FundRequest (FND) ICO Analysis: A Freelance Platform for Open Source Developers

Executive Summary

Project Description

FundRequest wants to improve the open source development sector by creating a platform that connects companies that are seeking developers with the right developers, along with other skillful individuals looking for freelance work. On the platform, a Funder looking for developers can post a request for work as simple as bug fixes and as complex as entire projects. Once a Funder posts a request, he/she will then deposit a “reward”, in the form of the platform’s token, FND, in FundRequest’s smart contract.

Developers interested in the work posted by a particular Funder can then apply to work on the request, and upon completion, receive the “reward”. Asides the reward, the developer also receives a “skill token” as proof of experience in that area of expertise; these skill tokens are non-transferable.

Additional features on the FundRequest platform includes private requests for Funders who do not want to share certain details regarding their projects, Funders creating entire teams to work on their projects, and a dispute resolution system.

Apart from serving as a reward system on the platform, FundRequest’s token, FND, will also be used by developers applying to work on requests. In this case, the developer will need to stake a certain amount of FND and if the developer so wishes, he can burn a portion of his stake in creating the “skill tokens” mentioned above.

Because FND is used by Funders as a reward, and by developers as mentioned above, the supply is constantly reducing, and this will serve to increase the value of the token over time.

Hard Cap and Valuation

FundRequest aims to raise a minimum of $2 million and a maximum of $15 million (equivalent in ETH) for 40% of their token total. The remaining 60% is shared thus: 30% is put up for the incentivization of open source projects, 18% goes to the team, their advisors get 2%, and the final 10% goes into cold storage for future needs.

The team tokens are vested for 2 years while the advisor’s are vested for 6 months. With this 20% out, the available supply is effectively reduced to 80% of the total. Furthermore, the incentivization tokens won’t be on the market from the start, further reducing the total available supply.

The rate during FundRequest’s ICO is expected to be 1800 FND/ETH. There were 50% and 30% bonuses during the pre-sales. Please note, however, that the bonuses are locked for 6 months.

Price Per Token

During a private seed sale, they raised 1,946.75 ETH for 8,760,375 FND (4500 FND/ETH). This private sale was followed up with another public seed sale during which 80ETH was raised for 288,000 FND (3600 FND/ETH — 100% bonus). Both sales took place in the 3rd quarter of 2017.

Important Dates

As mentioned above, there was a private seed round at the beginning of September 2017. After that, a public seed round was held on the 27th of September, but the sale was only open for a day. As it stands, pre-sale for FND has ended and whitelisting is closed. However, interested investors have the option of joining a waitlist for the actual sale.

The sale is expected to hold sometime in the 1st quarter of 2018, most likely mid-February. A working product is expected to be released around the same period too.

Marketing Power

As at the time this post was created, FundRequest had over 4200 Telegram users, 2800+ Twitter followers, over 790 followers on Medium, over 260 subscribers on Facebook, and 90 Reddit readers. Interested parties can take a look at their Github here.

Prominent Advisors

Lasse Clause

• Partner at 1kx and advisor to various projects.

Christopher Heymann

• Partner at 1kx and advisor to various projects.

Thomas Graham

• Co-founder at Codec.ai and founder of MapD.
• Advisor to various projects.

Howey’s Test

According to Howey’s Test conducted by our analysts, it is unlikely that FND will be considered a security. FundRequest themselves describe FND as a utility token.

Team Members’ Areas of Expertise

Business experts

Quinten De Swaef, Core Developer.

• Owner of DeduXion.

Karel Striegel, Founder.

• No business build per se but he worked as a freelancer for over 5 years.

Target market experts

Most of the team members are experienced developers, and since the target market is developers, there is a convenient overlap.

Marketing experts

Addison Huegel

• Media Director at Elevator PR with 12 years of marketing experience.

They also have a marketing advisor, Thomas Graham, and he is advisor to other projects e.g. Quantstamp. He is also the Co-Founder of Codec, a marketing company that uses machine learning.

Legal experts

They are working with some law firms.

Software engineering experts

Karel Striegel, Founder

• Freelancer for Linux System Engineering for over 5 years.
• DevOps engineer at IPC for over 3 years and at Proximus for a year.
• Linux system Engineer / DevOps Engineer at Soprasteria for over 5 years.

Davy Van Roy, CTO

• Software Developer at Fédération d’Aide & Soins à Domicile for 4 months until now.
• Software Developer at Vlaanderen for a year.
• Software Engineer at De Persgroep for half a year.
• Software Engineer at ING for 2 months.

Steve Maris, Core Developer

• Functional Analyst / Front-End Lead Websites KBC for 3 years.
• IT consultant at Amplexor for almost 4 years.
• Application Developer at iAdvise for 2 years.

Quinten De Swaef, Core Developer

• Java developer at into it for over a year.
• Software Architect at Trust1T for 4 months.
• Software Developer at QDS Consult for over 4 years.

Blockchain development experts

No team member with outstanding blockchain development experience.

Token sale structure experts

Lasse Clausen is in charge of FundRequest’s token sale structure, and he has significant experience acting in the same capacity for various other ICOs. Given his constant work in the area, it is safe to assume he has some expertise.

Token economics experts

They have 2 token economics advisors on the team: Christopher Heymann and Lasse Clausen. Both of them have served/are serving as advisors to various crypto projects, meaning they have some expertise in this area.

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Disclaimers:

• Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.
• Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.

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The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Robin Davids, Mark Jedd, Eugene Tartakovsky.

We are constantly working on improving our work and welcome all constructive feedback. Let us know what you think.

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