Recap of IQONIQ Community AMA
Recap of IQONIQ Telegram community AMA
Date : July 26
Time : 2:00 PM CET
Kazim Atilla, Founder & CEO of IQONIQ attended the AMA along with host Vijay Kumar.
IQONIQ is a new fan engagement platform which exclusively targets the “Sport & Entertainment world” The world’s first fan ecosystem which provides more personal fan experience, with tailored content to their needs, unique opportunities to interact with their heroes, and fun games to play alongside fellow fans.
The transcript is almost entirely in its original AMA form, mildly edited for punctuation and readability only, and is subject to the disclaimer located at the bottom of the page.
There were three segments:
1. Introduction of Kazim Atilla in IQONIQ telegram group.
2. Community Questions Round.
3. Important update for community from Kazim Atilla
*** AMA begins ***
__INTRODUCTION OF KAZIM ATILLA & IQONIQ IN GROUP__
Vijay Kumar :
Kazim Atilla has been in a leadership role for many companies and has had roles that include board member, CEO, COO, CCO, CFO, Product Ownership and Global Head of Sales & Marketing. He has successfully led in vertical markets such as Real Estate, Entertainment, Renewable Energy, Technologies, Financial Services, Retail, Healthcare as well as horizontally focused platforms. A highly regarded globally-minded, data-driven and results-oriented senior executive with 25+ years of international business experience, business development and investments
__COMMUNITY QUESTIONS ROUND__
Q1) Question by -@pepemel
How do you plan to face the following months and how are you going to redirect the roadmap?
Kazim Atilla :
We are busy with many different verticals of the business for the following months:
1) finalising our funding round,
2) getting ready for the marketing and promotion plan to be initiated for the IQQ,
3) To get more known in the Blockchain and Crypto sector with our project,
4) signing more partners for our App,
5) preparations for the global launch
Q2) Question by -@Minerworker
What are your expectations regarding the business plan, marketing, new partnerships and sponsorship contracts for this upcoming season? And in reference to this, in what state is the round of attracting new institutional investors?
Kazim Atilla :
We have done a lot of what’s outlined in our business plan, and have seen a major growth on everything. We have a full marketing plan ready which needs to be initiated. Also we have negotiated many new partnerships and with many others we are in far advanced negotiations. We are also in advanced negotiations with different investors, but sadly due to the holiday season we are in, things are going a bit slow and hope to pick this up to a higher level asap. So there is for sure a lot of things happening behind the scenes here at IQONIQ.
Q3) Question by -@DanielWoonkly
I would like to know how the IQQ token is going to be pushed above the initial presale levels? Since all of us who acquire the tokens trusting and supporting the project we find ourselves with heavy losses.
Kazim Atilla :
Hi Daniel, as mentioned many times before, we can’t push the price as this is all based on what the market does. What we are going to do is to have more marketing and promotion of the IQQ Tokens and introduce our project more and better in the blockchain and crypto sector. We have a solid plan for this and will start the moment we have finalised our funding round. We are sure that once we have finalised our funding round and everything start to be initiated and all news comes out then things will be for sure better.
Q4) Question by -@Pablo12e
How are the negotiations going to obtain liquidity?
Kazim Atilla :
The negotiations are going well, and we are not just going for the liquidity for Uniswap and other exchanges but also and mainly for the entire business. This is very important for the overall success of the project and the IQQ ecosystem.
Q5) Question by -@alejara93
We know how difficult this last year has been due to COVID, what marketing actions are planned to reactivate the interest of new users and achieve mass adoption?
Kazim Atilla :
This is for sure an important question reference interest for new users and achieve mass adoption! Yes it has been for sure not easy for us, and for many other companies around the world. Sadly we started at the worst possible moment, which was at the start and then middle of the covid crisis. But it is what it is and we have to work harder and better to get where we need to be. As mentioned in my previous replies, we have a solid marketing and promotion plan which we will introduce our project and IQQ Token better and more in the blockchain and crypto sector. We are also busy with several events, whereby our tokens will be used so that we can showcase the usage of the IQQ Tokens, and that it will have all the potential of achieving mass adoption!
Q6) Question by -@Eduardo peñafiel
When are we going to know something about the staking of the people from the presale and the people who bought outside the presale could they have their tokens in staking?
Kazim Atilla :
Hi Eduardo, we will send an email very soon about this to all the people who have staked. We are also preparing a new staking opportunity for everyone, and which will be announced very soon.
Q7) Question by -@Dany
On the 24th of July 2020 you announced a €100m capital funding agreement with Lux Media and on your recent update for the community(which I really appreciated btw) you deplored a failed funding.Are we talking about the same deal you had with Lux Media? Whichever investment deal you were referring to in the recent update and in case it’s successful, can we be sure this time that you will have enough funds this time to implement the whole road map?
Kazim Atilla :
Hi Dany, yes sadly the EUR 100 million deal was halted because of the covid and some other reasons, and yes as you can see in the April 2021 update letter I had referred to this investment. We had “closed” a new investment around in the end of the 2nd week of May, but due to things which had happened we have lost this deal. The roadmap we had shared with the community was based on this investment which we had “closed” in May and sadly due that it was not initiated around the end of May/beginning of June we have not been able to fulfil several things so far which we were going to do as outlined in the roadmap. We are very busy to finalise our funding round, so that the project and the road map can and will be implemented.
Q8) Question by -@sahilsaif
“Staking is one of a great features of one projects or platform to earn without losing our funds” Almost all the new project built today has Staking Program. What can we expect about your staking program and what staking options are available in IQONIQ platform? How many pools does your platform have for the users and investors to participate?
Kazim Atilla :
I wanted to reply this question related to staking, as this refers what’s happening in the market and that it also support the token and rewards the community. As mentioned above, we are very busy to finalise our staking plan and will share it with the community asap. We believe that we have created a very nice staking plan which will reward the token holders in the best possible way and at the same time it will help the company as well, so that we can get stronger and better together.
Q9) Question by -@Bram78
Can you describe when the IQQ project is a success for you Kazim
Kazim Atilla :
This is an interesting question. IQQ is part of the bigger project, which is of course our App and the overall IQONIQ fan ecosystem. When we have reached millions of downloads from the global sport and entertainment fans which would be a great start, then we will be very happy as a team. The IQQ Tokens will be an integral part of the App and the broader IQONIQ fan ecosystem, so we look forward that it will be used in the best possible way and which the IQQ Tokens will be also a success when it will be used by the bigger audience. This is also the reason that we are working on different verticals which will support the entire vision and mission of the business and the IQQ user cases.
Q10) Question by -@mazensaleh
Do partnerships with Chiliz prevent teams from joining the IQONIQ Fan Ecosystem ? Or we could see a scenario where a team issues their fan token on Chiliz and also using the IQONIQ Ecosystem ?
Kazim Atilla :
We have answered this many times during our AMA’s but thought will answer this question again. The answer is NO, as what Chiliz does is issuing Fan/Club tokens and we don’t do that. We don’t compete on their business of issuing every time new Fan/Club tokens when they sign a new partner. You could already see last season that we partnered with the same club and or team. We also cant prevent one of our partners to close their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other accounts. We are another podium/platform where each of the sport and entertainment clubs/teams can use our platform as they would use all the other platforms. The only difference is that we are focusing 100% on all sports and entertainment in our platform and the others which I had mentioned does everything. So in short, we can use the same clubs and teams as they have and they can use the same clubs and teams as we have.
Q11) Question by -@rb..
How important is crypto and $IQQ token growth for the company whose core business is sports and entertainment.
Kazim Atilla :
The IQQ token is part of the broader IQONIQ fan ecosystem, so yes it’s an important part of the overall project. As mentioned above, the vision is that the IQQ tokens will be used as a mass adaption in the broader IQONIQ ecosystem, and we have worked very hard that this can and will happen. The mass adaption of the IQQ tokens will then automatically grow the App, the project and company overall, so as you can see it’s for sure an important part of the overall project. As I always have said, the IQONIQ Loyalty Points and IQQ Tokens are like the frequent flying program of many airlines and hotels etc, and their main business if of course the service they give but the their loyalty program will add value to the growth of their business as they keep their loyal customers happy with rewards and the customers comes back to them for that and of course also for their service.
Q12) Question by -@santos6
I would like to know in what direction the application is going to get the greatest number of users and so relaunch the project. What plans are there for this?
Kazim Atilla :
We have not launched the app yet, so there is no need for a relaunch as you have mentioned. But as mentioned in your question, it’s very important that we do the launch in the best possible way so that we get the greatest possible downloads of our App. We have seen many apps which have launched their application in a “silent” way and they have been struggling for many years to get as many possible downloads which is important for their business. We have many good plans to introduce our project and App in the best possible way, and once we are ready to launch the business we will share it with the community also. This will also help the global adaption of the IQQ token, as the more people who use the app the more people will be able to use the IQQ tokens in the iQONIQ ecosystem!
Q13) Question by -@ijssel100
Who are the new investors now that the big investors have pulled out?
Kazim Atilla :
We are in far advanced negotiations with different investors and also speaking every week with several new ones. We cant announce anything until we have closed a deal with one of them. We are also working on other different plans which will give the company good funding and at the same time global marketing, and hope to share this also with our community soon.
Q14) Question by -@jordilr
Have you thought about how to correct the lack of communication with the IQQ owners and the marketing strategy, in which the project is not explained but only IQONIQ is mentioned without people knowing
Kazim Atilla :
Yes for sure, as the last 1 month we were busy to change our community management team and it took a bit longer to start the team. We are sorry for the inconvenience in communication in our community group this has caused. Now that they have started, they will do their best to have a solid open communication channel with our community. Yes you are right that our strategy so far was mainly doing the marketing on social media with posts of our partners, but based on our plans we will start introducing IQONIQ in the way of what it actually is. So it will be based on what the App actually does, what it can do for the fans and what you can expect as a fan of the App. As mentioned in my above replies, we will introduce our project better in the general sport and entertainment market, as well in the blockchain and crypto sector, and allowing people/fans to better understand what IQONIQ is and what they can expect from it. All of this is of course very important to have a better understanding how unique our offering is and what you can get from a fan point of view.
Q15) Question by -@Alfreeddd
What have you recently learned and what will you do to work differently? : What is the biggest challenge you have faced with your company?
Kazim Atilla :
Thought this was an interesting question, even though it’s actually 2 but wanted to answer them both.
That you sometimes not planned or are ready of disastrous things that happens, like the covid. We knew that we had a very nice project and that there were many interested parties who were interested to invest in our project. Sadly due to the covid it has created for sure many different issues and hurdles, from missing out of the required funding and the delay in the launch of the App. This has caused a knock-on effect on our business and project overall. We would have done things for sure differently if we knew many other things, but that is the same for any other company or person that when they would know things beforehand that they would do things for sure differently.
The biggest challenge we have faced and are facing is having enough funds to support the big growth of the company. You can have an amazing project, but when you don’t have the funds required to support the launch and the tremendous growth of the company then you can get in problems. This was also the case for all the other successful projects which many of the people know, i.e. Tesla, Air B&B, Uber, Apple and many other very known companies. At the end, they found the money they needed and the rest is history as they say.
__IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR COMMUNITY__
Kazim Atilla :
I wanted to use this moment to say some extra as it’s important to know what we have been doing with our team.
We have been working very hard with the team to progress the business. We have seen quite a few people in the Telegram group chat asking questions reference mainly Uniswap and the price of the tokens going so low. As you all know very well, the token price depends on what the market does. We have not announced any news over the last 4 months, and at the same time the crypto market went all down. Add on top of that different IQQ token holders sold the tokens for a low price, then obviously the token price will go down when there is not enough volume and at the same time the pressure on the token which the cheap sales prices will do.
The reason why the Uniswap listing is not done yet has to do purely with the arrangement of the liquidity pool which we have been working on. The reason for this is simple, we have been working with several large investors who were going to invest in the company, and we had signed the agreements around the end of the 2nd week of May. Based on this, we had created the roadmap which we had shared with everyone. Sadly, the investment felt through, and we have been working hard to replace those funds with other investors. We had mentioned several times in our AMA’s and video AMA’s that we were busy with investors, and that the project needed larger funds to fulfil its current obligations and at the same time its further growth. Our plan was also to list the tokens on Uniswap at the same time when we started announcing some new exciting news, but because of the investment felt through we couldn’t do both yet.
We have met with many potential investors and we are far advanced with our negotiations. We still have some work to do, but things are progressing at least.
Did we sit still while we were working on the investment, NO! We have been working very hard to expand our partnerships/rightsholders and much more and please see below what we have done in the last 4 months;
1) We have more than 20 new partners finalised
2) We have added new strategic alliances in the blockchain and crypto sector
3) We have different companies which we have negotiated to partner with
4) We have created a great event which we want to do in November in Dubai
5) We are having a big football event in November in Dubai
6) We have partnered with a company whereby we took many different rights
7) We are in far advanced negotiations to come up with our own wallet and or platform which will allow our users to stake their tokens very easily and at the same time to buy, sell and swap their tokens in an easy way.
8) Much more which we will inform you all soon
It has been some very frustrating last 4 months as we have been very busy to close our funding round and whereby we thought it was all handled in May, but sadly as explained above this was not completed. We have so much great news that it has frustrated us even more by not closing the investment deal we had in May. Believe me that the entire team is very saddened with the current situation we all have been in, especially when you look how hard we have worked and what we have achieved with limited funds available. We all know that when we would close one of these investors, we will make so much good in a short time, and this makes us even more frustrated than anyone else.
As mentioned above, we have worked very hard on the different verticals of the business and have done a lot, and we also have worked hard on a solid marketing strategy and promotion strategy within the blockchain and crypto sector which all is ready for pushing the buttons. We wanted to do this the moment we would have closed the investment which we had signed in May, but sadly this was not completed.
Despite the different issues, we have kept working on every vertical with our team and partners. It has been for sure not the EASIEST period for the company and the entire team, but we have kept fighting against everything. Based on the negotiations with our potential investors, we also need to restructure our business and we need to potentially also make some changes in the partnerships which we currently have. We have been in close discussion with each of our partners and working very hard to resolve the hurdles which we have in front of us.
Once we have sorted out our financials and initiated our plans, we are very confident that things will go for the better. We will share very soon a more detailed update reference the above I wrote via our newsletter and hope by that time to share some very exciting news.
I like to thank everyone who send their questions for this AMA, and who has supported us from day one and still do.
Wishing you all a lovely day.
