Michael O'Rourke was able to earn $9.3 million in six months after launching his company but did not take the traditional avenue for raising funds.
His Tampa-based company Pocket Network is still 100% owned by the team, and instead of selling equity into the company, he sold cryptocurrency tokens.
"Most crypto investors buy the blockchain because it's more valuable to buy a token versus equity," O'Rourke said. "It aligns interest across all token holders to improve the value of the network. It's a bit counterintuitive but the more revenue the network makes, the more value is created by the token."
The selling of the protocol was open to anyone — a user could buy one node, which is what a blockchain network consists of, while others could buy six figures' worth. According to O'Rourke, over 200 people participated.
"It was pretty diverse which we’re very proud of," he said.
Some of the top cryptocurrency players in the world participated in the open round, including Digital Asset Capital Management, better known as DACM, and Blockchain.com.
"It's a huge deal," O'Rourke said. "For our whole existence we've had three, four months of runway, so to have real capital behind it is a big relief."
It's a strong start for the company, which officially launched in July 2020. Despite starting in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, the company benefitted from a mass influx in cryptocurrency interest while many were homebound.
"I think the pandemic was beneficial for crypto as a whole — just the force and function of people having to deal more with the internet as opposed to physical things," O'Rourke said.
The company has 24 employees, all currently working remotely. O'Rourke's next goal is to hit 100 million daily requests — or transactions — which it is well on track to hit in the next 18 months. They currently receive roughly 5 to 10 million requests daily. The company is also working on Wrapped POKT, which will allow for more users to participate and contribute to the network.
"We’re aiming to have Pocket be spoken in the same breath as bitcoin and ethereum," he said. "Only those have made such a massive change in the world. But we will see dozens more in the future and I expect Pocket to be one of them."
It's a big claim to make, but the Tampa Bay blockchain scene is heating up; startup BlockSpaces recently closed a $1.2 million funding round.
"Tampa is becoming more well-known for blockchain," O'Rourke said. "We still have a ways to go; we have a lot less to prove though."
