Experty’s Journey From Idea to TGE
We sit down with Kamil Przeorski, co-founder of Experty, for a conversation about the decision making process leading up to the TGE.
So why do an TGE in the first place?
We had the idea for Experty, which basically scratched our own itch. We had a need for automatic, frictionless payment settlement for consultation type calls. We frequently make these calls as software developers.
We knew the app needed to communicate with the Blockchain for the payment settlement aspect. Microtransactions were basically not feasible or advantageous before Blockchain tech. Being borderless and decentralized was very important to this, especially if the app was going to be used on a global scale. If you want to make something very successful, you need to open the app for everyone. We needed capital for app development and marketing. I thought, ok, if other people are raising money for silly ideas, why not my team for a legitimate idea.
As far as token functionality, revenue share made the most sense because of the frequency of phone calls made using an app of this type. On-ramping is also required with Ethereum, so this is healthy for the Ethereum ecosystem as well. Individuals who believe in crypto will likely be the first users, but not necessarily.
How did you approach your team in regards to deciding on following through with the TGE process?
I’ve known Greg and Tom for many years through our company at ReactPoland.
We’ve all been personal investors in TGEs since the beginning. They have all been very good investments and there have been excellent returns on much worse products than what we are creating. I see our product as having the ability to really make a difference around the world with a use case for anyone. I think apps like Experty have huge potential for leveling the playing field of access for the unbanked as well.
I’m also passionate about business and venture capital. I’ve had a business in some fashion since I was 14 years old. I thought an TGE would help bridge the gap of raising and spending capital with transparency and decentralization of the Blockchain.
Do anyone you talked with think an TGE was a bad idea?
I spoke with many people in the beginning. Almost no one said it was a bad idea, mainly because everyone could very quickly identify a use case for themselves.
What was the app building process like?
We kept everything very tight to the vest in the beginning. We didn’t tell our programmers what product we were working on. We didn’t want anything to leak before we had a chance to realize the idea. We also wanted a deliverable product pre-TGE and didn’t want to lose focus.
After hiring a design and UX dev, the process was smooth. Making the app itself was largely straightforward as we were reusing much of the code from prior projects.
What was the next step after you had an app prototype?
We tried to schedule a meeting with the MME lawyers by phone and email. Considering the volume of TGEs now, they were impossible to reach. We went to Zug, Switzerland anyway to try and pitch them in person. We had an idea, a pitch deck, a rough version of the website, and a rough design outline at that point.
So we went to the building and ran into one of the lawyers outside on accident, completely unscheduled. We pitched Thomas Linder right in front of the building and went to lunch for 40 minutes. He liked the idea and wanted to help us.
We scheduled a meeting for the next day, which was a Swiss banking holiday, and discussed everything for 90 minutes. We agreed on a contract the same day in the MME office
We then flew back to Poland, continued building the product, and found two advisors. We also met with Pawel Bylica, a Golem and Ethereum developer, in Warsaw. He really liked the idea as well.
We bought a sponsorship at CoinAgenda in Barcelona and brought a working demo.
Everyone we showed loved the concept and the app itself, because the project was easily understood and use cases were very apparent. We met Richard Titus, a longtime tech executive and serialentrepreneur, and David Drake, of LDJ Capital, who are both now advisors for Experty. We met many others from the crypto space as well. These conferences have been great for networking.
