For Startups

Table of Contents

Introduction

Believing in the companies of the future and their founders has always been hard, especially within the emerging market of decentralized applications. At Holdex we strive to be the first true believers in the founders of tomorrow when others do not understand them yet.

The startups who partnered with us have recognized the positive impact of leveraging our talent pool, strong execution and domain expertise, and extensive network of strategic partners.

We are proud to support like-minded entrepreneurs, who believe in the decentralized future, and route them to the best opportunities.

What we bring

Our success recipe for building game-changing web3 companies revolves around the actions our team commits to. At Holdex we’re ready to support your startup with:

• validating business opportunity
• unparalleled expertise and on-demand talent in building software
• introductions to strategic advisors and investors

Some of the startups we partnered with became very noticeable and well recognized in their category.

What’s our approach

Every startup we partner with is unique and there's no one-size-fits-all method, however this is what you can expect from us:

1. Identify opportunity
2. Validate the idea
3. Build the product
4. Raise capital

We are committed just to a selected number of founders and are actively using our network to help them evolve.

What we are looking for

There are many great companies that reached out to us. Yet, we have to turn down quite a number of startups. We aim to have a very pragmatic approach with core selection-related principles. Here’s a hint on what we pay attention to when looking for partnership:

1. Problem-solution equilibrium. There are many problems in the world. There could be even more solutions to these problems. Some problems are real. Some problems are fake or just not painful enough. We choose real and painful problems which must be solved.
2. Convincing teams. Every team is different, with its own background story and advantages. But we trust just a few personal and collective indicators when it comes down to the winning startup teams. These main indicators are personal and team values, track record of making things happen, domain experience, and ability to fail and recover very quickly.

What we are skeptical of

“Skeptical” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to us, it’s just about those ideas which would hardly convince us and our investors' network. We recommend giving your product a non-biased examination so that you can be prepared when we ask about a problem you are trying to solve. If your customer doesn’t have pain points, if it’s a mild or infrequent problem, the probability is high that such a startup isn’t going to succeed. The main red flags are:

1. Projects or ideas that don’t benefit from the advantages of using blockchain technology. Not all problems are solved through blockchain. Blockchain for the sake of blockchain isn’t going to work, it can make things even worse for the customer.
2. Big vision without a practical plan. Founders with big visions are always inspiring but just to believe is not enough to succeed. Great founders are known for having an ambitious and realistic plan when the next milestone is achieved step-by-step.
3. Tokens that don’t have real utility value and demand users to buy them. Giving out tokens to people doesn’t just come with a desire to buy them. If your customers don’t see the real utility in your token, it will also be hard for us to do it. It should be easy for everyone to understand where the value comes from.

If we don’t choose you or you choose not to partner with us, our doors will still remain open for you. So, when you have another great idea, we’ll be happy to hear from you again!

#startups #guides