ccFOUND Report for December 2020 — February 2021
Dear Investors,
Recently, there have been some important events taking place at ccFOUND that we want to share with you.
IT
- Landing page — the main page of the campaign is almost finished, we will eventually publish and test two different variants of the campaign in terms of effectiveness.
- We had a dozen or so workshops with software houses and developers to refine the requirements and scope for the smart contract ecosystem. We chose contractors for the smart contract.
- We had 6 interviews with payment processors to implement them on the ICO website.
- We did an overview of hosting platforms for our development and production environments. An environment is being created that will improve the publication of changes to the portal and facilitate the management of the code produced by developers.
- We implemented Identity Access Management (identity management within the ccFound.com domain).
- We performed tests of SKALE.network environments in terms of the costs of servicing our future platform.
- We researched multichain solutions (using many alternative blockchain environments), including thebifrost.io.
- We recruited and implemented a team of 5 developers (1x tech lead, 2x front end, 2x back end) for the project — now it is already a productive team.
- We started the Google Cloud Platform implementation process with a technology partner.
- We launched and tested the ccFound.com smart contract on the ethereum Rinkeby network at 0xc306055dd7f24cd44ef2a1c2713cf9830e05e181 Review at this link.
- With the help of the domain-driven design methodology, we started decomposing the ccFound idea in order to work out a list of long-term tasks for the development team.
Marketing
- Marketing strategy:
a. A marketing plan was developed and a budget for marketing activities was approved.
b. Marketing action plans in the area of media campaigns and social media were prepared — currently they are undergoing revision and clarification.
c. The GSN campaign is likely to start mid-April, social media campaign — to start on 1 April (both are dependent on the launch of the landing page).
d. A detailed plan is being developed for building relations with the media and communication channels regarding investments in Poland and abroad.
2. Marketing team
a. Hiring and implementing a Social Media Manager — Michał Traczyk (over 10 years of experience in the field of social media in leading Polish and international agencies) — Michał will be responsible for building the community around the ICO process and the effective conversion of this community to the ICO process as investors.
b. Hiring a Digital Marketing Manager — Aleksander Grudziński — over 10 years of experience in conducting online marketing activities for Polish and international companies in the sectors of new technologies and pharmacy. Aleksander will be responsible for successfully attracting potential investors to the ICO ccFound.com website through digital activities (the goals are building awareness, building the image and credibility of ccFound.com and converting visitors of the ccFound.com website) — Alexander will be implemented on 15–19 March.
c. The process of hiring a PR Manager, who will be responsible for building relations with international media and investment channels, is underway. The PR Manager’s task will also be the press office and the implementation of the content marketing strategy (text & video content)
3. Marketing activities:
a. Work on the LP (Landing Page) for the campaign is underway — completion time — April 2021
b. There was a briefing of creative agencies, which will result in the preparation of a creative idea for the campaign promoting ccFOUND’s crowdfunding and a subsequent campaign supporting the portal — end date on 9 April.
c. Influencers — contact was established with over 200 influencers who conduct media activities in the area of cryptocurrencies (YT channels, blogs, etc.). Two interviews were conducted with Piotr Michalak (the materials will be published after our website is completed). At the moment there are 34 people on the shortlist interested in interviewing Piotr about ccFound.com. Further interviews will be arranged.
d. Social media profiles have been launched: FB, LI and Twitter — by the end of March they will be intensively filled with content by the Social Media Manager in accordance with the adopted plan.
e. Advisors — a database of potential advisors has been built (and is constantly updated) to support the ICO process in the marketing and business area. There were 2 meetings with potential advisors, another 3 are being arranged.
Design
- Two new UX and UI designers were hired, we had our first parting with an employee who made a significant contribution to the changes that you will see below.
- There was “A Slight Rebranding” — our logo and colours have undergone a slight refreshment, you can see the effects for yourself.
3. We designed the views of the target ccfound.com portal taking into account the changes in colour. The effects of the work are visible at this link!
4. A design system began to emerge, thanks to which the changes of elements in one place will result in automatic changes in other views.
HR
- The ccFOUND Board of Directors was formed. The Board of Directors includes:
a. You already know him well — Piotr Michalak — CEO,
b. Wiktoria Jaros — initially acting as HR Director and currently acting as COO due to the nature of the tasks performed, she joined ccFOUND in mid-December.
c. Grzegorz Bierzyński — who is the CTO, joined us full-time on 1 March and was actively involved already in mid-January.
d. Rafał Plewiński — acting CMO, joined us in mid-February.
e. Karol Kiełtyka — Product Owner — has been cooperating with Piotr since May 2020 and together with Piotr he has been creating the product concept from the very beginning.
2. We developed an initial organizational structure.
3. IT team members hired:
a. the role of Team Leader is performed by Zachariasz Karpowicz, who works with us as an employee of the Impicode software house.
b. from the beginning with ccFOUND, and with Piotr for 8 years — Paweł Jarzyniak.
c. two Front End Developers — Michał Strzelecki and Kacper Gumieniuk.
d. two Back End Developers — Mariusz Franciszczak and Tomasz Kędziora.
4. UX Design team members hired:
a. Piotr Rymaszewski — who designed a new logo, a new design for the ICO website, Two Pager and White Paper
b. Michał Chaszczewski — who joined the team as a full-time UX Designer.
c. additionally, Piotr Zdanowicz — an experienced UX Designer who lives in France and works with us as an advisor.
5. Marketing team members recruited
a. Social Media Manager — Michał Traczyk
b. Digital Marketing Manager — Aleksander Grudziński
c. PR Executive — Kacper Hoffmann
6. A financial controller was hired — Agnieszka K.
Recruitment processes:
- We completed 9 recruitment processes in which we employed 11 candidates.
- We are currently conducting 5 recruitment processes. We are looking for:
a. PR Manager
b. Technical Leader
c. Graphic Designer
d. Lawyer
e. HR and Administration Specialist
3. So far, 295 candidates who meet our criteria have applied for recruitment processes. They passed the process of verification by recruiters and test tasks, we conducted 54 interviews with selected candidates, out of whom we chose 11 candidates.
4. The ccFOUND team currently consists of 15 people.
5. An integration trip took place, with most of the team members in attendance. It was led in a valuable and enriching way for the participants, with workshops and a valuable discussion about the project and values important to individual team members.
Finance and administration
- We multiplied the capital; thanks to the allocation in cryptocurrencies, ccFOUND’s resources are already PLN 6.5 million (fewer campaign costs, fewer taxes, it was PLN 4 million).
2. We have created a 4-person internal investment team. We analyze the market and manage the portfolio. We make our first purchases of altcoins for ccFOUND to take advantage of the ongoing boom.
3. We use the professional support of law firms:
a. KHG from Wrocław, which supports us in preparing for ICO, implementing KYC, AML and GDPR procedures.
b. Majda-Strzyżewska Law Firm from Poznań, which supports us in securing copyrights in cooperation with contractors and preparing contracts and payment procedures (e.g. ETH / BTC) with influencers from around the world.
4. We developed a budget and implemented financial controlling procedures.
5. We implemented procedures for the purchase of the necessary hardware and software.
6. We implement a system for managing the circulation of documents and accounting documentation.
7. We chose group insurance and health insurance for our associates. We examined the offers of 5 insurance companies.
8. We develop procedures and instructions for the purpose of conducting KYC and AML verification for citizens of the countries that will participate in the ICO.
9. We implement Visa and Mastercard payments, we have sent an application for licenses and permits.
10. We established the company CC PAYMENT, which was reported to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) as a Small Payment Institution and will be responsible for handling deposits for the purposes of the campaign in Poland, in order to comply with the law.
Final thoughts
The entire ccFOUND Board of Directors has prepared this report for you. Thank you for being with us. From my part — as Piotr Michalak — I want to add here an important thought. Every decision we make now can cause that:
- we will raise $ 5 million or $ 100+ million;
- someone could hack us and steal $ 40 million, as happened in Polkadot;
- ccFOUND will be scalable and will handle 100,000 users, or it will require a total change of technology, which will last, for example, for a year;
- ccFOUND will be able to recruit and effectively allocate a team of 20–40 people, or total chaos will arise and we will not be able to create anything;
- and many others.
I am writing this because I am aware that you are impatient, you keep asking about progress and reports, and we are working and you have not seen the results (yet!). You can’t see them because we are building a new organization from scratch; we do not just hire any candidate that applies, but only people most suited to the company and organizational culture; we do it very consciously.
Do you remember our joint webinars? When I was preparing the ccFOUND presentation, its design was supposed to take several hours. Eventually, it took several hundred hours. What you saw was the third version of the same presentation, made completely from scratch each time. This is why we have achieved so much success. Now, as I prepare for my interviews, I spend hours practising answers and rewriting them from scratch. Soon you will find out that thanks to this, we will be able to conquer the English-speaking market with a hit.
Preparation is the key.
ccFOUND is a project whose primary value is wisdom; ccFOUND itself arises in the service of wisdom. Therefore, it is important for me and the entire Board of Directors to make wise decisions that will result in long-term success. We are building this project in the way I have always dreamed of, that is according to the best practices.
I hope you will appreciate our approach and wait patiently for the results. We have planted a mighty tree, fertilized the soil, prepared a farm and soon you will see this tree grow and bear its first fruit. The growth of the tree cannot be accelerated any more; instead, let us make sure that it is not broken by a gale and that it lasts for many more decades.
And finally, Piotr in an interview with a well-known YouTuber Ashton Addison on his YouTube channel — CryptoCoinShow.
— Piotr Michalak, CEO
