HBUS News: Interview with Alicia Ferratusco, Co-Founder of Starfish Mission
Tags: Coworking, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Blockchain

San Francisco, CA

June 20, 2018

Welcome to HBUS News. We’re happy to chat with you today. How did you hear about HBUS?

Excited to chat with you too! I heard about HBUS through the Blocultural network.

How did you come up for the idea for your company, Starfish Mission?

We are more of a community hub and network than a traditional startup. I had lots of conversations with founders and developers in the blockchain industry and there seemed to be a shared sentiment — the need for a physical space for the community to meet and interact. I started the company because I wanted to add value to the space. We have since expanded our vision to building a global operational network layer for the community, based on the influx of energy, talent and synergy we got when we founded the first Starfish hub.

Tell us more about your company and why blockchain is a good fit for your product.

Starfish Mission is a collaborative and educational ecosystem dedicated to accelerating the growth of the blockchain industry. We opened our flagship hub in San Francisco in April 2018 and are expanding the network into other cities. Our mission is to inspire collaboration, promote education and unity amongst the many in the community who seek to change the world using blockchain and decentralized ledger technology. We all come from the blockchain community, so having a physical node that brings the community together opens up amazing opportunities. We recently started developer training, we’re also exhibiting blockchain and decentralization themed art in the space, as well as incorporating blockchain technology into our day-to-day operations. We’re in the process of developing a co-working token for example — being so firmly rooted in the community means we are in a unique position, where our members are well versed in blockchain technology and supporters of early adoption of this tech.

What is your philosophy around hiring?

We hire people who can fill an immediate need, and are committed to giving to the ecosystem first. This creates a network effect organizationally that is unlike any other culture i’ve been a part of.

What is a unique insight that you have gained while working in the blockchain ecosystem / industry?

In my book, the failure of the big banks in 2008 started two movements. One was Bitcoin, which was the beginning of today’s cryptocurrency mania, and the other one was Occupy. From the ashes of the collapse “Starfish” organizations were born, Bitcoin and Occupy Wall Street. Both had no top-down ruling structure. It took years for blockchain to gain mainstream visibility, but those are its roots. The shift towards blockchain technology and decentralized organizational structures is something that is happening in an unfathomable number of pockets in the world. It’s humbling to be in this industry. I feel the roots of the tools we are working with, go very deep — there is the belief that we can change things, we can re-create.

What are your thoughts on building an active community around your project? Any tips that you’d like to share?

We give value first. We ask that the companies looking to work out of our space think about what it would take to add to the network. We believe this is needed for any successful Web 3.0 vision. We want people to get involved and step up, and from that we think we will be able to create an ecosystem that will really change the world.

On a more practical level — if you want to build an active community, give people structure — host *regular* meetups around your core topics, regular get-togethers, publish research according to a regular schedule. Once you’ve grown to scale, bring your community together at annual summits. I feel that giving people a structure to connect with your project continuously is one of the most powerful tools to build a strong, involved community.

Empowering community leaders — instead of teaching about your methods top-down, create open spaces for experts and leaders to step up, ask questions and lead new explorations of your topic or technology. It’s important to feel comfortable with relinquishing control, and let people apply the basis of your work in new ways.

Who are some people that you feel are influential in the space that we should follow on Twitter?

@NickSzabo4 @melt_dem @jackmallers @bneiluj @cryptograffiti @brianbehlendorf @ummjackson @zanewithspoon @kumavis @roasbeef @ethereumJoseph @alexisohanian @vitalikbuterin @karl_dot_tech @ameensol @vladzamfir @madbitcoins @simondlr @satoshilite @fluffypony

What are some good resources for beginners who are looking to “get smart” in the space?

Honestly, I mostly learned about all of this through “osmosis”, initially. I had friends who were deeply involved in blockchain who walked me through their “Whys,” their reasons they got into blockchain. Those Whys were powerful, so I got involved myself. When exploring something new and radical like this technology, I think you should always ask yourself the big “W” questions (Who, What, Why, When, Where, How) about this technology, and then do a deep dive through google, blogs, youtube, reddit, steemit or whatever else you can find — and try to get answers. Once you have one topic covered, move deeper into the field and repeat the process. A good initial topic to explore is bitcoin. Why was Bitcoin created? Then move to Ethereum. Why was Ethereum created? Why is Ethereum this large? Why does this matter to me? How does this impact my life and my future? Who is leading in the field? Why are they leading in the field?

What are some problems that virtual currency platforms are currently facing that need to be solved?

Generally, the media needs to be more informed about the technology. There are a lot of misconceptions in the media — about the environmental impact, about the real scope of scalability issues of different protocols, about pretty much everything. I wish mainstream media didn’t focus that much on the markets and reported more on the actual underlying technology and how blockchain development is progressing. Greed and bad practices are definitely an issue — price manipulation, pump and dump schemes. Also there are concerns around security — they don’t have insurance against loss like the FDIC. Last, but not least, transaction delays are a drag and we need to speed things up.

Who are some of your favorite YouTube influencers (if any)?

I don’t have a list of favorites off the top of my head — Koji Higashi from Hashub Tokyo is amazing. Hashub is another amazing crypto hub that’s going to open soon in Tokyo — we are in talks to align with them on community leadership. We are also working on putting resources on Youtube ourselves.

Here at HBUS, we pride ourselves in transparency and trust as our core values. What are some of your core values? How does this translate into your company culture?

My personal core values are decentralization, individual empowerment and a commitment to disrupting the status quo. I don’t want to build another global, centralized coworking network or yet another centralized startup accelerator or incubator. I want a decentralized cluster network. So when we build new structures, we continuously ask ourselves — does this make sense, if we were to start over from scratch without emulating a pre-defined model, what could we do? A simple example of this is the “Whitepaper Book Club” we recently started. All of us within the team get a lot of requests for feedback on whitepapers. And we got nudged by friends to offer whitepaper consulting — but a lot of people are doing that and it’s really a centralized model. So we started a group where people read whitepapers together and discuss them, and they can also connect with each other and give feedback on new whitepapers. I feel the impact I’m creating with this is much bigger than spending a couple hours per week consulting people on their whitepapers… And we can scale up this offering, this structure.. This is not a massive issue, but I think it illustrates that we try to turn things around, all the time and set up structures instead of top-down flows. I keep asking myself — how can we do things differently? Also in terms of monetization — the real value is not in selling units of services, it’s in building large powerful communities.

HBUS is launching soon and will only be open to U.S. residents. What are some unique aspects around communicating with the U.S. audience that you have come across (if any).

Coming from Germany, I feel that American platform users are very practical and action-oriented. They want to know what exactly they can do with a service and what the impact of those actions will be. I love that part of American culture by the way, American entrepreneurs are doers, you don’t get all that far just by talking. Germans are more detail-oriented. You need to use a lot of data when communicating with Germans. We like facts, numbers, clear quality presentations of actual research. This statement is probably completely overgeneralizing both Americans and Germans, so take this with a grain of salt.

What was your favorite class in college? Did you have a nickname growing up?

My favorite class in college was “American Politics and Film.” I wrote a massive research paper on ‘Law and It’s Relationship with Force: The Restaging of a Classical Theorists’ Issue in Tom Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)” — It was about the founding of an organized society at the frontier of the United States during the time of its’ westward expansion. Lots of political theory. All of these topics are still really relevant with the rise of decentralization and the blockchain industry. We are currently upgrading the operating system of our society. Facing new frontiers.

I had a couple of terrible nicknames growing up, while in college my roommate called me Alice. Like Alice in Wonderland haha. I don’t feel that name fits me anymore though. I don’t have a crypto nickname yet — Elysium has been suggested, but I felt it had some negative connotations and it just didn’t stick.

Lastly, who are some other Founders that you respect that you think we should interview next?

Ali Ayyash — Lumeos; Daisy Ozim — https://amysmartgirls.com/get-to-know-daisy-ozim-the-force-behind-resilient-wellness-5a78506f7583; Dan Held from picks.co

___

Disclaimer: HBUS News is not an “arm,” “subsidiary,” “division,” or any type of “affiliate” of Huobi. None of the views stated in HBUS News are related to the core operations of HBUS. Nor is HBUS to be referenced as “Huobi US” or any variant thereof. HBUS is the “exclusive US strategic partner of Huobi,” and Huobi is “the world’s leading provider of virtual currency related services.”

If you would like to be featured in future thought leadership pieces through HBUS News, please let us know by emailing min.kim@hbus.com.

Beware of spammers. We will never DM you and ask you to send money to an ETH address.