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Hello from Vancouver BC, Canada! Tom here from Altcoin Fantasy ACF — we are a cryptocurrency simulation trading platform that helps people learn more about cryptocurrency trading without losing their life savings.
In , I decided to take the plunge and began working on a marketplace app with a friend. We had enough initial traction to get into the Startups accelerator batch 8 , and moved down to San Francisco for six months while we went through their seed program. Though we eventually had to close down the company, we met a bunch of wonderful folks along the way, and working on the startup gave me invaluable knowledge and experiences that have greatly shaped the way I approach startups and business in general.
At one point, our garage literally resembled the scene from season one of Silicon Valley where they are trying to manage the overabundance of servers being housed in their garage to support their fledgeling startup.
Since then, I found myself constantly educating my friends about the crypto space, which compelled me to start ACF. The platform is completely free, we make our money from sponsorships and private group contests. We started the year with about users, and have grown to about 4, as of the beginning of March.
I saw that there was a great deal of volatility going on in the crypto markets, and people were not making rational decisions or doing proper research when buying crypto coins. They would hear from their friend about a friend that supposedly got in early and instantly became very rich. Of course, the fear of missing out drove them to invest blindly, with no understanding of blockchain technology or how crypto or initial coin offerings worked.
I felt strongly that this was not the right approach to investing, especially in an area that was extremely volatile and ran more hot and cold than Katy Perry.
That's why we created ACF — to educate users about the different coins and basic marketplace principles, so that if they did want to invest and trade, they could do so with more information at their disposal. They could also experiment with trading risk-free while having some fun at the same time. I started this part-time after work and on the weekends while consulting for another company. Fortunately I had kept a few coins from the initial mining operation and was able to use that to fund awards and prizes as I was building the prototype for ACF.
The first contest had about 10 players and three of them won prizes. Around this time, I met my co-founder, Jerry, who worked at TD AmeriTrade previously and was super excited about the idea since he was also interested in the crypto space. Many of our users are raving fans and incredibly supportive of the platform, often playing up to 12 hours a day. We ended up recruiting one of the users as a community manager because she was so passionate about ACF that we felt like we just had to bring her on board.
I built the ACF prototype in about six weeks, working on it part-time. At first, the goal was simply to build a simulation trading platform and let people participate in weekly free contests. Not everything worked in the initial release.
I had dead links, but I would keep track of what people clicked on to determine what to build next. The product has matured a lot since then, especially after bringing a crypto fan like Jerry onboard. We recently launched our native iOS and Android apps, and are working on building more educational features for our users. In terms of the technology involved, we used a Rails backend and React native to power our mobile apps.
Unlike a lot of the products on Indie Hackers, we didn't have an official launch — it was very much a work in progress and I wanted to get the initial prototype out before investing a lot of time into it.
We started the year with about users and about virtual trades. By the end of March we had about users, with 70k virtual trades in the system. As part of our initial growth strategy, we researched Bitcoin games on the app stores. Naturally, I wanted to target Bitcoin game players since our initial product was a game revolving around crypto coins. So for version 0 of our Android app, we literally just wrapped an embedded web browser that pointed to our web app our web app is mobile responsive , deployed that to the app store, and threw together ads targeting those users.
I'd say we converted half of our 4, users from those ad campaigns. When people refer their friends, they get ACF Points that they can use to enter specific contests or participate in special raffles.
We are also working on SEO by doing guest blogs on Bitcoin and crypto trading related sites, but that will take a while to build up authority. Some advice on growth — contrary to what most say, well placed ads can drive great user growth for cheap.
You might think you know AdWords, but chances are you probably don't know everything about it, especially given the new features Google is constantly adding. To "hack" this, I requested an AdWords specialist review my ads and give some feedback AdWords offers this as a free service, which is awesome. What was supposed to be a 15 minute chat turned into a two hour learning session because I wouldn't let the guy go. Every entrepreneur should take advantage of this!
Using fantasy sports players as our custom intent audience, we placed ads in specific Bitcoin apps. We paid relatively little for it, and It really drove relevant users to our platform. The contests are always free to play, as we want to get people into crypto trading in a fun and engaging way without losing real money.
We have been paying contest winners out of our own pockets, but we've began building partnerships with different alt coins and crypto related companies in order to get them to sponsor our weekly contests. We plan to start with conferences in the blockchain and crypto space before branching out to other areas. As hackers, working in silos rarely means you'll get it right the first time.
It was important was having a support network and people to bounce ideas off of. Obviously this is not enough to cover any personnel expenses, so at this point Jerry and I are not taking salaries. Our goal is to educate k players within the next six months. The roadblock that lies ahead is obviously the fluctuation in the price of cryptocurrencies. If cryptocurrencies tank, then marketers and brands will be cautious as a result. However, that's not something we can control, so we'll just have to focus on the things that we can control.
Moreover, as we continue to learn about our users, we can help brands create more targeted marketing campaigns. The biggest challenge that we've faced is learning to make the mental switch between different aspects of the business that need to be handled day-to-day. We try to tackle the hard engineer problems during the first part of the day and then work on business development later on, usually right after lunch since it provides a good mental break. The other challenge we face, which I'm sure we share with every other indie hacker, is trying to derive answers from a sea of unknowns.
I think that in order to find product-market fit, one needs to have a framework in place that enables them to quickly find answers to questions as they arise. Finally, the transition from a developer to a salesperson was a little hard to adjust to at first, but after reading a few books, such as To Sell Is Human: Learning from the Masters About the Business of Life , I was able to frame my conversations around helping the other party rather than selling them on something.
Equally as important is talking to your users. We thought we had a grasp on the demographics of our users young, background in business , but when we dug in we found users of all ages, backgrounds, and professions that had heard of Bitcoin from their friends and families. My advice to indie hackers starting out is to always be learning. Had I not researched how blockchain works or been interested in building mining rigs, I might not have gotten into the space.
Technology advances at a very fast pace. Without my experience building native apps, we wouldn't have gotten the quick prototypes out. Want to learn more about cryptocurrency and maybe even try your hand at winning free crypto? You can learn more at AltcoinFantasy. If you have friends and family who are interested in getting into crypto, tell them to try Altcoin Fantasy before they risk losing all their hard earned money!
Or if you think your company can benefit from having a little friendly contest in the office, let us know and we can set it up for you! You should join the Indie Hackers community! We're a few thousand founders helping each other build profitable businesses and side projects. Come share what you're working on and get feedback from your peers. Not ready to get started on your product yet? The community is a great place to meet people, learn, and get your feet wet.
Feel free to just browse! Read the stories behind hundreds of profitable businesses and side projects. What's your background, and what are you working on? What my garage looked like at one point. What motivated you to get started with Altcoin Fantasy? Contrary to what most say, well placed ads can drive great user growth for cheap. More Interviews Read the stories behind hundreds of profitable businesses and side projects.