Gaurav Dubey on TdeFi’s approach to crypto startup advisory

0:01i'm ashton addison from block west capital for investment pitch media and today on the crypto coin show we have gaurav dubai ceo of td5 crypto incubator and advisory gara thank you for taking the time i really appreciate you coming on the show thank you thank you ashton and i've heard a lot of good things about your channel the topics you've taken um it's a pleasure to be here and to

0:26to have this discussion forward thank you and i've heard good things about tdfi and just incubating quality projects helping crypto startups get a leg up in the industry and i'm excited to learn more about those projects and the way that you qualify them and what it takes to you know get qualified to get help with your crypto startup so let's just dive right into the

0:49conversation by starting with a little bit about uh td5 you know the work that your team has done so far and then we'll dive into all of the details um you want me to begin uh with what we're doing at gd5 absolutely okay cool um so i'll have to give a little you know quick background about myself i've been in crypto since 2015 i've been running a tech incubator here in india for 13

1:14years uh was quite enjoying my vc life up until 2019 2018 with the last beer run when i observed two things you know in that period of the prolonged video market and then when the the beer was spinned again with the with the pandemic that projects don't die because they have

1:42probably i mean most of the project don't die because they have a bad product or they have bad intent they die for silly things like a lot of projects died out in the bear markets for very silly reasons that could actually be avoided with the word of wise i'm i'm using flashy words i'd but i'm saying it's as simple as that projects projects die off literally die off

2:07for silly reasons they burn out um the capital on on bad vendors at times and and by the way like i said i'll repeat it again these are very very silly reasons they spend too much on things that don't matter in the longest in the larger scheme of things so um and and and the pain was not just that i was losing capital uh to the startups that were dying off

2:32for for these reasons um i was lucky enough to to have a brighter portfolio so i was like uh we were beating the industry standards in terms of success rate um but then like i said i was getting bored of my vc life and i said uh this is the problem i can solve and it will change and you know and it will mean a difference to the industry as well because i'm very passionate

2:56about blockchain i've been speaking uh and evangelizing crypto tokenization uh the new form of equity as i see tokenization to be uh since 2015 right uh when not not really tokenization but crypto at that time and then 2017 onwards tokenization really uh so i said this is the space that i want to be in and and there is no real advisory uh

3:22you know in this part of the world and in general there is very less competition so why not you know it makes absolute sense to be an incubator and an advisory um a catchphrase here is advisory uh because people would think it's a it's a parallel line of business uh it's not in our case uh and this is where i'm also addressing your question of what we do in gd5 we help

3:47startups structure themselves initially for the for the launch which means they're polishing their business model uh really bringing token utility token transactions token velocity uh all in all a full token engineering implementation on their on their business structure uh which which also means that you know like i said we have to dive deeper into the real business you know

4:13the business out of tokenization uh we we only take tokenization as an enablement so you can only enable a real business with tokenization right and not the other way around like a lot of people think so we dive deep into their business structures we uh like i said do the token engineering uh polish them for their pitch deck get them ready for investors get them ready with the right

4:36marketing community is a big factor in crypto uh ecosystem so we set up their uh communities initially help them get the right partners to to to do their pr and marketing and and community management and so on and so forth and finally connect them to launch pads and uh and exchanges so that's you know a quick rundown of the incubation obviously it's

5:00a for a few companies uh i can give you an example you know a company a portfolio company of ours it's one of the largest uh exchanges in turkey and they've been incubated for with us for two years now you can understand exchange is a big business they are four and a half years old fully blown technology everything that you want right revenue positive solid profits positive revenue

5:25positive everything is just about great so it takes a lot of time to nurture these companies to the next level take them to the next level so so we do all of that and we get a share of tokens you know we only charge in tokens we are a token only company um but then there's a beauty to token and this is what i evangelize about it is it's not like equity it's not diluting

5:50over time it's not diluting by rounds it's actually it's actually appreciating by rounds it's appreciating as the company evolves further so it makes absolute sense for a company like us that is a resource and knowledge intensive uh to to keep contributing to the same company and that's why i said advisories is a catchphrase of this business we're not charging anything extra

6:16for the advisory but the same package continues to a lifetime of advising because this is where the real fun begins now you have a chance to be to jump from 100 million dollar company to be a billion dollar company and beyond and that is where uh you know we want to be um so exactly that's when we jump in with larger uh things we connect them to real world uh

6:41business use cases uh like i said i have a 13-year 14-year background in corporate global corporates and the whole team here is expanding in the same space so we are hiring people from top banks stock corporates uh you know deloitte the big fours deloitte pwc and so on uh and building that ecosystem on our site where these crypto use cases can uh can expand into real world use

7:09cases right and be larger businesses at the same time our biggest strength is markets and market management we advise them on how to be a publicly traded asset which is by the way not a seriously taken topic it seems like you know not at least not as seriously taken as it should be because when you go ipo you have tons of investment bankers tons of investment banks behind you top tier

7:36investors regulators the whole space is designed to to get you ready to be a publicly traded asset now thousands and thousands of people will be holding a piece of your company and you will be accountable and answerable to them right at the same time your success depends on how much do they buy of your public stock all those philosophies apply on crypto but the

8:01only catch is here you don't have an ecosystem of those investment bankers those regulators that that exchanges to bring all of that liquidity to you right and that's where they need a lot of hand holding i'm not saying a little handle they need all the support they need guidance on how charts work how charts are in in immutable uh history of an asset why would they be

8:26a part of in a penny stock etf in three years why would a trader a random trader who knows nothing about crypto technology still buy their stock because he believes in his charting skills why would um some some regulator who is approving let's say the top 100 coin by his own standard by their own standard approve them so all of that is is not an our topic that's often discussed

8:54in the undergrounds of crypto and this is where we come in we uh we are our punch line is that you take care of your business you take care of your token life to that level so apart from the whole like i said token management uh public uh publicly traded asset management treasury management uh inventory management you know hardcore financial services we give them like i said access

9:20to ecosystem access to marketing access to investors and everything else that they might need so that's what we are doing at td5 and we have helped 50 plus companies officially as we call them incubated companies a bunch of them have achieved the unicorn status uh we're very happy and proud about it a bunch of them have touched a half a billion valuation again

9:43and some are on their way to do that right the philosophy like now i'll address the point where you said what is the qualification side and how do we choose them um so with my background you can you can probably assume or understand that i'm a i'm an old timer right i'm still not the nft dj you would imagine and in that capacity i still don't believe uh

10:12somehow i'm sorry to say in the whole the the new thesis the the straight curves of crypto theories i am still a believer of real world use cases and that philosophy sticks to the foundation of td5 you if you look at our portfolio we don't have we don't have the highest performing b5 companies of their times we don't have the highest performing land sales of their times you don't have

10:37the highest performing stupid game files of of their of the at their peaks what we really have is the true essence of blockchain and crypto that is meant to change the world and change the life at the last mic so we have the uber on blockchain right it has the company called drive i don't know if i'm allowed to shill projects i'm not saying they're already listed so

11:01um i really want to evangelize these real world use cases so there's this tiny little business in a corner of india that has uh 20 000 plus taxis registered on their app these taxis were x ubers right and a local uh app called ola there's a there's a big pr rounded by the way in the recent few months on how decentralized economy is taking over the centralized pieces because

11:29they are being abused around the world we have an ex-ceo of a top cab hailing app i can't name it here and he has resigned from his top position being the ceo for for a few countries just because he said i don't i don't resonate with the vision anymore this vision was to bring prosperity and a life to taxi drivers and now taxi drivers are literally putting themself

11:57ablaze in airports to protest to to show that uh they are not making money they are actually struggling so i'm actually very passionate about these topics and i want crypto decentralization to change this so these kind of businesses are what you'll find uh in incubated with us vulcan force our star metabours company you'd be surprised their metaverse has

12:24started before metaverse was a big thing and there was no uh play to earn there was no incentives the first piece of land was really for the pleasure of pleasure of creating it was beauty created in in the digital world for no incentive for the sheer pleasure of creating this is what i evangelize this is what i'm talking about so there are obviously

12:50tons of projects that i can keep talking about but i wanted to establish the motor so if you have uh i mean i'm talking to your audience right now i'm addressing your audience if you have a project that probably no one believes but you think has the potential to change uh lives of people you know at the last mile and uh through the power of crypto and token uh

13:14we'll be more than happy to work with you i particularly have this reputation in the industry of not being a sheep i have not uh i don't follow big vcs uh in fact you know being an incubator you can clearly make out that we come in before vcs2 right so we are definitely not our work is definitely not dependent on big brands and uh yeah so so projects that

13:38are there to change the world are more than welcome that's great to hear garov and i there's a lot to unpack there but i i wanted to point out a few notable things you know just looking at you moving from sort of the vc world into the incubator and how you determine which projects you're going to help incubate sort of following a diversified portfolio as you

14:02would be and sort of investing your time into those projects um i i it sounds like real world use cases is obviously fundamental and now you know fundamental analysis of companies that you think should outweigh the volatility of the bull and bear market because they actually have a use case and they have a product market fit are those kind of projects that you

14:26would want to work with and but i'm curious on how established these startups need to be to move into the td5 incubator and you gave the the crypto exchange as an example it sounds like they'd already been running for a few years um and you guys have helped them um right but there's also other projects that you know they they just have an idea or a white paper or uh an alpha

14:54um you know at what level do you qualify and and how early have you qualified some of the projects that have joined into td5 uh the last the last line was actually was is something that changes my answer entirely but but i'll address it at the end uh so um again as a business i would say and i'm only speaking as a business uh we are

15:21very proud about our recent incubations we are incubating some of those some really really big companies from from real world jumping into crypto with a real world use case uh uh you know our recent pipeline comprises of uh one of the largest american and european magazines that have influenced 60 plus hollywood movies with variety some some big gaming companies that have

15:51that have delivered three plus games at a billion dollar valuation um some of the largest asset trading banks which is okay you know as a business i still have to think about uh you know success rate and and these companies suddenly have a bigger audience and my my personal vision and the vision of probably you and the whole community of crypto to to take you to the last mile

16:18to to the to the unbanked to the seven billion population taking crypto to the seven billion population we have to to take them but uh to qualify for the refined incubator program uh first of all you got to have the right intent which means um we'll judge you personally more than professionally uh i've been an angel investor for for a decade plus and

16:44you would prob you would uh you know back me on this that angel investing is not about investing in the project it's about investing in the person so our primary uh objective is the founders how committed they are if they're doing you know 15 advisories and five projects they're definitely not for us but if they have been crazy about a vision and have delivered

17:08whatever is possible in their capacity right at least at least something that is possible in the capacity which proves their advance on the idea more than anything uh we are we are happy to look at them right and they have they have the they most probably will qualify um to give you an example and to touch upon the last line you said how early have we

17:33really curated something a project um this is where i introduce a secondary product that is that is something we don't advertise much uh it's called td 5 test net we have we have 400 plus startups that have applied in the last two years in td5 that were not qualified for the incubator program but they did qualify to the ideation and they did qualify as

18:02a person and we said okay there is a problem with branding we can't really put you let's to to quote within the shield examples we can't put you next to bitte uh the turkish exchange right they they are um they they val their valuation is in a few hundred million i can't really put out a college-grown uh startup next to them but we really want to help you because

18:26we see a big potential in you so we put them in the tv td5 test net we give them the right advisory um help them with whatever we could uh to bring them to the level that they can apply for incubation so that's a broad funnel uh and to feed onto that funnel and to feed on that vision there is something uh there's a project called biz thorn that has been advertised and has been

18:54partnered with you know some of the big media houses uh coin telegraph dwtc dubai uh big medias have covered it uh personally and and christina uh has has personally evangelized it uh for a bit but the point i want to make is bizthon is a bus is a portal that we have developed internally it is better than an average hackathon it just is it's not just that you know devs will

19:22come and code lines there to to ideate a software piece of code but it also involves marketing professionals mentors from the mentors from the industry marketer students mbas what not and what not to create a whole ecosystem of startups so and with the right mentorship with the right infrastructure knowledge with the right advisory all of that is structured

19:47in a score mechanism and the last biz thorn uh produced produced projects like bridge network that are that were finally incubated by us by the end of this console the based on is a highway access to td5 incubation so just about a hackathon great product bridge network uh was incubated by us it was created in the best home and to give you the full cycle story they were

20:16eventually backed by within within six months of the product launch they were backed by ftx and you know some of the some of the larger vcs of the space so while again bringing you to bringing the story in the perspective we incubated them before all of this came in but again uh that was not a wrong decision right so the project with potential is definitely

20:41welcome at a super early stage but usually we are looking for larger applications that can use us to the full potential so the project that i'm talking about like i said is the the comic book the sci-fi thriller comic book company has a 50 million plus audience across the u.s and and europe right so they definitely need uh they can definitely exhaust us through our full potential

21:09interesting we're looking for those kind of companies more than anything and and you mentioned that you've been working at this starting uh throughout 2018 2019 moving into the crypto scene in the bear market and there was a huge run-up uh in the last two years and now it seems to be getting more bearish as well i'm curious as as an incubation platform if

21:34you've seen a a difference in the trend on the amount of startups or the the quality of startups in the bear versus the bull market and you know from other uh looking for other you know newer crypto investors that look from a fundamental perspective um if you think that it's better to be investing in in this kind of bearish conditions versus bull or does it just not matter and it's

22:00more to do with the company oh absolutely like i'll cover the last piece first because it's a short answer and a quite quite strong affirmation uh this is the best time to invest this is the best time to to find projects because those who are who are coming out at this time and are still building are the ones uh that will be the the front runners of the next bull cycles

22:27that's that's one second uh in these markets for a change investors stand a chance to push their terms because in crypto capital is the cheapest proposition right investors usually are begging uh to get their terms approved which is which is actually good for the project also but because there are so many investors and everyone's dying to get into

22:53a crypto deal uh the best investors that actually introduce the best practices forcefully maybe but but really good practices they don't stand a chance because there's someone else who is unsophisticated and is willing to throw money right um so so this is the best chance for the investors no doubt about it the best deals are coming now i'll take the first part of your

23:18question which is more specific to to td5 um yes everything has changed believe me everything has changed for td fire the quality of project has bombed not just one but a few levels now in these markets projects really understand that they do need advisory they do need somebody on their side they're looking at the titans falling

23:45i'm sorry i'm a little too influenced with vulcan force they are a greek company with a with a whole you know god ecosystem and ethos um so we have seen the titans falling uh in the last few months today we saw voyager filing uh a bankruptcy of chapter 11 bankruptcy what are we looking at you know it can make anyone lose confidence on themselves right we are not leveraging

24:13i'm not saying that i'm leveraging on that lost confidence but i'm actually leveraging on their belief on advisory for the first time right for me it's a chance to get the best companies who don't think they deserve the success they really deserve and not just that we will advise them we want to advise them and hand hold them through the tough markets

24:33we really want to be a part of their journey because because they are an amazing idea they are an amazing team they have built a product or and like i said in the beginning the first two minutes of our interview if you remember they are some of those examples who lose for silly reasons what we are only trying to do and and you can call it uh the meat of our

24:54business with these ventures we really don't have to do a lot by the way we only have to give them a few lines of suggestions and walk them through the tough market now yes it's an easy statement yes it might be tough for a lot of people not so much for us because one i have seen this is my fourth beer market in crypto if by the way if it is a beer market

25:17it's not really i don't so far i'm not believing it's a it's a long beer trend but i'm saying it's a fourth beer trend if it is to be right one it is my larger second recession or micro dip macro tip as ray dalio would call it right so i've lived through the 2007 to 2010 era as well uh i was a businessman i was in investing i

25:45had a big portfolio not big but still a lot of companies um talking to me uh this is a gold mine right so as td phi we are in a very strong state right now and one of the reasons we have actually increased our pr and presence which i'm not really fond of you you wouldn't find me here and there you know on on channels but we have actually accelerated our pr and marketing

26:09because now we want a wider outreach we want people to know that we are here to help them and and and the beauty of our business model is that we don't charge them money so we are not here to to eat them up in this in this trend in their in their moment of fear we're actually here to to get our skin in their game definitely and you mentioned there a

26:30couple times about you know aligned incentives and to help manage their token and you know if if they don't succeed then it's not going to really help you guys succeed so obviously we'll help with that now now garv we don't have a lot of time left but i would like to get this information to not just startups that are you know trying to help with incubation but all

26:53companies as you mentioned um now see that advisory even in the smallest way can help out what is the best way for companies of all sizes to look into working with td5 at the various stages that you talked about um like any other seasoned entrepreneur would do you know made and sold companies first things we do is set up process so the best way to reach out to

27:19td is the td5 website it's a simple process you can you know everyone can see the the td file name here uh and the website is very easy t d e dot f i uh which is the spelling itself um it's not tough to find the application there the application takes you to to all the available models you can apply for advisory incubation um fundraising uh practices uh pitch

27:48optimizat all the options are there so you all you've got to do is reach the website fill the form we're trying to ask the right question so that we are very well prepared before our first call so simple and sweet thank you so much gaurav i appreciate all the insights into the market uh and and your perspective and and helping all these great projects with real world use

28:10cases help the world so uh thank you so much for coming on the show thank you and and all the best it was a great conversation thank you so much austin thank you for having me