Underdog September '23 Update

Hey Underdog Team - Let’s see how building Underdog Protocol went in September 2023. A month of momentum, possible acqui-scenarios, and growth across all of our products. We are Solana’s most trusted NFT API. TLDR:

We’re speaking at Breakpoint 2023! This month was a mix of high-demand (bringing on animators from Pixar, working with Helio + Solflare, and more) with a combination of continuous product development (released our programmable wallets) & storefront for brands + creators. As we become used more regularly, we are thinking about how to package our offerings to increase revenue and # of NFTs.

What is Underdog Protocol?

Underdog Protocol is an API that enables developers and startups to seamlessly integrate web3 into their product or workflow to enhance user experiences

We’re building a data-rich blockchain by giving NFTs superpowers to enrich experiences built on Solana. 🤝 Asks

Partnership Opportunities

There is players in the ecosystem who have their eyes set on us. Either to help with their NFT plans as part of a ‘coalition’ or as part of their team. How do we approach these conversations? We’ve been advised to be blunt, what do you think?

Flywheels + Growth Loops

Our main growth levers are social media + word of mouth and our users enter one of two ways: a. API Dashboard or b. Dust (Mass Airdrop Tool). Our revenue provider is our Dashboard so we are solving how to connect our tools (including Shop + Passport) to enable our users to get value across their NFT needs (mint → drop → claim). Do you have any thoughts?

👍 Highlights

Partnerships & Biz Dev👬

We’ve seen partnerships + usage from some of Solana’s biggest teams: Helio Pay, Solflare Wallet, etc

We’ve grown a pipeline of valued at $190,000 ARR with interesting use cases like NFT Management of Tokenized Lifestock, Animated Movie, and

We are increasing our velocity of Outbound vs. Inbound. We are now growing ~10 users per day organically while current users are

Once again - We’re on the radar while pricing & positioning is working ⭐ We even had 17 projects use our API during the recent OPOS hackathon, we didn’t even sponsor!

Product 📱

We launched a new tool that is being used by teams like SuperteamDAO, Stepn, and other creators to create storefronts for their supports to claim digital assets. Check it out here and create your own. Our tools are seeing around $100 MRR, a great addition to our API.

We’ve launched Passport, programmable wallets that enable anybody to claim and interact with NFTs using Google. Check it out

here⁠

. We’ve been able to bring on 10 teams ~1 week from launch!

Continued Usage, our partners Solarplex, are running weekly scavenger hunts on their Platform that make up ~5000 NFTs each week, it’s a great way to engage + retain users, we’ve seen their bill grow from $10 → $100 → $200 / month.

Check out the apps here -

duster⁠

and

store⁠

⁠

👎 Low lights / Challenges

Revenue Velocity 🌀

As Minting API usage becomes more regular, we’re finding that revenue (especially when we charge $0.01 per NFT) is hard to come across. We have 3 customers who have grown by 2-4x in revenue usage but have a majority that spends well below $USD.

Sept '23 Growth

Sept '23 Growth

⁠

Thoughts on Metrics

Revenue has seen a small bump thanks to the ability to pay with crypto. We’re floating at $3K MRR including our partnership with Solana Mobile. Our focus is to be hands on with existing brand partners growing their usage + focus on large volume use cases. As we grow NFTs in our system, we will see an increase in Revenue, our hypothesis of lowering the barrier to use/reach value with NFTs is working ~1 month into pay with crypto.

Additionally, we’ve been frustrated with velocity of revenue. As we continue to stack our products and think about growth loops, we believe the correct packaging and positioning will do us justice.

📰 News

We’re working with Shilstone Arts, an animator who worked with Apple & did some work with Pixar

⁠

This is a super exciting partnership. Robbie has amassed over 750,000 followers across his platforms - TikTok, Instagram, and X. He’s planning on releasing and presenting his newest web3 metaverse project at Breakpoint 2023. Above is a teaser of his art & 1st

movie⁠

- we’ll be handling all things Minting + Claiming NFTs, our entire infrastructure will be used!

We’re powering campaigns from Solana’s biggest Names

⁠

Here are some of the campaigns that we are running with teams like Helio and Solflare which are highly focused on customer engagement + activation which we are categorizing under ‘Customer Experience’ - using NFTs in order to engage & retain users. Check out this one from Solflare to bring ETH users to SOL.

🎯 September Priorities

Biz Dev + GTM 📊

Close Dialect as a customer using our Compression API ( Deal worth $20,000 ARR). Increase Basic + Starter Plan Revenue by +$2500)

Increase follower count +150 by running contests, interacting, creating content, and memes

Sponsor hackathons + builder events to increase usage and brand recognition of Underdog Protocol

Product 📱

20 applications on our

Passport Page⁠

→ utilizing our Programmable Wallet

Launch Shop Campaign with Superteam & StepN Brand Ambassadors

Fundraising 📈

Finish our Seed Deck

Send to ‘interested’ VCs from last cycle

Find new investors to chat with

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