PORT Harbor — December ‘21

A monthly letter from the founders

ANCHOR POINT

Retrospection

Cargo is shipped and receipt is confirmed — PackagePortal V2 is live. It’s been quite the voyage since initial conceptualization in 2018, followed by a more formal ideation phase during the summer of 2019. We assembled a team that autumn and have been busy building ever since!

An early prototype went live about a year after the company was formed (in June of 2019), and we spent much of 2020 furthering the development and local testing needed for an MVP (minimum viable product), long before launching any ecosystem tokens. This was an exciting and creative time!

Any clouds of uncertainty that surrounded us before, of whether or not people would do a thing for a thing with our app, were eventually scattered and dissipated as we launched PORT in November of ’20, and our incentive model was validated through a community of users, by an order of magnitude.

And now we have the product baseline that we envisioned from the start, with V2 offering proof-of-receipt as its foundational service, but with a suite of other services and features built on top, that provide Merchants with incredible consumer engagement and data points.

Additionally, our robust Merchant Dashboard for members provides an evolved form of delivery data management, and consumer feedback aggregation.

Empowering online shoppers and shippers with access to Web3 feature sets, gives PackagePortal a stickiness to both consumer and merchant alike…and what we bring to the table, changes the design of the table.

The APP

The long promised “V2” finally arrived on November 22, 2022 in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play store. Thanks to our design consultants at Wondr, the beautiful new design makes the app easy on the eyes and easier to use. Nearly all the technical bits, front to back end, have been rewritten. It was one of the smoothest software releases I’ve ever been a part of and this app was worth the wait.

We also added some new features. Here are some highlights:

• Packing Popcorn is an off-chain reward that allows a user to earn rewards without going through the KYC process to try the app out (we will be doing more with Popcorn in future releases as well)
• Full merchant service integration is ready
• Proof-of-receipt confirmation now requires a user to shop with one of our integrated merchants or self-enter their tracking number ahead of time so they can receive tracking update push notifications (shipped, delivered, etc.)

Finally, we’re excited to announce our first merchant pilot! This will take full advantage of the integration mentioned above, providing Proof-of-Receipt & feedback to this merchant. — Gabe

THE BUSINESS

As mentioned above, some pretty huge news is that we’ve gone live with a Pilot program for a US merchant. This company runs about 25k shipments per month, to consumers across the United States. Their order data is now being ingested by our systems, so that we can provide them with better delivery data, and so that their consumers can get an early jump into the Metaverse.

This company is not being charged any fees for its first 90 days, however they have already procured the PORT required for membership after the trial ends. We’re excited to be working with a retailer that is established in its market, and is building a strong consumer base with its product offerings. Announcements to come soon.

In addition to the Pilot, we’ve also got a number of other irons in the fire, as it were. Our Nasdaq placement in Times Square worked wonderfully well; we’ve had a few meetings come out of it with interesting people who saw it live. We’ve also got a budding partnership brewing with a software company in Africa that is preparing to launch a global shipping software product.

Innovative business models are like the fastest and most agile and maneuverable speed boats in the water; having jet engines that need to warm up, but capable of ripping the waters at break-neck speeds. Our team has crafted the hull, engineered its engine, assembled and warmed up this vessel.

It’s time to play with the throttle!

THE TOKENS

With the launch of V2 also came the launch of our Web3 app, which allows users to connect their wallet to self-claim their XPORTs, swap XPORTs into PORTs, or engage with our non-custodial staking contracts. This was a major release that accompanied the V2 launch.

Staking does not require any form of KYC, and offers two different options to fit your personal preference. One is a short term, (The Buoy) with a 7 day lock up for 7% APY, and the second is longer term (The Dock) with a 90 day lock up and 19% APY. You can find these at crypto.packageportal.com.

Our primary focus for PORT is now exchange listings and token accessibility, alongside deeper integration into the broader crypto-sphere. We want to see PORT available on all major exchanges with tokens available on multiple leading blockchains. In order to accomplish this, we are engaging with key individuals, and folks in positions of power and influence across the industry, as well as consulting with blockchain leaders with powerful networks.

A Final Word

By J.G. Whitley, CEO

As calendars and candles approach their yearly close, we get an annual opportunity to look back and reflect on the previous year and all that came with it.

Retrospection is a healthy activity. Analyzing goals set the previous year, and measuring progress (or lack thereof) against them, is how humans and businesses capture and maintain momentum. It is our accomplishments in accompaniment with our failures, that enable us to identify where we were strong, and where we were weak. Armed with this knowledge, one can dial in the proper calibrations for the year and engage thrusters.

So rather than making “new year resolutions” that are fleeting and difficult to keep, I like to use this time of the year to “learn and discern” where we ought to apply our energies for the new year, in order to become stronger in the areas we were weak, and also maximize and sustain any existing strengths.

This past year was a wild one for the PackagePortal team. We learned so much, so fast, and from so many different angles, that it’s still hard to wrap our heads around. We’ve shown great strength in many areas, and acknowledged areas in need of strengthening. But looking back over 2021 gives us immense confidence for an eruptive 2022.

Our focus moving into the new year will be vertical integration across markets and networks with these tools. It’s exhilarating to see life breathed into an idea, and humbling to watch people use our products. And even though we’re a few years into this project, we’ve seriously only just begun.

I’d like to close out the year with an analogy — PackagePortal is like a seed that has sprawled and strengthened its roots, and even sprouted its first branches. But our goal is to nurture this sapling into something like the mighty California redwood trees, or the African baobab; able to support vast amounts of life and activity, providing refuge and resources to all who come near. The soil is rich from the 2021 rainy season; ’22 is grow time.

Happy New Year.

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