Author: ZEN, PANews

On the first day of TOKEN2049, the popular prediction market Polymarket became one of the key follow projects for participants. The founder and CEO of the platform, Shayne Coplan, also appeared at the main venue today and participated in the panel discussion on the topic of "Going Mainstream: Building Web3 Consumer Apps."

In addition to Shayne Coplan, guests also included Founders Fund partner Joey Krug, AllianceDAO contributor Qiao Wang, and ETHGlobal co-founder Kartik Talwar, who together discussed the future development direction and challenges of Web3 consumer applications. PANews has summarized the core content of this roundtable meeting.

How should the encryption product be marketed and promoted

"You need to first build a core user group, people with similar user profiles who genuinely enjoy using your product." Shayne Coplan believes that if the project party starts marketing before truly creating a useful product, then they are not really promoting it. He added: "You need to take the time to figure out how to focus on creating a useful product. Ultimately, I think once you develop a product, you need to understand the positioning of your product in the market: how it compares to competitors and what unmet needs are still in the market?"

"Once you understand your target users and identify the group you need to focus on, you need to find appropriate distribution channels to reach them," Shayne said. Polymarket usually chooses specific vertical markets first. He also said that developers need to focus on building products that have practical value, understanding their positioning in the market, and whether they can meet potential or unmet needs compared to competitors and alternatives. "Once you know this, you will know how to find the right distribution channels to promote it."

In terms of how to attract a broader audience, Shayne believes that being able to iterate product development quickly is crucial. "Delve into the details, and truly obsess over how to get early customers to use your product. What is the feedback from early customers? What do they like and dislike? What should you emphasize and what should you remove? If you can't obtain this feedback and do feedback, iteration, and evaluation, you are at a disadvantage in creating consumer products that can ultimately scale."

Does the product need to enhance users' perception of "encryption technology"

"I think this is very subtle," Shayne said, the more complex the product becomes, the longer people feel the 'magic' moment of the product, and the experience becomes more difficult. He believes that there is still much room for improvement in the parts involving encryption elements, and if users want to deal with these elements, developers should make it easy for them to use and handle them responsibly.

From another perspective, if the project party is only willing to build products for the "echo chamber" of the encryption field and push responsibility to users, such as letting them understand the on-chain operations themselves or accessing through different tools. This approach is actually fine, after all, the encryption field and market are constantly expanding, but this can only build a niche product. "Although there is nothing wrong and many great things can be done. However, in the end, you still have to weigh various factors," Shayne said.

How to mine high-quality encryption applications VC

In May of this year, Polymarket announced the completion of a $45 million Series B financing round, led by Founders Fund. "Many people think that we invested because of the market heat brought by the election. In fact, their heat wasn't that great before we really decided to invest." Founders Fund partner Joey Krug said. In the eyes of many, Polymarket, which suddenly became popular this year, is a typical case of overnight fame. However, Krug said that Shayne actually sent him an email about prediction markets in 2016 or 2017, and the two have kept in touch at least once or twice a year over the years.

"In the consumer sector, especially when the product is already online, you can see early market feedback," Joey said, one of his main criteria being sustainable market fit. "If you ask me what is most attractive in the consumer goods sector, I would say that having a product with such a truly benign cycle is the most positive signal. It makes us feel worth investing. Conversely, if you don't have such a cycle, or if you have to invest 5 million U.S. dollars or even more in rewards or incentives to retain users, it is basically unfeasible. In the end, the core of the product is demand."

What qualities should the founder of encryption possess

Joey Krug also mentioned several key factors in evaluating founders. He said that the best founders can always act quickly and iterate quickly. "They usually have a strong vision, are not easily discouraged, and have the perseverance and indomitable spirit to break the rules." He also said that people often think that choosing a founder is a "checkmark" process, hoping to check as many advantages as possible. But in fact, the best founders have outstanding abilities in certain aspects, they may perform very well in some aspects, and may be slightly worse in other aspects, but this does not prevent their success. Finally, he also mentioned that the fit between founders and the market is also a key factor for success.

Qiao Wang of Alliance DAO also expressed a similar view, saying that the most successful investment cases in the consumer goods sector in the past few years have almost all undergone two to three major transformations. "Because it is almost certain that your first product is unlikely to succeed, you need to make adjustments." He believes that infrastructure projects have clear goals, and many times they are quantifiable engineering problems. The consumer sector, on the other hand, is very uncertain, and entrepreneurs do not know if they are really solving the right problem, so they need to be able to execute adjustments very quickly.