– The marketing agency scams you. – The influencers you hired? They were fake. – The market tanks, taking your chart along with it. – The market maker you hired? They sell everything. – You pump, your team makes money, then they leave. – You think you're listing on a CEX, but it's a fake agent. – You want to list on CMC? Pay black market (listing agent). – The dev company? They take off with your entire code base.
I've seen or experienced every item above.
Any founder building in web3 has my utmost respect.
Only, there are a few challenges they don't tell you about:
- Finding a real pain point that people face - Finding a Co-Founder with complementary skills - Crafting a compelling story and raising funds from VCs - Working 24/7/365 without days off to make things work - Hiring other talented people and being a good leader for them - Going through endless cycles of hopelessness and elation over time - Finding early users and iterating the MVP until you hit product market fit - Not giving up when everybody else has given up on you during dire times
At idea stage, pedigree wins. At MVP stage, early PMF sign wins. At early product stage, growth wins. At growing product stage, rate of growth wins. At scaling usage, retention wins. At good retention, monetization wins. At post monetization stage, unit economics wins.
…have rarely seen this sequence break over the long run.
- no leverage - accumulate blue chips - do on-chain activities - learn monetizable skills - be in the powerful communities - be awakened while everyone is sleepy - no trading - be early, do things, and go for the last mile
1st rule of business? >> Always protect your investments.
One of the biggest mistakes I see Web3 founders make is:
Being too focused on token sales.
And I get it.
Every founder wants their token price to go up.
It is all human psychology.
It's what investors want to see.
But imagine this:
You're starving on vacation, looking for a decent meal. Every restaurant screams, "BEST FOOD HERE!"
Annoying, right?
But then you come across a chill restaurant that doesn't force you inside. It has a lovely vibe, a beautiful interior, and a great menu—everything is appealing.
You walk straight in without hesitation.
It's the same with your project.
Your tech is the food, but your brand is the atmosphere.
People buy in because they love what you represent, not just the token.
If you keep forcing the sale, your community will run.
Build the brand first, and they will come.
Attract with quality, not pushy sales tactics.
Give value upfront through excellent branding and content.
Make your project irresistible by showcasing its merits organically.
Let the value speak for itself.
People crave authenticity, not hard sells.
Be the cool restaurant they can't wait to experience.
With a standout brand and content strategy, your community (and investors) will flock to you.
- Laugh at Bitcoin as a silly trend - Stumble upon something that makes you rethink - Dip your toes with a small Bitcoin purchase - Fall into the rabbit hole - Keep buying Bitcoin - Discover the rabbit hole is bottomless - Keep buying Bitcoin - Question everything you know about money - Keep buying Bitcoin - Craft your risk management plan - Buy a ton more Bitcoin - Get a hot wallet - Move some Bitcoin to it - Get a hardware wallet - Jot down your seed phrase - Panic about where to hide the backup - Commit your seed phrase to memory - Remember you're forgetful and once almost burned down a fire station - Purchase a steel seed phrase backup for fire or memory loss - Stress about losing your Bitcoin due to inexperience - Stress about exchanges mishandling your Bitcoin - Finally, withdraw your coins from exchanges - Get a vault for your hardware wallet - Get another vault for your steel backup, far from the first - Realize your family can't handle this if you're gone - Distrust everything and everyone to safeguard your keys - Explore multisig, questioning single-sig's safety - Doubt everything about Bitcoin - Buy more Bitcoin at $69,420 like a daredevil - Witness your cash lose 25% in four years - Debate revamping your risk plan or throwing it out - Buy more Bitcoin - Wonder if you've joined a cult - Buy more Bitcoin
The base layer - Blockchain The value layer - Cryptocurrency The real world/crypto bridge - Oracles The application layer - dApps The governance layer - DAOs The "keys" to your crypto - Self-Custodial Wallets The identity layer - NFTs