OVERVIEW
Background
In early 2021 I've been exploring web3 & invested to 10+ projects. I discovered solana blockchain with a future potential in NFT space.
After looking into the ecosystem, I did a feasibility study, & market research— I found that there is no established 1/1 NFT art like (foundation or superare on Ethereum) in Solana blockchain. See my research ↗
Most of NFT in solana dominated by generative avatar type collectibles. So, we built Supadrop as an NFT marketplace that focused on authentic 1/1 art to try to explore & see the demand of 1/1 Art in Solana blockchain.
The main flow (place a bid) part of v1 that I designed for SUPADROP
Early Traction
Supadrop secured a whitelist of 40+ artists & 150+ whitelisted of Supadrop NFT membership with 55K USD worth of holders' value in the first 3 months.
Role
I am responsible for the product, design, & community. On the product side — my goal is to build the simple v1 of the marketplace that enable users to, place a bid, collect, & sell 1/1 NFT on solana. I did the product design from Landing Page to the marketplace end-to-end & collaborated with our 2 engineers. On the community side, I was responsible doing community reach out to get new members, did collabs with other community, & find potential artists as our early adopters.
Supadrop NFT membership to rise initial fund for the project — designed by Irfan Aziz ↗
Challenge
The challenge that we're facing is that the market cycle is so fast that we need to catch up & think more long-term. What we've planned in the early becomes irrelevant over time because of the fast-changing market.
On the other side, we only have 3 full-timers: me (product, design, & community), taufiq (engineer), & irfan (visual art & creative director) out of 6 people on the team so it's quite challenging to catch up with the market that requires us to ship fast.
Although we managed to finish the early version ↗, secured our NFT membership whitelist, & partnered with some artists we decided to not launch it ↗. After working on it for a few months. I see a pattern that I need to stay awake during the night when the market is just opening in EU/NA. With my limited savings on the side, I can't see myself working on it full-time with that lifestyle in the next few years.
Lesson learned
Speed is your main advantage in your early days, when you lose it it's hard to get back & find the momentum.
Don’t chase trends—pursue the thing you want to work on in the long term.
It’s good to have a mission, but you also need to love the day-to-day activities. So, when things get hard—you'll still love the progress & the journey ahead.
For full project walkthrough on request.
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