Author: Starpower

"One of the important things about Alliance is that we don't actually pick specific directions, we pick founders."
Interview Guest: William Robinson, Alliance Director & Accelerator Mentor
Moderator: Laser (Co-founder of Starpower)

Starpower is honored to invite William Robinson, director of Alliance and senior crypto mentor, to share his valuable experience in the crypto and energy fields. This episode discusses the challenges and opportunities of Starpower's upcoming mainnet and DePIN project. Will also talked about several successful cases he mentored in the accelerator, including how strict requirements for the team and high standards set up drove the project to achieve explosive growth, and why he valued and chose Starpower. Through this interview, we will explore how DePIN can build a bridge between Web3 and energy management to promote the construction of a smarter and more efficient energy network.

The audio recording and translation were generated by GPT, so there may be some errors. Please listen to the full podcast.

Background story

Laser: Hi, Will, it's a great honor to invite you as our third guest on the DePIN Power podcast today. Before we officially start, I would like to introduce the background story of why we have this podcast today. Starpower has just graduated from the Alliance's 13th accelerator program. And you, I believe, are one of the best mentors in the Alliance, and most importantly, you are also the most popular mentor in this cohort. Therefore, since we plan to launch the mainnet in the coming months, we wanted to invite you for an in-depth discussion. Today's topic will involve more about Alliance, DePIN, and your insights after seeing so many projects as a mentor. What advice do you have for the founders? So, let's start with you briefly introducing yourself, your background, and what drove you to join the Alliance.

Will: Okay, let me introduce myself now. My name is William Robinson, the head of Alliance, and also a mentor in the Alliance accelerator program. I have been with Alliance for three and a half years, have gone through ten accelerator rounds, and mentored about 200 teams. My background is somewhat unconventional. I served as a crypto auditor at Grant Thornton for three and a half years, helping audit companies that held crypto assets on their balance sheets and communicate with regulators. For example, if you are a foundation or fund in the Cayman Islands with crypto assets on your balance sheet, you need to report to SEMA.

And SEMA requires auditors to verify your assets. If you are the Ethereum Foundation located in Switzerland, you also have reporting requirements for crypto asset holdings. The same goes for exchanges globally, so I spent about three and a half years deeply researching these companies to ensure they correctly hold crypto assets and let Grant Thornton understand the associated risks. Basically, mastering enterprise-level government-recognized compliance controls. This is also the reason why Alliance initially hired me: to bring a new perspective based on enterprise-level government-recognized compliance controls.

Most people, when building protocols as engineers, typically do it like this: just do it casually. We write code like this, manage security ourselves, and as time goes on, the projects grow larger, and the demands increase. If they wish to IPO, these demands will balloon. Before this, I had a PhD in game design and taught game design for about seven years. My background is mainly in mechanism design, which is also the reason I initially entered the crypto space.

At that time, I was basically researching how to modify game design in the field of video games to change player behavior. Then my cousin Dan, who is a researcher at Paradigm and entered the crypto space before me, told me, 'You should leave the gaming field and do mechanism design in crypto; it will be more interesting and impactful.' He was right on both points; making games and playing games are completely different, and making games is much more tedious. So I am glad I made that choice.

Yes, I help teams do many things in Alliance, including helping them raise funds, prepare for Demo Day, consider compliance issues, think about gamification solutions, help our community grow, and so on. As the community lead, besides all other responsibilities, my job is to be the friendly face of Alliance and make everyone willing to be part of the community.

Laser: Yes, you also help everyone successfully graduate from the accelerator and achieve high-quality project outcomes.

Will: Yes, setting high-quality standards is a skill that takes time to master. When I first joined Alliance, I didn't have the confidence or even the social skills to tell founders that they were doing poorly and needed to work harder and smarter. But after so many times, it's now very easy for me to clearly tell founders where they went wrong on Demo Day and how I can help them improve.

Laser: Yes, I must honestly say that I have progressed a lot through this experience. I think there were probably over 30 emails back and forth discussing how to improve my presentation and Demo Day video. Yes, so.

Will: That's not much, some teams have reached 95 emails, so you could still work harder.

Advice for founders

Laser: Haha, yes, I know. So, I really appreciate your commitment to high standards, which I believe allows all our projects to graduate with high quality and has contributed to the success of Alliance, especially this year. You mentioned that you have mentored about 200 projects. Do you have any particular insights or can you mention some of the main characteristics of projects that have been successful after such long mentoring?

Will: Oh, yes. It depends on the direction of the project and the type of problems they want to solve.

In the consumer space, successful teams are those that can iterate quickly. This field is driven by 'blockbuster' products. This means you basically need to try multiple times and develop many products. For example, Pump.fun developed three products during the Alliance period, and only the third product was truly successful. The previous products didn't show much promise. For many gaming projects, their biggest regret is not creating enough prototypes early on and not exploring enough possibilities.

So I would value those teams that are flexible and can change their minds, which also means they must be able to deliver quickly and have very strong technical capabilities. I think this is also part of the philosophy we inherited from Y Combinator in selecting teams, that you need to find those teams with a lot of engineering talent in the founding team, so they can quickly launch a minimum viable product (MVP).

Thoughts on team size

Laser: Many people have asked me this year why Alliance has incubated so many successful projects. From your perspective, what do you think contributed to Alliance's success? I don't want to emphasize this year specifically but rather the past few years, this year, and the future of the team.

Will: So, what I mean is that we have had some fantastic startups in past projects, such as Stepn and Pendle. I think this year, Pump.fun has certainly caught a lot of attention, and we have recently achieved considerable success in the consumer space. When your success comes from consumer-facing applications, more of the public will know about you. Because more people are using these applications. For example, the difference with Stepn is that it targets many regular users who are not on crypto Twitter, while Pump.fun targets the entire crypto Twitter, so eventually everyone hears about us, and our success becomes widely known. But Stepn once reached a market cap of 22 billion dollars, which is an extremely successful company.

So yes, we have achieved some accomplishments, but I think we have played a small role in the success of the Alliance team. The vast majority of the work has always been done by the founders. The success of these teams had about 90% of the decisive factors before they came to Alliance. We are very good at attracting teams to apply. Then we work very hard for these teams so that they can tell others to apply in the future.

For instance, Pump.fun was recommended to us by another team. In fact, about 60% of the teams are referred to us by previous alumni. This is the snowball effect we have been pushing for a long time. In the early days of Alliance, we even had to work for free. We had to help teams that had no exposure because no one knew who we were or trusted us. But if we were willing to work for them without any returns, why not? We proved our value, and then they would tell others in the market, 'You should apply to Alliance; they will really help you.' This is how we attract talented teams.

After the teams join our program, the only thing we really do is keep them focused. Focused on product-market fit. We won't tell them to issue tokens, we won't teach them token economics, and we won't help them with hiring. In fact, we do more to help them fire members. I believe that after joining Alliance, the teams tend to become smaller rather than larger because we know how important it is to maintain a lean and agile team for achieving product-market fit.

Laser: Yes. So I think the best teams will attract the best teams. And I remember a few months ago when we first met online, you mentioned that the overall IQ of a team tends to decrease as the team gets larger. So I remember that topic, and I applied it. So compared to that time, our team has probably decreased by a third, yes, compared to that time.

Will: Wow, that's indeed effective. Yes, this is what David Vorik taught me. He is the founder of GLOW, another energy DePIN project. He participated in the Alliance accelerator three cohorts ago, and he learned and taught me this through his experience at Sia. Every time your team size doubles, its IQ tends to decrease by about 5 points, yes, from 1 to 2 people, from 2 to 4 people, from 4 to 8 people, it's always like that. And every time your audience size doubles, its IQ also tends to decrease by 5 points. So your initial 10 users are very smart, but the next 10 users know less about crypto. And when you have a million users or a hundred million users familiar with your product, you have to design the simplest thing in the world. I think this is a very good insight.

Laser: Yes, I think not only will the team's intelligence decrease, but the team's efficiency will also decline as the team size expands.

Will: Yes, absolutely. The efficiency of the team does decrease as the scale expands. Because you have to invest more time and energy in management and coordination rather than focusing on executing tasks. This is why many rapidly growing companies eventually experience bottleneck periods. When the team grows larger, communication costs increase, decision-making processes become slower, and the flow of information is also affected. We have experienced similar situations in our own team's development process.

We have learned a lot, especially about when to scale the team and how to maintain the team's flexibility and efficiency. An efficient small team can respond quickly in a short period, which is very important for product iteration and market adaptation.

Okay, this is the content you provided, and I have adjusted it according to your request, merging repetitive paragraphs:

Choosing the right founders

Laser: Yes. Another question I want to ask is more general. This year, you are also focusing on the new accelerator, which I think is the 14th cohort. So what trends do you see, and what hot topics are there?

Will: Currently, the biggest trend in the crypto space, from our perspective and from the founders applying, is the intersection of AI agents and meme coins. A large number of AI cultural tokenization phenomena are happening. Many excellent founders are applying with these ideas. We still see classic ideas from the past four years, which have become better over time.

Will: An important point about Alliance is that we do not actually choose specific directions but rather select founders. So, if the best founders are making games, even though the gaming market is very small, we will still work with those excellent founders. We don't just focus on founders with strong execution capabilities but also on those who can join our community. We want them to think critically and find the right ideas. Most importantly, they can adjust their direction and ultimately find the right path.

Laser: Yes, so you focus more on people, rather than on hot topics or trending narrative teams.

Will: We cannot afford to invest in projects that are hot topics. For example, if you developed an L2 on Bitcoin a year ago with a team of 20, your valuation might be 50 million, while ours would only be 5 million. So when a topic is very hot, we cannot invest. This forces us to take a contrarian approach and think six months ahead about market direction. Sometimes, we might invest in these hot topics through side funds as potential strategic investments, but that is not part of our accelerator program. Our accelerator program accounts for the vast majority of our investments.

Laser: Yes, the best people usually take the less traveled paths. So you focus more on the future and what the next season or next step will be. Your approach provides leading signals for the industry, especially this year, and I believe this will become a trend in the coming year.

Laser: This is somewhat similar to our past. For example, when we started building Starpower two years ago, the term DePIN didn't even exist. And now, DePIN has become a hot narrative, but we have been building for two years. As you mentioned before, in the Alliance, you have also mentored DePIN projects like Glow. What are your thoughts on DePIN projects? Are these projects harder in user acquisition? Can they serve as a bridge between Web 2 and Web 3?

Will: DePIN projects indeed require smarter thinking in user acquisition. Taking Glow as an example, they have recently achieved great success in fundraising. Although they have a good protocol and product, solar farms are very hesitant when transitioning from Web 2 to Web 3. They took a very unique approach: directly purchasing these solar farms, improving their profitability, and forcing the farms to join the Web 3 ecosystem. This approach, while crazy, is extremely effective. For these successful protocols, you need to think from fundamental principles, which is something David Vorik excels at. As a founder, he can focus on solving the most important problems rather than being distracted by trivial matters.

Will: Most DePIN projects are currently attracting users through token airdrops. But I believe that token airdrops are only effective when your protocol can immediately provide something valuable to users. If they come just for the tokens, it will be very difficult to manage. For example, I like Starpower's Starplug because it can regulate energy usage and save costs for users, providing some useful metrics. Even without a token airdrop, it is a good product. With the token added, it will become more attractive, allowing for faster network expansion and ultimately forming a real energy market.
Energy DePIN

Laser: In the past three weeks, I have met about 60 people, all of whom were projects you introduced after Demo Day. Many people asked about token issues, especially about how to acquire users. For projects like ours, there is real-world demand. Whether it's solar panels, outlets, or batteries, Web 2 people will purchase these devices. What we are doing is actually adding token incentives on top of this infrastructure, which helps to expand the network more quickly.

If we reach a sufficient number of users, the revenue threshold on the supply side will decrease, forming a new layer of income. This is also why the DePIN project can serve as a bridge between Web 2 and Web 3.

Laser: I want to further explore this issue, especially since you mentioned that Glow and Starpower are both energy DePIN projects, and we have recently received funding support from top VCs. You mentioned that an energy company in Montreal, Canada, has been doing virtual power plant business for a year. How do you think DePIN can help the energy industry address climate change issues?

Will: Let me first provide some background. In my area, the emergence of virtual power plant projects began about two years ago. The Quebec government has a monopoly on energy production and controls most of the energy supply. Although they produce a lot of cheap hydroelectric power, there are difficulties in regulating the grid during peak hours. Therefore, the Quebec government launched the Hilo project, aiming to alleviate grid pressure by changing the way residents consume energy. This project encourages people to preheat their homes before peak hours or turn off water heaters at midnight. In this way, the government can more effectively regulate the grid and avoid wasting resources.

Will: I think this is a very good idea, making the grid smarter, and virtual power plants are an important way to achieve this goal. When you applied to join Alliance, I was one of your biggest supporters because I witnessed the technology and the enormous potential it brings. I believe that through virtual power plants, we can more effectively address energy consumption issues and thus tackle climate change.

Will: Any solutions that can regulate energy are beneficial for climate change, which is one of the biggest challenges our generation must address.

Cryptographic technology can play a key role in helping coordinate people globally. Starpower and other similar DePIN projects are great examples as they positively influence the grid by coordinating different individuals and resources, promoting the adoption of sustainable energy.

Laser: Regarding why we are doing this project, I want to respond. As someone who has been in Web 3 for nearly seven years, I personally hope to make a meaningful impact on the real world through Web 3. For the past decade, Web 3 has been like gambling, but I believe it will become a massive industry, just like the internet did 20 or 30 years ago. The driving force behind Starpower is precisely because we want to promote things that benefit the public through Web 3, blockchain, and token economics.

Laser: Additionally, I want to respond to the concept of 'coordination' you mentioned. The last word in DePIN is 'networks', and we can coordinate people globally at low cost through blockchain and Web 3 token economics to achieve goals that were previously unattainable. This is precisely what makes DePIN unique.

Advice for Alliance applicants

Laser: The last question, if founders want to apply to Alliance or are interested in the Web 3 industry, what advice do you have? What should we build?

Will: For founders who want to apply to join Alliance, I have some advice. If you want to join our community of over 300 founders and receive the support you need most, it's very important to tell us who you are and why you must do this. What makes you different? Some founders may have Ivy League degrees, or have worked as IC 12 at Google, or may have won Olympic gold medals. But we place more value on the unique motivations and drives behind the founders. Entrepreneurship is painful and requires very special motivation to sustain.

Will: If you have a very strong drive, even if it’s an awkward or ridiculous reason, don’t hide it. The process of entrepreneurship is full of challenges, and you must have a very strong emotional drive to succeed. This is my advice to applicants.

Laser: Thank you for your advice. Indeed, we often gather to discuss and share ideas among those willing to do meaningful things for the world.

Will: It's an honor to be involved, and I wish you all the best.

Laser: Thank you, that's it for today. Thank you very much for your time, Will.

Will: Thank you, and wish you good luck.


Disclaimer: This interview is for informational exchange only, and all content represents the personal views of the guests and does not constitute any form of investment advice. Starpower and its guests make no investment commitments or guarantees regarding any content, viewpoints, or opinions in the interview.