The Role of Incubators for Crypto Startups: An Interview With Gaurav Dubey of TDeFi

I recently spoke with Gaurav Dubey, the CEO of TDeFi. TDeFi is a crypto incubator that provides new startups with mentors, industry connections, funding opportunities, and market advisory. Join us as we discuss DeFi, tips for entrepreneurs entering the space, the role of crypto incubators in the crypto industry, and how they work to increase the odds of success. 

Hi Gaurav! Welcome. Please introduce yourself and walk us through your professional journey so far. 

Hi! I am Gaurav Dubey, the CEO and business advisory mentor for TDeFi. Thank you for having me.

I am a telecom engineer and began my career working for Reliance, one of India’s largest telecom firms. Then, I helped create the technology wing of Infotech Hub called ITH technologies, and today it is a successful firm with over a hundred employees. 

After this, I continued honing my skills as a developer and entrepreneur. I  received over eight patents for inventing groundbreaking enterprise utilities for VR, Brain/Machine Interface, Intent prediction and response, Behavior Analysis, and Blockchain. I am an advisor to over 45+ companies and an investor in Coti, Cashaa, and Tradedog. 

For two years, from 2015-2016, I ran a Bitcoin mining firm based out of the US, and along with this, I made investments in over 35 crypto startups. With so much experience building startups, I was invited as the speaker for top blockchain conferences such as Consensys 2016 and 2017, Future Blockchain Summit, GITEX, Global Blockchain Congress - by Agora group - 4 editions, AIBC Dubai, and the Wealth Today Summit. 

With so much experience building startups, I believed that the emerging crypto and DeFi industries needed a platform that makes it easier for new businesses to thrive. I wanted to help new startups overcome the initial struggles of funding, marketing, communication, and liquidity. So, I decided to join TDeFi - Crypto Incubator as the CEO back in 2020  

For the uninitiated, can you explain what crypto incubators are and what they strive to achieve?

Sure!

Crypto incubators are organizations that look for groundbreaking, industry-changing projects and support their growth from square one. Top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, marketing specialists, tech advisers, and business mentors are usually a part of these incubators. Using their expertise, incubators handle every facet of a successful business launch, from strategy and tech development to marketing, fundraising, and community building.

To obtain these services, corporations typically give up some of their equity. As a result, incubators are also incentivized to guarantee the startup’s success. As such, the concept of incubators and businesses being incubated is quite common in all the major world industries. Even in the Web2 community, many successful businesses have been incubated. However, in the Web3 and crypto space, incubators emerged after the ICO mania of 2017 and rose to popularity after the DeFi summer of 2020. 

In the blockchain and crypto space today, why do you think incubators are needed? 

Incubators are not mandatory for the success of businesses. However, in today’s competitive markets they increase the odds of success. Usually, amateur entrepreneurs and developers with a limited understanding of token market dynamics build new Crypto businesses. 

In these scenarios, experts present in incubators can mentor them and help channel their resources in the right direction to ensure success. It thus becomes easy for startups to validate their ideas and raise capital. Incubators also help these startups pool initial liquidity to kickstart their operations, and some of them also help with marketing, communication, and technical support. They allow entrepreneurs to focus on innovating and building the best possible product version while taking care of all other aspects. 

Moreover, having the brand image of a successful incubator attached to a business helps it stand out among the crowd of similar projects in the market. These factors increase the chances of an incubated startup’s success, which is why most businesses prefer going through an incubator before setting shop on blockchain networks. And going by statistical data, 87% of incubated startups survive after five years. 

Can you provide some insight into TDeFi and how it is helping the next generation of DeFi projects get off the ground? 

So, as you already know, TDeFi is an incubator for crypto, DeFi, and the broader blockchain-based industries.  Our primary aim with this platform is to chalk out a definitive path to success for startups with promising potential. We provide startups with access to cutting-edge technology, world-class mentors and advisors, growth hacking partnerships, liquidity, and marketing services. From idea validation and investor connection to token advisory and growth management, we take care of every aspect of creating and launching a successful business in today’s competitive world. 

We also help startups structure their projects in compliance with the best regulatory and legal practices in different countries. So, you can say that we do the heavy lifting and take the load off entrepreneurs’ backs while helping them innovate to the best of their abilities. At TDeFi, we constantly look for potentially disruptive projects and aim to foster as many of them as possible. 

Speaking of innovation, what kind of projects do you think the crypto and DeFi industries need right now? What problems do you think need to be solved to propel the transition towards an open financial infrastructure? 

I believe the crypto and DeFi industries need innovations that can solve significant problems facing the global financial system. Even today, a substantial portion of the population remains unbanked, and the centralized way of operations creates vast economic inequalities. Apart from this, most people lack the education and access to wealth-generating assets like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. As a result, they rely on traditional savings accounts, which barely beat inflation. 

I think DeFi, with its decentralized nature and global accessibility, has the potential to solve a good chunk of these problems. And the onus is on the emerging businesses to innovate and create solutions. It is through solving these problems that DeFi’s mainstream adoption and an open financial infrastructure can come to light. 

Lastly, what advice would you give to new entrepreneurs and investors entering this space?

Well, I firmly believe that the crypto industry is an opportunity that most investors have been missing out on. When you think about it, one of the best ways to grow your money is to invest in a startup when it is just getting started. In an ecosystem like TDeFi, there is an opportunity for investors to invest and help build the future leaders of Web3. 

So, I advise investors to take advantage of this chance, but only after they’ve considered their risk appetite closely. As for entrepreneurs, my advice is to keep innovating and solving problems that will take DeFi and crypto from their speculative phase to a value creation phase.