AMA with Solve.Care CEO: The Most Revealing 18 Questions & Answers
On Friday, August 23, 2019, Solve.Care’s CEO Pradeep Goel hosted an Ask Me Anything session about SOLVE, our utility token. The AMA took place on our official Telegram channel. We’ve collected the top 18 questions and answers for you here!
1. Are there any updates on Solve.Care’s Asia expansion plan and HQ relocation?
We have made significant progress in the last couple of months and our Asian Expansion plan is ahead of schedule. Here is the status: a) The decision to relocate the Solve.Care HQ to Singapore has been made and approved. b) The HQ’s initial location has been finalized. c) It is in the heart of Singapore in the Duo Tower, which is an excellent location. d) Our Regional President for APAC Jason Dehni has joined, been on-boarded, and is actively working in Singapore. e) We are having a series of business development and partnership meetings in Singapore already. I personally attended several earlier this week. f) We have a number of senior-level candidates in the recruiting pipeline and we are very pleased with the quality of talent available to us. I am very proud of the efforts of the recruiting team on that front.
2. What are the main targets for 2019 and medium-term plans 2020–2021?
We are developing our 2020–2021 plans now. They are essential to our equity raise, and so are being very carefully scrutinized. I will only say this — we have a deep and broad revenue plan which is unprecedented for any size company in any market. And we plan to achieve it. We have tremendous traction in the US. We are seeing global interest from Pharma and a high sense of urgency. We see a growing opportunity in the government sector (US and middle-east), and Asia is just getting started. I am investing in delivery partnerships and program management now to be able to service a broad array of clients.
3. Do you have more clients that are ready to sign or already signed?
Two are signed, one is in the signing process, and at least 1 more is expected to sign.
4. How much of the “Robust Pipeline” picture is still active?
The pipeline is and should be the envy of any health-tech, insure-tech, and fin-tech company in the world, Blockchain or not. We are setting an aggressive revenue growth target for 2020–2021 and it is based on real leads and pipelines. And with Jason stepping full time into the APAC President role, we will have a yet to be determined but significant increase in deal volume. Remember, we want to be in a position to choose our clients as much as they choose us. We don’t want to take on engagements that are not going to be mutually profitable and value accretive. Which means we must continue to execute with a clear focus and clear understanding of the client profile. Lastly, our revenue model is getting more and more diversified in terms of client and network types. This essential risk diversification.
5. Do you consider making use of implementation partners (e.g., for configuration and partly scoping and designing) to ensure more clients can be on-boarded to Solve.Care’s network?
Absolutely! We don’t want to become a service delivery organization with a heavy human footprint across the planet. Our mission is to build, envision, configure, and launch sponsored and open care networks that are accessible via Care.Wallets and paid for by SOLVE tokens. We want and are talking to service delivery organizations who have feet on the ground to localize and support the care networks in their geography and domain. And we are ready to support them fully. One of the key assignments for Jason is to build a network of partners in Asia. And we are already doing that in US/North America. We are talking to major corporations about launching our platform in LATAM and MENA. However, we need to make sure that we can maintain the quality of our delivery and support organization for the entire supply chain. So we will look for quality over quantity. Concentration versus diversified delivery partnerships
6. How scalable is the business model? Currently, for BI, customer on-boarding is 6 months. Given the learning curve, how many months would this be going forward? Do you expect an improvement in the technology stack that can expedite this process substantially?
Our business model is unique, global, and proving to be massively scalable. But that is not because of the technical scalability of the platform. Our real innovation is our networks and SOLVE token as a dual form token — gas/utility and payment vehicle. We are winning business because we leveraged Blockchain to solve real issues that have real ROI for our clients and real value for consumers. Our clients are launching a care network that combines clinical and administrative cards. There needs to be tremendous rigor and oversight in such networks and that takes time. Technology is not the gating factor. Client review processes are the real factors and, yes, can and will get faster with each subsequent network launch. We are already discussing the next round of care networks that will be launched in 50% of the time it took for launch the first couple.
7. Who are your top 2 competitors? Please comment on Solve’s competitive position and customer value versus on-boarding clients. Would it be likely that clients go to competitors when Solve won’t accept these clients?
We are primarily competing with in-house IT teams enamored with Blockchain and wanting to build in-house solutions. And increasingly we expect to see other companies adopt our model because there are almost no other Blockchain initiatives that can boast our level of success and consistent leadership. So we should not be surprised to see companies attempting to look more and more like us. Both are inevitable and we will maintain our advantage through first mover, best executor, constant innovator, and strong client references. Competition is inevitable and is welcome because it helps move the solution into the mainstream industry.
8. Are Solve clients actively buying SOLVE token on the exchange now? If yes, what is the demand like and will it be consistent?
Solve clients are in contracting and testing mode for buying SOLVE tokens. Client purchases are expected to fall into a regular rhythm within the next 2–4 weeks. I see no more structural barriers or impediments. All the pieces are in place. Also keep in mind that clients are testing out different models — exchanges, trading desks, and bank-led purchases. But again I see or hear of no structural impediments.
9. Can you give an example of how many tokens a client would use?
This depends on the type of network and the number of network nodes and users. We don’t publish our network prices because that is highly sensitive and competitive information that other companies would love to know. However, let me try and answer the question another way … Clients have to pay us care network fees (nodes, wallets, cards, coins, and transactions) — all of these are paid monthly (or annually) and are paid in the form of SOLVE tokens. And network fees are NOT directly dependent on wallets. There are many other factors that determine network fees. Regardless, all fees are paid in SOLVE into service wallets. In addition, if the client chooses to publish services into the network (e.g. Lyft/Uber/Rx), those services are an additional cost and are paid for in SOLVE
10. Until when is funding secured, even without equity raise?
Revenue + reserves = funding in place for most of 2020. Equity will give us accelerated growth. Reserves exclude treasury.
11. Please give us an update on equity raise and initial IPO plans.
It’s going very well. Jason has stepped in to take over a lot of meetings and logistics. We expect to be fully/over-subscribed. The focus is on strategic value not just the monetary value of the investor. We want equity investors to bring us increased market access. Cash is a commodity but strategic investors can and should bring us value that allows us to grow faster/better.
12. What has been the positive and negative feedback so far from corporate clients and users?
We have had excellent feedback so far. Nothing negative. The main concern is — will some giant swoop in to buy us (one of the main reasons to do equity raise is to address this concern). The second concern is — are you growing too fast (no we are growing exactly per plan). Lastly, what happens if I get hit by the proverbial bus (have and executing on a management team diversification plan)
13. Please provide an update on the Deltec Bank relationship and other trusted relationships for trading larger size block.
It is in place and being expanded. Clients are clearly more comfortable with dealing with a bank that can handle Fiat -> SOLVE without the client having to take on counterparty or custody risk.
14. Can you explain in very basic terms how you are achieving technical scalability if you are on the Ethereum network, which is currently experiencing lower throughput volumes?
In simple terms, we have a public-private chain architecture and we have a carefully designed platform that can aggregate transactions, and provide the needed platform services that isolate consumers from Ethereum related performance and security issues. Care.Wallets are designed to provide a smooth user experience and handle the latency of the underlying chain. I am happy to do a deeper dive into platform architecture if time permits or on another AMA.
15. A follow up to question 5: Is the typical duration of the on-boarding process for a new client 6 months? Can this substantially be reduced going forward? I assume the on-boarding of a new client is from a technical perspective a time-consuming exercise.
6 months is long. I expect the next round of care networks to be launched faster. And we are doing a lot of things to shrink the time to market. But given that we have built, launched, and are now optimizing within the first 2 years is stunningly fast. I have built/run many tech companies before that were on top of the INC 500 fastest growing company list year after year, and Solve.Care is moving faster than any other. We are currently negotiating a contract that if signed would be fully launched by Dec 31, 2019. That is the speed we plan to achieve.
16. Will clients be able to purchase tokens OFF exchange via private OTC?
My suspicion is that crypto savvy clients may take that option. We don't dictate how they buy and through whom they buy. But generally speaking, clients are too risk-averse and would prefer to buy fiat -> SOLVE.
17. How will clients prove what they paid for them if they choose not to be subject to the token’s fluctuations?
There is a process in place that allows approved trading desks, OTC, and banks to submit transaction data as part of the token deposit into Master Wallet. This data allows us to attribute a redemption value of the token as long as it is circulating inside the care network. Once SOLVE exits the care network, then it is, of course, variable value again.
18. What are the main risks for success in the next 12 months?
Execution risk (well managed but always there), crypto market crash risk (we are focused on clients, revenue and network diversity to decouple from market volatility), and regulatory risk (we are extremely careful and will continue to be hyper compliant).
Learn more about SOLVE in our new video series “All About SOLVE”. Check out the first episode here (includes transcript)!
There is always more to come! We’re continuing to push forward and be a flagship project, delivering solutions to large clients and revolutionizing healthcare around the world.
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