An Interview with Nadja Bester the CEO of AdLunam, a Transformational IDO Launchpad

Nadja Bester is the co-founder of AdLunam, a proof of attention IDO launchpad for web3. The platform uses engage to earn and proof of attention allocation mechanism to create dynamic NFTs. We had the great pleasure of interviewing Nadja about her platform and its fundamentals.

Hi Nadja, can you tell us about yourself and how your story led you to create AdLunam?

“I entered the crypto industry in 2017 and was instantly captivated by the idea of being part of an entirely new industry building itself from the ground up. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to contribute to something so cutting-edge that no government on the planet had any regulations in place.

“Whether your poison is technology, economics, or business, crypto allows you to pioneer your way into something new. Of course, a sandbox isn’t only for those who play fair, and I’ve seen more than my fair share of scams and ill-managed projects over the years.”

“AdLunam marries my passion for mentoring and advising startups – something I’ve been doing in various industries for the past 10 years – with my dedication to healthy growth and sustainability in the crypto space.”

What is AdLunam, and what were your inspirations behind it?

“Along with my co-founders Lawrence Hutson – who’s also AdLunam’s CTO – and Jason Fernandes, AdLunam comes from our years of experience working in crypto and the overarching digital landscape that preceded it.”

“I’ve been in marketing for 16 years, and whereas other industries are only now starting to embrace that marketing is synonymous with community, in crypto, it’s been the case since the start. However, the stark reality is that retail investors often feel unsupported and disempowered by the industry as a whole.”

“Influencers – a major source of information for the average investor – are constantly pushing their own agendas. Investors find it difficult to know who to trust, one of the factors leading to altcoins being the first to bleed dry as soon as market sentiment dips due to panic sells.”

“Since investors need trustworthy access to vetted, high-quality projects – something that, as an investment platform, is one of AdLunam’s primary offerings – projects also deserve access to high-quality (i.e., engaged, loyal) investors.”

“As co-founders, we spent months brainstorming what solution we could come up with to address some of the major pain points we’d been living through – both personally and via the projects we’ve advised – working in the industry. We’re building the solution we wish had been available to us at multiple different stops on our own crypto journeys.”

What is an IDO?

“An IDO (short for Initial DEX Offering) is an evolution of the erstwhile ICO (Initial Coin Offering), which in crypto lore was the Wild West. ICOs allowed projects to raise funds directly from retail investors. Unlike an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering), where a crypto exchange has to agree to list you, ICOs face no such barriers. However, this left investors open to participation in projects that wouldn’t have passed a due diligence process.”

With the introduction of Defi (Decentralised Finance), IDOs became a safer option for retail investors to participate in altcoin public sales. IDOs are typically conducted on investment platforms such as launchpads, where projects go through a due diligence process similar to that done by a VC to safeguard investors from shady tokens.”

Your platform uses a proof of allocation mechanism. Can you explain more about it?

“AdLunam is an IDO launchpad, but unlike traditional crypto launchpads (aka investment platforms), we use an entirely different allocation mechanism.”

“Typically, investors who whitelist for a specific token sale can participate in a sale through one of a few mechanisms, including lotteries, auctions, or guaranteed allocation via staking. While lotteries and auctions leave investors at the mercy of luck, chance, or fate, staking requirements that ensure allocation is, for many retail investors, unaffordable, requiring thousands of dollars worth of launchpad tokens.”

“AdLunam’s Proof of Attention mechanism introduces to the crypto industry an entirely new way of project-investor collaboration. By gamifying investor engagement and behavioral patterns, projects can utilize AdLunam’s investor intelligence technology to extend allocation, airdrops, and community rewards to vetted top-tier retail investors. Investors (who typically spend countless hours weekly on Web2 platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, and Reddit to stay updated with crypto happenings) are incentivized for their industry participation.”

What does Engage to Earn mean for AdLunam – how does it use it?

“Engage to Earn is AdLunam’s model for investing in IDOs. By regularly engaging on the AdLunam platform (join the waiting list), investors rank up the leaderboard. Each user profile is expressed as a dynamic NFT (dNFT), which holds their store-of-value as an investor.”

“These NFT profiles qualify the highest-ranking investors for allocations and airdrops. By fractionalizing their NFTs, investors can bring other investors on board. This is already being done manually by community VCs who allow retail investors to invest under a single investment arm. However, with investor profile fractionalization, qualifying AdLunam investors have the opportunity to take up allocation without any upfront capital.”

What hurdles have you had to overcome when developing your platform?

“We’ve actually had a great run in getting things up and running. The crypto industry went into a bear market just before our own IDO, but we used this as an opportunity not only to keep building but to expand AdLunam’s market impact. We’ve been partnering with other launchpads to do a portion of their project raises using AdLunam’s Proof of Attention technology, for which we charge neither a listing nor a raising fee.”

“We’ve also been working with many tens of projects over the past months after opening up the AdLunam Seedpad for pre-IDO raises and the AdLunam Space Camp for advisory and growth support services. Had our TGE (Token Generating Event) taken place as per the original roadmap, these divisions would’ve launched in Q3 and Q4 of 2022. After years in business (and year’s worth of mileage on the life clock!), if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that it’s not what happens that determines success or failure, but how you respond to it.”

What does AdLunam seek to achieve over the next year?

“We’re super excited about what’s next! With Engage to Earn and Proof of Attention, we’re introducing to the industry something that flips conventional crypto investment practices on their head: The time is nigh for retail investors to be incentivized for their everyday participation in the space.”

“Crypto’s community engine runs on Web2 platforms like Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and Reddit. AdLunam brings an unparalleled experience to crypto community engagement: Discuss projects, build up your Proof of Attention score, and trade that for allocation, then invest directly in projects, all on the same Web3 platform.”

What excites you most about the Metaverse and your platform?

“The fact that the Metaverse is yet to be defined. Working in crypto for the past five years, what inspires me is how innovative founders, dedicated professionals, brave investors, and committed users are all co-creating an entirely new economy. The metaverse transcends crypto’s predominant fintech focus, which primes it for leading in greater mass adoption, and it’s going to be an interesting ride to see what the world – and AdLunam as a company – dreams up in this latest blend between the digital world and everyday life.”