At Gold Hawks, we do three things exceptionally well.
First, we build incentive structures. Without this, there is no reason to “do” a DePIN; it would just be a regular web2 business.
Max Gold has been working understand incentive structures for over a decade. He’s worked at Deloitte to deeply understand federal tax rulings and leverage nuances buried in the code. He’s worked with mid-size firms that put him in charge of how their multi-million business interacted with government-driven incentives developed by the smartest people on the planet. He took that knowledge and applied it to DePIN, helping structure how Helium Mobile rewards users and drives utility of the token. He built the SuperHex system for GEODNET and delivered the models that WiFi Dabba used to structure their tokenomics. There is nobody in the space with more experience at the intersection of DePIN and incentives.
Incentives are what give a DePIN its massive energy. They are the first of the three things we excel at.
Second, we tell the story of the incentive structure. It’s one thing to have a beautiful building with intricacies and passageways and glorious paths to the top; it’s another thing to map out for people how understand each detail and how the whole fits together, how they navigate from the entry level to the most advanced user.
Nik Hawks did that for Helium starting in 2020, teaching thousands of people about their system. By 2021, it’s fair to say that 80% of everyone deploying Helium Hotspots either learned how to interact with the system from Nik or from people he taught. For that work Nik was voted Community Member of the year. Telling stories about what a DePIN does and how it works in a way that normal people can understand and get enthusiastic about is his specialty. He’s done it for Helium, he’s done it for Hivemapper, for GEODNET, for WeatherXM, and for projects that don’t even have a token yet like Wingbits.
The third thing we do is take the experience we’ve had that falls outside of structure and story and use that to help guide projects in the DePIN space. We’ve had more experience from the inside of projects than anyone else in the space. We were there in the good times when HNT hit $55, and we were there at the worst times, when Helium announced they were blocking rewards to miners without any community oversight or approval. We’ve watched projects like Pollen burn themselves down, and we’ve successfully walked WeatherXM through a very challenging period on their Discord. There is very little in DePIN that we don’t have direct experience with.
Those three things: Structure, story, and expert DePIN guidance, are what we do.
We only work with projects we believe in, that we think we can work with to build a world class structure and tell a world class story about. We want to be there to help guide you in the dark passes, the stormy mountains, and the wine dark sea. We want to know you deeply, to understand your dreams, your hopes, and your fears, and to help you nail your goal.
If we decide to work together, we have to understand what you’re trying to achieve. This will take time and effort; DePINs are complicated, at the cutting edge to technology, business, and culture.
If you think we’re a fit for your project, reach out. We’d love to learn more!