HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.
Hello there! I'm Jennifer! I have been in the blockchain industry for around 4 years, starting off in a blockchain events company, and helped the company pivot to a cryptocurrency exchange. My interest in cryptocurrency started since Bitcoin peaked in 2014. But like many, I'm considered a late joiner as my first foray was in 2017. Honestly, my passion only ignited when I started working in my first blockchain company.
It was interesting to see how the scene has developed since then. With enough experience from running ops, marketing, HR, and finance, I got blessing from my ex-boss to start out on my own as a co-founder of Coinstore Exchange. Not gonna lie, it was a journey I would've never expected myself to embark on. But I was glad that I did it!
What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?
Coinstore is your first choice for popular crypto. We are a crypto exchange that allows people to trade, buy, and sell cryptocurrencies on our platform. We aim to disrupt the industry by going against the grain and bringing fun into finance.
What is the origin story?
I still remember the good old days of trading cryptocurrencies - download an app, register, transfer in BTC, and you can start collecting coins. The experience was simply magical! I felt like I owned a piece of someone's dream and potential and was immediately drawn to this world of 'digital assets'!
However, the itch to build my own product started from wanting to buy a token that wasn't widely available in 2018. I had to download and complete registrations for 6 different apps/platforms before I was able to find/buy the token. There weren't many apps then, and even lesser fiat-to-crypto options. Even today, this problem is far more common than we think. Every month, there are 100s of new projects launching, and a lot of them show much potential.
If you look at our UI, it is pretty basic, and we intend to keep it that way - clean and simple. Most apps nowadays are full of "features" that actually complicate that first magical moment. We want to replicate that fun and easy experience for new or seasoned users. In a nutshell, we want to be known for: Practicality, Simplicity, and Variety.
What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?
I would say that as a new exchange, we still have much to improve on. We did not anticipate the huge growth in numbers since our soft launch in June 2021. We've added resources to manage our KYC processes, and beefed up our customer service procedures.
The biggest challenge we face currently is trust. As a new exchange, there's bound to be skepticism and suspicion. So whenever a withdrawal gets delayed or deposits don't appear immediately, there is panic, and we get bad reviews. It's not a bad thing, we learn to improve and communicate with our users.
I feel the phrase "When the going gets tough, the tough keep going" truly describes my team. I've learned that the success and failure of a company depends on the team. I feel lucky to be working among some of the most dedicated people around, from product, operations, security, tech, and marketing. They are the building blocks and foundation of where we are now.
If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?
This is a really tough question! Right now, Coinstore is like my baby, I don't think I can ever let go of it. But if I am not pouring my heart and soul into Coinstore, I probably would still be in the blockchain industry. I'm also involved in a DeFi project but that's a story for another time. Blockchain is a rapidly growing sector and I fully believe that crypto will become the future of finance.
At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?
Currently, our success metrics are satisfied users and growth. We are currently serving around 200,000+ users in 175 countries. I am really appreciative of our angel investors, who trusted us and allowed us to do things differently. Of course, we still have to meet targets, but their confidence gave us a huge boost during tough times.
Our main focus is on building a better product, our core 2 products are now Spot and Futures Trading. We do have new products in the pipeline, but we want to make sure our existing products are ready. We've seen many others languish after pushing out release after release, just because someone else has it.
Another focus is acquiring happy, satisfied users. We are heavy on user acquisition through our referral programs and a strong emphasis on community building. Since our launch, we've focused on community activities and rewards. Crypto, is, after all, a community-built and owned idea. We are building communities in several countries at the moment and hope to scale up very soon.
What’s most exciting about your traction to date?
The moment when we added 40,000+ registered users and hit an ATH of 15,000+ active users in 1 day. That was the day we knew that, hey, maybe our idea can really work! While that was indeed our "Eureka" moment, the team was all invested right from the start. We had an idea, a problem, and a solution. We have stuck together through all the ups and downs, I could never asked for a better team than them.
What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?
Most excited: Artificial intelligence. It's not a dream or movie anymore, look at OpenAI's GPT-3! Although it still require initial input to react, the response is amazing. Personally, I feel that the most practical use cases for AI will be in healthcare, imagine a Dr. Shaun Murphy-level diagnostics for every patient! The possibilities are endless!
Most worried: Artificial intelligence. Simultaneously, it scares me. The probability of the technology used for wrong purpose is extremely high. Although A.I. will not likely develop their own conscious (at least hopefully not in my lifetime!), there are already too many malicious actors in the tech space, with the aid and advancement of A.I., what will be the fallout? It will be harder for unsuspecting users to guard against actors who use A.I. to gather copious amounts of information and use text, email, and automated calls to predict, impersonate, and swindle.
What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?
One of our marketing executives found out about Hackernoon's Startups of the Year, and convinced me to apply as a nominee. I have always been an avid reader of Hackernoon (when stories were more about tech advances) and being able to participate in a Hackernoon event is really exciting. I like that Hackernoon provides a no-nonsense, news-and-stories only platform, that really focuses on quality content, segregated into the different fields of technology.
What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?
We are only human. It's alright with not knowing everything. It's okay to mess up. Life is a constant learning process.
What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?
Marketing is not about simply about advertising. Focus on the product, and growing the community. :)
Vote for Coinstore as a Startup of the year in Singapore!