Background

Extensive overview of community support for Web3 projects

The first steps

When a team decides to launch a project, they will usually start by building relationships with ecosystem-relevant projects, sector-relevant projects, and KOLs. Most of these efforts are done by Business Developers who join numerous BD/ecosystem Telegram groups before they start reaching out to individuals. This process is not only very chaotic but also inefficient. Still, it is the main way to build connections, which usually don't evolve in relationships.

When it comes to KOLs, communication happens primarily on Twitter. Once again, the core team reaches out via DM without any formal structure, and offers are discussed over messaging apps. KOLs, for the most part, are not reliable, since there are no consequences if the work is not done properly.

Aside from BD and KOL outreach, teams will usually try to plan their GTM by organizing co-marketing activities with ecosystem-relevant projects. This method has proven to work well for awareness purposes, but it's hard to execute when the team does not have a reputation (yet).

Due to the above, many teams opt for incubators, which make direct intros to potential partners, KOLs, and Launchpads, which essentially offer a 'community for rent'.

Web3 Incubators

For first-time founders, incubators come as a solution to their early-stage bottlenecks. They offer assistance in a variety of functions and give strategic advice where necessary. We've seen lots of VCs and funds back such incubators to get priority investment opportunities for the projects they support later on. Kinda like youth academies work for football teams.

Problems of Web3 incubators

The incubation model in the Web3 industry has its problems as well:

• Permissioned access - Applicants need a strong network and team to increase their chances of acceptance. Even then, the gatekeepers of such programs will often not accept many promising projects in their cohorts.

• Equity share - Incubators often require an equity share between 5-7% depending on the quality and popularity of the intellectual assistance provided. This share comes in the form of tokens and is usually unlocked over time, causing volatility in the token's price.

• Location-dependent - While many incubation programs in the Web3 sector are considering hybrid or remote concepts, there are still many that require builders to relocate for months at a time.

• Questionable quality assurance - Until you actually start getting help from the incubator's partners, you will never really know about their performance and delivery.

Launchpads

Launchpads have seen massive success and growth over the past 4 years. As the market continues to onboard more investors, token launches continue to evolve as well, trying to accommodate the increased demand.

Evolution of launchpads

The concept of launchpads goes back to 2019 when Binance first started hosting IEOs on its platform. Their launch model and the strict requirements of CEXs later leads to the concept of IDOs. By building a “community for rent”, independent platforms manage to attract many founders that launch through their platforms and subsequently list their tokens on DEXs.

Ever since then, we have seen attempts to make launchpads more attractive in hopes of growing their user base. Better UX/UI, lower staking requirements, stronger tokenomics, and more security measures. That said, the launchpad trend seems to “deflate” over the past 1-2 years, as the market has become oversaturated with an increasing number of new platforms.

Problems of launchpads

Despite their growth and evolution over time, launchpads still suffer from several foundational problems:

• Centralization - Core contributors of launchpads decide which projects they allow on their launchpad and which ones they don’t. This in turn causes many projects to spend time building relationships instead of their product and can easily lead to corruption.

• High barrier of entry - Most launchpads require users to buy and stake large amounts of their native token, and the distribution of tokens is equal to the amount staked. The same is true for LBPs.

• Limited non-financial support - Most launchpads offer financial assistance and maybe some early marketing help. They could easily expand this offer but that complicates the scope of the service and thus the scalability of the platform. Some have external partners in the form of network connections, but the quality is not up to the standard of most.

• Transparency and accountability - Unless an investor qualifies as an on-chain analyst it is hard to track how recently-raised funds are being distributed by the project following its token sale. This leaves investors in the dark, and there is no one to keep core contributors of said projects accountable for their financial decisions.

From partners to "curators"

Some of the most important early-stage, individual-level partnerships come in the form of “early backers” and “ambassadors”. The former will usually participate in the private sale with a small ticket price (i.e. STFX private sale) while ambassadors will usually receive a smaller token allocation that is vested over a longer time while contributing to the project (i.e. Buffer Finance).

These early-stage partnerships help a project grow in terms of awareness and authority, which in turn helps the team grow its network, and successfully conduct its token sale. They also help the industry, as founders become less dependent on VCs who might negatively affect the token price by “dumping” all their tokens at the first unlock.

We believe that this is a very important step in the success of new projects, and given the current level of transparency and integrity, we see an opportunity to streamline this process by introducing the concept of Curators.

Curators can be anything from Crypto Twitter personalities and influencers to business developers, smart contract auditors, and strategists. They can help a project build its product and community through a variety of skills. All in a transparent way, through our platform.

By tapping into the vast network of hand-picked curators, new projects can quickly build a following of supporters and investors who are eager to see the project succeed. Curators get a large share of our fundraising fee, and can also request a token allocation from the projects they are interested in.

Vision

We believe in an industry governed by free market dynamics. One where new projects can grow their audience and launch their project, regardless of their network or the subjective opinion of respective gatekeepers. By bridging industry experts with great products, we are building the first permissionless Web3 incubator.

Forcefi - Launchpad Permissionless Growth Lab

To pursue our vision, we developed ForceFi, a platform that solves the existing limitations and inefficiencies of incubators and launchpads. In essence, projects go from 0 to 1, building a team, and audience, and launching a token sale.