BMJ Score: 3.5
Market
Transparency
Team
Token
Adoption
Quick Summary
70 crypto investors read thisCommentary
There are over 15 million food service businesses in the world, with new restaurants opening and closing daily. While TripAdvisor and other sites can help individuals when traveling abroad, they are not specific to dining suggestions, and the lack of information on where to dine often leaves travelers feeling lost. GastroAdvisor plans to build a platform dedicated exclusively to dining out, and the platform will enable users to make reservations, payments, and recommendations for restaurants globally. While there are restaurant search engines like Yelp, GastroAdvisor suggests that these platforms often suffer from information overload. GastroAdvisor wants to provide an intelligent platform that actually learns with AI to provide users with targeted restaurants based on their personal preferences. The platform will also address rating manipulations by providing three different tiers of review options that will weed out fake reviews. The blockchain-certified level of review will only be activated by restaurant owners who accept the FORK token from users of the platform. When users leave the review, they are rewarded in FORK tokens to spend the next time they dine out. This will ultimately increase demand for both the platform and token. The team seems to have good experience in blockchain and ICOs as well as a good understanding of the food space, but it is a bit small with only 10 people. The project has some experienced advisors as well as partnerships of some local restaurants in Italy. Our main concern with this project is that it does not have a working MVP. This is a very saturated space, and while GastroAdvisor aims to focus on restaurant recommendations abroad as its niche, there are plenty of competitors out there with working platforms and users. The platform is scheduled to be released soon, and we eagerly await seeing how it comes together.
Investment Information:
- How to invest: The token FORK can be purchased by registering on the website www.GastroAdvisor.com, via FRIENDSFINGERS Platform, or via the W12 system W-FORK.
- Discount: 30% bonus throughout presale
- Eligibility: Unknown
- Token Price: 1300 FORK= 1 ETH (+30% bonus) Jurisdiction: Switzerland Payment accepted: BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC
Market: 3
- Problem addressed/solved: Problems: 1) No specialization in the gastronomic sector. 2) Information overcharge. 3) Check reviews / ratings. 4) Limited allowance of Cryptocurrencies. 5) Inadequate methods for acquisition of new customers and system online booking.
- Target customers/customer/ segments/verticals: The mission of GastroAdvisor is primarily to help restaurant owners and users improve their online experience and introduce them to accepting and allowing payments in cryptocurrency.
- Value creation: GastroAdvisor wants to solve a variety of problems, but its mission is clearly geared toward creating a reliable platform for customers and restaurants to interact. GastroAdvisor connects restaurants and customers through FORK token, rewarding users for their contributions and creating a reliable platform for informations and reviews of restaurants around the world.
- Competition: GastroAdvisor will undoubtedly face heavy competition not just from other blockchain startups but also from major review platforms like Yelp, Google Review, and FourSquare. GastroAdvisor fails to communicate a clear advantage it might have over the established competition, and until the project does create a legitimate reason for users to switch to its app, it’s doubtful that people and restaurants alike will make the switch if they’re already using another app.
- Market size/potential: The market for a product of this nature is massive but extremely populated. It’s a good sign that GastroAdvisor has already partnered with different restaurants because breaking into the online food review industry is tough eats to say the least.
- Regulatory risks: It will be important to safeguard users’ data and protect it according to GDPR standards as well as secure payment information via PCI standards. The project will also face tough regulatory mandates as it is operating in a crypto payment space.
Transparency: 3.5
- Investor value: A percentage of the FORK tokens created will be allocated to an AirDrop (Distribution) program reserved for FORK token holders. The number of tokens to be sent to each user will be calculated using a system called GABS, which is described on page 33 of the whitepaper. It’s essentially a form of dividends that will be issued on a quarterly basis. Other than the dividends, investors will get the most value out of their coins based on how many restaurants partner with the platform.
- Disclosures: GastroAdvisor does an above average job at disclosing its project. There is a whitepaper and short paper, both of which effectively accomplish the tasks of giving great detail on the project and a quick synopsis respectively. Even if interested parties don’t venture to the whitepaper, the website is chock full of information on the project and includes a well organized roadmap.
- Token distribution: 50% crowdsale, 20% reward community, 13% founders and team, 5% advisors, 5% marketing, 5% token holder, and 2% bounty campaign.
- Use of proceeds: 45% development, 33% marketing, and 22% private.
- Caps: Soft cap: $1.17 million USD; Hard cap: $26 million USD
Team: 3.5
- Track record: GastroAdvisor starts off strong with a 10-person advisory team, most of whom specialize in ICO/blockchain advisory, but some bring specific marketing and sales skills to the table as well. The core team consists of 19 individuals led by CEO Samuele Rosso. According to the GastroAdvisor site, Rosso has been a part of countless startups, but his LinkedIn profile only shows his experience as CEO of GastroAdvisor. The same goes for many of the Gastro team members, and they come from a variety of backgrounds versus a consistent theme that most projects emulate based on their industry. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s important to note the size of the GastroAdvisor team and how that might limit the project’s overall funds, efficiency, and effectiveness at this early stage of the game. Having said that, some members fail to even list GastroAdvisor on their LinkedIn profiles.
- Integrity: GastroAdvisor clearly has some top talent in its executive team and specifically the COO. It’s yet to be determined whether the size of the team is based off everyone’s belief in the project or their inherent desire for tokens of their own.
- Samuel Rosso, CEO (LinkedIn)
- Massimo Galli, Digital Expert (LinkedIn)
- Andrea Ricciardo, CTO (LinkedIn)
- Luca Mazzanti, COO (LinkedIn)
Team Members
Token Mechanics: 4.5
- MVP: After two years of research, and with the assistance of many restaurant owners and industry professionals, GastroAdvisor developed the GastroAdvisor platform. The team plans to launch the MVP mere days before the presale. GastroAdvisor is currently in talks with several high-profile food service businesses with a view to signing collaboration agreements. Keep an eye on the project’s social media and blog posts for updates on the MVP launch date.
- Token use case: The FORK token will have a practical application; users will use it to book, take advantage of bonuses, and leave reviews. The FORK token will be used within the platform as a voucher that affiliated restaurants can use to obtain discounts and benefits and to reward blockchain-certified reviews. The FORK token is the only tool that permits use of GastroAdvisor's services (Utility Token). It can also be used to pay for products in affiliated restaurants (Payment Token).
- Value-added: The FORK token is the only means of access to the GastroAdvisor platform. It will allow for seamless payments, discounts at restaurants, and rewards for consumers who contribute verified reviews. FORK will also give token holders the opportunity to receive dividends in the form of FORK.
- Decentralization: GastroAdvisor will mostly use the blockchain to verify user reviews. There’s no mention of decentralization on the website or within the whitepaper.
- Token Supply: Max supply of 200 million FORK
User Adoption: 3
- Technical difficulty/investment expertise needed: GastroAdvisor is a very straightforward project that is built to connect restaurants and customers through the FORK token. It’s the first global recommendation platform for restaurants and dining venues based on blockchain Ethereum. The project gets broken down in the following video, giving a solid presentation of the project’s end goal and how the team plans to achieve it.
- Halo effect: GastroAdvisor has a variety of crypto partnerships to help launch the platform and execute a successful token sale. It also has eight restaurants listed as partners for the platform once it’s live. Acquiring early participation from restaurants is key to the overall success of this platform because if these venues find GastroAdvisor useful, other restaurants will follow suite.
- Buzz: GastroAdvisor doesn’t have much buzz online other than ICO rating websites that have featured the project. Having said that, the team has done a great job of acquiring followers on its Twitter (24.7k) and Facebook (12k) accounts. The engagement sits around 150-200 likes per post, so some of the followers might be fake, but the content still receives solid attention from its audience.
