<aside> 💡 This is the master plan of Startale Labs in the middle and long run. Running a startup is kind of a journey. And the important thing is to come back here and reflect again and again.
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This document is written on Feb 21st 2023.
Web3 is a once in the life opportunity and what we are building right now makes the foundation of the future internet. Your codes, your behaviours, and your communication attribute to the bright future we are creating. With the great responsibility, let’s strive to make the better future.
What Exactly is Web3? by Juan Benet at Web3 Summit 2018
Sota Watanabe January 2023
This plan is the north star for Startale Labs. Here we go!
And...…
The reason why we start with consulting and R&D is because we have an overwhelming geographical advantage in Japan. We also believe that in 2023, the momentum in the U.S. will wane and Japan's momentum will increase significantly in the web3 industry. Given that Japan remains the world's third largest economy and is home to global giants such as Toyota and Sony, Startale Labs' ability to partner and co-develop with such giants will give us an overwhelming advantage in terms of branding, not only in Japan, but around the world.
In Phase 1, we will be able to learn a lot from the business models of AI companies. They are not just contracted by large companies for AI research and development. By working together and selling licenses, these companies make a lot of money. Startale Labs will capitalize on this opportunity and secure funding for transitioning to Phase 2. At the same time, it is important to strongly emphasize that Phase 1 is a bonus period, meaning that consulting and research and development should not be our main focus, but rather remain as a part of Phase 1. As a startup, the free cash flow in Phase 1 will be used for product development and investment opportunities at Next Web Capital.
In Phase 2, we will develop core infrastructure and well-regarded products for Web3. In blockchain, there is a concept called "fat protocol" which means that value tends to accumulate in the protocol layer. While users actually use applications, our strategy is to start building from the infrastructure to make those applications stable. Specifically, we are thinking of things like wallets and RPC providers. In the process of creating the infrastructure for Astar and multichain protocols, we need to find a sustainable monetization model. Since users prefer free model, it will either be an enterprise-oriented solution or a pay-as-you-go SaaS. In any case, network effects and lock-in effects are key. In addition to that, by operating an infrastructure like RPC, we can learn about user behavior patterns and on-chain data a step ahead of the rest of the world. This information will be used for Next Web Capital's investments.
In Phase 3, the ability to monetize on our own stable and operational infrastructure means that we can use our own infrastructure on our own, free of charge. This phase 3 is designated as 3 for convenience, but it would be a good choice to proceed with phase 2 and 3 at the same time and utilize the feedback from the application creation for the infrastructure. This strategy is similar to the tech giants of Web2: GCP in Google, Azure in Microsoft, and AWS in Amazon. Considering that ConsenSys and Parity are currently only infrastructure companies and not developing apps, we are trying to get ahead of them.