BMJ Score: 3.8
Market
Transparency
Team
Token
Adoption
Quick Summary
42 crypto investors read thisCommentary
The collaborative economy is booming, and according to PWC, platforms focused on this ecosystem are anticipated to reach 28 billion euros by 2025. The founders from Stoby want to help students across Europe find small jobs easily to make side income while helping others free up time. While there are numerous platforms on the market dedicated to paid-skills and freelance hiring, Stoby is focusing on the niche market of European students, and offers 11 areas of tasks which include caretaking, pet sitting, gardening, moving assistance, housekeeping, tutoring, babysitting, computer assistance, shopping delivery, administrative assistance, and laundry delivery. In terms of the competitive marketplace, Stoby is one of the only platforms that features blockchain and that is specialized in both a specific service and group across Europe. We think Stoby’s platform is a great application for blockchain because it will provide a transparent log of students’ credentials and ratings for hirers to evaluate, while also providing a safe and secure method of payment. Stoby offers a certification that will attest to students’ levels of expertise and their experiences on the platform. To obtain a certification, a student must have a proven track record of successfully competed jobs. These certifications will be integrated into the blockchain for immutability, meaning that they can’t be falsified. While the platform does take fiat currency, participants can leverage value by utilizing the STB token. The token acts as both a utility and equity token in that it provides users with a 50% discount on platform charges, and if individuals hold more than 15,000 tokens, they have no platform fees. Additionally, when individuals pay in STB tokens, their service offer is promoted on the platform. FInally, if an individual holds more than 2500 tokens, he or she is entitled to voting rights in an advisory capacity for the company. The platform will also have a list of products for sale that relates to jobs (think rakes and shovels for a gardening job), and those who pay in STB tokens for these products will receive a discounted price. We like that Stoby has a working MVP, but would like to see how many customers are actually leveraging this. Finally, while the Stoby team is young, they are working to cover their bases by incorporating roles in business development, strategy and PR, legal, and blockchain-specific positions. The Stoby team also lists some great advisors and features four partners on their website. Ultimately, we really like Stoby’s niche focus on the student marketplace across Europe, and think their platform and token economics are unique. Our one concern is how Stoby will maintain its competitive advantage, and we encourage the team to continue working on their partnerships and getting users on the platform to help spur the project’s differentiation.
Investment Information:
- How to invest: Interested investors can follow the link and register for the Stoby whitelist.
- Discount: 20% bonus throughout presale
- Eligibility: Citizens of the U.S. and China are not eligible to participate.
- Token Price: 0.20 € = 1 STB
- Jurisdiction: France
- Accepted currencies: Euro and Ethereum
- Minimum purchase: 100 Euro
Market: 3.5
- Problem addressed/solved: Stoby wants to answer two pressing problems: 1) lack of time for busy individuals and 2) lack of quick service jobs for students that actually pay well.
- Target customers/customer/ segments/verticals: Stoby's connection platform allows students to provide a panel of services aimed at individuals lacking free time. University students often find it difficult to acquire jobs on campus, so Stoby aims to help them connect with individuals who are willing to pay them for miscellaneous errands or even chores.
- Value creation: Stoby puts money in the pockets of students by connecting them to people who are willing to hire them to complete a variety of tasks. Those who do the hiring are rewarded with more time in their schedule because they can now hire students to babysit, housekeep, move boxes, deliver laundry, etc.
- Competition: Stoby’s the first platform targeting the student community. It’s a wide open market and the project is solving a legitimate problem for both parties. Other existing sites like TaskRabbit will be the biggest competition. Stoby will specifically focus on students as its niche market and offer many more features than are currently available.
- Market size/potential: The most frequent freelance opportunities within online job sites are moving assistance/gardening, babysitting, and housekeeping. These jobs are not generally desirable for independent adults because they do not pay well enough to support the average family. However, many students are looking for part-time income and are the perfect demographic to complete such tasks. Students in 2018 also find the vast majority of their jobs online, so Stoby hopes to become a staple in the student community as the primary online job platform for those who weren't fortunate enough to get an on-campus job.
- Regulatory risks: The main risks here stem from ensuring that students and client data is protected and adheres to GDPR standards.
Transparency: 4
- Investor value: As mentioned under “Token”, Stoby really wants its token to act as a reward for the students who provide their services with the help of the platform. The real value for this token will come from the adoption of cryptocurrency at the universities that Stoby hopes to acquire in a partnership. If legitimate schools allow the use of STB on campus due to so many students utilizing the Stoby platform for work-study, then the token’s value could likely explode from an increase in demand.
- Disclosures: Stoby hits all the marks in terms of well-written documents that give relevant information on the project. The whitepaper and one-pager is the best of the bunch, while the financial analysis document seems a bit premature and hopeful, to say the least. The MVP is 100% available online and the UI is incredibly well done. The only slight on the MVP would be that it’s not fully developed with the blockchain and token ecosystem as of writing.
- Token distribution: 80% crowdsale, 12% Stoby & partners, and 8% presale.
- Use of proceeds: 34% private sale, 20% marketing, 17% team, 22% partner, and 8% reserve.
- Caps: Soft cap: 2.4 million STB; Hard cap: 25 million STB
Team: 4
- Track record: Stoby has ten core members and an additional seven advisors. Both the CEO (Julian Labatut) and CFO (Bertrand Tisseire) have top-notch LinkedIn accounts with a combined 7,000 followers. Labatut comes from a marketing background and will be in charge of all operations and strategy for Stoby. His experience isn’t at the level of other prominent blockchain CEOs, but his supporting staff seem to be extremely invested in the project with their website pictures in Stoby shirts, LinkedIn work summaries, and individual marketing on behalf of Stoby. Thomas Mazieres is another Co-Founder (also CMO),and he brings a communications and entrepreneurial background to the project. His LinkedIn profile has a whopping 11,000 followers, which could be extremely beneficial for Stoby as the project looks to market and form partnerships.
- Integrity: It’s great to see the level of transparency that Stoby is bringing to the table, and the overall company spirit cannot be rivaled. The team members all have Stoby shirts in their biography pictures, flaunt Stoby on their LinkedIn profiles, and genuinely fit the bill for their respective positions. Many startups will value experience over passion for the project, and while Stoby does have some solid work experience in terms of its employees, the passion for blockchain and technology will be a huge driver for the project’s success.
- Julian Labatut, Co-Founder and CEO (LinkedIn)
- Bertrand Tisseire, Co-Founder & CFO (LinkedIn)
- Thomas Mazieres, Co-Founder & CMO (LinkedIn)
- Alexandre Regourd, Project Manager ICO (LinkedIn)
Team Members
Token Mechanics: 4.5
- MVP: The MVP is online and operates in France. Interested parties can access the MVP at the following link and try out the slightly limited version of Stoby. As a first impression, the UI looks sleek and straightforward. All operations on the platform went smoothly for the BMJ analysts.
- Token use case: The STB token will function as a typical utility token and will be the primary form of payment within the platform. Stoby wants its token to be seen more as a rewards token for the students. The long-term goal is to set up partnerships with schools that could accept the token on campus for various things at restaurants or bookstores.
- Value-added: The four main advantages that Stoby token holders receive are as follows: 0 fees on the platform, access to premium services, the ability to highlight one’s account to the best student profiles, and partners’ discount.
- Decentralization: The STB token will be used on decentralized platforms, such as EtherDelta or IDEX.
- Token Supply: Max supply of 25 million STB.
User Adoption: 2.5
- Technical difficulty/investment expertise needed: Stoby has a clear-cut goal of providing a connection platform for students seeking additional income and individuals who want to delegate tasks of daily life that they just don’t have time to complete themselves.
- Halo effect: Stoby lists four partners on the main site, none of which will register for the average person. A few of the companies include At Home, BiGrain, and La French Tech. It seems most of these are just advisory companies for the ICO. The platform is insured by Allianz, which is a widely known company that typically operates on an international level.
- Buzz: Stoby has over 1,700 followers on the Facebook page, but only receive a few likes per post. On the other hand, the Twitter page has 800 followers and gets a heap of likes and shares on every post. The team is very efficient with its Tweets and each one seems to gather at least 200 likes. According to Buzzsumo, Stoby gets most of its recognition from its social media accounts.
