🌎 RippleX Takes On SF Earlier this week, we had an amazing meetup with even more amazing people in SF led by RippleX alumni Naz and Mathu ! We are absolutely thrilled to finally bring together so many great minds in one place and looking forward to hosting even more events in the near future! Interested to host an event in your local city? Please feel free to reach out to Dom or Naz and let’s make it happen! 🌪 Market Dynamics When evaluating a company no matter the spectacular product that you may be building, it’s important to ask the tough questions. Rather than search for them, let us help you navigate these hurdles from the start. Let’s look into the factors that paint a picture of whether or not you’re in a perfect storm. What is so compelling about the market? Why is now the right time to start a business in this market, and what edge do you have in it? Breaking these questions further, here are exactly what you’ll need to consider in market dynamics: Who are the buyers and users? What is the status quo for the end-user today, and how much do they currently spend on that? How much is this problem costing businesses? What does the budget look like for your buyers? Is this going to change at all? Are they looking for a change? Is this a painkiller or vitamin problem? Push vs Pull? Buyers vs. Users Buyers are the ones who you’re selling to – they hold the budget and have the signing authority. Users are the people who will be using the product after the purchase. Sometimes, buyers can be also users (especially if you’re a consumer or bottoms-up SaaS tool). Status Quo What tools are they using today in their day-to-day workflow? Are they happy with them? How much do these tools cost? If you’re looking to replace a tool, how sticky are they (i.e. how hard would it be to leave them?) Cost to Businesses What is your clearly defined problem in the industry, and how much is this costing companies today? Your goal is to figure out an additional data point on “how large is this problem”, which is directly tied to how large your market opportunity is. Budget You can start with general market data, and search for average budgets within the department of your target customer. After getting a good baseline, you should go ask your target customers during interviews how much their team gets allocated to spend on software, what drives that budget, and how it’s changed over the years. Push vs Pull Push Markets: You have to educate the customers on the problem, and why they should care about it. This is a poor market dynamic in most cases because it proves that the problem isn’t that big, to begin with. Pull Markets: You don’t need to educate the customers at all; they know about the problem, they know how much it’s costing their business, and they’re in the market for a solution. The lesson doesn’t stop here, there’s much more to cover! Take a peek into our course accessible to anyone and everyone: RippleX Fellowship 📑 Web 3 Dictionary Let’s be honest, the web 3 space can get very confusing with so many new and different terms to keep up with. Whether you’re just starting off or a vet in the ecosystem, there’s no doubt that you’ll always be learning a new term or concept. Well to get you off your feet or give you a refresher, here is a collection of terminologies that you’ll come across in this space: The Basics Twitter Dictionary The Not So Basics The Basics Blockchain : A shared, immutable ledger that records transactions and tracks digital assets. It’s shared because multiple computers verify transactions instead of just one company. It’s immutable because once a transaction or asset is moved, the record can’t be reversed. Decentralization : An action (i.e. decision making) or an asset (i.e. data) being dispersed across multiple different stakeholders instead of being centered around one group or person. Ledger : A ledger is a record of transactions that you keep track of. Cryptography : The process used to make blockchain transactions secure and private. Twitter Dictionary NFT : Non-fungible token. DAO : Decentralized autonomous organization. Dapp : Decentralized Application ERC: Ethereum request for comment, a standard used for creating and issuing smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. Gas Fees : A denomination of crypto that you pay as a transaction fee to miners to verify transactions. The Not So Basics Consensus Mechanisms (PoW, PoS, PoH) : Ways to verify the transactions on blockchain networks. Proof of Work (PoW) = solve problems to verify, Proof o Stake (PoS) = “stake” or put up cryptocurrency coins, Proof of History (PoH) = string together transactions to each other. Hash Rate : Computing power or guesses within a blockchain network. 51% Attacks : Attempting to control 51% of a blockchain network for malicious behavior. Fork — Hard/Soft : A fork is when a blockchain’s code changes. Hard is when nodes can’t agree so 2 blockchains are created, soft is when the code changes from the old to new. Interested to dive into the full list? This was only a taste of the full article and it’s available here . 💡 Fellow Spotlight Jonathan Hsu - Operations at Valence Discovery & Director of Investments at Front Row Ventures Ever imagined that while studying Biochemistry at university that you’d fall in love with startups and venture capital? Perhaps you’ll get a chance to join an incredible student-led team focused on VC investments in Canada’s most promising university founders? Or maybe work at a company building the world's most powerful chemistry engine? We’re delighted to introduce Jonathon Hsu from cohort #7. Currently, you’ll find Jonathan at Valence Discovery supporting Operations and Front Row Ventures as Director of Investments leading a team of 17 associates through various opportunities. Despite having discovered the world of venture without prior experience and limited knowledge, Jonathon’s passion for supporting a community of students, entrepreneurs, and startups is unparalleled. With prior experience working at BMO, CIBC, and EY, Jonathon brings forth a variety of different skills that have allowed him to approach his path with a wide lens. In these past three years with Front Row Ventures, Jonathon has supported various startups to raise funding which you can read, here . At Valence Discovery, he supports the company towards unlocking and empowering drug discovery with AI-enabled drug design. Of course, there’s more to add. You can also learn more about Jonathan on his podcast 'Broaden Your Perspective with Jonny Hsu ’ where he takes you through meaningful conversations with a wide range of interesting leaders in their field. Interested in being featured? Looking to share exciting news? Please reach out to Turja at turja@rippleventures.com. Authored by Turja Chowdhury (Cohort #9).