In this edition of Behind The Blockchain I spoke with Giuseppe Matalone, the Co-Founder of Chenkster - a startup which aims to revolutionise the way we search and share travel advice by allowing users and creators to monetise their travel advice and their content. Giuseppe shared his career journey so far along with some brilliant advice on the skills you need when launching a startup. He talked us through the journey of Chenkster so far and the problem the business solves - I believe this is a startup to keep an eye out for!
So, let's get into it...
For people who don’t know who you are, could you Introduce yourself?
I'm Giuseppe Matalone, 25 years old from Italy and I'm currently the Co-Founder and CMO of Chenkster.
I've always loved travelling and exploring new places and different cultures since I was young. I've visited 10 countries and lived in 3 of them so far, and I plan to do more and more in the future. It's amazing how much travelling opens your mind and allows you to constantly learn new things, you start to see things you didn't see before.
I also fell down the rabbit hole of blockchain at the beginning of 2020, and I've been getting more and more into the space since then, so I guess it was almost inevitable to start building something that combines two of my biggest interests.
Can you talk us through your career journey so far?
I studied Management and Marketing in Bologna, Italy, while working in accounting and sales for a few years, then moved to Manchester, UK, where I started working as an assistant manager in the hospitality industry until the pandemic hit. By then I was sure that I wanted to build a business that was in line with my interests and could add value to people. The lockdown gave me the opportunity to do just that. Together with my partner we started working full time on xMELT, a fashion brand dedicated to cannabis lovers around the world, as we noticed a huge gap and lack of creativity in this niche... weird, right?
The brand went pretty well and we started to get some great traction, especially in the US, but we eventually stopped after a few unfortunate situations.
Last year, I moved to Valencia, Spain and started working in IT sales until I had the opportunity to join the Blockchain Founders Group incubator program, where I met my current co-founder and started building Chenkster!
Can you talk us through the most useful skills you have learnt which have enabled you to reach the position you are in now?
There are many skills that have come in handy on my journey, but here are the 3 that I think are the most important:
Communication is fundamental in probably every role, business and industry you can name, let alone marketing. It's not just about being able to articulate what you're thinking. Most of the time, to communicate effectively, you first need to be able to listen actively, to understand who you're talking to and how they communicate. The magic is then in tailoring your message to your audience, based on their style and interests, to get your point across in the most understandable way.
Resilience is a must for any entrepreneur. No matter how good you are, there will inevitably be bad periods and unexpected situations along the way, and in those moments it's important to be able to keep your cool and react to make things work one way or another. The Japanese proverb "fall down seven times, get up eight" says it all.
Discipline is the thing I had to work on the most, but it changes everything. There are days when you're not motivated to do what you need to do, or you just don't feel like it. When that happens, your discipline is what keeps you going and makes you forget your excuses.
Can you introduce us to Chenkster?
Chenkster is a platform that allows travellers to search for up-to-date information from like-minded content creators, explore their recommendations and contact them for highly personalised suggestions. On the other hand, we enable local experts and professional travellers to monetise and take back control of their content. Our vision is to revolutionise the way travel advice is created, shared and consumed.
What gave you the idea to create Chenkster?
The idea actually came from my co-founder a few years ago, when he realised that searching for travel information and suggestions can easily become overwhelming and often irrelevant, making us waste a lot of time trying to find something useful. On the other hand, millions of people around the world are providing cool suggestions on websites, blogs and major platforms like Google Maps, TripAdvisor and even Instagram, but the vast majority don't make a penny. Why not connect travellers and creators to solve both problems at once, he thought? Then COVID came along...
Fast forward a few years and here we are, building that solution together!
Could you give us more detail about the problem you solve?
Sure,
For travellers, a study we did showed that almost 70% of people interviewed spend between 1 and 24 hours trying to find relevant information for their trips, and an incredible 22% even more than that! Chenkster simplifies the information search and gives you only the most relevant and up-to-date suggestions in the shortest possible time.
For creators, Chenkster leverages the power of blockchain to allow them to easily monetise their content, so they can finally be rewarded for their expertise and dedication, while guaranteeing them ownership of that content.
Why do you care about solving that problem?
Both my co-founder and I have experienced the above problems when travelling, so we know how hard and time-consuming it can be to find something "different" to do in a new city, especially if you are on a budget or have other more individual requirements. Seeing so many other people like us struggling with this is the main reason we created Chenkster.
In doing so, we also have the opportunity to help other passionate people - who have always given their advice for free, mostly out of pure generosity - to start earning money by helping others have a fantastic trip. What's better than that?
Can you talk us through the technology stack you are using?
That's a work in progress as we prepare to start building our MVP, but here's a glimpse of what we're planning: we're using GitHub as a development tool, Angular and React to build a dynamic and responsive front-end, while we're using blockchain for the back-end. In particular, the various smart contracts for NFTs and token development will be built on EVM to maximise the versatility of the code, while we are still deciding which chain to use for data storage, with the most interesting options being Polygon and Camino Network.
So why did you decide to create Chenkster using Blockchain?
Blockchain technology brings various benefits to our solution, most of which are aimed at promoting the creator economy and simplifying the customer journey.
First of all, we'll use blockchain to return content ownership to creators, who will then be able to sell their NFT-based services and earn from primary and secondary sales.
Blockchain will also be used to create our own utility token, $CHENK, which will be used in combination with stablecoins to reward chenksters (the content creators) for their help and services, and users for engaging in the platform and completing challenges.
Furthermore, the use of tokens as a (non-exclusive) payment and reward medium will facilitate the scaling and globalisation of the platform, removing financial barriers around the world.
Can you talk us through the roadmap for the next few years?
Sure! We are currently raising a pre-seed investment to start the development of the app, which we plan to launch in Q2 in a very basic web2 version, where people will be able to find the best tips for some key European cities. As we validate the product-market fit, we will start implementing the blockchain components I mentioned previously, and we aim to have a fully developed platform by the beginning of Q3. The second half of 2023 will then be dedicated to expanding our services to over 40 cities and significantly increasing our customer base, while continuing to develop our team and the app itself.
As we're at a very early stage, we don't want to plan too far ahead, but rather focus on tangible results first. Slight spoiler for you though, future developments will include the metaverse...
As a founder in Web3, what advice would you give to people looking to follow in your footsteps?
What I can confidently suggest from personal experience is that if you're really passionate about what you want to build, just go and build it! Launching a startup is not an easy journey, so it's fundamental to be driven and resilient, but also open-minded enough to pivot in time if things aren't going well, but I think if you really want it, you will achieve it!
I really enjoyed this conversation, I hope you did too. Giuseppe shared some brilliant tips for any current/future founders looking to launch a business. He gave us a real insight into the background of his startup and is very passionate about the problem which Chenkster solves - watch out TripAdvisor!
We'll be keeping a very close eye on Giuseppe and the Chenkster team in the future - as someone who works remotely and travels constantly, I'm looking forward to monetising my advice!
More information about Chenkster can be found here - https://www.chenkster.com/
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