I wrote this because I think it's important.
My fuck-ups and achievements as the co-founder of a crypto start-up
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Authors note: this is a story I hold close to my chest, I spent days writing this and after many iterations I am finally satisfied to release this into the wild.
1: The Birth of GODz
I still remember knocking on my brother's door - the noise of crickets and the howling wind. As a young 19-year-old boy, I yearned to be someone. I remember the moment my brother opened the door and excitement drowned out all but one thought in my mind: "Let's create an NFT collection."
Little did I know, this moment would mark the beginning of something big. Looking back at these memories, I recall my brother asking, "What should the collection be about?" I replied with a question of my own, "We could do ninjas, that hasn't been done before?" We stayed up all night discussing and brainstorming, coming up with hundreds of different ideas until we grew sleepy. That's when we heard a noise - "Ding Ding Ding" - Mum's early morning prayer bell. It was as if time froze, and I could hear the ringing of her bell not just from outside, but from within me, vibrating throughout my entire body. It felt so right, thats when I knew our project was going to be GODz.
That is the story of how my brother Shoobz and I birthed the idea of GODz. As time progressed and our ambitions ran wild, our ideas grew bigger and bigger. Now, with all the time I've had to reflect, I've realised one truth:
Having grand ideas is a beautiful thing, but if they are too grand, they become an impossible burden to bear. Don't let your vision become your prison, for true success comes not from the grandeur of your ideas, but from the execution of them. - Doobz
2: The ROADMAP
A year has passed and we have accomplished exactly 1/2 of the things on this roadmap.
What we have done on the roadmap:
Seed - OG holders mint
Token Generation - daily $MYTH airdrops
Incubator Launch - accepting of Project applications and consultation
First Project - launch of GOATz
Main - Public Open Mint
Launch Projects - Winto and Cryptures
What we haven’t done on the roadmap yet:
Hall of Fame - interactive leaderboard
GODz DAO - started but did not continue
Scrollz - GOATz burn mechanic and WL for Demonz
Corruption - Demonz Launch
Garden Of Eden - Donation to plant thousands of trees
Mini Game Platform - A p2e crypto gaming platform
Extra things we did outside of the roadmap:
Rafflez - a $myth NFT raffling system
GODz marketplace - a Marketplace for web3 services
Launched Doxxing Service and certificate
GODz Round table weekly spaces (discontinued)
Alpha hunter + WL collabs (discontinued)
Paid out all community prize winners
GODz alpha mirror
3: Mistakes Were Made
Now that we are celebrating the anniversary of the GODz seed mint, I have reflected on and acknowledged the mistakes we made as a team.
Mistake #1: Improper risk management
When our mint sold out, the entirety of our funds were held in $SOL. As the crypto market crashed, our capital also plummeted to only 15% of what we had originally raised.
Mistake #2: Inadequate project management
Although we had a team of 10+ members and the incubator was up and running, it felt like we were moving slower than when it was just Shoobz and I. This was a brutal mistake as our team was costing GODz tens of thousands of dollars per month. This fault lies solely on Shoobz and I as we could not manage their KPIs and outputs appropriately.
Mistake #3: Laying all our eggs in two baskets
We focused solely on the Incubator and the Game platform. Advisors had lowballed our budget needed for the game and after sinking over 50k into progressing both ideas, we realised that we didn't have enough funds to finish the game or run the incubator well past the hype incubator meta.
Mistake #4: Desperation
Shoobz and I meant well. We wanted to make GODz a high value collection for everyone who held. We spent every waking second thinking about GODz in some way or another. When nothing seemed to be working, we got desperate and launched whatever collection would accept us as their incubator.
Oli the founder of Winto was a good guy. We never expected him to rug.
I remember a warm summer night, where the ice in my drink was sweating, and mosquitoes were out in full force, buzzing around my head like tiny helicopters on a mission to drive me insane.
I had gone up to Sydney to celebrate a friend's birthday, but it just so happened that the night of the birthday party was also the night of Oli and my weekly meeting. I decided that I needed to get my priorities straight, so I cancelled on the birthday party and went to my friend's room to virtually meet with Oli.
As I sat at the desk, I was sweating like a marathon runner in the Sahara. My shirt was sticking to me like a second skin, so I did what any sane person would do in the middle of a heatwave – I took it off.
I leaned back in my chair, feeling the cool breeze on my bare chest, and tried to act like everything was normal. But when Oli suddenly joined the meeting, I panicked.
I scrambled to find something to cover myself with, but all I could find was a stuffed animal. So there I was, shirtless and holding a teddy bear, trying to act like it was a completely normal thing to do in a meeting.
Thankfully, Oli was too polite to say anything. But I'll never forget the feeling of pure embarrassment as I tried to explain why I was sitting there half-naked with a stuffed animal in my arms.
All jokes aside, during that meeting, we discussed a lot of different things regarding his project launch. During the discussion, Oli mentioned that he had sunk his entire life savings into Winto, on top of the funding he had already received from Big Brain Holdings VC.
Hearing this, our team was confident in Oli and Winto. Not only was he a man with a passion for his project, but he had a budget to back it up. Looking back, not a single piece of me thought Oli was going to rug Winto.
Now with his project tanking and his life savings gone, we can't seem to get in contact with him at all. We would like to move forward with Winto, but with our own project performing below our expectations, we’ll need to find help in de-rugging Winto.
Crypture, although not the most bullish project, was launched out of desperation to deliver some value to our holders. At the very least, they are still building and actively looking to launch their fully developed game. Just yesterday, we received a message from them looking to change their NFT metadata to better suit their game.
Mistake #5: Lack of transparency
With all these mistakes surfacing in the background, Shoobz and I started to bear an immense load of stress and pressure towards GODz. We were mentally drained, and all our failures started to demotivate us. Our game remained undelivered, our incubator was failing, and the collections we had launched were rugging. The chats were full of FUD, and Shoobz and I started to resent the Discord app. We made mistakes, and we couldn't own up to them.
I want to apologise to all the GODz holders that have been with us through this difficult journey, we should have done better. You put your money in our hands and for so long we have failed you guys.
But we are not done…
Jumping from failure to failure, disappointment to disappointment our skin has grown thick. We are still here as motivated as ever and in NO WAY have we given up.
Before I get into what we are doing to bring GODz back on the map I would like to mention one last mistake, something recently with-in our team.
Just as things felt like they couldn’t get any worse
Our Lead Developer, Remdex, left the team. Remdex was an up-and-coming Solana developer who had started his crypto journey with us. Initially, we had hired him on a contract, but as the market turned south and the GODz treasury started depleting, we decided to bring him onto our team as a project founder. In return for his contributions, he would receive a share in the team's profits for anything we built. Remdex was excited to be a part of our team and build cool things with us. He helped GODz build everything.
When it came to GOATz #2, Remdex wanted to be innovative, adding animations to the minting process to make it more enjoyable for users. As he worked on the GOATz #2 mint, it felt like he had bitten off more than he could chew. He kept delaying updates, and after months of development, we were left with an unfinished project and an unmotivated dev.
Remdex had a lot of work in real life, and GODz was something he was doing on the side. With none of GODz projects doing well none of us were getting paid.
He was burning out, and together we all reluctantly decided that it was best for him to leave the team.
I would like to mention these are in no way excuses. I am just here to be transparent with the community.
4: The Future of GODz
Now, things may be looking pretty dire, but guess what? WE DONT GIVE A FUCK. Shoobz and I are more motivated than ever to pick GODz back up to new all time highs. All we ask for in return is patience.
We are now stripped back to the way things were, Shoobz and I running the show and delivering actual UTILITY. It was with this exact set-up in march 2022 where we hit our all time high Floor Price.
So what are we going to do differently?
As you all know, we have been hit with delay after delay on the development of GOATz. Now that remdex has left the team we are actively looking for a new dev team to help us move forward with this project. Rest assured, we are doing everything we can to get GOATz back on track.
In the meantime, we are exploring other business ventures to raise capital for GODz. We have been focusing on Facegen.ai (AI face generation platform) and ecommerce sites among others. If all goes well, with the raised capital we want to sprint through our roadmap releasing GOATz, Games and once GODz is at new all time highs… DEMONz
We also recognise the importance of social media and its influence in today's world. We will be ramping up our efforts to increase our presence and engagement across twitter. In just 2 months alone I have already grown my personal twitter account from 300 to nearly 3,000 followers: . I am planning to use the same growth strategies to grow Shoobz account and the GODz account
side note: Just as I’ve organically grown my twitter by 1k+ followers monthly, I’m now offering it as a service to a select few with a monthly growth guarantee. If you’re interested in growing your influence and following, DM ME HERE to find out more. Only 2 out of 5 available spots remain!
As we build out the GODz ventures and Roadmap our social presence will also continue to grow, bringing our project to new eyes every time we make a big announcement!
As founders, Shoobz and I are committed to stepping up in our roles and taking GODz to the next level. We have a clear plan in place for Demonz, GOATz, and GODz and we are excited to put that plan into action as fresh funds start coming in from our business ventures.
In conclusion, we want to express our gratitude for your continued support and patience during these challenging times. We remain dedicated to our mission of creating innovation and being creative for our community.
Thank you and stay tuned for more updates.
Best regards,
Doobz
GODz Founder & Project Leader