We’re participating in a16z Crypto’s CSX in London. I’ll use this newsletter to share notes, links, and lessons from the program. Here are my notes from Week 1.
Talk: Jason Rosenthal on finding PMF in Web3
PMF is like playing poker.
Achieving PMF is like holding a winning hand—it gives you optionality (e.g., fundraise, get acquired, acquire other companies, build a massive generational company).
First to PMF is always the long-term winner. Company value is determined by the strength of PMF.
Five pillars of Web3 PMF:
Design self-reinforcing network effects into your protocol/product from Day 1.
Maximize win rate by building with the highest quality projects.
Align your roadmap with the needs of your smartest users.
Separate power users from airdrop farmers (i.e., TVL = bad indicator of pmf)
Invest resources and tokens wisely
Web2 vs. Web3 PMF
Web2: Billions of users, low friction UX, paid acq channels, low ARPU
Web3: 10Ks of users, high friction UX, airdrops/grants, massive ARPU
PMF theory into practice
What are your current beliefs about finding PMF?
What levers can you pull, and what experiments can you run to test?
Talk to your co-founders and team to evolve your thinking.
CSX is here to help! 🤝
On new markets
When Stripe started, "Most of our customers don't exist yet."
Here’s the full talk from the last batch: Finding product-market fit in web3 | Jason Rosenthal
Talk: Ben Rubin’s Journey from Meerkat to Towns
Your product at the dinner table
How do you want people to talk about your product at the dinner table?
Start backward: What does the user say at the dinner table? Map the product funnel to that conversation.
The devil is in the details; god is in the defaults
What is the minimum number of clicks to an aha moment? - Meercat was 2 clicks and then 1.
Simple products done well = complexity is abstracted away by making opinionated decisions about what the defaults should be. The devil is in the details; god is in the defaults.
Building for online communities
Online community management is a thankless job. They don’t own their network.
Users should be rewarded for the work they put on the internet.
On Web2 vs. Web3 GTM - just focus on moderators and build what’s cool for them.
Consumers don’t care about decentralization. They care about safety and someone to mate with. Safety = money.
Sunday Routine
What is giving me anxiety? → becomes todo list → done = brings balance
Fully-remote teams
If fully remote and 0-1 startup, hire only seniors. If juniors, work in-person next to them.
Do off-site multiple times per year.
Work-life balance
It’s a balance - it should be fun, meaningful, and rewarding.
Can’t control future. Focus on what you want now, not in the future.
Build a better relationship with intuition - “What do you want to see in the world now?” → Becomes the thing that is meaningful and fun.
Learn more about what Ben and the team are up to:
HNT Labs / Towns / River Protocol / @benrbn
Links that came up
Dinner convos: What’s Farcaster? What’s $DEGEN? How to @launch?
Farcaster is a decentralized social network and the highest quality community of crypto builders. I highly recommend it to numerous founders, especially those building for developers.
$DEGEN is a Farcaster channel, token, ecosystem, and infrastructure for the Degen community. It was mentioned in every conversation that involved Farcaster.
Launchcaster is a crypto Product Hunt built on Farcaster. I gave a bunch of CSX founders feedback on how and when to @launch. Some alpha: more launches should use videos and gifs.
Tapas at Ember Yard
What is PMF to you?
IMO, it’s all about retention: Make something people love → Retention → Compounding → “Boulder starts to roll downhill” = PMF
NFTs on iOS Apps?
This came up a couple of times. Consumer PMF means mobile, but what iOS apps allow NFT transactions without connecting to a second app? Not much outside of Warpcast, Blackbird, and Floor. We're so early.
Launcher Labs Progress
The most impactful aspect of CSX so far is the forcing function to work out of the same flat. We've worked together for five years, mostly remotely. We've gotten good at remote work, but nothing beats yelling across the room. It feels like we're getting months done in days.
We shipped:
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