FANZONE’s one year anniversary — My 9 learnings so far
By: Bjoern Hesse
Tags: Nft, Startup Lessons, Founders, Founder Stories, Startup

This blog post takes you to the start of our wild journey. I will try to summarize my 9 most important lessons I have had since the first year of our startup at FANZONE. Our home base is Berlin. Funny story, the birthplace of FANZONE is at Gendarmenmarkt, the place where I also took my first steps in Berlin in my professional life at SAT.1 ran back in February 2009. I’ve always been a sports nut. In 2009, I only had one regret: I couldn’t be at the World Championships of Athletics in the Berlin Olympic Stadium when Usain Bolt ran his world record over the 100m (9.58 seconds).

Day 1: Fanzone Co-Founders Claudio Weck, Dirk Weyel and Björn Hesse after signing the contract at Berlin’s iconic Gendarmenmarkt.

Anyway, if I remember correctly, August 31, 2020 was a sunny Monday afternoon when Dirk Weyel, Claudio Weck and I had signed our names underneath the founding documents of Fanzone Media GmbH at the notary at Gendarmenmarkt. And here we are now, a year later. From three co-founders we’ve increased to 20 employees and more than 30,000 registered users on www.fanzone.io. Starting with the DFB as a huge launch partner is no easy feat, but other partners from various sports will follow. I want to give you a short summary of the first 365 days of our journey at FANZONE and what we as startup founders have experienced during this time and what other founders could possibly learn from it.

Every day we go full throttle. From the beginning, we wanted to develop a new platform for fans to experience their favorite athletes and connect with them in ways not previously possible through social media. Using Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), fans can now own an authenticated limited collectible on the blockchain. Similar to rare physical collectibles, there is a chance that this digital collectible may eventually increase in value. Our aspiration is NFTs/collectibles with “utility” and we want our fans and collectors to be able to use these NFTs in fantasy sports in the future.

1st LEARNING: Time flies!

Not only the technical development of a product, also partner-loops and test cycles always take more time than initially expected. Our “coming soon” has become a kind of running joke, at least within our German community (www.soonzone.io). Sorry, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Day 79: LUKSO’s Fabian Vogelsteller and Marjorie Hernandez visiting our little Factory Berlin office for a blockchain kickoff meeting. Our UX Designer Giulia Mondello (in the front) was our first new team member.

2nd LEARNING: Always stay positive

In the startup life there always seems to be small surprises that come up, which hardly anyone had on the radar before. For instance, the day we launched we were overwhelmed with user requests via email and on social media… concentrating so much on the launch date and technical issues, we completely forgot about customer service — thank goodness we had figured it out after 3 days (more or less) and now we have Gus Lanzetti on board as Customer Communications Manager!

There are also moments when a positive message from users or likes and reposts from athletes sweeten our day. The right startup mindset is important! Only problem-solving oriented work will get you further. In the past, I’ve also experienced nagging among employees at other jobs. We don’t have that kind of atmosphere. I don’t want it either >> That’s why one of my mottos for hiring people is the KraftRunners creed G.V.G.P. (Good Vibes, Good People)!

Day 92: Team photos with Lothar Köthe. Here our Senior Developer Lawson Marlowe is posing for the camera.

3rd LEARNING: What values do you stand for?

In the first weeks after the foundation of FANZONE we thought about it A LOT and brainstormed: What should FANZONE be? What do we want to stand for? Our values include:

-Ambition, passion and sporting spirit are the core of our daily work in the team

-Sustainability

-Transparency and authenticity

4th LEARNING: Live your values!

The three founders have enough work experience to build a work environment at FANZONE where all people are happy. That starts with your way to work — and is by no means a given in today’s job world. Salad Tuesdays, Urban Sports Club membership, free Headspace app use for meditation or monthly vouchers as employee rewards are additional incentives for a positive work environment. FC Barcelona boldly writes “Més que un club” on the seats at Camp Nou stadium, they want to be “More than a club”. I also want FANZONE to be more to our people than just an ordinary employer. For me, anyway, it’s more than a job. It is my life, it is my passion!

Day 114: Obviously we were very happy when Dirk was signing the DFB partner contract. It took another 2,5 months to announce our launch partnership.

One of the most important points that stuck with me during my studies at the University of Leipzig was in the field of corporate PR:

Through transparency in communication you create trust with your customers. However, if the trust is damaged, it sometimes takes years to regain the lost trust.

We at FANZONE try to be as transparent as possible towards our users, e.g. through bi-weekly Discord Q&As, where we answer questions from the community.

5th LEARNING: Your product is nothing without your community!

The success of FANZONE is linked to our product and the users. If our product is not entertaining and appealing enough, no users would get excited about it. Three months after the web app launch, we already have more than 35,000 users. On Discord in particular, we maintain an active community of over 1,900 members who actively exchange information about drops, their cards or our technical developments.

Salad Tuesdays: How it started (day 143), how it’s going (day 372)

6th LEARNING: Big names help for exposure

Some of you know that Forward31, the company builder of Porsche Digital, is our strategic partner. In August we had the pleasure to support Porsche’s first NFT drop > on SuperRare.com a design sketch by Peter Varga was auctioned. The press response was tremendous — especially thanks to the support of Christopher Golombek. In the end even MC Hammer had tweeted about it!

We’re still looking for a testimonial that can present the brand of FANZONE to the outside world. Sooner or later we’ll find him or her. I’m happy for Sorare that they have Gerard Pique, one of my favourite football players, and Antoine Griezman backing their startup.

Day 246: Welcome at our new office next to Monbijoupark with an amazing sunset view each day.

7th LEARNING: Purpose matters

At the Porsche NFT Drop we had collaborated with Viva con Aqua — all proceeds were donated to the Hamburg based NGO that provides clean drinking water for everyone in the world.

We differ from the rest of the NFT competitors because we are committed to sustainability — from the very beginning. Our motto is “We believe in the power and positive impact of fans!”

We are currently cooperating with Trees For The Future and are planting a new tree for every new active user. Our goal is to plant 100,000 trees by the end of this year! Since we have launched we have already planted 35,000 trees. Did you know that trees are the most efficient carbon stores in nature? Trees consume carbon dioxide as they grow their roots, trunk, branches and leaves. They absorb carbon dioxide and help clean the air. Global deforestation releases endless amounts of carbon dioxide. We support Trees For The Future to help counteract this.

Day 288: At Fanzone we LOVE and we LIVE sports. June showed that German and Portugese fans can co-exist in one office during the EURO2020.

We are also working with LUKSO to produce Eco-NFTs. Through proof of stake, much less energy is used on this blockchain than on others. These points are core elements in our DNA and help set us apart from the rest. Those topics will matter for many future companies. As founders, we must not only think about ourselves. Currently, the future of the following generations is at stake, and EVERYONE must do their part to help slow down the climate crisis.

8th LEARNING: Don’t forget Messenger & Email Marketing

I am responsible for marketing for our team. On social media you can easily get overwhelmed by too many channels and content. There’s a German saying: “You cannot dance on every wedding.” We try to focus on social media on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. As I had already mentioned, Discord is super important for us.

Looking back, the only thing I regret is that we should have launched our Telegram earlier. I am a big fan of messenger marketing because it (still) works completely without an algorithm, and you really reach ALL of your users. Especially in the NFT world, many people inform themselves by being active members in various Telegram groups. If you have not already joined us on our Telegram, please have a look at our channel and join us so you can get the latest news — but also talk to other users and me as the founder!

Day 353: Team event at the Formula E Berlin E-Prix. This is where we come from, because Fanzone derived from an NFT pilot project of the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team.

Having said that about Telegram, don’t forget Newsletters! Personally, I am not a huge fan of my own inbox growing because of hundreds of newsletters that I don’t even read. Ironically, in marketing I see that “old-school” newsletters still beat every other channel when it comes to engaging with our community. I’m very happy we have an expert in Tobias “Rock your Email” Eikelpasch, that helps us set it up the right way!

9th LEARNING: Personal relationships count!

The SPOBIS in early September was the first business event I had attended in 1.5 years (after my 2nd vaccination was done). It was great to see many familiar faces again and a fantastic opportunity to make new contacts. At the end of the day, what we do is a people’s business. Sure, our product has to be right. But without personal contacts, through which you bring in projects, it usually comes to nothing. That is why my message to all founders and other active people in the (sports) business: Get out there! Network in real life at business events or networking meetings. A LinkedIn request is also much more likely to be accepted if you have already met “in real life”.

Day 373: Dirk and I on a mission at SPOBIS in Düsseldorf to connect with new business partners.

I am writing these lines on the train on my way back from Düsseldorf to Berlin. For the first time I had attended SPOBIS, Germany’s largest sports business conference. Next to big players like Sport BILD, ProSiebenSat.1, Bayern München, VfL Wolfsburg, DAZN etc. we were among the rookies with our small startup at this annual class reunion of the German sports scene. And yet we felt as if we had already been a main stay for years! (At least that is true for Dirk with his previous companies).

I am proud of our journey so far. We dared to jump into this NFT space half a year before the big NFT hype broke loose around NBA TopShot in January 2021. I am especially proud of our team, which is extremely international. But this is Berlin! I love it! We have employees from Italy, USA, Canada, Russia, Portugal, Iran, India, Argentina, and Switzerland.

We as founders are living our dream right now! We can shape an extremely exciting new market. We have true passion for our project, Claudio as a crypto nerd and tech lead, Dirk as a fantasy games expert, who was already convinced of NFTs three years ago when hardly anyone in sports knew what it was back then. And I finally feel like I have arrived in the sports business, with a project where we can truly make a difference purpose-wise.

In our office, a small Dirk Nowitzki picture reminds us every day that hard work, discipline and belief in oneself pay off: “All dreams are crazy, until they come true!”

NBA all-time-great Dirk Nowitzki is a constant inspiration to us.

We look forward to many more exciting years together. With the first handball and basketball teams on our platform, the next step starts for FANZONE. We are now expanding to other sports beyond soccer. And maybe even more than sports in the future. Stay tuned! Even though the NFT market is highly competitive and moving faster than Usain Bolt in the 100 meters right now — We’re just at the beginning and we’re here to stay.