana Nasoi can users choose individual projects to invest in?

Roxana NasoiJun 22, 2021, 5:17 PM

Justin Roberti Correct. We currently have over 10,000 KYC'ed participants, and on average between 1,000 and 2,000 wallets (1 wallet = 1 person) take part in each project. This depends on personal interests, their independent due diligence, and appeal for an investment / preference for the protocol or USP of that project.
AMEs (which is short for Allocation Mining Events) - the way to participate in a private seed allocation round, take place currently every week, and last 6-7 days (i.e. from Monday to the next Monday, following the cycle of: opening deposits for LPOOL, staking LPOOL and mining the allocation across several days, paying the fee for the mined allocation, receiving your LPOOL back, and claiming according to vesting schedules).

Justin RobertiJun 22, 2021, 7:54 PM

Roxana Nasoi is there added relevancy for this hedge fund approach to alt coins in light of the recent crashes in crypto? Is a fund like yours a safer bet?

Roxana NasoiJun 22, 2021, 10:44 PM

Justin Roberti we are looking to create a mindset shift: from seasonal "crypto investor" to a more long-term investment in protocols, applications, and digital assets. Bull cycles are short lived, and are bound to come to an end, but bull developments are something that occur independent of market cycles.
There is no safer bet in crypto, nor there is a safer bet in traditional markets either. It is always high risks - high returns, and we make sure to communicate to our investor community that they should keep in mind the risks, not just the rewards.

Labs (the incubator) will be looking at a "be your own VC" perspective, with projects building in public and sharing regular updates (which is one way of showing you're genuine, and win the trust of your 'minimum viable community'), whereas Labs & the community are basically co-building and co-managing the project development roadmap.
This should make an interesting experience, and more exclusive (with longterm staking and investing), and clearly not for the weak hands.

Akasha RoseJun 22, 2021, 11:51 PM

I am interested in how come you pursued the KYC route? My understanding is that you don't need KYC if their no FIAT on ramp? Do you find that it adds or detracts to the customer experience?

Limarc AmbalinaJun 23, 2021, 2:03 AM

Thanks for answering my question Roxana! How can potential investors know that the projects on the platform are legit and not another crypto scam. What does your team do to vet the projects that come in?

RichJun 23, 2021, 7:31 AM

Akasha Rose I am Rich, CEO of Launchpool. We opted for the KYC route because we felt more comfortable doing it that way for AML.

RichJun 23, 2021, 7:33 AM

3. We needed to be able to correctly identify people from certain jurisdictions, notably the US. So it was imperative we had a system of filtering those participants out.

RichJun 23, 2021, 7:35 AM

When we first announced it there was some kick back, mainly from Americans. But we have a great partner who provides a smooth automated KYC process for us.

I think it also serves to reassure many of our community that we are doing our utmost to be compliant as possible.

RichJun 23, 2021, 7:59 AM

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Limarc Ambalina we have a number of levels of due diligence. The party that brings the projects to us will have performed their own due diligence and be investors.
We then have one of our analysts perform our own due diligence. Once complete we have a second round of DD with senior mgt. If we're happy with that then we ask the CEO to KYC on our platform.

Roxana NasoiJun 23, 2021, 3:14 PM

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Limarc Ambalina We have a thorough review process, as Rich mentioned. At the moment, on Launchpool we look at projects with a minimum viable product.
This will shift as we are adding a full-cycle perspective: Review & Select >> Incubate >> Accelerate >> Launch.
I'm attaching a visual look over this full-cycle that is aligned with our visual brand identity: the infinity loop.

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Just to tie it up in a bow, Launchpool is aiming to be more than a launchpad.
Living the ethos of #FairLaunch4All, like Roxana Nasoi stated, Launchpool, moving forward will be a one-stop-shop for projects looking to buidl. We select, incubate, accelerate, and launch so that projects, founders, and teams can come to us at any stage of development and slot into our suite of services, which, when advised by the Launchpool team and their partners, will make sure that we keep bringing high quality projects and investment opportunities to our community.
We feel that by expanding our outreach, we can ensure the sustainability of the platform and offer more to potential projects and investors. Exactly what's needed in a bear market. 🙂

Akasha RoseJun 24, 2021, 12:35 AM

Thanks for answering our questions Launchpool team! How best can readers follow you, learn more, and get involved?

Roxana NasoiJun 24, 2021, 9:26 AM

Thanks Akasha Rose for hosting us.
I would recommend that people check us out at:

For Launchpool:
http://www.launchpool.xyz with all available social handles, medium, and communications channels here: https://linktr.ee/launchpoolxyz
Email: mailto:[email protected]

For Launchpool Labs:
http://www.launchpoollabs.xyz (website coming soon), with @LaunchpoolLabs for Twitter & Telegram.
Email: mailto:[email protected]

Launchpool Labs white paper out now: https://launchpoollabs.xyz/