"What's different about Blur is that the entire project was meticulously planned from the outset."
Crypto founders often follow advice tailored to Web2 companies, yet Pacman believes, "Building a DApp or a protocol in crypto is inherently different."
He elaborates, "Typically, you launch rapidly, iterate, and pivot", a strategy which many successful Web2 startups have executed to achieve pmf.
"For us, however, we knew exactly what we wanted to build, how we planned to launch it, and even the points system we developed for growth—all set prior to day one."
Pacman and his team spent 10 months building in stealth before launching, diverging from the well-known "launch now" mantra popularized by YC.
Its actually YC's first piece of advice in their essential pocket guide.
"The reason we were so confident is that the inspiration for Blur came from my own experiences as an NFT trader − an underserved market in 2022."
He reinforces the idea of taking as much time needed to build by explaining that in a financialized industry such as crypto "security is existential".
"In web3 when things work, they escalate rapidly and the numbers get really big, really fast." Bitcoin L2s and Pacman's own Blast L2 are proof of this, reaching billions in TVL in less than just one month.
Pacman explains, "In that environment is always a good idea to get an audit first".
For now, many crypto founders would benefit from adopting a Web3-native approach to development, embracing the strategy of "Not launching now".
Video Source: Founder Lessons Learned While Building Blur and Blast with Pacman [Entire talk]
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