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choosing the market is more important than any other decision you’ll likely make
"“To be successful at anything, the truth is you don’t have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren’t: consistent, determined and willing to work for it.” - 🐐 Seems that this applies to founders as well
I’m running a Sprint Week this week with a company to redo their whole website, brand, and messaging. I’ve been running Sprint Weeks for 9 years, but here’s a couple observations from this week so far: 1. Time constraints have unnatural abilities. 2. Rewriting a homepage headline is incredibly cathartic. 3. Simplicity is an art. 4. Designers are the real cool kids.
Founder Tip of the Day #148 As exhilarating and fun as it can be building (or investing), beware of overindexing at the expense of what matters most: family, friends, health, happiness. Working smarter, not harder, includes finding some balance.
This talk from Alex Schultz of Facebook growth team fame is similar to a talk he gave over a lunch-and-learn at Coinbase in 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_yHZ_vKjno
Once again, love when founders do their own support. @dwr.eth is in there listening to everyone complain about Warpcast and debate about prioritizing different features. I don't agree with all of the takes (who does?), but I respect the conviction and the willingness to debate in public.
All I know is ship early and often. Never seen it work any other way in consumer.
Your moat is not tech, gtm, or anything else It's literally the people you have on your team Company DNA is where the magic happens
If you're starting a new project, building on Farcaster is easily one of the highest upside starting points in the space. The crucial point is to be meaningfully differentiated to Warpcast and lean into the distribution as much as possible: access social graph + post + frames.
what more to show your love for mankind than to build something wonderful & share it with the world
i'm thinking about building on web vs on mobile the same way @dwr.eth thinks about building on warpcast vs on the protocol — iterate on first one but the endgame is on the second one for @supercast to make sense i need to build a product that some people (not everyone!) love and prefer to use over warpcast — and they love it so much that they will pay for it as many already noticed, this isn't easy and to get there i need to ship fast and iterate a lot and because i'm a full stack web dev, iteration on web comes much easier for me — thus, i'm focusing on the desktop for now but mobile is where the avg farcaster user is so don't worry — once supercast has its 10x features and all protocol infra is there, there will be a great supercast mobile app and it may come faster than i previously assumed thanks to incredible work of @slokh and @emo.eth
It’s not just about an idea It’s not just about execution It’s not just about distribution It’s not just about building a great product Or retention and engagement Or Sales. Or Efficiency. Or growth. Or competition. Or partnerships. Or strategy It’s everything You have to do it all
most startups start by serving the same 1% of customers with the highest discretionary spending.
Between the long game and the short game, I chose the long game. Learnings and value compounds. If you cut it short, you'll end up chasing your own tail with nothing to show for it. Beware of sunk cost fallacy when playing the long game. Giving things time to simmer doesn't mean you should get stuck in a local maxima because you invested time and energy in it. It's also important to know when to adjust priorities and put something on hold. Maybe you'll come back to it even stronger or look at it with new eyes when you come back to it.
Related: partnerships almost never work and especially harmful for moving fast. 1. If you're a fast-moving startup, most if not all companies will move slower than you. Waiting on another company to hold up their end of the deadline is de-motivating for your team. 2. Coordinating a "big bang" launch takes a lot of work and usually doesn't make a huge impact. Instead, a better way to do partnerships: 1. Tell the other party what your plans are and the deadline for being included. Be clear that you will ship whether ready or not. 2. If they miss the deadline but finish a few days / week later, just announce as a follow on. https://warpcast.com/v/0x5f08d01e
Thoroughly enjoy when you can reply to automated/transactional emails and it gets routed to a human. Makes me feel like the company (& their customer support) is much more accessible. Never liked how common noreply emails are. We do the same with Paragraph automated emails.
One of the hardest lessons to learn as a founder of a VC-backed company is how excess capital distorts your own behavior.
I have a hard time thinking of a partnership that's been meaningful in the last few years.
There's alpha in being willing to look goofy if it's effective. https://x.com/Super70sSports/status/1803116463382765709
If you are a startup founder/CEO with no trading experience and you plan to issue a token: - Dive into trading. Long term, short term, degen, every flavor. - Use the tools. Add liquidity, claim rewards, bridge tokens, try to arb, AMMs, CEXs, the new shiny DeFi protocol that just launched. - It's a long learning process and some of the learnings only come with time. Keep listening to people you trust, who've been in the game longer. Why? Because you will hear a ton of shitty advise, right when your token will be doing really bad (this is for sure, the only question is if it will also do well at times) and you will be vulnerable. Knowing how things work may not tell you what to do, but you will at least be able to understand what's going on, and evaluate the advice you get.
Founder Tip of the Day #160 During times of transformational change like we’re in right now, be careful about assuming that the optimal strategies that led current incumbents to their dominance, are still the optimal strategies going forward.
Which qs would you ask to assess a candidate’s commitment and likelihood to stick around when things get tough for a prolonged period of time? 🙏
My favorite genre of content is founders being happy with parenthood in spite of the challenges. I used to be scared of the changes parenthood would bring, but now i kinda look forward to it! thank you @jrg, @seneca and the many other parents out there sharing about their experience! https://x.com/jillrgunter/status/1803870153236713581
You can’t fund new projects incrementally. If adding a new business line or product line doesn’t require you to do a full re-underwriting of the current strategy, you’ll end up with no strategy at all.
Anyone got a spreadsheet of crypto VCs handy? I mostly just want the table format and fund names
@farcaster has already been a huge launch pad for some of the most interesting projects. @cassie - Q /quilibrium @jacek - /degentokenbase @ted - /clubted @betashop.eth - /moxie @farcasteradmin.eth - /lunchbreak Lets start a thread that can help others with the pros & cons these founders(and others) have experienced building on farcaster, where they see the future of products jumpstarted in the ecosystem and tips to help others get started. Many ppl come through the /success channel and it would be great to have some content to help them dream
In all earnestness, I’ve learned a lot watching the Merkle team build in public: - don’t cargo cult industry norms around incentives, decentralization, or GTM - take a long time horizon (similar to schlep blindness) - hire mostly engineers and pay them well - measure what matters (retention) Hats off to the team!
Polls
Questions & Answers
Answers•33
Founder Mode is having a precise mental map of your business's details at all times, a clear vision of its future state, a constantly evolving set of transformation strategies to achieve that future, and the energy and ruthlessness to execute them.
Founder mode basics means locking in, living on caffeine, juggling flaming swords, and answering emails while showering because you’re a builder
Founder mode: leaders should be deeply involved in company operations, interacting directly with their employees at all levels rather than just with direct reports. This approach will create a cohesive company culture and more motivated employees.
founders mode is a state where everyone is involved in every aspect of farcaster.
it’s when you put founder on top of pie. like à la mode
Seems like “stop delegating”, extended version
founder mode is about to total immersion where founders stay deeply involved , balancing leadership with building. it also involves focusing on what truly matters vs
when companies grow there’s this expect that founders should delegate more, whereas performance has shown the best founders are more involved not less involved
Founder mode is being locked in, tackling everything hands-on, and enjoying the hustle of building your vision.
Founder mode: A passionate, all-consuming state where startup creators pour their hearts into their vision. It's about commitment, growth, grit, and a relentless pursuit of success. It's intense, emotional, and pivotal in the startup journey.
nice work
being able to honeymoon in Europe and still somehow ship moxie ponder integration ;)
im
page 3 was definitely A+spiffin papers. but on page 69 it cut my asshole as I was wiping. so 2-5 brownEyes at most don't believe the hype
just do it
caring less and shipping more
Remaining in a permanent state of startup mode regardless of progression of your project.
mythical mode that is great when it works and terrible when it doesn't. but you'll only find out after the fact.
micromanagement is cool again
making the world a better place for others
its a waste of time. understand founders need to lead, from first principles, and be fully aware of all the important changing factors.
Bunch of Brits fighting off other Brits bc ain’t no one eats cake and drinks tea without giving a piece to the king
X
Founder Mode Good Followers
idk
own details, execution, outcome of every part of your business and dont outsource your understanding of amything
1
its an huge project
0xd056E692C00C8016aDc30fCCB7101D9a4ff38aD0
don’t leave the trenches
a less-discussed but valuable method in which founders remain involved, even as the company scales
do hard things, do them well, do them in the face of all odds
It’s when you’re grinding 24/7, no sleep, just pure hustle, chasing those alpha gains and flipping every obstacle into an opportunity
Answers•14
Some great /lessons here, especially the info about QuickSwap and ApeBond. The meme is also hilarious and sad at the same time.
Thats a big question especially in low liquidity coins. I don't think devs should take profit directly so early, or at least in the first year. And if they do it should be a small life maintenance amount. Just like it works in startups of real world/web2
Gm eggman happy Tuesday
Pretty good strategy, I'm afraid there will always be devs that don't follow it 😅
This. And if you need help figuring this shit out, reach out to me. Eggman and me will help (for compensation tho). Take this shit seriously, y'all have seen what else can happen :C
Gm eggman ☕ Bullish on Devs who don't dump on their community 🐂 🍖x123 25 $degen
I'm supporting you through @microsub! 77 $DEGEN (Please mute the keyword "ms!t" if you prefer not to see these casts.)
Gm eggsir! I love the meme and beside that it was explained clearly 🥰 I hope many ppl will think about this
Why not use your token allocation as collateral to borrow against? If you set a low enough LTV, you demonstrate trust in your project. If you don't pay back your debt, your collateral gets transferred to your lender, without dilutive event. PWN.xyz does exactly this: - custom lending terms - fixed rates - time-based liquidationj
also plz make sure projects are more than just front-end + narrative
Vested tokens are the key
Morality lessons from eggo: I love to see it. 😻
GM eggman 🫡🥚 I agree with this and its not right for devs to dump on the masses Crypto is still the wild west so people don't even care if they do shady shit... But imo this just makes crypto look bad as a whole and its what deters noobs from joining
Gm eggman! The information is highly valuable 🫶 thanks 🙏 69 $degen
Answers•16
The rise of mega-funds has led to fiercer competition for later-stage deals as they pursue bigger investments. Early-stage startups may find less support., founders' leadership quality is something to look out for
Venture capital investing has shifted towards a more cautious approach, with a focus on profitability, efficient capital use, and sustainable growth, and VCs today should prioritize long-term business viability in this evolving environment.
They should care more about sustainability of business growth through organic methods or partnerships
community
returns have taken a hit since 2022 since interest rates have bottomed, which has had an effect on the overall model. so it has become increasingly hard for a lot of companies to raise money; hopefully we see new venture firms with creative strategies
In my opinion i think Venture capital investing has shifted towards cautious funding focused on profitability, adaptability to market changes, and a strong emphasis on diversity and ESG factors.
venture capital now emphasizes risk management, sustainability, AI, and proven model
be loyal and never trust any one
the vc is too much investing on new L1 blockchain, I think its better to invest on l2 or l3 that have a great idea and the unique one
I really believe the ideology of Chirls, the founder of Asylum Ventures on his thoughts on how to make money in VC in 2024 & investment in unloved markets. I think it's very logical
influx of tech mergers
should care about the buzz around artificial intelligence
the vcs should care about significant investment flowing into technology ,health care ,and green technologies
ccs should be care about the new changes occurred
14
We learned that the quick flashes in the pan literally never turn out to have long term PMF.
Answers•17
Crypto is going to solve the major long-term problems of AI
most of us will not be doing conventional 9-5 jobs in 5 years
Christmas music starts Nov 1st.
Building a real business as a side hustle is going to become possible thanks to AI.
I belive in God and prayer
I believe that taking breaks and disconnecting can make you more effective
rest
ai will put the bottom 50% of ppl into poverty and the top 50% will benefit
crypto market
showering
Sacrifices
That religion and spirituality are important, and without them society is worse off for it.
The bull market is over
money is't = happiness
Some form of non-human intelligence exists and has been interacting with humanity
Jesus Christ?
That there’s an actual hell and 80% of the world’s population will end up there
Answers•15
dave portnoy pretty epic
Ted
Dan Romero tbh
elon
@kazi
jacek
yes
it’s Kazi for me
Dan Romero & Ted
kaziiiiiiii
37signals books
web3
kazi
not anywhere on scale, yet there are a number of good small gamers who doubled down on the journal/biopic approach to sharing. grew audience big time >
write of passage
Answers•21
gg
Founders/vcbrags/captioncards
Founder 🌟 fund
a16z
Founders Fund
@vcbrags 😂
ace
pepe
Among VCs, Banana Capital is known for having a strong meme game. Led by Turner Novak, the firm has leveraged meme culture to build its brand and connect with founders, especially through social media platforms like Twitter (X). Novak's creative and
lfg
Banana capital
vhj
Vc brags
hamster
Founder /vc brags
founders fund
Pendiri
founder
lfg
Yees
kintil
Answers•18
Vibes
VCs
Securiti anonymity
Flexibility
Connections to potential customers, suppliers, or collaborators
trust
branch name
lfg
network, market knowledge
Thesis, vibes, experience
credibility
Alignment with mission and strategic resources to further mission
ct
value alignment
vision and participation
smart money
a trust
a lot of capital to be able to develop the project
Answers•15
Velocity & prioritization
capital - nowadays first barrier is always MONEY
my laziness , only this one my biggest enemy
distribution
didn’t know the A,B Cs of web3
trust
💀
Distribution
Motivation. Do I enjoy the process enough to keep putting in the work even when the chips are down?
Getting to PMF. But what makes it difficult is to discern with very less data if you're on the right path towards it. like a constant trilemma is is it a product problem, a market problem, or a distribution problem when growth is slow in early days.
Securing funding or managing cash flow without consistent revenue
Always the same race against the clock. would be nice to see more liquidity enter the ecosystem and fund that gap between early-stage momo and true pmf
venture capital
finding product-market fit
Lack of crypto adoption, legal risk, and macro conditions out of my control
Answers•11
1. Regulation and compliance pressures 2. Market volatility 3. Security and hacking threats 4. User education and adoption 5. Raising funds
I would say time management is really important as a founder, dedicating your time and resources effectively can make a huge difference
short term challenge is to build te right team.
AI
finding a fiat on/offramp that has zero fees to go from $1 to 1 USDC
public interest
to make followers / and replyke power !!
to be not dependant on others
financial freedom
1. Regulation and compliance pressures 2. Market volatility 3. Security and hacking threats 4. User education and adoption 5. Raising funds 6. crypto knowledge.
next line of code
Answers•14
I kinda like the idea and have not much better to do at the moment. So I just want to cease the opportunity in front of me.
Freedom and growth
Peace!!
freedom.
Why is the market down @kaloh
exactly
my preety child
why is a great mystery in this life reason why
suffering and pleasure
my family is my why
What a question Maybe Do something today and see how it affects tomorrow. See what tomorrow looks like. Create something that really matters
freedom and yours?
Necessity?
Family. Friends. Legacy for my children.
Answers•14
metaquotes
Excalidraw
Cursor right now!
GPT 4o ! A game changer 💥
Vim
Miro, huge unlock for my work life as coach and also creative/builder
Uniswap
syscall
i'd tell you but the <redacted> won't let me
Poopder
Moxie
Gn Colin
zuma
Zed
Answers•13
depends how long he wants to be married for
Yeah, I guess....if he's scared to do it the day before. #Boring
So long as they're only marrying one of the two possibilities in that question.
yes, if he is married to his project :)
a founder should launch their product as early as possible, if that's the earliest, then yes
definitely, you gotta get it out of the way before the wedding/honeymoon!
No, it's not advisable. Both events need full focus. Launch later or delegate.
yes ! it will change his luck
yes cuz his wife will be a builder as well and they‘ll spend their honeymoon fixing the bugs. they’ll love it
No don’t be insane
only if they are also fundraising at the same time
Never, as either one will bind time that you need so desperately at that moment
l don’t know boss
Answers•11
only if the rounds after suck imo. generally you want to use it to either get users through the publicity (like BD, or endusers) or hire
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kinda weird
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Answers•4
Nice try fed
lawyers are devils in a suit that force you to do such silly things if you’re dumb enough to hire them in the first place for a shitload of money
For real!
It’s all the regulations :(
Answers•11
You pause for a moment, then lean in. “Do you know Java?”
Ha ha ha. You just made me think about this cast from @itai just now. https://warpcast.com/itai/0x8c2c9176 Dev minds ✌️ 😂
so, how does the story continue? It‘s not enough to smile and have a nice moment and you know it
You’re a founder lmaoo
you’re in the trenches my dude
oh no we need the full story
Could she debug logs with you? Yes > Missed chance No > Her missed chance
she needs debugging it’s your time
It didn't countie then ?
Damn did i just read romance movie scenario?
😂 😂 😂
Answers•9
I've recommended a few Farcaster-native projects so far that have resulted in interviews. For folks applying, I think YC cares mostly about the team, their unique insight, and proof points that you've made/can make something a small number of people really love.
heard there's a cool event planning app that's 🧨
What’s YC?
me
Didn’t @jayme do it already?
YC is interesting but the on site rule ruins it for me — expecting founders to uproot their lives for three months is a selection bias that picks mostly young, able-bodied people with no kids or family that needs care. Their dismissal of the remote batches as soon as it was no longer basically required shows they are disinterested in making it work.
Would be interested if there’s room for game studios :)
as if you didn't apply already
what's "YC"
Answers•5
Founders, Acquired, 9operators
I know this isn’t founder related, but Mindscape. I love armchair physics.
Founders by David Senra - it reminds me why I set off on this journey :)
Personally, I love Lenny’s Podcast, lots of leadership and management advice, but there’s way more topics than this, and it’s tailored based on who’s the guest.
KaziKast - because it’s Kazi duh 🙄
Answers•10
Art Mentoring by @fercaggiano
@pkok
ethereum-ecosystem.com by @maximeservais
swaye by @spenser (Swaye is more like an upcoming polymarket)
DePlan
display name fer (@fercagginio)
/just build by @worden
/justbuild by @justbuild
CoOwn Growth studio 🙃
@louder by @bd I love the concept, growth stats are great and yet I think you can help with your skill set
Answers•10
everything is private. you can only see posts from mutuals and can’t tell who/how many followers another user has ZKDSN
transparency and wallet tracking
speed
accessibility
community based
accessibility
once answer is polled - there would b a window to determine that you have polled an answer !
there should be some privacy - rest is wonder 😉
Integrity
Public by default. There is risk with everyone’s assets being visible all the time.
Answers•6
brother in christ I talk to my mom every day..
But I need to get on the quarterly updates
I share investor updates every three months
Quarterly for the last one ☝️
How often *do you* share investor updates? can't type
the frame shows error
Answers•8
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This is wild
what does peter thiel, bryan johnson, balaji, sam altman, the network state, the deep state, and jason karencalacanis think — jack handey
What do you think about this? What is his purpose in doing it? 🤔 (thinking hard)
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I don’t even know what to say to this … guess he has had some ‘spare time’ away from his work tho 🙃
If he adopted 100 kids, that would be honorable .
Wait....so...this skin of Hamster Kombat (Telegram's game) is inspired in his real CEO? ..and probably the whole Hamster thing xD
Answers•8
combination of: talking with the team, (potential) users, cash flow, and grant milestones
Set the goal, break it down, focus on key tasks, clear roadblocks, pick the easiest move, execute fast, then test and tweak
Force it into a task managemt system like Linear
Educated guess.
what is most impactful that can be shipped this week
Depends on priorities but generally, we ask what’s the smallest thing that can bring us closer to our north star.
define due date in hours + something that makes a difference for at least 1 user/user group of your product
1. define ur goal 2. ask urself, if i do x does that get more further or closer to my goal
Answers•8
my current best possibility is assignment for the Washington Post
finally getting this internet to work right with opacity
Learning.
onboarding new users via my blockchain for beginners course
Being able to own a successful and profitable channel on a growing social media network.
waking up and seeing 3 op in my account ! just amazing
How about a game where every level is a surprise fashion show?
NFTs actually making a comeback and old projects delivering
Answers•5
PERCS! We already have many success stories. Take a look 👀 : https://percs.app/about-us/
Do you believe more web2 people should be onboarded unto warpcast as they’ll also benefit from it in terms of what they are about I think i saw a cast about that today
What is GTM?
Is there demand yet?
@mcbain is helping them get on fc!
Answers•6
co create content, cross promotion.
when creators meet builders and become founders
By eliminating bots that atm are turning founders unreachable for everybody slower than them "Bots" I gues founders will have to find a way to be available, maybe promoting weekly meetings? Doesn't matter.
You need to devise a solution that benefits both parties, and this can vary significantly from project to project.
Alignment - there needs to be some common outcome for both parties involved (eg shipping a feature, a product marketing campaign, etc)
Answers•6
real curious though, pleasee let me know when you find an answer
shares would still be evaluated on the cap. discounted shares, non-dilutive down round, etc.
FAFO
And how it would be possible? Example plz ? If possible...
investor gets the company, the trailer, and the dog
End result? Probably founder led fraud
Answers•3
Footlocker
software engineer at 12, legal because it was my parents' business
Worked as a book keeper for a school