Some days ago, I came across a post by Osueke Henry with a reply by Dainis Tka. I was invited to share my further thoughts.
The plackard from Osueke Henry said:
The biggest marketing myth Web 3 founders still believe:
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 15 (Sept 9 – Dec 7, 2024) has started registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
‘If you build an amazing product it’ll market itself’
Sorry but that’s crap.
Dainis Tka offered a departure citing Chat GBP as a new product out in a league of its’ own.
Osueke countered it was a ‘ one out of a million case studies’
Who is right? Well they ‘sorta’ both are.
I pitched in:
‘Osueke Henry not sure, I think you and Dainis Tka are coming from different angles so getting different perspective on exactly what ‘amazing product’ is.’
I recall on several occasions; I had got courted for my start-up skills to bring a product to market. I did not believe in the product because regardless of what magic tricks you do in the balance between quality and cost, the market is saturated. Too many people, already with strong brand presence, do it already. ‘Cheaper and Better’ on its own, isn’t enough to contest market share.
I called this a ‘Graveyard Appointment’. Agree to do this, and your career will be dead. It’s a ‘red ocean’ product all right – the colour of blood!
Several Times, I thought about it a bit, and came up with something different. I looked for something that could be done, with no major investment departure, and doable with the same initial start actors, but was ‘blue ocean’. It had no existing direct competitor.
The downside is there is more convincing to do than just getting an ordinary start-up execution leadership job. I’ve got to convince the principal the product is a better proposition. Then I have to convince them I am the right person to lead execution on it… and then, it has to be able to convince the market.
The good thing is, the pressure is completely off me. It’s like this huge weight has been lifted. They go for it… or they don’t.. but I have completely extracted myself from the original negotiation, so should that resume, it will have to happen without me.
One way or another, the prospect of being locked in a job that ends my career, has been removed as an outcome.
Blockchain and Web 3 are at a not too dissimilar juncture.
Everyone is trying to talk up a bull market, but nobody actually has loads of ‘silly stuff’ like before.
You see folk claiming they are going to buy $BONK and $WIF and whatever, but do they actually do it?
Some folk on online platforms are ramping for metrics rather than sh*t/meme coin profits. Reading between the lines suggests they are more interested in using a new token issue as an engagement topic, than any serious opportunity to invest.
A phenomenon known as ‘tapping’ common to Telegram, attempting to rise a nonsense token into an economy, eventually affording an ecosystem with more respected architectures is waning, and many folk are just tapping out their lives.
The old days of the music scams, when promoters bought thousands of copies of their own proteges vinyl to get it to chart, are gone since the last millennium and trying to repurpose these tricks in the second evolution of Web 3 won’t work.
I think folk are going to have to really think long and hard about bringing something very new to the market, they will claim is ‘web 3’.
How it compares to what was before – innovation, usability, social narrative (perhaps), security, deflationary, owner privacy – what makes me better?
Yes, Osueke Henry and Dainis Tka set the bar differently to qualify as ‘amazing’. To fuel a new Bull Market, ‘amazing’ will need to debut products and services completely unlike what has been labelled as ‘Web 3’ before.
Only ‘Breakthrough’ products are amazing.
Extra-context illustrations from Sino Amazon/Sinosignia releases.
9ja Cosmos is here…
Get your .9jacom and .9javerse Web 3 domains for $4 at:
Visit 9ja Cosmos LinkedIn Page
Preview our Sino Amazon/Sinosignia releases (Ente)
Preview our Sino Amazon/Sinosignia releases (Pinterest)