As a co-founder and content creator, I simply prefer to focus on the user and not the competition. The potential user is obviously looking for something different (at the least) and needs help to break from their current solution to find something better. So be authentically different.
There is no issue with research and studying other branding in my opinion. I spent a lifetime in formal training and found it to be subjective and in constant change. What experts in many spaces focus on does not make sense to me — and that is okay as we all have an opinion. But you get to have less of an opinion in an overly corporate environment, which is why I am happy to be in a start-up.
The visuals in most financial service companies are there to give you a sense of security. We are conditioned this way (maybe herd mentality?). But they rarely connect to your personality as an everyday person and rarely help you learn and grow by talking to real people, just like you.
Do you interact with other customers in traditional banking? Nope — they assign you an “expert”.
Do they have real people helping you understand the “nuts and bolts” of how it really works and why your APR or cash back returns are so low?
DeFi does not have traditional customer service — it has real customer service in real users helping other people. So instead of trusting others, you actually interact in places like Telegram to truly learn and grow. This model changes lives and opens eyes!
For example, our company (Skew) is tackling the simple issue of helping people access high returns in a safe way in the crypto world while at the same time giving accredited borrowers access to a new capital access stream via crowdsourcing. We do all the work behind the scenes in fiat or crypto. Anyone that has used online banking can use Skew once we launch. And, we have a growing community — like all great DeFi platforms — that helps you learn much more beyond a single company’s service.
In TradFi, most people tune out when they see words like crypto, banking, liquidation, web2, web3, finance, etc. A lack of information creates fear. Fear is a powerful narrative, which is why FUD is so dangerous.
So step one is to create messaging that is simple, approachable and has no intimidating visual to the everyday person. To me, it starts with understanding how you would feel if you were new to the space. So, at Skew we are using a positive, fun and non-verbal vibe that allows anyone from any language to first see that we are not some large intimidating financial corporation. We have all the technical, risk management and needed guards in the process, like any bank, but step one is to be approachable.
In this way, Skew is trying to first connect and say we are easy and simply to communicate with. While we always adapt how we feel over time, this is where we are today and we are trying to meet people where they are, creatively.
And, none of this was written or edited with AI — LOL
