Inside the school for BSV entrepreneurs

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CoinGeek has been following a group of BSV startup founders as they work their way through a business development programme created by an innovative London-based BSV incubator, Satoshi Block Dojo.

The 12-week Dojo course sets up a packed schedule for the entrepreneurs featuring market analysis, technical development, pitch rehearsals and mentoring. It culminates in a series of presentations to potential investors, ending with a showcase evening at the East London offices where they have been based.

Craig Massey, Chairman of Satoshi Block Dojo welcomes the teams on the first day

The first group of startups are featured in a new CoinGeek Originals production, “How to build a BSV business.” For the Dojo team behind the project, the first cohort represented the beginning of a long series which they plan to repeat both in London and overseas in the months and years ahead. Indeed, at the time of writing, a second London group of startup founders is already reaching the end of its programme.

Reaction from the entrepreneurs in the first cohort has been positive. “It’s been great, it’s been exhausting, it’s been challenging,” said Charles Symons of Buzzmint, “but overall, I can honestly say it’s been a fantastic experience.” Likewise, Sam Gibbons of Sesire reports that “I’m a lot more confident in how I can take a business from inception, ideation, to getting investment.”

Symons does admit there was “a little bit of tension here and there” as the “competitive spirit” between the teams appeared. And the Dojo organisers have sometimes found the process of working with the entrepreneurs wearing. According to Dojo Chairman Craig Massey, “they are very demanding …At the end of the 12-week programme, you feel a little bit burnt out.”

The entrepreneurs do warm-up exercises before their big pitch to investors

But Massey is bullish about the potential of his idea for the incubator, encouraged by the quality and variety of the businesses that are applying for places on the programme: “We’ve had different companies from wide sectors—from construction, to payment providers, all utilising the BSV blockchain.”

At the other end of the incubator process, Massey draws on a network of potential investors that he’s built up over many years of his own successful entrepreneurship. They are invited to put money into the individual startups emerging from one of the Dojo cohorts or to take a share in all of them through investing in the Dojo itself.

The plan already seems to be working, with the majority of the first cohort completing their post-Dojo investment round in full, with two of them also being invited to speak at the BSV Global Blockchain Convention in Dubai in June.

Richard Boase pitches his Ninja Punk Girls business to investors

For Osmin Callis, Managing Director of Satoshi Block Dojo, seeing the confidence of all the entrepreneurs on stage on the final showcase evening “does bring a bit of a tear to the eye.” That’s because the process leading up to their final success hasn’t always been easy, as she explains:

“There have been I think some moments where we have witnessed people at their ‘peak uncertainty’. But this is what we want. We want to see all of that before we release them out into the world.”

Left to right: Matthew Foster and Xiao Han of CosmosX, Baltazar Baechli of Galatea and Pygmalion and Kevin Channiah of Sattva Meta

Watch: BSV Global Blockchain Convention presentation, The Next Big Thing: Incubating Start-Ups on the BSV Blockchain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP7X4FmekZ8