By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 12th, 2024
On the blockchain-based Ponder platform, you can help friends find a job, business partner, investor or even love, getting some financial rewards for the good deeds in return.
Ponder, a blockchain-based developer of gamified referrals platform, has already gained the support of some serious backers. The Times Group, through their strategic investment arm Brand Capital, and the Drapers, the famous Silicon Valley VC family, found their concept compelling and promising.
The idea behind the project is to make it fun and gratifying to refer friends and acquaintances to job openings, business opportunities, and even potential life partners – all areas in which we won’t mind a little help from a friend. If a referral proves successful, the referring person gets a financial reward. Brand Capital’s financial backing of Ponder will launch the startup in the Indian market and help it dramatically expand its user community.
The startup is being promoted by the Republic, a crowdfunding platform that was created in 2016 as an investor-friendly, easy to use platform to make investing in tech startups accessible to non-accredited investors.
Minimum investment in Ponder is $100, and investors are protected by the Republic’s Crowd SAFE instrument. Ponder has already received $1.6 million in seed funding from larger investors and is now opening this opportunity to a much broader group of small and large angel investors who find their idea timely.
The platform is made for busy individuals and companies that want to make quality connections. Unlike traditional matching applications, Ponder gets trusted friends and contacts to play matchmaker, using game mechanics and financial rewards as motivators. Ponder addresses a major issue in several important industries – dating, job referrals, and business referrals. All of these markets rely on algorithms when in fact human involvement can be instrumental.
Take dating, for instance. Even the smartest AI technology doesn’t know if John is really the right guy for Marsha. But someone who really knows and cares about Marsha, when they see John’s profile, will think of her and, using Ponder’s game interface, will connect the two profiles. If the match works, the referring friend gets $10 – and happy friends to boot. Isn’t it fun?!
The same principle applies to the project’s job and business referral components, only the matchmaker’s reward amount goes up, while the employer’s expense on new hires go way down. Ponder has already secured a strategic partnership deal with recruiter.com.
The startup’s potential addressable market is vast – $80 billion, so there is a lot of exciting work ahead for Ponder. But as Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” In Ponder’s case, they are well on their way with their 80 thousand registered users who enjoy playing fun and challenging games while also putting their intelligence to good use and making some money.
The company’s public sale started on July 1, 2018 and will run until March 28th, 2019.
