Ask HN: My company plans an ICO despite my opposition as CTO, any advice?
I left the thread alone, hoping to see some answers in a few hours, yet I had no idea it would explode like this. Thank you everyone, your support has no match around my proximity.<p>I read all 92 (and increasing) comments. There are some duplicate concerns, questions, suggestions etc. I want to be as transparent as I can to leave a useful record for people who will be in similar position as me. Below is my attempt to do so.<p>* Many people commented or touched on the topic of my role as CTO. Things I did can be summarized as these: building the proof of concept (vanilla Java for Android) before the very first seed; constantly be in dialogue with investors and the other co-founder (CEO); gathering all the dev team including the designers; managing outsourced development; having code contribution on 10% of server side code (especially mission critical parts such as auth and soft real time systems); P code contribution on Android (Kotlin, Java, RN hybrid); P code contribution on iOS (Swift, RN hybrid) including migrations to latest Swift versions; deciding frameworks, platforms, SaaS components; literally scripting all the dev-ops; building small demos for investors to test ideas; hacking all day when the dev team is able to self organize. Despite all the hardships, I must admit it was the most amazing playground I could ever hope for on this age. I have a BS degree on Computer Engineering if anyone wonders.<p>* Some people expressed their concerns about my mental and physical health. I can say I failed almost on all of those. My cigarette consumption skyrocketed. I smoked weed almost on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. Having no time to cook, I ordered take away food a lot (it hurts to eat outside financially). I stopped doing sports last year. Socially, everything is much more OK. I have a really supportive life partner who I never disappointed. I didn&#x27;t lose a friend without my own consent. My family is worried but also proud with all their best wishes and support felt here.<p>* I understand some people&#x27;s suspicions on me having a bias towards fraudulent ICOs. Let me explain our situation a little more, you can decide for yourself. First of all, we can still gather investment without the ICO, just not enough for a meaningful (or hasty) boost. It has its consequences though like hibernating for a while, losing the original dev team (they are already informed by me btw) for cheaper labor, figuring out how to deal with ancient local law etc. It will almost feel like a new startup. Some people may therefore think &quot;the project is dead&quot; and that is true if looked from the inside. The sad thing is we finally built the real thing which our users really love. Ad revenue interpolations shows hope.<p>I have some other reasons (technical and observable) to think that our attempt would be fraudulent.<p>Firstly, there has never been such a plan, not even a bite-sized bit of it. The ICO is definitely an idea emerged as a reaction, a reflex. The startup scene here is visibly shifting towards blockchain tech, that is a fact. But issuing a token in our app feels like watching Pinterest issue its own coin for people to spend on pinning some content. In the end, all the brainstorm in the meeting can be summarized as &quot;placing a button to spend&#x2F;receive the token inside the app for some arbitrary reason which we can figure out later&quot; in terms of UX. It&#x27;s a feature without a problem to solve.<p>The next thing is, all the other B2B solutions we can pivot to are quite cheaper, easier to build and equally doable without a blockchain. No business has ever demanded from us an immutable, distributed database with fail recovery. We are repeatedly told that a dev-friendly API is more sell-able than bleeding edge cool technology (lesson of my life).<p>About the shady stuff: If the value of our token drops after the initial offering, the ones who are gonna get hurt by it are mainly the early adopters who would all be selected from angels or ventures. We only plan for a private, invite only ICO to benefit from network effects among some rich people. It is even spoken out loud that, and I&#x27;m quoting, &quot;all we need is some well designed PDF with our successes (there are some after all) and vision highlighted, some kind of white paper as the jargon tells&quot;. The excuse has been debated as the token will be traded publicly despite the private distribution, and will always be promoted within the app. So the existing user base will be harvested to create the hype, investor money will be grabbed via private offering when shown enough hype is there, the market will do the rest. Almost all gathered liquidity will be converted to fiat to buy time to figure out a viable business plan. If the bought time is not enough, the crypto world will be blamed, all will be well. It really sounds like an IPO without the risk and responsibilities coming after that.<p>* The million dollar reality is not all ICOs are against law. This is completely true and applies in our case. We have good legal advice and will definitely get away with all of our actions. Regardless of the future incidents, nobody is going to jail or even paying fines for anything. Nonetheless, as stated by some commenters, it still may create some issues outside if we (founders, investors, the board, dunno) plan to travel and do business abroad. I didn&#x27;t know that, thank you so much for the intel.<p>* Some boring facts and misconceptions: There is no us vs them culture between the founders and the investors. There is actually only a little politics between people, and mainly because of age differences. What drives the pursue is mostly misinformation about blockchain news, lack of technical knowledge and shareholders&#x27; being able to carelessly act due to having the safety net of financial resources. It is pure luck or lack of it that I am the only one who is capable of navigating through the echo chamber in our board, where right now words like &quot;crypto is the next big thing&quot; is resonating among people who have no idea what even a software protocol mean.<p>* Completely off-topic, or maybe not, nonetheless I want to make games some day.<p>Thanks again everyone. It&#x27;s been a pleasure to read you all.