The ICO That’s Disrupting the Way You Start and Run Companies

With cryptocurrency prices soaring to new heights last year, it was hard for anyone to keep their eyes off of the market. Bitcoin’s meteoric rise took the token’s value up nearly 2000% at its height to over $20,000 a piece. As interest in the tech has grown, an incredible variety of Initial Coin Offerings have occurred with varying degrees of success.

While the tech has been exciting for investors who’ve been able to able to make quick money, the product is still in its infancy. Cryptocurrencies, at their heart, are supposed to be faster and more secure transaction methods that can serve as an alternative to fiat currencies. Due to the techs current instability, however, it seems like it will be a while before a viable cryptocurrency is created.

Cryptocurrencies are held up by blockchain technology, another relatively new innovation in tech. Using smart contracts and Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT), these systems can quickly, efficiently, and securely complete tasks and provide receipts for transaction. While monetary transactions seem like an obvious application of the technology, its reach goes far beyond just cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain has applications in almost every situation where value is changing hands as the tech offers a more secure and faster way of exchange. One company who has realized this is Enkidu. This new startup is planning on revolutionizing the way businesses are created, using the blockchain to make it easier than ever for entrepreneurs to get their ideas off of the ground.

The CEO of Enkidu, Varun Mayya, lays their plan out quite simply, “We want to merge the payment gateway, the cap table, and the log of business decisions by a team.” With blockchain technology, the company might just be able to do it. Starting a business is hard, and if Enkidu can do what they are claiming, that very well might change the way companies are started and ran in the future. Using the decentralized blockchain, business owners will have easier access than ever to all of the information they need to start and run their business efficiently in one place.

Small Business and Payments Made Easy

Enkidu is unique in that they make running a small business easy by removing the need to register or audit the company at all. The Enkidu platform actually will do this all for its users. Users of Enkidu will be able to, from anywhere in the world, set up a company together and decide how much each person owns. This split of revenues is stored in the cap table, which keeps track of revenue sharing for easy reference in the future.

When inbound payments hit Enkidu, the payment is split automatically through the table and sent to each business members wallet directly. Users can also store these payments in a treasury, should they need to save extra capital for later use. The treasury can also be utilized to automatically buy tools and pay vendors for supplies the company might need, keeping track of all the records for later review.

Users of the platform, as part of a company, can also make decisions that influence, in real time, how the cap table flow works. In Enkidu’s suite of project tools, users are able to access a dashboard that allows them to set up and pass resolutions. These resolutions can be as simple as modifying the current cap table to as complicated as adding another partner to the company. All of the decisions are conducted via a simple majority poll, and blockchain technology’s inherent security helps keep from any tampering.

Enkidu Eliminates Intermediaries and Increases Transparency

Since resolutions are transparent, they help prevent disputes in the company. Combined with the automation potential for the business, there is really no need for any lawyers or legal counsel when an entrepreneur wants to start a business. Enkidu believes that because of this incredible transparency, disputes that would be solved by incorporation would be avoided altogether on their platform.

Enkidu offers simple automation that makes starting and running a small business easier than ever. The company advises, however, that the platform is not ready for large businesses quite yet. Large companies, they advise, should seek out incorporation for tax purposes and ease of running a larger business.

Enkidu COO, Shashank Udupa, explains, “Enkidu projects have flow-through taxation. While we don’t protect the liabilities of individual partners, we handle tax for partners like they would handle income tax. Enkidu is simply an automaton that helps people trust each other and seamlessly split payments — which is what company structure for small businesses should’ve been doing all along. We have also launched the Alpha version of the product three months ahead of schedule — you can start creating companies today”

For small businesses, however, all of this can be unnecessary and act as a deterrent to budding teams of entrepreneurs. Users of the platform can always seek out legal counsel once they have grown enough, meaning Enkidu is perfect for getting ideas off the ground, especially in a team environment.

As more companies begin to embrace blockchain technology for the possibilities it has beyond cryptocurrencies, it will be important for members of all industries to keep an eye on how the technology may affect them. Companies like Enkidu, who are thinking outside of the box, are bound to make a splash if their product is solid. Enkidu’s business creation suite is not only powerful but free for users to set up a project, making the company definitely one to watch out for in the future.

Disclosure:

The author has had a working or personal relationship with one or more companies mentioned in this article in the past. Access to mentioned company’s management and information was made through the author’s personal network. All information was vetted prior to posting.

Disclaimer:

This essay is not intended to be a source of investment, financial, technical, tax, or legal advice. All of this content is for informational purposes only.

The ICO That’s Disrupting the Way You Start and Run Companies was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.