OpenPad | Year in Review

OpenPad team wishes everyone a happy new year! It's hard to encapsulate the entirety of a year in an article and what a year it has been. We are just getting started, let's dig in.

Decentralization of private capital is not a liability but an asset of great value.

This is the pic from our new year event. Long live 2022. 2022 is at an end, for some, it will be a fondly remembered year, and the opposite for others, but for us, it will hold a special place in our hearts because it was the birth year of OpenPad. Creating something out of nothing that may be the defining future of humanity, the future of finance, and we simply can not believe how quickly time has gone since we built OpenPad. Being synonymous with $1 to invest is all we could have asked for, giving the little guy a fighting chance was our mission, it is not yet accomplished, slowly but surely, we will get there. We know the current market sentiment in the Web3/crypto space is full of fear, and we know everyone is reluctant to invest in Web3 and would instead approach it with a 10-foot pole, but winter is the perfect time to reflect on the past and build towards the future. It’s been a long year full of ups and downs (mostly downs), and yet we are still standing and are just getting started, let’s go over the highlights of the year together, shall we?

A Man with a Plan

It all started in Q1 of 2022, we had an idea and an ideal to strive towards, but we would have to get humbled along the way. Software engineering, data science, finance, machine learning, blockchain, art, and legal. Six men coming from those backgrounds sat at the table one day. It was the first day the " OpenPad " was put into words. The naming was super easy for us because we knew what we wanted—opening private investments to everyone. The idea always stayed the same, democratize the private investment market, be the thundering voice of those whose voices sound like whispers, start with just $1, and be protected with various failsafe mechanisms we implemented in our platform (e.g., fractional insurance funds (FIF) and multi-level due diligence policy). Our approach had to change a lot along the way, we learned a lot the hard way. Countless rejections and countless negative feedbacks came our way, and we improved with each, without them, we would not be where we are. These minor improvements that started with our inception accumulated to an avalanche of major upgrades, and we started to get accepted to places/programs/events. A relentless, unyielding belief in the ideology of the project is what kept us going through all the rejections and disappointments, without a story we truly believed in, we would not be here. Most projects don’t talk about this, but the road to get there is not glamorous, it’s not an overnight success, it’s a relentless search for improvement day in and day out, we are proud to be at a point where our work is now acknowledged as a professionally built, quality product. It’s been a hell of a year, the marathon continues, and we are just getting started.

Numerically Speaking

We’d love to say we’ve raised $50M for 100 Web3 startups, but unfortunately, 2022 was such a year that the economy was bleeding, crypto collapsed, the $2T market cap was wiped out, and FTX bankrupted. We decided not to launch in these ever-collapsing times and targeted to launch in early 2023.

Even though we’re pre-launched, we generated +150 deal-flows and positioned ourselves into the world’s best deal-flow channels. Over 70,000 retail investors have been registered on our waitlist. More than 20 key partnerships have been established. 20,000 individuals have followed us on our social media channels. OpenPad has been selected top-5 and top-8 emerging FinTech startups in Turkey by Revo Capitals BuildingBrigdes and Startups.watch the annual FinTech day. We joined more than 20 in-person Web3 events as a speaker. We introduced OpenPad in more than +10 events in person. +200 Web3 friendships have been formed. +40 articles have been published. 640 tweets have been posted. 2 like-minded people have joined the team. The OpenPad protocol has been built with numerous features, and lastly, we engaged more than 200 retail investors and asked their pain problems to build a product around it.

Chainlink x OpenPad Tekmer Event

We love in-person events, especially with Chainlink! We organized a physical meet-up in august. With over 70 participants in this local event, we enjoyed it a lot and found a chance to discuss what our community is seeking face-to-face. Since then, we have built a lot.

Yapı Kredi x Avalanche FRWD Acceleration Program

One of the highlights of our year was being one of the 13 projects to be accepted out of 150+ projects to this joint program (FRWD) between Yapı Kredi (one of the biggest banks in Turkey) and Avalanche protocol.

The program spanned over two months, and we met a lot of like-minded individuals and gained a lot of valuable insights regarding the Web3 industry as a whole. We were able to accumulate a good network within the Turkish Web3 community, and we would like to thank everyone who organized the program and the projects that participated in it. Here’s a final shot and happy pic 💙

Startup with Chainlink

OpenPad is selected for Startup with Chainlink, a global community that empowers founders with the resources they need to launch and scale their Web3 startups. They provide access to a global network of Web3 founders & the guidance needed to successfully launch a project. From accessing the best resources, receiving a world-class mentorship, and learning industry best practices, Chainlink Labs empowers Web3 startups to expand their professional network, product adoption, and novel value creation in Web3.

Revo Capital and Startup Wise Guys BuildingBrigdes

OpenPad has been selected top-5 emerging startup in Revo’s annual event out of +250, one of the most prestigious VC & startup events in Turkey.

Various Pitch Challenges and Web3 events

From attending İstanbul Blockchain Week to Tekmer’s Pitch Challenge to various other meet-ups and events we tried to have a presence everywhere! We have participated in as many events as we could to meet like-minded people with disruptive ideas and collaborate with innovative projects.

We tried to represent OpenPad everywhere we could within our local ecosystem in Turkey.

We met up with a lot of student blockchain communities in top ranked universities in Turkey.

We were DeFi Promoters! Still, we are.

We’ve toured universities to introduce OpenPad, decentralized finance and beyond.

Back to university... We did a great introductory seminar about decentralized finance at with Economics Research Union.

Advisory Board

Like Thanos we are collecting infinity stones in our advisory board by welcoming leading individuals in their respective fields onboard. We are going to be announcing the details and specifics soon but for now, let’s just say it’s going to be game changing for us.

BNB Chain Kickstart Program

We have been selected for BNB chain’s kickstart program, a program that explores innovative and meaningful ways to support the developer community. Through this program OpenPad will be eligible for exclusive perks at various leading Web3 service providers.

CyberPark Office Space

Cyberpark, located in Turkey’s one of if not the most highly ranked university, Bilkent’s campus, is an office space for hosting promising and already established companies. It’s a government-backed leading technopark that backs +250 tech firms, and we're one of the first accepted DeFi startups, if not first. For the uninitiated, Cyberpark can be interpreted as Turkey’s silicon valley in the capital Ankara. They're one of the oldest and biggest conventional incubators that provide fully-equipped offices, patent support, tax breaks, exemptions & incentives, business law, and much more.

After a rigorous selection/jury process, OpenPad has been selected to be one of the companies that will occupy a spot in this highly exclusive office space that is being built as part of the Cyberpark.

Microsoft for Startups

We’ve been selected by Microsoft for their startup program, a up-to $150k credit, technical advisory, development and partner-benefits program, empowering every stage founders to scale their startups.

Closing Remarks

It all starts with an idea, it may not always work out, it may stumble, it may fall, but in time it may just become something special as well. The hardships on the road give meaning when it’s something worth fighting for, it all becomes fun instead of being tedious. The crypto community has been through a lot this year, and the same fate may apply next year too, but it’s not just about red or green candlesticks going up or down, it’s a paradigm shift, as crazy as it sounds, we are betting our entire careers on it. The FTX scandal, the LUNA-UST scandal, and many more scandals plagued the community this year, public good has taken quite the toll. Just because there are some bad apples in the basket doesn’t mean the rest will be ruined. We are hoping to restore that faith, the trustlessness of it all. We had some fights, we fought some, and we lost some, yet no matter what, we are still standing and growing. We expanded our team, we got acknowledged, and we grew. It’s been a crazy year, we can’t wait to unpack next year’s review here and look back on the road to get there.

Winston Churchill once said:

If you are going through hell, keep going.

No one knows what the future holds, but one thing is for certain, what Winston Churchill said about going through hell applies to everything, the only way of going through something is actually going through it. There are no shortcuts, there are no hacks and no overnight trades that will garner you generational wealth. The only way is incrementally growing, and that’s what we are intending to do for 2023. Hopefully, we will be seeing you in Q1 of 2023 with our first launch.

OpenPad is an all-time the best trade we’ve ever done.

OpenPad team wishes everyone a happy new year.

Thanks for reading up on our year in review! We just scratched the surface, a lot more is coming soon…