134% Increase in 1 Month: Is TRON the Next Theranos?

The Lean Startup is a strategy targeted towards Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who want to create a successful startup. The strategy outlines specific flaws most startups make in their early stages. For example, many startups begin by spending a significant amount of money on product development in hopes of perfecting their product. Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, ‘attributes the failure of his first startup, Catalyst Recruiting, to not understanding the wants of their target customers and focusing too much time and energy on the initial product launch.’ Rather than focusing on product design, The Lean Startup advises allocating the majority of a startup’s resources toward marketing and hype with the intentions of getting their product in the hands of as many users as possible. This way, the startup receives feedback on how they can improve their product more rapidly.

The Lean Startup strategy is very similar to the idea ‘fake it till you make it’. Essentially this technique promotes going all in on marketing and perfecting the product after user interest is established. It is important to understand the best technology does not always win. Many people argue Linux is a superior operating system than Windows. While Linux may offer better technology, Windows has been more successful at placing their product in the hands of users all around the world.

Overall, The Lean Startup can be an effective strategy depending on the product. However, it can also be detrimental when applied in certain industries which ultimately leads to fraud and illegal activities. The most infamous case occurred with the company Theranos. Theranos was an incredibly successful startup in the healthcare industry who created so-called revolutionary blood tests for diagnosing. Initially, Theranos said their tests could be performed with a very small amount of blood, or about 1/100th to 1/1,000th of the amount that an existing test would require. This innovation was expected to transform the entire medical industry and the company reached a peak valuation of 9 billion USD. Theranos focused all of their attention on acquiring investors and promotions before ever creating a working product. Even after all of the hype, Theranos had to fake their data in order to continue operating with their defective product. In the end, a company can only kick the can down the road for so long. On March 14, 2018, Theranos, CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former company president Ramesh Balwani were charged with “massive fraud” by the SEC.

The Lean Startup strategy can be very effective for specific tech companies, but when applied to the medical or financial industry the strategy is more of a gamble. Patients can’t afford experimental failures in a field such as health care. The same can be said for systems that transfer value. Failing once and losing customer funds ruins the reputation of a cryptocurrency network. If TRON continues to grow based on hype alone, they may overextend themselves if their technology is not superior.

While hyped technology can sometimes pay in the short term, a company can only survive on hype for so long. TRON has been one of the most hyped projects because of their marketing strategy. TRON’s CEO, Justin Sun, is extremely vocal when it comes to announcements and partnerships, even when they are over exaggerated or deceptive. TRON has seen many valid criticisms of their work primarily because they plagiarized their white paper from several different cryptocurrency projects. Ever since, TRON has desperately tried to create hype by constantly keeping themselves in the news. The most significant TRON development was their recent acquisition of BitTorrent which has 100 million existing users.

Individuals are still skeptical of TRON’s technological potential. Nevertheless, TRON has proved its marketing talent with Justin Sun’s ability to create hype. When Bitcoin started, it never had hype, marketing, promotions, or investor interest. It evolved and succeeded on its own. This leads many high level developers in the space to undercut the importance of marketing. TRON has effective marketing which is one reason not to rule them. Regardless of how innovative your technology may be, if no one knows about it, the project will not gain traction and developer momentum. It is no question TRON has succeeded with hype and promotion, however if they deliver on their promises, they could end up being more successful than Cardano, EOS, and Ethereum combined. The future outcome is a known unknown. In a field with rapidly evolving tech such as crypto, it is always important to proceed with humility and understand anything can happen.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. This is not financial advice. Please do your research independently and make objective decisions. This article is intended to educate readers on the recent state of TRON market. The author of the article owns 0 TRON.