AMA with CEO Alexandre Raffin and COO Tanguy Nelly from Baguette Token’s team (Full script)
On Oct. 16th we had a very informative AMA with CEO Alexandre Raffin and COO Tanguy Nelly from Baguette Token’s team. Below please find the chat script in chronological order:
#1
Q: How would you describe your project to a non-crypto person?
A: So basically, Baguette Token is a community-based & meme project which is building the Favorite Cryptocurrency of Baguette Eaters — the project is still under development.
Baguette Token tries to overtake Dogecoin (which is also a meme project) through baguettening, which refers to the possible future event when Baguette Token overtakes Dogecoin to become the most valuable meme in terms of market capitalization.
#2
Q: What differentiates Baguette Token from all the other food coins expect for being more crunchy? I’m sure a lot of people are fed up with all those food coins. So, what’s your most convincing argument for investing in baguette?
A (Alexandre Raffin): I will give you some info about myself because I believe in investing in people. So, I’m a persistent mother**cker. I like winning but I hate losing even more. I’m very competitive. But I’m not a psycho either. I think sheer will is maybe the best predictor of success which is why I wanted to emphasize this.
For a bit of background: I studied math and physics for 2 years in one of the best schools in France, Lycée Saint-Louis. Before crypto, I played the video game League of Legends. I was pretty good at it. Peaked ranked 300 in the EUW server. I played (and beat ) many of the pros. And after that, I got into crypto very late 2017 and created GAINS quite quickly, in February 2018. GAINS is one of the leading crypto communities (with Quora’s main group). We’ve worked with many top tier projects in the space like Aave, FTX, Zilliqa, Kava, Kyber, etc. I’ve invested in more than 40 projects and chatted with hundreds of CEOs. That has helped me understand how this space works and what to do to be successful.
#3
Q: Who is your investor? How do you generate revenue to sustain the project? What are your goals to the end of 2020 and beyond?
A: Our investors are legion! We conducted a private & public sale at the beginning of September, we raised +180kUSD which is pretty awesome.
#4
Q: What is your main goals on 2020?
A: Main goals for 2020 for Baguette Token: getting it off the ground, creating a lively community and first use cases. In the background, we’re working with a team of devs to build a cool app!
#5
Q: What makes this token special than other token? And what are our advantages if we buy and hold this token?
A: Staking is coming so you’ll be able to get even more BGTT if you hold and stake.
#6
Q: Many projects rug pulled and exit scam recently. Why should investors trust your project not to do the same?
A: I’m a public figure. I’ve been in this space for close to 3 years. I have raised over $4M in my community. I’m interviewing CEOs of popular projects like Kava and ShareRing. I’ve met people like Roger Ver. I’ve travelled to many conferences in London, Amsterdam, Palma de Mallorca and even Davos. So I’m not going anywhere.
#7
Q: As You know, many people judge a project by the token price, what do you have to say to investors? What’s the plan to increase the token demand?
A: I think that investors should lie down, take a breath & enjoy the ride — even if Baguette Token will have some DeFi use cases in the near future, that’s mainly a meme! Take it easy guys.
Our next use cases should bring more incentives to the project, the first of them will be BGTT staking (in partnership with Ferrum Network) & should be released at the end of the month.
#8
Q: To farm a token, it’s easy, but to make it valuable can be difficult. Beside building strong community, developing mainnet function, what else can your project do to make the token more valuable?
A: We are thinking about a cool app that will bring real demand for the token. Right now, it’s just speculation fueling the price action.
#9
Q: COVID 19 has slowed many economies around the world but as a crypto business has it affected you negatively or positively? Secondly, are you still on track to achieve your targets as the road map says?
A: I don’t care about COVID. Whether it rains or shines, whether there’s a global pandemic or not, we work, learn and build. We might release an updated roadmap soon with some new ideas.
#10
Q: I see that BGTT wants to compete against Doge, do you think you can reach this token? Will the Baguette Lovers be stronger than the Doge Lovers?
A: Absolutely. It’s good to aim high. But tbh, why just have the goal of getting at where Doge is? I want to build something even bigger, even cooler.
I think what we’re doing is both silly and potentially of public necessity. Memes make us feel good. Being in a tight community and creating bonds with others is one of the fundamental needs of humans.
Since we’re touching on very strong needs, I think we can go very far if we manage to hit the nail.
#11
Q: Why did you call your project Baguette?
A: It’s scandalous that in more than ten years of crypto, no token project related to the baguette has been created; that’s an affront to the baguette and everything that it represents: a refined and delicious staple of French cuisine that has accompanied mankind for centuries. By creating the Baguette Token, we are thus fulfilling our destiny, seizing our birthright and paying tribute to the glorious baguette.
#12
Q: What is the BGTT team currently working on? What is the priority for developers during this quarter?
A: Can’t give a lot of details sadly at this point but we want to bring real utility to the token, one way or another. Creating something that people love is the first step. Then, you have users and traffic and you can figure out the rest. This product will be closely tied to crypto and memes, at least in the early days.
#13
Q: Baguette has recently got listed on Probit and currently you are holding a trading competition in colab with them. Are there more listings planned?
A: Sure, more listings are definitely in the pipes but we want to build our deploy our first couple of use cases first.
#14
Q: Experienced team is the most vital thing in building company growth, a project will not develop without being managed by an experienced team, whatever it is good. So, how about BGTT ? Does your team have good experience in the cryptocurrency world?
A: Hey, see some details above for our experience. Also, we have many great advisors that cover everything we need: networking, code and business. One of our advisors is the CEO of a project that reached more than $200M mcap btw.
#15
Q: Which major exchange you wanna reach (list on there) after this or for a several times?
A: We reached more than 50 exchanges to be honest, we chose ProBit among all of them. It was really tough to find a legit exchange since most of CEX are really shady. Really good exchanges are as rare as good cryptocurrencies. But governments are delaying regulation, so it’s also the countries fault. Of course, we still in touch with a lot of them, we don’t want to miss great opportunities in the future so we’re talking with them on a weekly basis, in order to stay connected
#16
Q: Can you give me a reason why users should hold BGTT in long term as most of the tokens these days easily lose their value so quickly and got dump.
A: To answer this question a bit more broadly and if I may give you some general advice: you’re not going to get really rich by flipping projects.The biggest whales I know just get in projects early and hold for a long time. This is how you get the 50X, 100X… Of course, it’s very hard to hold for a long time and through all the pumps and corrections but this is the best and easiest way imo. So, no matter what you hold, research projects really deep, and try to hold for a long period of time.
As to why hold Baguette specifically: I’ve been in crypto for 3 years and I intend to be in crypto at least for the next 10. It’s the future, I know it. Lots of projects similar to us have anonymous teams. Just the fact that these guys are anon tells me a lot. They’re not willing to put their name to back up what they’re doing. They’re afraid. We’re the opposite. We have everything to lose if we don’t deliver. We have skin in the game. And that’s the best you can ask for. If you want to diversify your portfolio and invest in a crypto meme token, I would say Baguette is the best one because of this.
#17
Q: Only getting users, holders etc is not everything. In my opinion, a project needs to deal with solving a real world issue or problem. What is the problem that your project primarily focuses on?
A: Baguette Token is mainly a meme so.. what’s the main use case behind it? Give a good laugh to people while making their day a little bit brighter.
#18
Q: Do you have a plan for hire big crypto influencer for promote your tokens?
A: We’re already working with more than 10 Telegram communities. We will for sure kick it up a notch when needed. These things just need to go in stages. It wouldn’t make sense to go to a big influencer right now, it’s too early. When we’re ready and the time is right, we’ll do what needs to be done. There are times to do marketing and time to build (always). Anyway, we’ll keep on communicating often. I hate projects that are just silent because they say that they’re building, this is so bad.
A: Sure we do! In fact, marketing started last week (let me share some crypto articles links below.
https://cryptonews.com/news/baguette-token-sets-its-crust-on-becoming-the-most-valuable-7986.htm
https://conseilscrypto.com/token-baguette-entree-remarquee-communaute-crypto/
#19
Q: Why should people think of Baguette as more than a MEME coin and solution to real life problems?
A: I would first of all say that being “just” a meme token can be fine. See Doge sitting at 300M+ mcap. With that said, I think it would be near impossible to get there by being just a meme these days. Which is why we’re working on a great app.
#20
Q: Listing on top Cexchanges like Binance, Huobi, etc. is possible?
A: It is 100% possible. I know a lot of people working in top tier exchanges. Binance is harder of course but it’s still possible. Above contacts though, what will make listing in a top CEX is simply what we have achieved: do we have a big, active and high quality community, do we have good volume already, do we have a cool product?
#21
Q: What makes you different from Doge?
A: Maybe the taste? No, let’s be serious: The Dogecoin community is large but very dispersed, this “community-based” vibe has been lost years ago. In addition, the nature of the DOGE blockchain does not allow the creation of a DAO in order to federate their community as a whole. That’s why we’re trying to achieve this, community is probably the most interesting/powerful force when it comes to crypto (just look at Lord Bitcoin).
#22
Q: 1-Increasing Token price 2- make Token Valuable 3-Building Community Trust. From 3 aspects above, which one the most important for you?? If all above are important for you, which one that will you do first?
A: Building Community Trust, of course! Without community, we wouldn’t be able to achieve our vision of a fully decentralized & community-driven project.
#23
Q: Do you have plans to fight with scams in any way?
A: That’s tough, scams are a real pain in the ass! Baguette.finance usurped our identity & conducted a 20 ETH exit scam a few weeks ago.. that’s a shame! Unfortunately Telegram is pseudonymous so it’s kind hard to fight against those scams. The easiest way is the teach to our community how to deals with/avoid those scams through DYOR.
#24
Q: Will Baguette be available on big market like Okex, Kucoin?
A: Do we really want Baguette on OKEx and KuCoin these days? Maybe when they have recovered.
#25
Q: Why we should buy Baguette?
A: That’s for you to decide if you want to buy Baguette. I have personally bought a lot on the market because I know we’re going to work very hard to make it.
#26
Q: Is it possible Baguette will beat $CAKE?
A: I don’t know what $cake is. Probably makes you fatter than a baguette.
#27
Q: Who is on the team, what are their backgrounds & credentials, and do they have any public track records?
A: 20 people are working for Baguette Token, all committed to make the project a success! We have lawyers, designers, developers.. they are coming from all over the world! Poland, France (most of our team members are from France), Africa, Germany. The “centralized team” will be disbanded soon after the release of the Baguette Token DAO (once the project is be mature enough). DAO will probably take place somewhere during 2021 or 2022. But of course, we will keep building use cases as community members.
#28
Q: Are you hiring? What should a person do to become a part of your team? How many developers are currently working on the project?
A: We’re not formally hiring but we are always looking for people who can help. Please reach out to @BGTT_Tor and tell him what skills you have if you’d like to join this journey from the other side. If you’re very good, you’ll certainly get rewarded one way or another as I don’t believe in free work.
#29
Q: What is the difference between BGTT and other DeFi projects, and what are the advantages?
A: BGTT is funnier & tastier! No bullshit, no 200,000% APY & we have a long-term vision.
#30
Q: You’ve talked about Doge community and its change within the time. How do you plan to maintain Baguette community friendly and cool? How would you unite people not to make it “dispersed”?
A: We have more than 20 community managers committed to make the other community members laugh & feel good into the chan. We’re trying to build a great family, it’s working pretty well so far. People are really connected to each others. That’s pretty amazing.
#31
Q: As Education for crypto currency is necessary nowadays , what’s your plan to attract those people who don’t know about cryptocurrency?
A: Well, the good thing about Baguette is that the name is understandable by everyone.
Also, it’s not out of the question to have real-life partnerships with bakeries and doing business of significant scale in the real world in a few years when Baguette has grown and crypto as a whole as well, making the connection between this crypto world we love so much and the more traditional “old” world.
#32
Q: Security is always the top task of any platform like you. But lately, a lot of cryptocurrencies and blockchain have been appropriated by hackers. What security measures does your project have in place to avoid the possibility of being appropriated by hackers?
A: We are working (and will keep working) with top-tier blockchain companies — Ferrum Network being the first name of a long list of trusted projects; we will also conduct audits/bug bounties for critical code.
#33
Q: Do you have an office somewhere? Or do you work online?
A: The team is remote, it allows us to work with talent from all over the world. We’re used to managing people in different time zones and making sure shit gets done.
#34
Q: When is farming with BGTT going to be available and how will it work?
A: Our Uniswap liquidity is pretty good, we’re currently thinking about canceling our yield-farming plan. It doesn’t make any sense to increase sell pressure for nothing, especially if liquidity is good enough.
#35
Q: Crypto projects were closed in many countries due to improper regulation and licenses. How does your project solve these problems?
A: We have two lawyers on board so compliancy is definitely not an issue! They are helping us for all the legal stuff. So we’re sure to avoid mistakes.
#36
Q: For the success of a project, investors, community and developers play a major role. What is your strategy to get them involved?
A: Tor (Tanguy Nelly) spends all his day talking with hundreds of people. There’s no shortcut. You have to spend time with people. Get to know them, laugh with them, have discussions. And then, you get closer and they like you and you like them. And oh, they’re talking about Baguette in other groups because they had a good vibe with Tor, a good feeling when spending some time in the chat…
#37
Q: By the way, do you have something like insurance fund in case of some emergencies?
A: No we don’t & we do not need one as far as I know, we’re not an exchange — it’s up to people to secure their own non custodial Ethereum wallet.
A: We’re managing our budget tightly but we’re not hoarding it either. It has to be a good balance between launching projects and keeping some reserve for the future or anything weird that might happen. Again, having been in crypto for nearly 3 years, I know that cash is king. We might have to survive during an extended bear market. The projects that do survive bear markets get an almost free win in the next bull market simply for staying alive.
#38
Q: What is the plan to ensure sufficient liquidity on exchanges to fill market orders, especially as adoption increases and clients begin multiplying year-over-year for your project?”
A: We are tightly working with exchanges, organizing proper MM so liquidity should not be an issue.
#39
Q: If you were to make a price prediction for BGTT exactly one year from today, what would it be?
A: I’m not selling any BGTT before $1 because that’s a price of baguette IRL.
#40
Q: What are your strategies in building a big and strong community? Do you agree that the power of the community will lead your project to grow globally?
A: Worth of Mouth is probably the central key, I mean, it’s way more effective (and cheaper) than costly marketing — otherwise it doesn’t mean that we’re not doing marketing, we will keep publishing articles, keep promoting our news on Twitter (and YouTube as well) through influencers, keep displaying our ads on CoinGecko, etc. We’re currently hosting a CoinGecko campaign btw. If you’re lucky enough, you might be able to see our banner at CoinGecko.com
#41
Q: A bit personal question: what are your fav crypto projects? Apart from Baguette
A: I like Kava, Quant Network, AllianceBlock, Zenfuse, Reef.finance just to name a few
#42
Q: This is the 4 important things: Transaction fees, slippage, transparent and liquidity. So, please explain How does $BGTT to solve the above problem to attract users?
A: Transaction fee is up to the Ethereum network itself, slippage & transparency is up to exchanges & our Uniswap liquidity is quite good.
#43
Q: Are you planning to promote your project in countries / regions where English is not good? Do you have a local community for them to better understand your project?
A: Absolutely. We launched language specific chats not long ago: https://t.me/BaguetteTokenNews/124
#44
Q: Why will there be an additional DAO token, why not simply use the original Baguette token?
A: We planned to use Aragon so far (should ask the question to our CTO) but there’s probably a few more interesting opportunities out there, we’re still looking for the best for the community
#45
Q: If I present myself as an investor and ask the CEO, what expansion plans does your company have and why invest in #BGTT what advantages does it offer compared to other companies?
A: I’d like our app to be the Instagram/TikTok of memes.Not gonna lie, I’m still a realist, the probability that we make it is very low, but if we do, the rewards should be immense for those that get in now.
#46
Q: How did the idea of the project come to your mind?
A: We realized that a lot of the world runs on fun. The entertainment business is huge. We all need to wind off after our days, and even during! (who doesn’t check funny videos on his phone on the toilet, hum?) Moreover, a lot of crypto is supported by marketing (kind of a shame sometimes that it’s so prevalent compared to fundamentals but anyway). And memes are a big part of marketing.
Overall, it just made sense. I think we can unify multiple crypto communities and all the meme lovers, all the people who want to have fun, and build something cool for them.
#47
Q: Rapid question: If Baguette Token name and logo were to be rebranded say after 1–2 years and also keep the idea of Baguette alive something like Antshares to NEO, what possibilities comes to your mind first?
A: Lol, idk, croissant maybe?
A: We won’t rebrand it. Baguette rules them all.
We’d like to thank Baguette token’s team, once again for contributing their time to answer all of our community questions.
Also many thanks to Quora Inner Circle for participating and asking interesting questions.
