Crypto Projects Where I Have an Interest and Disclosure Policy (part 1 of 2)

What I want to do in the next two posts is outline a few things. Today, we will address #1 and #2. Tomorrow, #3.

1. provide a list of projects/companies in which I have any type of formal relationship
2. publish my disclosure policy for this blog and other outlets
3. share the process I use for determining which projects I will support

Why Is This Important?
The blockchain space is about trust. This blog and the Never Stop Marketing brand all rely on trust.

Bottom line…If you cannot trust the nodes in a blockchain or the author of a blog, then it is of no value to you.

Upton Sinclair once said,

I do everything I can to not be biased by them as I look at this space objectively as possible. Still, I think it is important that you know so you can make an informed decision.

My goal in the projects I select is to get a broad expansive view of the market while simultaneously continuing to develop domain expertise around the challenges and opportunities of marketing in a decentralized world.

Current Project List
Disclaimer: this is NOT investment advice. Crypto is a highly speculative environment. Expect to lose all of your money. Lastly, I am not saying that any one of them has scored perfectly on the below criteria. You should also research carefully the laws and regulations regarding securities and tokens in your jurisdiction.

Virtual CMO/Consulting Relationships

• OpenBazaar -the world’s only decentralized e-commerce marketplace
• Zcash– the leading digital currency for total privacy

Advisor Relationships
Disclaimer: Please note that although some of these projects are conducting (or about to conduct) ICOs that this does not constitute a solicitation of any kind. See disclaimer above again please.

Broad Market

• Gladius – decentralized tokenization of spare bandwidth (you get paid for it) so that content gets delivered faster and Distributed Denial of Service attacks can be prevented.
• LAToken – decentralized marketplace for previously illiquid assets
• Kudos – decentralized reputation system for sharing economy, solving the issue of inter-platform portability
• Contrib – a way for premium domain name owners to leverage the asset and for would-be subject matter experts to get found, all while sharing in the value created (check out the video)
• ChainTrade – decentralized food and raw materials exchange (think global food supply chain)
• DomRaider– decentralized auction platform

MarTech Market

• Papyrus– decentralized ad tech seeking to disrupt the inefficiencies of online advertising and give brands and customers more value
• KickCity– a decentralized event marketing platform with built-in P2P acquisition incentives
• Matchpool – a way to connect like-minded individuals with each other. I love Reed’s Law and this is an effort to do it at scale (definite applicability outside of MarTech)
• WishKnish – a customer referral engine that will lower net new customer acquisition costs through the use of gamified incentives from existing customers, all backed by blockchain technology to ensure transparency, lower cost of administration, and liquidity of incentives

I also have 2 non-blockchain advisory relationships because I just love the exec team and I think they are part of huge trends (on-demand workforces and the need for world-class customer experiences delivered via products).

• Tehama – a cutting-edge SaaS platform to enable large companies to rapidly and responsibly add new contract workers to a project or team.
• ProductBoard – the pre-eminent SaaS platform that enables would-be world-class product managers to integrate customer feedback from multiple touchpoints (sales, service, marketing, etc.) in order to drive great experiences.

Disclosure Policy
It’s simple.

I will always try to disclose when I have a formal relationship.

First off, it’s the ethical thing to do. That should be enough for me and for all of us.

But, I’m not naive. I realize the world isn’t always that simple or elegant.

Which is why it’s also just smart business. Call it a feature of the protocol, if you will.

Growing up, my mom used to say, “act like everything you do will be on the front page of the New York Times.”

Having come of age in the early days of social media, I’m well aware and have written extensively on, the power of an individual to impact brand perception.

And, more recently, the blockchain era is all about trust and transparency.

Whatever I do, I assume you are going to find out.

It’s far better that I tell you about a decision and try to provide context for it. If you don’t hear about it from me, you will find out elsewhere.

You will then have cause to wonder why I didn’t share it myself. You would understandably be skeptical and doubtful. Your trust would be eroded. The value of the brand would be diminished or, possibly, eliminated.

So, I will always do my best to disclose anytime I communicate about a project.

As I am human and not yet a smart-contract myself, it’s possible I will make a mistake, but knowing how critical it is, those should be relatively few and far between.

Next Up: How I Choose A Project
Tomorrow, I will share the process I currently use to determine which projects to support.