Company/Venture Name: Numeralique
In one complete sentence, provide a description of your venture: The first cryptocurrency machine learning/A.I. research and trading platform that builds, test, and funds strategies through open collaborations between programmers, traders, and investors around the globe.
Team Description: Provide any applicable information about your team. What background makes this team best suited to tackle this problem? Does your team have any other relevant startup experience? List all team members and management positions. (max 700 characters)
JohnPaul Baric is the founder of a seven-figure earning crypto mining startup. As a true crypto enthusiast, JP has a deep understanding in the workings of cryptocurrency and the communities that back them. JP raises capital from investors.
Bobby Bacon is a 4th year student majoring in Technology Design Engineering at NCSU. Bobby has cultivated and managed a network online and throughout the Raleigh area to procure a diverse range of strategies to be implemented into the trading platform.
Nicolas Kiely is an NCSU graduate in mathematics serving as the lead data analyst / engineer . Nic has over 10 years of experience as a programmer in the disciplines of data mining and machine learning.
Mentors/Advisors: Do you have any mentors or advisors currently assisting with your company? In what areas are you currently receiving mentorship or advice? (max 500 characters)
Anthony Pompliano, former product manager at Facebook and former CEO of two software companies has served as a mentor in assisting JP with many of his ventures. Anthony is very excited about the current venture but has suggested that we also build our code to be capable of working in other markets such as with forex and stocks. The Numeralique project relies on all its members to execute but avoids typical mistakes startups face such having a lack of direction as a result of JP’s experience.
Problem: What problem is your venture trying to solve? Include the following: who is affected, size of the problem and current ways the problem is being addressed. (max 1,000 characters)
There are three focal points we are seeking to build the platform around; the difficulty of investing into cryptocurrency, crowdfunding performance driven collaborative machine learning/sentiment analysis research, and algorithmic testing for traders.
Many people do not know very much about the various crypto available or how to trade them. Others may know how to trade but may simply not have the time to actively do so.
The most important thing needed to develop machine learning and sentiment analysis is data. Once data is provided, tools are necessary to visualize and construct viable models. Normally, placing a high performing strategy in front of investors their performance would mean hours upon hours of direct messages, emails, and in-person networking.
Lastly, there are various individuals and groups around the globe who have developed a proprietary strategy, perhaps for crypto, forex or maybe even stocks, who again, lack time or ability to automate trades in crypto.
Solution: How is your venture solving this problem? What is unique to your company that allows you to solve this problem? (max 1,000 characters)
After creating an account on an exchange, all we need to get started is the API key which is generated on every exchange. Once sent to the platform, trades will be executed on the client’s behalf.
Thanks to Nic, our platform is currently able to execute trades dictated by custom strategies and optimize itself, effectively adapting strategies. The platform has a flexible web crawler which can be directed towards social media and news sources to scrape critical information about the market.
We currently lack the code to provide machine learners with the tools they need to form teams and build models on the platform but the platform currently encourages algorithmic traders to test strategies that work in forex for crypto and publicly display performance. An investor will be able to see that performance and invest accordingly. The main selling point of our platform is outsourcing development of machine learning, sentiment analysis, and algorithmic trading strategies into an untapped market.
Intellectual Property: Does your venture have any intellectual property? Is that IP protected? Do you currently have any legal protections in place (trademark, patent, license, etc)? (max 500 characters)
The platform has been in development for 2 years. We have hired professionals to put together an operating agreement and all other documentation needed to protect the company from liability on outsourcing strategy development and investment. IP rights on the code have been fairly distributed among all founding members.
There are no software patents for our platform because attaining software patents for this sort of technology is nearly impossible and furthermore unnecessary for our venture.
Market: What is your venture's market? How big is it? Is the market growing? (max 500 characters)
The market involves anyone who is interested in the automation of trades in cryptocurrency. At the time of this submission, the market cap for all crypto is $414 billion. Crypto seeks to compete or integrate itself into the world’s largest industry, banking. Crypto establishes for the people a system of trust independent of banks through the currency itself. Crypto’s market cap is expected to triple by the end of 2018. Industries involving machine learning and A.I. are expected to rise as well.
Customer: Who is your target customer?
Numeralique has 2 target clients; both institutional and retail investors inclined to invest using an automated trading platform, and secondly, traders, machine learning programmers, and data analyst who would like to use the data and infrastructure we provide to develop their own strategies and algorithms. The investors will be able to monitor the performance of these groups and invest accordingly.
Customer Discovery: What customer discovery has your venture conducted? How many potential customers have you interviewed/surveyed? Did you learn anything new through your customer discovery process? (max 500 characters)
After speaking to hundreds of retail and several institutional investors, we confirmed that performance is the biggest factor for investing through the platform; primarily proving a strong alpha and contingency for drawdown over time. Bobby has reached out to dozens of machine learning programmers/algorithmic traders who stated they need our platform. This group as well as investors interested in investing in the platform value versatility of data and capability of new features in the platform.
Competition: Who is your venture’s competition (indirect or direct)? What is your competitive advantage? (max 500 characters)
Quantopian would be our biggest competitor, however, they do not offer any data from crypto, sentiment analysis, or use crowdfunding.
Many of the companies who have developed platforms for forex and stocks have not yet moved into the crypto space. A few ICO’s have based their currency on the technology but do not seek to outsource growth in those strategies. We are the first to market in regards to having a platform for investors to invest in outsourced strategies based on performance.
Revenue Model: What is the venture’s revenue model? How do you plan to sustain and grow your venture? (max 500 characters)
Investors using our strategies will be charged 10% of the profit made by each trade. For safety and security reasons, we do not allow our software to make any withdrawals from third party accounts or exchanges. At the end of each month, we send an invoice for the amount that is owed. Any account trading under $1000 will be free of charge. Those who develop strategies on our platform without crowdfunding will be billed $24.99 monthly. We will take 2% of the profit from crowdfunded portfolios.
Prize Winnings: How would eGames prize winnings help your venture? What are your current funding needs? (max 500 characters)
The prize would allow us to support our lead technical data analyst and hire another programmer to help build more advanced machine learning tools over the course of the next 2-3 months. After 2-3 months of monitoring the performance of machine learning and sentiment analysis on algorithms we have acquired or created from scratch and tested, we will reach out to institutional investors for more capital to manage.
Additional Info: Do you have needs outside of funding? Mentorship, physical space, advisors, etc. (max 500 characters)
Outside of funding, we have found networking to be our greatest asset. We will largely depend on networking online and in the local area to scale. Through his crypto mining company, JP has established a relationship his customers who have expressed a desire to try out our system. Before long, we would like a physical office space to spend every waking hour pursuing deadlines in production, networking, and management.