An initial DEX offering, or IDO, is a new and exciting type of decentralised and permissionless crowdfunding, opening up a new way of fundraising in the crypto space. When a project offers an IDO, it sells its brand new token for capital (usually ETH/BNB/USDT) from investors, users and/or early backers.
My project, SUBX FINANCE LAB, recently had a successful IDO that raised 2,000 BNB (~ USD 1M). We are a blockchain-as-a-service provider for businesses to integrate web3 technologies into their products and services. I spent twenty days preparing for the IDO, and it was sold out within 180 seconds. Here is how I did it.
1 — Develop a quality project idea
We have stumbled into an era where every entrepreneur and their dogs are trying to raise money via an IDO. In the past, any idea with enough marketing prowess behind it could raise serious amounts of money — this is not the case anymore. Take the time to model your business, analyse relevant markets, carry out competitive analysis and do market surveys. Ensure that your project solves an actual pain point and delivers real-world value to your users.
2 — Create your token
Use this website to create your own ERC20/BEP20 token. You can set your initial supply and customise functions depending on your business model. Once done, you can create a pre-sale listing on PinkSale, DxSale or Unicrypt.
3 — Facebook marketing
Create a telegram group and start inviting people into it. To attract new members, I ran aggressive Facebook campaigns for two weeks, and I spent a total of USD 45,000 to attract 15,000 high-quality members into my telegram group. These “HQ members” will post 2–3 times in the telegram group every week.
This is the secret sauce to any successful IDO — I would not recommend greyhat/blackhat methods to get new members. You would usually get bots/ low-quality members who will not participate in your IDO.
Here are my statistics -
a. The average acquisition cost of a high-quality member — $3
b. 33% of all high-quality members contributed to my IDO.
c. On average, each contributor spent $150 on my IDO.
4 — Build a community
Hire moderators and community managers to reply to questions and listen to suggestions. Use Combot to automate replies and moderate the chat on telegram. Have regular AMA sessions and voice chats to interact with your new community. Encourage your community to invite their friends and family into the telegram group.
5 — Launch
On the day of your IDO, be prepared to fend off scammers who are attempting to trick your community into participating in fake listings. Ensure that you have the correct settings for your IDO and that your team is on standby to help anyone who has issues contributing to the IDO. If you follow the steps above, you should minimally hit your soft cap — if your IDO is not successful, apologise to your community and retry from step 3.
6 — Post IDO
Develop your products and deliver value to your holders/users. Welcome to the most challenging part of any project — execution. Hire developers to build your products and acquire new holders/users to use your products. If you need to deploy blockchain products quickly and cost-effectively, you can contact my team at SUBX FINANCE LAB.
Congratulations on your successful IDO.
Article written by Adam (CEO)
