Following the release of the first version of VouchForMe product, the last 2018 AMA session on Reddit and Telegram has been bursting with questions. It is great to see so much interest in our product. As always, here’s a full recap.
Q: Congrats for the release but I have one question? What is your marketing strategy? And which markets are the main goal?
A: Our main strategy is to close business partnerships with affinity groups and insurance carriers where VouchForMe adds the most value to end users and insurance companies at the same time. EU + USA.
Q: Why is there a promo period?
A: Since we are introducing a completely new concept to the market we decided for a promo period as an additional incentive to onboard first users.
Q: Is there a benefit given for sharing the deductible?
A: Insurance clients effectively offload a part of the risk they are exposed to by having deductibles in their insurance policy on the members of their social circle. They benefit by lowering their own exposure to high deductible costs in case they file a claim.
Q: Yes, this is understood… however what about the benefit to the voucher from the social circle? this model re-distributing the deductible costs of a social circle so essentially would require mutual vouching to work.
A: You are right — mutuality is an important part of the equation, but not mandatory. If someone vouches for you, you will most probably be prompted to do the same in return for the favor.
Q: So it’s a preemptive GoFundMe, collecting pledges before the need arises in case it arises?
A: When you vouch, you don’t pay (or fund) anything. What you do is give a promise you will in case a claim is filed. At the time of vouching you choose the maximum amount, you are willing to guarantee for.
Q: When will you reveal insurance companies names?
A: Partnerships will be announced when joint projects are ready to be launched.
Q: Is the product with insurance companies going to be international?
A: VouchForMe Unlimited is available worldwide. All other projects in cooperation with insurance companies and business partners will be limited to a specific market(s) based on the legal conditions. Obviously, depending on the insurance company we can work in several markets with the same insurance company.
Q: What is the plan for the token use?
A: The plan for the token use stays the same:
● Payments of the service fee on the platform
● Rewards in IPL tokens for guarantors
● Payment for different services that will be part of the platform
● Development ecosystem payments/remuneration for developing the VFM ecosystem and platform
Favorable prices for payments for all services in tokens will be implemented.
Q: What is your plan to boost the usage of IPL token?
A: We plan to adjust the promotion strategy of token use to the target market, level/state of crypto adoption, and/or our business partners’ GTM strategy. It will include research and testing of different elements and channels which will help us establish what works best. There is no one-size-fits-all recipe. The only way is to test and focus on the adoption of the VouchForMe concept.
Q: How many token holders are still there and does the company still have enough funds for development in 2019?
A: The number of wallets holding IPL token is visible at:
https://etherscan.io/token/0x64cdf819d3e75ac8ec217b3496d7ce167be42e80#balances. The company has enough funds for the next year or two.
Q: When will the platform be fully functional? When will you onboard partners? Is any new exchange listing in the pipe? Is there any plan for stake IPL? What will be the use cases of IPL?
A: The released product is functional as it enables the basic idea of VouchForMe concept — ask for and receive endorsements in the form of a financial guarantee. The product will further evolve with additional functionalities depending on specific market and/or business partners’ needs. We will announce partnerships when joint projects are ready to be launched, not sooner. Several listing processes are in the pipeline and when finished, we will announce them. Use cases for the IPL token are:
• Payments of the service fee on the platform
• Rewards in IPL tokens for guarantors
• Payment for different services that will be part of the platform
• Development ecosystem payments/remuneration for developing the VFM ecosystem and platform.
Q: After being confirmed several times that before the year-end you will launch the platform WITH an insurance company, apparently this not going to happen. In the podcast you shared a few weeks ago, the co-founder Matt Peterman insisted quite a bit in the importance of communication. However, I have the feeling that this is very much failing in all the communications you have; everything is becoming quite unclear and blurry. I am not going to ask again for insurance companies because I have the feeling that always the same vague response is given, but are you planning to REALLY improve communication?
A: Over the last half of the year, our main focus was to release a product. And we are proud we did it. It is the first version that fully supports the basic VouchForMe concept — vouching in the form of a financial guarantee — available worldwide. We will release further versions of the product which will differ based on partnerships, clients, reward structure and IPL token use. As said many times before, the partnerships will be announced when projects are ready to be launched.
We have agreements with insurance companies, but since we honor their right to keep it confidential, we are not able to publish their name until they permit us to do it. The whole team has been working with large insurance companies for the last 15 years, and we know that publishing partnerships too soon can have negative business consequences.
We believe our communication about product development has been clear and continuous at all times. In the last half a year we have posted 15 blog posts on product and business development with inputs from the entire team, hosted 6 Ask-Me-Anything sessions, led numerous conversations with the community on Telegram, and posted updates on social media channels almost daily. Many new things are coming and we will share those when the time is right.
Q: What will you do in regards to the token holders in case the use of token doesn’t pick up, but the product itself is a success?
A: Our primary goal is to increase our user base and to set up the ecosystem for IPL as a utility token. We see token as the perfect way to connect ecosystem participants. In the next years, our goal is to increase the user base and token is an integral part of our strategy. We have several strategies for token usage but as said it’s too early to forecast how they will develop over the next three years.
Q: What about strategy for 2019 what is plan how many users projections you will have on the platform?
A: In 2019 we plan to achieve between 80K and 120K users.
Q: Where will you launch your pilot projects? In which country or region?
A: The Unlimited version of the product is already available for use at
https://pls.vouchforme.co. Projects with business partners will be announced when all legal aspects are settled and signed.
