Blockspell Startup Studio Does Not Fulfill Its Obligations

About Blockspell

Blockspell is a venture startup studio, working with Ukrainian blockchain and artificial intelligence startups. This company has Panamanian roots and an office in Kyiv (the company's office seems to have been the lobby of the Gulliver Business Center at the time of our cooperation). Blockspell's legal address is what it says: Kiev, Sportyvna square, Gulliver business center (tower "A"). The co-founder and CEO of the company is Jose Batalla.

The company did not have a single startup in its portfolio at the time of our cooperation (spring 2020).

Cooperation with Blockspell

My part-time cooperation (no more than 3 hours a day) with Blockspell Startup Studio started on March 10, but actually on March 19, when I signed a contract on Upwork to develop a preliminary marketing strategy. On March 29th I presented a preliminary marketing strategy and started its implementation:

1. Prepared seo-optimized content for the main page of the website:
   • analyzed the niche and the competition;
   • collected the keywords;
   • formed a semantic core.
2. Prepared a brief for a copywriter to write articles.
3. Prepared the titles and topics of six articles with an appropriate set of keywords.
4. Created a company page on a specialized DOU website.
5. Communicated with company employees through email, phone and CRM.

One day, Blockspell stopped communicating. I found out from CEO Jose Batalla that they stopped working with me without notifying me. Blockspell refused to pay for my work, despite the fact that my strategy was being implemented and the articles were written under my brief.

I believe that this behavior of the company and its CEO Jose Batalla is unprofessional and fraudulent. Therefore, I warn all those who intend to deal with them and consider these risks.

All of the foregoing is a value judgment. I had no intention of tarnishing the business reputation of the company in any way. I still hope that this whole situation is a banal misunderstanding and I will delete this page after a well-deserved payment for my work.