1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: I have another example. It’s the example of Damien Hirst. He’s a very famous British artist. He jumped on the NFT bandwagon. He said he’s going to create a large number of artworks that are connected to NFTs. These are not digital artworks to begin with. These are physical artworks that have an NFT tie-in. That requires a different infrastructure. Have you seen this developing?

Hamiz Awan: NFTs are just a concept or a platform for people to innovate. Some people are going to say, “We’re going to have a physical item represented by an NFT.” Some are seeing them as experiences. Mike Tyson sold a weekend with him for $300,000. He would train you. That’s what he sold.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: I want to probe that point a little bit. We have done a lot of two-sided marketplaces. We see two-sided marketplaces all the time. We have lots of case studies. We have curriculum material on it.

As you rightly said, it’s much more difficult to go from zero to 10,000 than to go from 10,000 to a million when the network effect starts to kick in gear. That’s not just true in Blockchain; it’s true in two-sided marketplaces in general. To go from zero to 10,000, what are people doing that you have seen is working?

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Now explain the structure in one of these cases where you’re investing as Plutus21.

Hamiz Awan: In Uniswap’s example, there’s a governance token for the protocol called the Uni. How does a company that doesn’t have a CEO make decisions? It’s actually the community that makes the decisions. They vote on that using their token. Their token gives them a voting right. That is the asset that we invest in. Investing in that asset gives us voting rights today. We believe that, in the future, it will give us a piece of their cash flows or some connection to their cash flows. Today it’s really a governance token. It gives a voting right. 

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 2)

Hamiz Awan: One example is the Ethereum network. It’s essentially a plug-and-play Blockchain solution. If you want to build a Blockchain startup, you don’t have to go and build a Blockchain yourself. You can just plugin to the Ethereum network that already has the infrastructure, security, and incentives figured out. You are just using it like you’re using the internet to build Facebook.

In order for anybody to use the Ethereum network, they have to pay a certain fee to process their transaction. That fee has to be paid, and it’s the second largest digital asset in the world.

How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship Using the 1Mby1M Methodology and Case Studies: How Investors Think

Considering how omnipresent the topic of fundraising is in the entrepreneurship media, it is entirely reasonable to dedicate a quarter or a semester to teaching how investors think.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 1)

Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital, discusses Blockchain infrastructure and platforms.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s introduce you to our audience. Tell us a bit about our background as well as about Plutus21 Capital. 

9 Udemy Courses on How to Raise Post-Seed Startup Funding

Raising money is a huge challenge. To be able to raise any money at all, you must first understand how investors think.

This specific course covers how post-seed and pre-Series A investors analyze startups and what they are looking for. We will have in-depth conversations around startups and funding with several real-world investors.

10 Udemy Courses on How to Raise Seed Startup Funding

One frustrating observation remains with me. Entrepreneurs constantly come to us for assistance with their funding in situations where their chances of fundraising are ZERO.

We can’t do anything to assist them, regardless of how strong our investor connections are. We can’t help startups get funding until they are fundable. It pains me to see so many entrepreneurs who have no concept of what it takes to raise funds.