August 8, 2022
Meet the 1st Stacks Web3 Startup Lab Pre-Accelerator Cohort
by Claire Topalian on August 8, 2022
After 10 weeks of immersion, 10 teams make their pitches.
The Stacks Web3 Founders Lab is a venture that includes a 2-month “bootcamp-style” pre-accelerator for Web3 startups. On Sunday, July 31st, 9 teams finally presented their learnings and work at the pre-accelerator's Demo Day. Meet the 10 teams below and learn a bit about each of their projects.
Liquid BTC
DeFi Options Using Native Bitcoin

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
Protection against loss in liquidity pools using options.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
The Stacks pre-accelerator helped me learn about the scientific way to build companies.

Team:
Harraz Abdelghafour, Halim Boulaq, Youssef Farhoun
Lucid Finance
A Trustless DeFi Platform that Grows Your Assets Safely and Easily

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
Many centralized exchanges & institutions are over-leveraging or doing other risky activities with investors' Bitcoin. For example, over 30 crypto companies have become bankrupt in the last few months and these bankruptcies have caused 1.7M investors to lose a staggering $8.2B dollars. This causes users to live in fear that their money may disappear every day and we want to eliminate their fear using smart contracts on Bitcoin.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
There will be no transformation without the support and feedback we received during the pre-accelerator. At the end of this amazing journey, I realize that this type of transformation is not possible without collective intelligence. Supportive communities make all the difference.


Team:
Aidan | Founder & CEO, Shawn | Co-founder, Tech, Hannibal | Co-founder, Biz
BitFlow
DeFi Protocols for People Who Self-Custody Bitcoin Savings

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
People are trying to grow their savings and earn a yield with Bitcoin, but centralized solutions have proven they can't be trusted with that money (take Celsius, for example). BitFlow is a decentralized stable swap protocol where your stablecoins and native BTC savings work together in harmony to compound your wealth. Our solution is powered by Clarity and Discreet Log Contracts so that no one ever has control of your Bitcoin. With BitFlow's design, people looking to safely grow their savings with native Bitcoin finally have an advantage in DeFi.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
To efficiently *invalidate* your startup idea, it's essential to get fast feedback loops from customer interviews. Trying to validate is actually a close-minded approach because you are only focused on one solution for your customers.


Team:
Dylan Floyd (CEO), Diego Mey (COO)
Raxplay
Social Marketplace for Street Artists and Their Fans

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
Web 3 marketplaces are too complicated for artists to use and fans have a hard time finding the art they want.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
The customer interviews build the product, not me.

Team:
Norvell Robinson and Carlos Davis-Shields
Easylabs
User-Owned Health Information for Web3

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
We save lives by breaking down silos in health data. We’re bringing it together so people can act on it more effectively, using Web3 technology.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
Patience.


Team:
Tom Petersil and Martin Bammes
Purple DAO
AI-Powered Investment Tools for Web3

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
The venture capital industry has not seen much innovation since 1940. Purple DAO is disrupting VC with AI-powered investment tools and making it Web3!

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
Talk to customers and find angel customers before building!



Team:
Xiao Jean XJ Chen, Sam Yu, Livia Liu
BitBasel
Art Utility Layer on Bitcoin

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
Put the power back into the hands of CryptoArtists by providing the ultimate utility toolings for their NFTs.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
Amazing insights and education on Product Development and Product Market Fit.

Team:
Scott Spiegel, Scarlett Arana
NFT2Loan
NFT Lending Protocol

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
Pouring more liquidity into the market and people's wallets by offering loans against NFTs.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
Customer Interviews and invalidating yourself are key to finding your fulcrum and the right product.

Team:
Robin, Leo, Julian and Michael
Stacks Force
Web3 Gaming Platform

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
Every 20 years there is a major paradigm shift in the Gaming market. Today we see the rise of Web 3.0 on the blockchain. At the same time, out of 5 million active games, less than 1% is Web 3.0. Why? It is very difficult to port Web 2.0. games into Web 3.0. Game developers have to solve a lot of problems - blockchain integration, slow payments, and gameplay redesign. There were no easy solution for this problem until our platform.

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
Building a startup can be a repeatable technology.

Team:
Anatoly Kozlov, Anton Tiulkin, Nickolay Lipin
FanStacks
Premier Web3 Content Membership Platform

What key problem(s) are you trying to solve with your project? Why?
We are solving legacy banking problems for the adult content industry by integrating Stacks/Blockchain technology for fast, reliable payments

Tell us one key takeaway you had from your pre-accelerator experience.
Our earliest lesson was in invalidating a project idea before moving forward.

Team:
Tyler, Kellen
Interested in joining an upcoming cohort? Start by creating your pre-accelerator profile.

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