We have interviewed Margarita (@margosukh) - the creator of tonseed.com, crowdfunding platform for Free TON projects, enjoy a smooth read!
How long have you joined the community? Is TON Seed your first project on Free TON base?
I think I've signed the Declaration of Decentralization in the second half of October. Well, my first post on forum was on 25th of October. Before I’ve just lurked on the forum and Telegram channels :)
Not everyone knows about TON Seed. Could you please elaborate on what it is and how it works?
TON Seed is a platform for quick starting projects inside the Free TON ecosystem. It brings the community and startups together.
For businesses and startups it helps attract some capital for the first phases of developing new projects and demonstrate the potential of the project to a community. It helps getting financial help for the full implementation from Governance.
The community on the other hand, may have an impact on the development of a network, financially supporting the projects. When investing, you may get 1,5 - 2 times more tokens than you invested. The funds will return, if the draft you voted for will be adopted in Governance.
Can you post anything there or is it moderated?
When it comes to projects, you can post anything, the main thing is that it needs to be related to our blockchain.
It may be really anything, like startups, already existing projects, ready businesses, even new subgovernance proposals. In other words - any initiatives, where funding is needed.
And project description is, of course, moderated. It takes 3 days and during the moderation we verify that:
- There is no vulgar or 18+ content.
- There is no mocking towards other projects or begging.
- All the links are correct and working.
- Photos and videos are in fact belong to the project.
- It is a real partnership offer.
Can the returning of funds be considered after successful project launch?
Of course, it’s one of the mechanics that stimulates the community into supporting projects and developing the platform.
How it works:
After first round funding on TON Seed, the project needs to show what it’s capable of and publishes on http://gov.freeton.org/ to get funding for next stages.
After funding from Governance and getting the first profit, the startup returns the first round funding multiplied by a factor to everyone who supported the project during the publishing on TON Seed. The factor depends on the sum that was invested in the startup. It means that startups return funds from their profit or from Governance funding.
For how long does the platform function? What has been done already?
The platform started working from 19th of May. The official announcement was in mid April, because we’ve worked on some features :)
From the very beginning we’ve managed to accomplish:
- Launched 2 Telegram channels.
- A channel for announcements in Russian and English. There is news about new projects, materials for how to correctly describe projects and also technical aspects of the platform.
- A channel for platform users where they provide feedback, share new ideas and ask questions.
- Created a new forum branch called TON Seed Thread. It is designed for projects to share their notes about success and development in a blog style.
- Maintaining branches on external forums such as bitcoin talk, crypto talk and altkoin talk in English and Russian.
- Partnered with Free TON Broadcast recently, preparing a video interview with project creators.
- Tried AirDrop mechanics, but it wasn’t very successful :) Will work on other mechanics.
There are 3 successful projects already launched on the platform:
- Freeton.wtf attracted 5090 TON
- Codename TON attracted 8060 TON
- TON ecosystem attracted 5800 TON
The creators of freeton.wtf, Codename TON, have already started working on the project. For instance, freeton.wtf has promised to return funds until 25th of July.
The creators of TON Ecosystem also have started working on the project, but funds from TON seed can be redeemed only in 4 days, because at the moment payments are limited in time.
Soon we will interview all project creators.
Was TON Seed funded from Governance or from external sources?
Not from Governance, but when I came up with an idea of a platform (I called it Partner Track back then), I got help from the Broxus team. They funded the development process and explained how the community works. I’m sure that it wouldn't be possible without their help.
I think that you should add a possibility to comment on the platform, because the ability to see answers to questions from investors can attract other users, who may be their potential investors, what do you think?
Absolutely agree, but we need funds for further development!
Comments and communication between creators and investors are truly crucial. Each and every project today has its own branch in Telegram, where the community communicates with creators and asks them questions. Those are active chats and I see the urge of implementation.
But there are more important, basic needs that we develop today:
- Increasing the support cap
- Donations to the projects without registration
- Creating a FAQ article with links about the project.
Thinking of creating a new project on my own platform to get funding for further implementations :))
What are your short- and long-term development plans?
Short-term:
- Release features that we develop now until 10th of June
- Launch a youtube channel where we will post interviews and learning materials
- Post articles on popular platforms
- Transfer to smart contract technology
- More projects!
- More investors!
It’s spicier with long-term plans :)
We plan on being the only platform for launching new projects. The only place where projects get help for growing.
I am always in contact with creators, listen to Subgov initials, collect feedback from our community's most active members and always track platform attendance.
It’s crucial for me to create a platform which is convenient, native and the only service which fulfills community needs.
So if you have any ideas and are glad to share them - you are welcome! Every idea will be processed and worked on.
Thank you Margarita for the interview and thank you, dear readers, for reading our materials. Subscribe to our Telegram channel, if you haven’t done it yet. See you next time!