HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.
I am one of the Co-Founders of Epix Industries. I have a Master’s Degree in International Relations and 10 years of experience in Business Development and Sales in different corners of the IT industry.
Over the last four years, I’ve been in the blockchain industry. I started as Senior Business Development Manager in the biggest media - Cointelegraph - where I could develop my blockchain industry networking and meet my, now, Co-Founders at Epix. We are united by a passion for art, collectibles, and belief in the value of blockchain technology for solving the problems of the art and collectibles industry.
What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?
Epix Industries built along its 3 years of existence a technology suite to properly address the register of property, user-friendliness, and security for NFT applications to be as accessible as any top performing eCommerce platform in the market.
Epix Industries team is building games, marketplaces, individual custom collections, and a myriad of applications for the showbiz, pop culture, and entertainment industries in a gamified and engaging long-lasting strategy.
What is the origin story?
Our CEO Fred is an art collector for more than 20 years. So it all started with his not always pleasant experience of collecting art, and exclusive collectibles - figurines, cards, etc.
While collecting those assets, from time to time he faced counterfeits, authentication bottlenecks, and a lack of reliable information. Generally, counterfeits and scams are a huge problem to the physical collectibles world with losses accruing in multiple billions, and this brought Fred to the idea of solving those issues with the help of blockchain that he was already exploring.
Our white paper, first community members, and initial steps of the project building are dated October 2018. Beginning of 2020 we have launched the first product.
Our history took another turn when we closed our pre-seed round with a $10m valuation.
What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?
Oh, where do I even start! From the management perspective, I am surrounded by two geniuses, my co-founders: our above-mentioned CEO and visionary Fred, and our CTO Mario, who I dare to say is the most advanced software engineer with the will and capacity to solve the problems that others call unsolvable. These two set no limits, create ideas, and most importantly implement them in life. Other team members fill the picture with various experiences, out-of-box crazy vision, and some mad skills. We have team members in 10 countries, all hardworking and with a huge passion for what we do.
Besides team us being one of the pioneers of the NFT industry definitely makes us capable to solve the problems of the world of collectibles as we had time to learn, see the mistakes and flaws of the ‘real-world’ art'/collectibles industry, and now we implement this knowledge for the solution that fits mainstream brands, IPs, and professional artists: no hassle, no blockchain complications, simple and beautiful e-commerce experience for their fan-base.
If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?
I’d be getting myself busy with sales and business development while being sad that I am not building this startup.
At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?
We measure user engagement as we are preparing to launch Enemy Metal Foundation NFT packs sale on the 4th of August. Enemy Metal is our first IP, it’s a long-term game project. The first stage is exclusive NFT cards that players will be able to trade, and later down the line, upgrade to create new NFTs. The final stage of the project is a space-themed arcade game where the NFTs upgraded earlier will be used for resources, etc.
We have announced the preregistration, and the Enemy Metal Discord channel grew x10, and the people keep joining. The community is super active, constantly asking and answering questions, sharing their anticipation of the launch, and bringing more and more people onboard. This was definitely great and completely organic growth for us.
What’s most exciting about your traction to date?
Mentioned pre-registration is definitely mind-blowing, in just a few days we gained 3,000 collectors in line, ready to buy once the sale is open. For us, as Enemy Metal is our own IP, this means a lot.
What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?
Blockchain technology is the most exciting, and NFTs in particular. However, the same technology worries me the most too. While the opportunities that it brings are amazing, and many issues can be resolved with the help of blockchain, the number of scams in the industry is certainly unsettling.
What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?
I think this is certainly The Platform when it comes to innovation, technology, and the ‘what’s next’ questions.
What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?
Don’t waste your time, focus more, let’s become successful earlier.
What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?
I’ve learned so much about investment processes, and fundraising challenges this year. I also realized that not every investor is necessarily the right one for your startup. Might sound obvious but I think so many people in their first startup might miss it and just keep running for numbers, instead of just focusing on the right angels, and VCs.
Also to my fellow BD and Sales people - the investor pitch does look like our normal pitch but sooo different at the same time. Research thoroughly.