Introduction: Mobox and BabySwap are both rapidly rising popular projects on BSC this year, gaining a lot of user love and recognition with their excellent products. This time, John, the head of Mobox in China, and CC, the head of Baby Swap's Asia-Pacific business, joined the Crypto Insight event to share their experiences on how their projects overcame early obstacles, maintained self-iteration, and achieved exponential growth. It's worth a read.

Permanent Guest: Catherine

Guests of this episode: John, head of Mobox in China; CC, head of Baby Swap's Asia-Pacific business

Chain Catcher: In the early development of the blockchain industry, opportunities are abundant, but they are also the hardest to grasp. When observing timing and opportunities, what methods do the three of you use?

Catherine: It is often said that opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared, but in the blockchain field, what we need more is to learn to improve ourselves and seek opportunities; improvement allows us to better seize opportunities when they arise.

Specifically: First, communicate and exchange ideas with successful people, learn from them. The learning methods can be through texts, face-to-face communication, or by following their Twitter and "monitoring." "Monitoring" means you can write scripts to monitor industry KOLs; when they repeatedly mention a certain keyword in a short period, it is likely a new opportunity; second, deeply learn foundational theoretical knowledge, such as the Bitcoin white paper; third, practice by investing real money.

CC: Opportunities exist due to demand, so wherever demand is strongest, that is where it is suitable to take root. For example, when we initially started BabySwap, it was also because Ethereum gas fees were too high. We planned the NFT business because we saw that NFTs could perfectly combine with brand IP, token economics, user acquisition, and retention.

From the perspective of seizing opportunities, I believe we need to learn to make cautious judgments about external opportunities and timing. Currently, there is too much bubble in the market, lacking core demand. We should focus on the actual value behind the projects or whether there are products that underpin that value.

John: I completely agree with what Catherine and CC said about proactive skills: actively discovering opportunities, actively learning, and actively participating. However, from my personal experience, we often rely more on passive skills: "perseverance."

The blockchain industry is still in its early stages, with high uncertainty, no rules, and no one with experience. Every practitioner is feeling their way across the river.

Persistence is entirely based on our love for the industry. Just like us, transitioning from a traditional gaming team to blockchain, it is more accurate to say that we have been doing what we want to do rather than just hitting the right point. It just so happens that DeFi and NFTs are facing technological iterations and updates, which has allowed our project to achieve better realization. Therefore, remaining steadfast has always been our commitment.

Moreover, the blockchain industry is developing too quickly. If we are always observing or looking for opportunities, we may not have time to study the market and refine our products.

Chain Catcher: Feeling your way across the river means facing more unknowns and setbacks. What were the biggest difficulties each of you faced in this process, and how did you resolve them?

John: Since 2018, every day has been a challenge for us. We pay close attention to market changes and have established a comprehensive team feedback and self-check mechanism.

First, review, the team collects and organizes all the problems encountered every day, engages in thorough communication, and seeks solutions;

Second, self-check and self-correct, the team constantly reminds itself to notice its own problems. Because when a project develops rapidly or is in a relatively smooth situation, it is easy to overlook its own shortcomings. Self-checking and self-correcting can help the team timely rectify its shortcomings during the development process.

CC: Safety is paramount in development, so we maintain close contact with auditing firms over the long term.

In addition to safety, the biggest challenge is how to achieve "value return" for the project. We believe that NFTs without value or product support are always a game for the rich, so we have planned the entire NFT strategy based on IP as the main value support, just like a bubble tea brand in the crypto world.

The biggest challenge during this process was preparing for the Binance NFT blind box event and the first anniversary of BSC. Collaborating globally 24 hours a day has intensely trained our team's collaboration and individual combat abilities. In the process of continuous breakthroughs and changes, fortunately, we completed this battle perfectly.

Catherine: The most mentioned aspect is the unpredictable changes in the blockchain market, with a small hotspot every few weeks and a major hotspot every few months. Compared to difficulties, I am more interested in how you both maintain self-iteration during this process.

CC: Operational iteration and product iteration change according to demand changes. Functional iteration revolves around asset and user needs, while operational iteration revolves around brand data.

User needs largely stem from market demand, while project and partner needs depend more on the project's coordination and the team's agility.

Therefore, in the face of increasingly changing situations, the only thing we can do is embrace change, continuously iterate to discover needs, provide solutions, and quickly implement them to achieve growth.

John: The blockchain industry is in a period of wild growth, with new projects emerging endlessly. Therefore, whether it is iteration or updates, what needs to be emphasized is the changes and constants of the project itself.

Changes should be based on industry development rules, appropriately absorbing popular hotspots, but they cannot be piled up indiscriminately, as each track has its inherent rules and reasons. For example, chain games are not a new concept of earning while playing, but previously, due to technical reasons, it was not highly operable. The operability emerged after DeFi technology matured, which is also why chain games became popular in early 2021. On our platform, NFTs have interoperability, and our games combined with DeFi also grant users the right to earn while playing.

Constants in gaming include: the pursuit of game quality, refining our products, ensuring user experience, and guaranteeing fund security. These points will not change regardless of how times change.

Catherine: Just now, CC mentioned that execution is one of the factors for project success. What other characteristics does a high-quality team need?

John: First, everyone should be interested in industry development; interest is the first step in knowledge accumulation.

Second, shared values. I have always emphasized values; everyone may feel differently about the project. Some may have talent or advanced insights, but through practice, we have found that if a group of people has consensus, they can work together towards a common goal. More importantly, maintaining this effort can lead to achieving something.

Third is persistence, sticking to what you love and following your heart.

CC: First, strong execution is essential. Projects sometimes require rapid trial and error during planning and collaboration; second, sufficient passion is the driving force for long-term achievements; finally, humility, selecting the most suitable partners and being able to help some quality small projects after reaching a certain level.

Chain Catcher: What are the key points for exponential growth in business?

John: Exponential growth is merely a result. If you want to achieve this result, you need to think in reverse: what is your starting point? Why are you doing this project, and what value can you bring to users?

The blockchain industry is inherently restless compared to traditional industries, and few are willing to spend time researching. However, as the industry moves towards legitimacy, I believe more people will focus on product development.

babyCC: From a cognitive perspective, it is important to understand whether the market is aware of this, to assess demand, and to determine whether this hotspot is a sustainable demand or a short-term bubble. Whether such hotspots can or should be leveraged in your project is quite important.

From an operational perspective, operations cannot be replicated because they are heavily influenced by emerging effects or whether they fit current market concepts and environments. Some operational models may succeed at one time but cannot withstand scrutiny at another.

From the perspective of value carriers, brands are also non-replicable, which is the core value barrier. From a competitive standpoint, finding the non-replicable aspect based on replicable foundations, aligning with market demands and opportunities, and positioning oneself appropriately is what we believe is most important for building a robust overall platform and achieving a competitive advantage. This is what we want to grasp.

For platform-type products, I believe the key point for exponential growth is users; users are the foundation of the platform. Moving from 1 to 2 is essentially about exceeding user expectations and getting users accustomed to using you. Only by serving the most core users well can you amplify your momentum.

Chain Catcher: Regarding exponential growth, does Catherine have anything to add?

Catherine: Yes, from the overall project cycle perspective, there are generally four stages: the startup phase, growth phase, maturity phase, and decline phase.

Exponential growth often occurs in the second phase, which is the growth phase. Transitioning from the first phase to the second phase requires a critical point, which could be user numbers, transaction volume, or even token price, etc. I believe that for a project to achieve exponential growth, it is crucial to identify what the critical point for entering the second phase is. Each project's critical point is different and depends on the situation. This is also why I see some excellent teams spending a lot of effort refining this critical point, which is a major reason for their success.

Chain Catcher: The critical point is a major reason for success. Based on the projects you have encountered, are failed projects all due to not finding their critical points?

Catherine: The critical point is just one of many factors for project failure.

First, impure starting points. Such projects are particularly common during bull markets; they often like to ride on some hotspots, make grand promises, and spend money to find people to endorse and package them. They focus their main energy on marketing while having very few technical personnel, and some even outsource.

Second, unreliable partners are also relatively common. Many good projects end up failing not because of their own shortcomings but because they were let down by partners.

Third, market reasons. For a project to succeed, it must have the right timing, location, and people, all of which are essential. However, the blockchain market changes rapidly, with a small hotspot every three days.

CC: In my view, speed can also be a fatal reason. In project development, we need to emphasize that fast can mean slow; furthermore, we need to focus on the core.

Chain Catcher: For product-type projects, user experience is one of the important elements of development. Especially in the blockchain field, Li Xiang from Ideal Auto once proposed a viewpoint: "Good user experience is not about giving users more choices but directly providing them with the best." How should we understand this "best"? What better methodologies do we have regarding user experience?

John: User experience is indeed crucial for project development, but the statement from Ideal Auto, "Good user experience is directly providing the best," is not very applicable to blockchain because the dimensions for measuring user experience differ between traditional industries and blockchain.

This statement is more applicable to traditional industries. The basic environment of the blockchain industry is high volatility and full of uncertainties. What may be good today might not be appealing tomorrow. Therefore, there is no "best" in the blockchain industry. Blockchain emphasizes consensus, and consensus is not given by the project party, nor is it defined by the project party, but formed by the community. When institutions are good enough and users are numerous enough, users have the right to tell the project party what is best, rather than the project party assuming what is best for them. This leads to a better user experience.

Especially in the past few years of chain games, we have indeed fully recognized the power of the community. We launched community and governance platforms that include comprehensive discussions on game strategies, community proposals, NFT creation, community announcements, and feedback.

CC: I completely agree with what John just said about there being no best. If something can be the best, that track is not worth breaking through, so we can only strive to be better.

We never choose to define user experience at a certain level; users will choose whether the experience suits them. However, we ensure the basic aspects of smoothness, safety, and overall user interaction.

How users choose platforms, whether they trade with us, and whether they are accustomed to us depends on their choices. This is a mutually selective process.