Erica Stanford is an entrepreneur with a passion for Cryptocurrency. She founded Crypto Curry Club in 2018 after she recognized a need for a Crypto Community. She is also an author, speaker, blockchain industry reviewer, and a lover of curry. But how did she built the biggest Crypto community in the UK and what were the failures she faced during her entire journey? Let’s see that.
How did it all started?
Erica was 19 years old when she went to Guatemala for the summers of 2007, and there she got mugged 4 times. She lost all her credit cards and the only way to get money was to go to Western Union which was far away from where she stayed. She had to walk all the way to Western Union because she had no means to pay for the transport. But she was lucky to find a nice accommodation, whose owner let her stay there on the promise that she would pay them later when she gets money from the Western Union.
It was not the safest place to walk alone but she had no other option. Somehow, she reached Western Union and called her dad to send some money to her. But getting money was not easy at all. It took 3 days to come. She finally got the cash but was it really safe to have cash in a place where you can again get mugged? She questioned herself.
Not only this, but Western Union also charged a 14% fee for the transaction, which made her think about the people who have to live their entire lives in that place.
Now once again, in 2008, Erica decided to take a year abroad in Buenos Aires. It was during the time of the financial crisis. The currency devalued completely and because of this, the economy almost collapsed. People who lived in Buenos Aires became reluctant to keep money in banks and the locals were paid only in the local currency “Peso”. The currency was then converted into Euros and Dollars, which was then kept in safes and not in banks.
These two major experiences in Erica’s life made her wonder if there was a better way for payments. She went on learning about financial services companies like Western Union and how much they charge people for foreign exchanges. She finally heard about Crypto in 2017 and went into a full geek mode to learn more about it. She said “The most fascinating thing was that you can send it instantly.” And if she had Crypto back in 2007, she wouldn’t have suffered and nor do people living in that area.
The small steps to building a big community
After learning almost everything about Crypto, she found out that there was no community with whom she could share her knowledge and experience. It wasn’t easy for her to meet people. But one day she went to a Christmas dinner event over which she realised that this is something people would be really interested in doing. And hence the Crypto Curry Club idea came to her. She thought to herself that it was a good idea to bring people together.
Erica then went ahead and booked an Indian restaurant in Mayfair, London and invited a few interested people through LinkedIn for the Crypt Curry Event. In the first event, 25 people came in and stayed for like 8 hours. The people said it was the best event they’ve ever been to and this is when she realised that the idea could actually work because it was a room full of people talking about a common subject they all are passionate about. The events were fun and everyone loved curry. The events started selling at a much faster rate and soon the Crypto Curry Club became the biggest community in the UK.
Growing the Crypto Curry Club community globally
But then the covid hit the world. Initially, Erica thought her business won’t be affected. When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, she thought everything would be back to normal by July. She decided to work on the other side of the business, for example, newsletter, social media, digital brand presence etc. But soon after that, she decided to do webinars and quizzes to engage people in online networking events and to keep the community together.
She thought that it would be a temporary thing and people would love to come back to events once everything goes back to normal. But when things didn’t go as planned, she finally decided that doing more webinars would be beneficial for her. Since then, the community has grown a lot and it now also includes 40% international audience. She then started to take more advantage of the whole pandemic situation.
She said “Earlier, it was harder to reach out to people and meet them but now digital platforms have made it much easier to communicate with people from all around the world.” Erica also mentioned that she might not have been able to meet as many people in real life but because of these digital platforms it’s much easier now. The Crypto Curry Club has also launched its magazine and publications and a few more things are in line to come out soon.
The Failures That Got Her There
Erica, like many of us, has faced many failures and struggles in her life. We wanted to summarise her failure journey in a resume so it would inspire many other people, especially women out there who are wondering if they’ll ever make it.
Erica has an inspiring story and her failure resume will make you understand that no matter what titles we are given or how much we accomplish in life, we all face struggles and have those days of self-doubt. These moments make us who we are today.
Check out Erica Stanford’s Failure Resume to get inspired:
