The Investment
Neynar hit close to home, as it was our first markup.
We met Rish and Manan in the summer of 2023. After solid careers at Coinbase, they decided to pursue the entrepreneurial journey.
We were surprised by the quick iteration speed of the initial product, built only by the two of them in a few weeks time.
The initial product, and the thesis we invested on, was a no-code NFT creator. From our investment memo: “Currently, there is a void in the NFT landscape, with no app emphasizing a dynamic, scrolling/swiping viewing experience. Neynar seeks to fill this gap, aiming to democratize the digital asset space by adopting proven engagement strategies from conventional social media applications as well as giving content creators a no-code tool to build out immersive NFT experiences.”
But, back then, Neynar had also found a glimpse of what would be the current product: “Furthermore the team realized that part of the infrastructure they have built out can be externalized and are now selling it as a subscription with over 10 paying subscribers.”
Forward to today, Neynar is the infrastructure company that powers app developers on Farcaster. Neynar has found PMF with Farcaster developers. As the space grows, Neynar wants to position it as the place where developers can easily integrate with social protocols.
Recently, they’ve raised a Series A from Haun Ventures and USV, some of the industry heavyweights, to expand their vision.
Today, we’re surprised as back then, by the shipping velocity and ability to quickly evaluate success of product releases by the team.
The current product suite includes (almost) everything a developer might need to build on Farcaster:
APIs: So your users can interact with the Farcaster protocol
React SDK: So you can embed Farcaster into your website or app
Sign in with Farcaster: So you can validate your users, or your users can signup to Farcaster
Hubs: So you can read and write raw data from the farcaster
Webhooks: So you can get notified about specific actions from your users on Farcaster
Data Services: Resolve your Farcaster data headaches with custom built data solutions
Founder Q&A
Now, onto some tips from Rish.
Q: You have a big product suite. What is the process you follow when evaluating if a feature or product is being successful and it needs to be accelerated with further investments, sunset, or pivoted?
A: Traction.
If people are using the product and asking for new features, it’s usually a clear sign to invest further and vice-versa. That said, we don’t build every feature that gets asked.
Q: Even though your background is in building product, you’ve also been exceptional at selling, to both developers, and investors. How do you run a sales process and pipeline to maximize the chances of closing?
A: We don’t run a formal sales process today, maybe we will sometime in the future. Today, we focus on identifying the needs in the market (both immediate and future ones) and as developers start building in those areas, they find Neynar. We try to serve our customers in a way that they can recommend Neynar to others without hesitation.
Q: What are your practices or resources to scale a developer team while maintaining efficiency in terms of product output?
A: Everyone on the team is an engineer, talks to customers directly and can autonomously run the full cycle of identifying a need / getting customer feedback to shipping the product. We meet once daily at the start of the day to talk about what we are working on.
Q: What’s next for Neynar?
A: Focused on serving the best use cases that help grow decentralized social. 🙂
This post is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell securities or to pursue any particular investment strategy. This post should not be relied upon in evaluating the merits of any investment or any particular investment strategy. You should consult your own advisers as to business, financial, tax, legal, and all other related matters concerning any investment. The views expressed in this post reflect the current opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Social Graph Ventures LLC
