On Starting A Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
We are a team of people who sincerely believe in cryptocurrency and want to leave their significant mark in crypto-economics, therefore we created Exolix. There are many digital specialists in our team, but we are all united by our love for cryptocurrency, which two years ago prompted us to create our own product.
Today Exolix is an anonymous cryptocurrency exchange with a fixed rate that provides users with unlimited exchange. Our main goal is to provide a fast, easy and secure exchange process.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
The idea to create Exolix appeared spontaneously. Our team consists of a fairly large number of people who are involved in the digital field and are interested in and invest in crypto. In such a team, ideas of creating a new product come several times a day, but we wanted to create something really necessary for people, or better, something that we ourselves need. We spent a long time researching, analyzing the market, looking for the value that could form the basis of our product.
The ability to provide an absolutely secure and anonymous crypto exchange service, where the user is protected from sharp price fluctuations in the market by setting a fixed rate. So that the user has complete freedom, given the absence of a maximum limit for the exchange amount. This seemed to us quite valuable. Today we can say that Exolix is a product created from a heart and not only for our customers but for ourselves.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
Talking about the initial stages of creating a product, we immediately recollect the endless number of workshops with the whole team, where we discussed the product, which emotions it will evoke in our user, why people will choose us and not our competitors. However, most importantly - who is he, our user, and what key needs does he have? Where does he spend time, what interests him and what place in his mind we want to take?
As soon as we decided on a value proposition, we began to form a business model and a detailed study of our users. At this time, we distributed the main tasks for the formation of the product architecture, its design, and the launch of MVP among the team members. We were initially determined to launch the MVP quickly enough, as we knew how quickly the industry was developing and wanted to be in the right place at the right time. This is exactly what happened: as soon as the main functionality was ready, we started working in a test mode, fixing bugs, improving, and filling the product with new features.
Describe the process of launching the business.
The process of starting Exolix was enjoyable. We were ready for difficulties since we could not immediately realize everything we wanted due to limited resources. Competitors developed fairly quickly and we tried to meet the needs of users in the best possible way. All our efforts were directed to the promotion, searching for channels where potential customers appeared, improving user experience on the website, as well as receiving and examining users’ feedback.
Things got complicated because we did not understand who our real clients were. Despite the difficulties of analytics of an anonymous product, we did not abandon this concept and never asked the client for personal data if he interacted with our product within the terms of use that are indicated on our website. We believe that anonymity is one of the key features in the field of cryptocurrencies and the necessary freedom of action that must be provided to the user during the exchange.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
We completed huge research. We analyzed the competitors’ path, involved new people for specific tasks, tested various hypotheses: all this gave a result. Indeed, there were mistakes, there were periods when it seemed that the whole team was working many times more, and the volumes did not change, it was difficult, but as we said earlier, we were ready for difficulties. This is our invaluable experience, a process that taught us a lot and we are still on the way to becoming.
Step by step, we began to understand what works specifically for our product, we focused on finding new partners and the integration of our service in various popular and promising crypto products.
Special attention was paid to reforming the technical support department. It is significant for us that the user gets an answer to his question quickly and efficiently, especially when the question arises in the exchange process. For this reason, we develop scripts and train our specialists to interact with the user properly. As the service develops, the support team is growing and we are making every effort to ensure that the quality of support matches the number of requests and is unified.
At the moment, we believe that this helps us to attract and retain customers: our openness and sincerity, our willingness to always take the side of the customer and help him in solving any issue, as well as our desire to introduce new assets, new features on the website and new functions for the exchange flow. Besides, soon we are going to present the long-awaited fiat-to-crypto exchange for our users.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Today Exolix is a fairly profitable exchange service, which allows active development and improves the product. Profit is not the main goal within this product, now the niche represents a quite monetary part of the market and we are part of it. The main goal for Exolix is to provide its users with a fast and easy anonymous exchange, be the safest and most reliable place where everyone would like to exchange their assets.
More than half a year ago, we launched our affiliate program, which a large number of users and partners showed interest in.
At the moment, we evaluate our place among competitors objectively, but this only motivates us. Our team has grown several times in comparison with the first year of work. Now 20 people are working on the project, some of them are located in other cities and even in other countries, but this does not stop us from following our strategy and achieving our goals.
If you decide to make a product together with your friends or like-minded people, then our advice may be useful for you. At work, you are a team, not a family!
For the last couple of months, we have been in the process of a complete visual and semantic restyling revision of goals, and the formation of a new development strategy for 2021. At the beginning of the year, we plan to present a new website, then a mobile application, and throughout the year we plan many surprises for our users.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
During our development, various decisions have been made. There were those that were quite effective and made it possible to move forward quickly without difficulty. We consider them as correct ones. There were also those which suspended or even complicated our actions, those that were taken at the wrong time. We call them the wrong ones. However, both of them moved us forward and made us look at the situation from a different angle, which is extremely useful from time to time.
Well-coordinated teamwork and successful partnerships with other services were really valuable at the beginning of our journey. I would especially note that at the right time we invited wonderful specialists to work on the project, who is now part of the team. People are the most amazing resource that a product can obtain along the way.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
In our daily work, we use Slack, Spark, ActiveCollab, Toggl, MailChimp, Figma, and many other services.
We occasionally try to return to work processes and improve them. This is a must in the product development process. It seems that there is no difference in naming the files on Google Drive or naming the folder where all information about partners is stored. However, these details are very important for us. We are always open to optimization and modernization of work processes, this allows our team to easily adapt to any new tools.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Several books influenced the development of our product, so we can recommend them without a doubt.
Principles for Success by Ray Dalio. The strength of these principles is that they have significantly changed the industry. In this book, you will find all the rules of life and work of the American billionaire. It is possible that after reading it, your view of the world will change forever.
Value Proposition Design. This book opens our eyes to simple and important things for the business. It helps you find patterns in creating profitable offers, get closer to customers and not waste time on ideas that do not work. You will learn a simple process for developing and testing value propositions that perfectly match the needs and desires of customers.
Upgrade Thinking by Richard Parks. This book is adored by one of our co-founders, he says unless he had read this book, then, perhaps, there would not be our team and product. We decided that it should be on our list.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting?
It is important to do only what you really like and what inspires you every day. Do not be afraid of competitors, do not be afraid that the niche is already taken. You can always become the best in your niche, and there are millions of stories of successful people to prove this.
Moreover, it is very important to believe in your product. Believe even when no one believes. Take risks and do not be afraid to give up the wrong strategies!
Besides, if you decide to make a product together with your friends or like-minded people, then our advice may be useful for you. At work, you are a team, not a family! Once we were faced with the fact that we did not fully understand this model, although it is crucial for the successful development of the product and the well-coordinated work of the team on the way to their goals.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Exolix is always open to professionals in their field and is interested in involving specialists who want to develop valuable products and be a part of them. With your suggestions, please contact by email.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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