Launchpool Labs — Community AMA Summary
Welcome to the first AMA with the team at Launchpool Labs — Launchpool’s newest blockchain community-centric incubator.
When: Friday, July 2nd @ 4PM UTC
Where: Discord Labs Channel, #live-ama-sessions channel
Guests: Rich (CEO at Launchpool) | Laura (COO at Launchpool) | Roxana (Head of Growth at Launchpool; Head of Launchpool Labs incubator)
Welcome to the first AMA with the team at Launchpool Labs. We hope this Ask Me Anything session will answer all your questions.
Launchpool Labs is a bespoke product of Launchpool, aimed at incubating and supporting very early stage projects and teams, taking teams from ideation or prototype to minimum viable product level.
The aim is to further ensure that projects develop successfully both pre and post launch, while looking at long-term commitments from all stakeholders (community, projects, funds, marketers). In this sense, Labs honours past and future engagements — as the community of Launchpool Labs is formed by the longest serving members of our Launchpool community.
Questions submitted upfront from the Community
Would the LPOOL I staked in AMEs be counted towards NFT eligibility?
Laura: YES! They have been counted and will count towards your eligibility.
Roxana: As long as you haven’t sold your bag, for the minimum required amount of time (Bronze NFT is minimum 3months holding of minimum 200LPOOL).
If a user acquired an NFT (eg. Diamond), can they transfer it to someone else? Will a user be able to sell/transfer their NFT to another KYC’ed user if they wanted and that new holder would now have all the rights that the NFT allows? Are Labs NFTs able to be gifted to other users? i.e. Once I’m eligible for the Silver NFT can I send a friend my Bronze NFT, they purchase LPOOL and can gain immediate access to labs?
Rich: These questions are quite similar, so I’ll answer them together. For the first year the NFT will be non transferable. After that we may allow/support the buying and selling. Ultimately we think this would be cool but at the start we need to protect the platform from being gamed through transfer so we will be monitoring ownership closely.
Roxana: NFTs are traced to wallet holders. Remember, 1 account = 1 KYC = 1 wallet, so essentially, we cannot encourage NFT transfers at the moment. We will however, enable Purchase Option for Gold and Diamond NFTs, as these will have their ‘natural distribution’ occur in April 2022 (Gold), and October 2022 (Diamond). We will send out a message to the community when NFT purchasing is available, most probably though the first cohort will just be Bronze NFT accessible.
Will you consider allowing people who may not meet the 200 LPool over 3 months criteria but instead have invested in 80% of all LPool projects and have held 50 lpool over 3 months into the Bronze tier? I feel this is very fair as loyalty to those that may not be as wealthy will also be rewarded. It aligns with Launchpool’s egalitarian mission statement.
Laura: We definitely appreciate all of our HODLers, big and small. We looked into the community and saw that 200 would be a good number to HODL for entry, and unfortunately have to put a line somewhere to make it viable. You will, however be able to participate in the SuperPuPs, lotteries, and voting — as outlined in the lightpaper.
Roxana: To add to Laura’s point, we did mention in the Litepaper that:
Regular $LPOOL Holder owns between 1 and 200 $LPOOL tokens, held for min. 50 days.
Action 1: Can participate in voting and community decision making.
Action 2: Can participate in Labs Lotteries for a chance to win “1 out of n” Bronze NFTs and incubated project token giveaways. Subject to vesting schedules.
A similar question in regards to token price and number of LPOOL to get NFTs. I am a small investor who held 99 LPool tokens throughout the crash. I bought them for $20 and $25. Are you planning any rewards for smaller investors like myself who held less than 200 Lpool?
Laura: As mentioned above, smaller HOLDers will be able to participate in other activities such as voting, lotteries, SuperPups, etc. Unfortunately, we don’t control the market.
Roxana: Close to over 100 people have held 200 LPOOL for 2months already. In just 30 days, if they don’t sell, these people will be airdropped a Bronze NFT, that grants them access to Labs allocations part of Cohort1. We expect Cohort1 to roll out in the immediate future (around the end of summer).
The first Bronze NFT distribution to those meeting the criteria (min. 200 LPOOL, held consecutively for 3 months), will occur in July 2021. After that, at a regular frequency, those that meet the criteria will be airdropped the Bronze NFT. Same process for the other NFTs.
First distribution for Silver NFT: September 2021.
First distribution for Gold NFT: April 2022 (natural distribution, not purchased distribution)
First distribution for Diamond NFT: October 2022 (natural distribution, not purchased distribution).
If I provided liquidity to the LPool/Eth pair on UniSwap (say 500LPool) and I wanted to qualify for the Silver Tier NFT, would I still be eligible given that the number of LPool can increase/decrease?
Rich: Yes! We have taken into account all our contracts and use cases for the token. So if you staked for an AME, provided liquidity to Uniswap, staked on BSC, provided liquidity to Pancakeswap, all these things have been taken into account and you will still be eligible for the NFT’s.
Are there any new project launches we should be expecting from Launchpool Labs regarding wallets, payments and the DeFi industry?
Roxana: We have a broad perspective over who we can incubate, and have already seen applications from projects that want to create metaverses and in-game NFTs, real estate, anti-forgery tech, decentralised finance etc. We are open to projects that the community would like to see, and remember: you have weight in the voting of who should be onboarded into Labs.
Laura: We interrupt this live AMA, to bring you a message from Launchpool:
Hey everyone, just a quick clarification that Launchpool Labs is a BESPOKE product of Launchpool. They are separate (entities) but intertwined. The Techstars Accelerator is also (a) separate (entity), but intertwined. The common denominator is LAUNCHPOOL.
Incubate — Accelerate — Launch.
Beside investing in new startups and building new technologies, have we looked into the burning of Launchpool tokens? For each of the projects that we incubate, these companies will need to commit to buying a certain amount of launchpool tokens and burning them. Let’s say that we raise $100K for a project, this project must commit to burn $2K (2%) worth of launchpool tokens.
Rich: As always it’s great to hear ideas and receive feedback from the community. We didn’t have this planned, but it’s a nice idea and we’ll definitely consider it.
Launchpool doesn’t charge a fee to the projects that we list. It’s a competitive environment so we are unable to right now.
For Launchpool labs the situation is slightly different. We are much more hands earlier in the process so there is scope to direct benefits of early incubation towards token holders. So for example from the first raise perhaps some of that could be used to buy and burn lpool
Would the NFT I get from holding be separate from the LPool I have? Can I still use my LPool tokens for AMEs?
Laura: Unfortunately, the NFT is like an entry key, so you can’t stake it for allocations. I’ll let Roxana expand on it.
Roxana:: NFT = access to exclusive deals. Investors require $LPOOL to join Lotteries, Giveaways. Investors require $LPOOL to join Labs AMEs. Buy your way into premium NFTs (limited) or get it by staking x holding. Investors holding a minimum amount of $LPOOL for a minimum of months and will receive an NFT into their wallets. This NFT will grant access to projects, opportunities, and rewards.
I’m interested in the Diamond NFT. After 18 months, can I sell some of my LPool and the Diamond NFT would still belong to me?
Roxana: After 18months of continuously holding 5000 LPOOL in your wallet, you will receive the Diamond NFT. This NFT is an access card to some really amazing deals, however please remember you still need your LPOOL to stake into the available Labs staking pools, which are as follows:
Pool 1: 200–2000LPOOL staking limit
Pool 2: 2001–5000 LPOOL staking limit
Pool 3: Unlimited LPOOL staking pool
Pool 1 for Diamond NFT hodlers gets them access to “seed” prices.
Pools 2 & 3 for Diamond NFT hodlers gets them access to “pre-seed” prices (so even better deals).
You will need LPOOL to stake & mine an allocation over the course of 90 days in that particular project that was incubated in the respective cohort.(edited)
Labs is more focused on rewarding longer term and larger holders. They are rewarded for their continued commitment.
As some users may lose some amount of LPool by using the bridge (200LPool can lose 5LPool for the bridging fee from BSC to ETH), is there any allowance for those that may lose some and may want to qualify for Bronze but may now have only have 195 LPool?
Laura: Thanks for the question. We have taken this into account, and Lpoolers will not be penalised in this instance.
What is the distinction between Launchpool Labs and Launchpool, it isn’t clearly explained?
Rich: Labs is the incubator for projects that will go on to launch (AME) on Launchpool — it’s securing a pipeline of quality projects. We have much more influence over projects coming to labs because we become partners much earlier in their lifecycle.
I am expecting for most Labs projects that we will influence tokenomics. It is our intention to make this beneficial for the first investors. So our community, our NFT holders should get access early, with high risk — high reward. I’m super excited for Launchpool labs. Having more control over projects, should in my mind, allow us to better ensure the benefits of success accrue to our token holders
Roxana: Remember: Launchpool Labs is a bespoke product of Launchpool, aimed at incubating and supporting very early stage projects and teams, taking teams from ideation or prototype to minimum viable product level.
Is there a specific chain to HODL my LPool to be eligible for NFT Badge? Would participation in the Lab Pools be on a specific chain?
Laura: Main chain is ETH, but BSC is ok to HODL your LPOOL. HOLDing is KEY!!
If I have the Gold Tier NFTs, can I use these NFTs forever or do each NFTs have a lifespan? Also do I need to stake the NFT for specific projects (only one project at a time) or can I use my NFT access for all projects at a time, how will this work?
Roxana: The NFT will grant you access to each cohort (group of projects). Each cohort has between 3 and 6 projects, which we incubate for a period of 3 months, and co-build, co-develop with them.
The NFT will be forever, for as long as Labs is live & kicking.
The NFT will grant you access to the staking pools for that NFT.
Pool 1: 200–2000LPOOL staking limit
Pool 2: 2001–5000 LPOOL staking limit
Pool 3: Unlimited LPOOL staking pool
Your NFT is tied to your wallet address, which you have KYC’ed with as part of our regulatory compliant framework for eligible participation in allocation mining events. Same conditions apply to Labs “AMEs”.
Part of the #beyourownVC narrative, is that Launchpool Labs is more exclusive, we reward long term hodlers and those who have been and will be with us the longest. Our effort is to encourage participants to think long term, high risk — high reward, and not just short-term (short-term is always conditioned by bull and bear markets, while long term thinking allows you the flexibility to enjoy investing in projects you find interesting, you believe can bring value, and have opened your appetite for investment).
You have the choice of selecting from that cohort (group of projects) the one(s) you like, and stake for 90 days and mine an allocation, once you have been granted access with your NFT.
Does LPool held on both the BSC and ETH blockchains count towards NFT eligibility?
Laura: Already answered above. Yes, you’re good.
If I buy a Diamond NFT, is there any benefit to buying a Gold NFT also?
Laura: Unfortunately, with Labs allocations, we’re doing them in a dynamic way so we will always make sure the allocations are evenly distributed, but in favour of our greatest supporters, long term holders and big holders. A little bit different from Launchpool, but for these incubated projects, we need the gamut of HOLDers, whales and all.
Roxana: Because the staking pool limits differ (so 200–2000 LPOOL limit, 2001–5000 LPOOL limit, and unlimited LPOOL staking pool), the best option would be, if you have purchased a Diamond NFT, that you use only that one, since you have the access to both seed & pre-seed (early & super early) prices & allocations.
As a tiered system, you will only be able to use the “highest NFT” that you have purchased or received through natural distribution (airdrop). This means, if you have a Gold NFT card, but have purchased a Diamond NFT card, you will be granted access to the Diamond NFT allocations ONLY.
For the LPool Gold Tier, if I have 500 LPool now (qualifying me for Silver) and I buy an additional 500 LPool later, will I get access to the Gold Tier a year from that time (later than April 2022) or not at all as I didn’t have 1000 LPool before April?
Rich: It is counted from the time you held the qualifying amount. So to earn Gold NFT you must have held the qualifying amount for qualifying time: 1000 lpool for 12 months.
Can we buy the Gold NFT with 1000 LPool before 2022? When and where will purchasing be available?
Laura: Yes you can! We will announce details about this soon. Stay tuned.
What will the NFTs actually do? Can we trade it, does it have any value other than the cost etc? How will we profit?
Roxana: We have already answered it above. This NFT is an access card to some really amazing deals, however please remember you still need your LPOOL to stake into the available Labs staking pools.
After staking in the Labs Pools for 3 months or 6 months for example, what happens to the LPool staked? Do I receive the NFT and LPool back?
Rich: As always the LPOOL is returned. NFT is airdropped, you don’t have to do anything other than hold for the designated time.
If someone was selling LPool on one chain, in order to buy on another, instead of just bridging them, every time such action was done, did the time counter restarted every time someone made a swap?
Laura: Yes the counter will restart if your hodl amount drops below the designated amount.
On Launchpool Labs will someone be able to stake/farm with 200 LPool and get some tokens from the seed for free as a reward?
Roxana: There will be a super pup you can stake into and receive free rewards from Labs projects. Super PuPs explained: Super PuPs is a PoP-Up-Pool that distributes a basket of digital assets offered by Launchpool Labs to the community. Anybody staked into the Super PuP for xx days prior to a distribution will receive free tokens of all projects as they pass through our incubator. Tokens will be divided equally amongst those staking. The more you stake, the more you get. Limit xxx LPOOL. e.g. Stake for 45 days in the Super PuP, max. Limit 500 LPOOL.
We have seen many scams and rug pulls in this space. How do you make sure that projects incubated, don’t do something reckless like running away with the funds they receive?
Laura: As with any investment, it is always recommended to DYOR (do your own research). For ANY kind of investment,
1. Make sure that you invest only what you afford to lose
2. This is an incubator, and as such is higher risk, higher reward
With that being said, we do extensive research and vetting on each project in the cohort.
Also remember that the community will be intimately involved with each project in the cohort, through meetings, voting, AMAs, reports on milestones, etc. You will be right there along for the ride.
#BeYourOwnVC is not just all ups and parties and lambos — it’s hard work and research. But it’s so rewarding!
Is there a way for a user to track how much longer (timewise) before they are eligible to qualify for a particular tier?
Rich: There is no way to track it that we will provide unfortunately. We expect that each hodler would probably have quite a good idea of what they have held and for how long by interrogating etherscan. You can of course always reach out to our mods to help you get clarity on your position.
Will the tier NFT be distributed automatically once the qualifying period has been completed if that is after the first initial unlock? I.e if 3 months holding 200 lpool is completed on August 15th when will the NFT be received.
Roxana: Yes, once the minimum criteria has been met, it will be distributed in batches. So anyone who meets the criteria on Day 15th for example, will receive it.
Example: min. 200 LPOOL held consecutively for 3months will result in receiving the Bronze NFT into your wallet.
Min. 500 LPOOL held consecutively for 6months will result in receiving the Silver NFT.
Min. 1000 LPOOL held consecutively for 12months will result in receiving the Gold NFT (purchasable upfront too).
Min. 5000 LPOOL held consecutively for 18months will result in receiving the Diamond NFT (purchasable upfront too).
Do NFTs expire or become inactive if lpool balance drops below say 500 for the silver NFT?
Rich: No. Once you have the NFT, it’s yours.
Are staked lpool counted or just lpool in wallets continuously? Are LPOOL on BSC counted?
Laura:They’re all counted…just don’t sell them!
Live Questions during the Labs AMA
When is the 2nd cohort estimated to begin? Please consider allowing gold and diamond NFT’s for the 1st cohort, otherwise there’s no point for me to buy it if I’m going to get it for free later.
Rich: Second will begin after the first!
Roxana: First cohort will be open to Bronze NFT holders, starts at the end of summer, and goes for 3 months. Expecting the 2nd cohort (we’re already discussing 2 projects) to go live in Q4 2021.
Do you think the seed pricing tiers will be enough incentive for people to stake into Labs AME’s compared to normal Launchpool AME’s? Because it’s a very long staking period for Labs AME’s and we would be missing out on a ton of normal AME’s during the 90–180 days.
Rich: It is our intention to make it very favourable, but high risk high reward. there will be some failures. But we hope there will also be some successes. Incubated projects will, for the most part, have their tokenomics decided by Labs, making early investment attractive.
Please explain more about how the lotteries will work?
Roxana: Lottery = giveaway. You do tasks or perform actions, and you qualify for 1 out of “n” gifts / rewards.
Any plans for a summary dashboard? To show a summary of all projects we invested in, especially for vesting schedules, how much we paid, how much % has been claimed/received?
Laura: Great idea, we’ll look into it.
If I buy diamond NFT now, can I still be eligible for airdrop later?
Roxana: If you already purchased it, you already have it.
If the first cohort is only Bronze NFT accessible, will any pre-seed allocations be available?
Roxana: Seed will be available for Bronze, no pre-seed. Please keep in mind though you’re getting a far better price than any private round 2 seed, or public seed allocation.
You mentioned being able to select particular projects within a cohort, meaning we don’t necessarily have to mine/pay for an allocation of every project in the cohort if we choose? Can you explain further how staking, mining and paying for allocations within a cohort will work?
Roxana: You still have to pay. We give the community the opportunity to vote or show their preference for a certain project. It’s up to you if you wish to stake & mine an allocation in all the projects part of that cohort (group), or just 1 of the “n” projects available.
Staking: We have already mentioned, the NFT gives you access to certain prices and %. You will have to choose between the available staking pools:
200–2000 LPOOL limit
2001–5000 LPOOL limit
unlimited LPOOL
Mining: Stake for 90 days, mine for 90 days.
Payment: Payment Window details will be provided closer to payment date announcement. Lower valuations, attractive payment terms, high risk — high reward.
The partnership with techstars is clearly incredible, however this doesn’t begin until March 2022. What resources are LaunchPool committing and how confident are you in being able to accelerate the projects in these early cohorts?
Laura: Techstars is a completely separate initiative. If you check out the project page:
You can see the staff working on it. We will also have a dedicated MD (Managing Director) hired and mentors coming onboard. Alongside Techstars — who have perfected the process — we have every confidence that we will find fantastic projects.
Applications for Techstars starts on September 13, 2021 — so its a year long process.
If you buy a diamond/gold NFT upfront, will you still receive the natural distribution for Bronze, Silver NFTs? Will a user receive a 2nd Gold/Diamond NFT issue via the natural distribution? (assuming the require # of Lpool tokens are held)
Laura: No, unfortunately you can’t mix the tiers. Once you have the highest one, that’s what you have. The NFT is your access key!
Proposal for the team to consider: Revenue distribution model to all NFT holders. Create a community profit wallet where a certain % of every incubated project token is sent. Vested based on a schedule, can be sold based on a schedule. The funds received can then be distributed back to all Diamond, Gold, Silver, Bronze NFT holders on a scaled basis. That will be a highly sought after utility for the NFTs!
Rich: This is again an interesting model. However, in my opinion, it starts sounding a lot like a security in the eyes of regulators, so unlikely that this will be possible. More likely is that we have a successful Super PuP and then create some more offerings around this.
Will there be a cap on the number of Diamond, Gold NFTs? With the total number of Lpool tokens available, there could be a lot of Diamond and Gold NFTs holders, and if the allocations are spread thin, it may not be as desirable. A final capped number of NFTs could also make it more exclusive.
Roxana: It’s not capped, and we have no immediate plans to cap it. We want to provide opportunities to people all over the world, who pass KYC requirements. There is room for everyone. If we see high interest, we can expand from 3–6 projects incubated/quarter to 6+ projects per cohort (group). We can make larger allocations available for Gold and Diamond.
After cohort1, this will become dynamic. For now, we need to have a format in mind and see how it works with everyone participating. You also have to consider that Launchpool.XYZ AMEs will carry on too, in parallel.
It would be interesting to convert some LPOOL to… “non-sellable” but useful LPOOL (after successful AME). This prevents opportunists from buying tokens for a hot pool, swiping a large chunk, then bailing later. Or perhaps grant long term HODLers extra non-sellable LPOOL for staking in super-pups for example.
Roxana: They still need to qualify for the NFTs and if they buy the Gold / Diamond NFT, we burn the amount used to pay.
1 Gold NFT costs 1000 LPOOL => 1,000 LPOOL will forever be burned.
1 Diamond NFT costs 5000 LPOOL => 5,000 LPOOL will forever be burned.
Where does the Launchpool team start looking for new projects when it’s seed/pre-seed? Or how do they start to appear on your radar?
Roxana: We will have an application form on the LaunchpoolLabs.xyz website, once it’s live, where you can submit your idea / prototype / business plan, and unlock you application with a share on Twitter.nSeparately, we are discussing with different protocols, dev academies, partners etc. We expect the website to go live at the end of this month. fingers crossed our devs are working hard on getting it done, we’ve received some sneak peaks and it looks amazing.
Will there be separate pools/AME’s for Techstars cohorts once integration is complete?
Laura: We can’t really reveal too much about the Techstars accelerator at its very early stage, but for sure there will be opportunities for the community in the final selected projects. Stay tuned.
Launchpool Labs Team: Thanks everyone for joining. Great questions from our community, we hope we managed to answer all of them! Keep in touch, we’ll do more of these, and voice chats moving forward.
p.s. We may jump in here to show you previews of how the NFTs will look like, once the design team finishes engineering them.
#beyourownVC with Launchpool Labs! Join the Launchpool Labs Investor Club, and get access to off-the-market exclusive allocations in the projects we incubate every quarter. Access offers with your NFT membership card (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond), stake $LPOOL, and mine an allocation. High risk — high reward.
Launchpool Labs is a chain agnostic incubator for teams, builders, universities, & developer hubs, where teams can build MVP (minimum viable product) and MVC (minimum viable community).
Website — Twitter — Telegram — Discord — Medium — LinkedIn — Litepaper
