Zima Red ep 55: Bitcoin Benny
Building The Crypto-Native Venture Studio
Primer: Bitcoin Benny has a large dream. His RedFOX Labs is creating an entire ecosystem that comprises a metaverse, a gaming division, a virtual shopping space, an e-commerce live streaming platform, and various others. Some of these are already live. Listen to this episode as he shares the philosophy behind his business.
Origins
Founder of RedFOX labs and RFOX games
Building a multifaceted ecosystem that builds, invests, and incubates companies and projects that connect to the broader crypto sphere
C-level Executive. Worked for Virgin, Ooredoo, and Grab. Involved in Turn-around Strategy, Big Data, and Customer Experience
Based in Vietnam, which has experienced a faster growth rate than China over the past 7 years
What attracted him to crypto
As an expat, he had to send money home all the time
Realized that plenty of middlemen are taking a cut
Discovered cryptocurrencies as a better alternative
Thoughts on NFTs
Found it interesting, but didn't really get them
"Most people said we were mental" - Benny
Talked to Arclegger and realized that gamers can spend thousands of hours playing a game and the developers can turn off the servers and gamers can lose all the work that they have put in
Massive amount of fraud when gamers buy character skins on outside markets
Decided to build a 100% on-chain mobile game with Arclegger that does not eat into the battery and does not require gamers to download a blockchain on their phone
The game is finally in closed beta now
RedFOX Labs and RFOX games
Goal is to get crypto into as many people's hands as possible
Build businesses that are interoperable so that the metaverse can link them up altogether
"Let's call us Red Fox. Fox is synonymous with good decision making and being smart. It's very, very popular here in Asia." - Benny
Philosophy
"So ultimately, the problem that we're trying to solve is how do we get this tech into people's hands without them having to go and get a PhD" - Benny
Build companies
Get them operational
Prove that there's product-market fit
Bring in qualified and skilled people to run them
"So this becomes something that is in line with our model, because we design and build, operate and transfer." - Benny
RFOX Games
First venture of RedFOX Labs
Released KOGS (NFT collectibles) in August last year and it hit number 1 on the WAX blockchain
KOGS can be used across games in their ecosystem
Initial choice of WAX blockchain because they have the marketplace and tools for it; future version will be platform agnostic
Up and already profitable
Virtual Shopping Space
A place where people can build retail shops to sell both virtual and physical items. It will look like a giant expo hall with shops inside
Users can buy a share of the land and get a percentage of the transaction volumes going through. There are limited plots and Benny anticipates that land will become very popular. Up to 3 storeys could be built on these plots and each storey could be rented out
Will be geolocation-based in the future (e.g. experiencing Vietnamese businesses if one is physically located in Vietnam)
Integrated with cashback and rewards app
People can walk into a hamburger joint in the metaverse and make their orders and the food will be physically delivered to their doorstep
"You get a much more polished look. It's less of the Roblox look and much more of the rendered real life type of environment." - Benny
Live Streaming Platform
In China, e-commerce live streaming is a 63 billion industry
It involves good-looking influencers on a live-stream selling products
In the background is a call centre full of people answering questions that are coming through
"We should actually have the platform that allows those guys to stream as well. Now, when we first started talking to VCs a couple of years ago, they were saying they like the idea but you are a bit early, and then COVID hit and COVID actually, for all its terrible stuff, it actually expediate industries like this because suddenly everybody was at home, no one could go out to shop anymore. And they started saying alright, so they got online."
- Benny
RedFOX Lab's strategy is to have a platform for these streamers to stream as well
Their streaming app is already finished and ready to roll out. Partnered with Lazada, the Amazon for Asia
End-user would not know that they are using crypto at all
"And there's a lot of the big companies are now saying we should be doing that as well. But we've got a good 18 months to two year headstart on them." - Benny
Utility of the RFOX Token
To power the whole ecosystem
Every transaction in their metaverse will go through RFOX
Supply of 2 billion RFOX tokens might seem a lot but it is going to be used to power a gaming industry, virtual marketplace, an e-commerce and streaming platform, and 2 more industries that they have yet to announce
Focus on only one token (RFOX) to not dilute people's focus
"I mean, why do you need to have five different tokens or three different tokens." - Benny
Go-To-Market Strategy
Created a funnel system at the start
Funnel system says to show a clear pathway to 25 million in revenue in the first 4 years
Have to be between 3rd to 5th to market. Do not want to be 1st or 2nd because of regulatory issues and cost to setup
Multiple players in the market mean it is a validation that there are people out there that have done what they are setting out to do
Can understand how they have done it, why they failed at certain things, and why they are successful
Targeting the 104 million that are between 25 to 36 years old in the Southeast Asian region. There is a 40% penetration rate for the digital economy across this region. Growth is set to explode
Raising Capital
Got connections to SoftBank. SoftBank liked their idea
Thought about it and decided against raising in the beginning. Shifted their focus on getting revenue coming in from day 1
The only investment they took was from Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital recently. Galaxy Digital is taking a more active role with advice and opening doorways
They are trying to build a more sustainable model that is less reliant on VCs
5-10 year vision for RedFOX Labs
Have the metaverse built out
To have an amazing suite of products
"We just want to have an amazing suite of products. We want to be known as an aspirational brand." - Benny
Any new products or news that he would like to share
Hints that they are making a platform that is uncensorable
Single Favourite NFT
Time Traveler KOG, because he is a massive time travel fan
Most Controversial Thought
NFTs will take over the IP world. Will encroach deeply into the legal system
Will cause a shake-up in the industry
If you could improve one thing in the space
Interoperability. All on 1 platform as far as the end-user is concerned
World of NFT in 3 years
Nobody would know for certain
Think everyone will look back and laugh at the concept of NFTs as just being a vessel for putting artwork on. It's a good use case, but the potential for NFTs has not been realized yet
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