1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I want to probe that point a little bit. We have done a lot of two-sided marketplaces. We see two-sided marketplaces all the time. We have lots of case studies. We have curriculum material on it.

As you rightly said, it’s much more difficult to go from zero to 10,000 than to go from 10,000 to a million when the network effect starts to kick in gear. That’s not just true in Blockchain; it’s true in two-sided marketplaces in general. To go from zero to 10,000, what are people doing that you have seen is working?

Hamiz Awan: This might sound soft advice and not something actionable. What I’ve seen consistently with the ones that have achieved that is that they’re extremely community-focused. One of the reasons that Blockchain networks have grown so much is because of the community. There’s this community of people that’s always out there and believes in this stuff.

Sramana Mitra: There is a passionate community that drives its momentum.

Hamiz Awan: From day one, the companies that we’ve seen be successful are the ones that are community-focused. The CEOs aren’t just talking to investors all the time; the CEOs have a weekly ask-me-anything. Every Friday, you can jump on their Twitter and ask them anything you like. They have these communities that are being built on Discord and Twitter.

A lot of early-stage CEOs are so focused on the product and on the fundraising that the only interaction they have with the customers is through periodic surveys. They don’t build this rapport with their customers. If you look at a CEO’s schedule, customers are on it on a regular basis.

Sramana Mitra: The point that we are driving all the time is that customer matters a lot more than investors. Do not chase investors.

Hamiz Awan: People will even spend time doing competitor research in their daily task, but they will not spend time speaking to at least one customer every day. We’ve seen this in Amazon’s example. Jeff Bezos has always said that he’s customer-focused. The ones that are most successful are the ones who spend more time with customers than they do with any other stakeholders. They are the ones that are solving problems and really have the empathy to build great software. Great software comes from a place of empathy. 

Sramana Mitra: You’re investing in that layer one. What’s happening above that layer? What kinds of applications and communities are being built on top of your infrastructure layer companies?

Hamiz Awan: It’s such an incredible pace of innovation that if you spend a few years on it, you’re still going to feel like you’re a beginner. There’s just so much going on. I’m sure you’ve heard of NFTs and decentralized finance. Those are two of the hundred things that are happening in the space. Those have caught people’s attention.

Two things about NFTs. One is that NFTs are focused on collectibles and art pieces. NFT is just like a platform. Entrepreneurs around the world are going to build all kinds of applications on top of it that we can’t even imagine today. That’s one. It’s a theme that’s here to stay.

Sramana Mitra: Have you invested in an NFT platform?

Hamiz Awan: We do have investments in NFT platforms that we’re not disclosing right now because we’re just building them out. We’re actively looking at that theme. We have been for the last three years. We didn’t even call it NFTs three years ago. There is a lot of hype and mania in this space. Somebody is going to be left holding the bag. There’s going to be a lot of that happening.

What’s important is that as celebrities and people that have influence get involved in the space, people are going to come into the Blockchain space. Most of them are going to test it out. Some of them are going to stay for the technology. The way that you go mainstream is you have these media-grabbing headlines. Those bring a lot of people in the space. Most of them leave but some of them stay. That’s how you’re going to go mainstream. You need these NFT manias to happen to bring the masses in. 

This segment is part 4 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital
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