Carl Koeneman was raised in Toronto, Canada. He had an affinity for financial markets and video games as a kid so a natural transition into the realm of cryptocurrencies was a natural fit as the market was booming in 2017 when he was 28 years old. This led to him working with recent graduates from the University of Chicago, Northwestern, and The University of Illinois to develop an analytics program that tracks unusual activity in Ethereum, Bitcoin, and EOS trading both in volume and individual trade sizes to help determine which way the market for that given cryptocurrency is going to move based on its volatility.
How did you get started in this business? What inspired you to start this business?
Was interested when everybody and their grandmother started to ask me about cryptocurrency. While I wasn’t an expert by any means I knew this was a temporary bubble and would soon see a pop. Sure enough, that’s exactly what I knew was important to do is find a reliable way to track these movements and provide this data to those who are trading Ethereum and other cryptos based on data we can help organize and provide.
How do you make money?
Being able to trade on our own data has been very valuable and using exchanges and then providing proof of our trading and profits has helped us to build up our Telegram chatrooms and private channels where members pay a monthly fee to be a part of our network and information.
How long did it take for you to become profitable?
This was a hobby and a pet project for a while. It took a bit for us to focus on the idea of making money versus the idea of refining the data and ensuring it’s accuracy. When we started trading on it we knew that not every trade is going to go our way but the majority of the trades started to and it started to both being profitable to trade and requested so we said lets charge ETH for access and the rest has been good from there.
When you were starting out, was there ever a time you doubted it would work? If so, how did you handle that?
Of course. In the crypto world, there are no sure things and it may be the most volatile thing in the world outside of Donald Trump’s love affair with the media. Not all trades based on our information works out and you learn as a crypto analyst and trader that you don’t win every trade but you let the winners ride and cut the losers short enough that you can limit the downside losses.
How did you get your first customer?
We were posting in a Telegram chat room about our results and somebody said @CarlKoeneman I see that your information and data analysis has been pretty spot on. We would like to have exclusive access to this and limit the other members of this chat room from viewing and seeing this.
What is one marketing strategy (other than referrals) that you’re using that works really well to generate new business?
Just letting others see our data analysis from time to time has been super beneficial. If you go with the freemium model and showing that what you are doing is valuable and they can profit from your hard work then it’s a win/win to showcase the information.
What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the last few months?
Trading crypto in a market that looks like a hacksaw is cutting down your trades can make you think twice about leveraging and not having enough money to make rent. Luckily we put in more extreme money management principles.
What do you think it is that makes you successful?
Hard work, determination, and the love of the crypto markets which just doesn’t close because it truly is a global currency for the people. DeFi for the win.
What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
When that telegram message came in and said this is great you need to make this private and I’ll start paying you for this data.
What does the future hold for your business? What are you most excited about?
As the cryptocurrency industry continues to gain steam especially with Bitcoin Miami conference having the biggest turn out of all time is really amazing for the future of our industry and we expect to see a lot more trading activity especially thanks to exchanges like FTX and Robinhood making it democratized.
What business books have inspired you?
The Innovators Dilemma is a sound principle book for those thinking outside the matrix.
What is a recent purchase you have made that’s helped with your business?
Ethereum. It’s a cryptocurrency that you should read the white paper on and see how it’s utility is being used especially with NFT’s in the art and entertainment space right now.