Last week was a16z Crypto's CSX demo day and our last week in London. To celebrate an awesome 10 weeks, I wanted to share a recap of some of my favorite lessons.

I'd also like to thank Jay, Jason, Emily, Anna, Tamzen, and the rest of the CSX team for organizing a great program and group of founders.

Week 1

• Achieving PMF is like holding a winning hand. - Jason Rosenthal (a16z)

  • It gives you optionality (e.g., fundraise, get acquired, acquire other companies, build a massive generational company).

• Design your product for the dinner table. - Ben Rubin (HNT, Towns)

  • 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.

Week 2

• Web3 is the hardest place to be an entrepreneur. - Mo Shaikh (Aptos Labs)

  • The market is “neck-whipping” fast, and you get to “be really close to the customer”

  • A crowded market (in web3) doesn't matter. There are barely 1m users. 5B users are not using your product.

• Build a great community by genuinely giving a fuck. - Jing Wang (Optimism Foundation)

  • How does Optimism have such a great community? “We genuinely give a fuck” - Jing

  • What are vibes? People are having fun. Vibes are the outcome of a bunch of early decisions

  • Vitalik on why unicorn shirts “keep out a particular type of toxicity “

Week 3

• Network tokens are the most interesting token type - Eddy Lazzarin (a16z)

  • There are four token types: Memecoins, Stablecoin, Arcade tokens, Network token

  • Network tokens are the most interesting: You don't design a token; you design a protocol

• Find people who love what you are doing - Hilmar Veigar (CCP Games)

  • Finding a few people who love what you're doing is better than millions who just like it. Avoid ambivalence.

  • Start there and then diffuse into the mainstream. The best things started as niches: Metalica, Apple, Eve

Week 4

• More cryptography is better - Valeria Nikolaenko (a16z)

  • “Richer the toolkit, the better. The more tools we have, the more free we are.”

  • Our privacy toolkit is very poor — Data is leaked all the time. With MPC, you can shift it around

• The new Five Forces: the source of competitive advantage has changed. - Scott Kominers (a16z)

  • The source gets stronger when you have interoperability

  • Value capture in traditional form is more difficult

  • Network effect forms around protocol and digital assets

  • Embeddedness becomes a source of competitive advantage

  • Community cohesion: Users want to engage in your ecosystem; shared ownership is a powerful loop

Week 5

• Regulation should reflect democratic values. - Brian and Michele (a16z)

  • Shouldn't: create new powers, censorship

  • Should: support innovative tech, freedom, right to transaction, promote competition

Week 6

• A brand is a collection of beliefs people have about your company. - Steven Ebert

  • A brand is not something you set and forget. The reality is that a brand is like a living org that evolves

  • Brand building is the practice of shaping a brand.

  • Minimum Viable Brand is why you exist, how to tell your story in a compelling way, and how you differentiate from competitors

• Fundraising is answering questions about a business. - Arianna Simpson (a16z)

  • Why is this a big market?

  • Why are you best positioned to tackle that problem and win?

  • How deeply have the founders explored the idea maze?

  • How good is the founder market fit

  • Assuming everything goes well, what will you be doing in 5 years?

Week 7

• All decisions in the beginning compound more than you think. - Alex Blania (Worldcoin)

  • The first eight people should be complete rock stars, work day and night, and be a perfect cultural fit.

  • There is a massive difference between top-tier and non-top-tier investors, so optimizing Series A leads matters more than founders think. Investors who have not been founders should not advise founders on how to run a company.

• View life as art and paint pictures. - Chris Lyons (a16z)

  • Your job is to paint pictures. Maximize what each moment can be. You can make 1 + 1 = 2 or 1 + 1 = 11.

  • What is the next best situation? "There is always a move. If something is a little boring, you need to shake it up. There is always a move."

• Think smaller to go bigger. - Shane Mac (XMTP)

  • Mistake Shane made with the previous startup: went horizontal instead of vertical. Thought dog walking was too small: "were not just a vertical app were bigger and better."

  • Think smaller to go bigger. We didn't pick a small vertical to nail the experience, and we couldn't have picked a small enough community.

  • Key insight: Do not go broad; Go less. If that doesn't work, switch to a vertical.

Week 9

• Communities are the most powerful force. - Chris Dixon (a16z)

  • The moat is your community.

  • 1K True Fans: you need 1K super fired about contributing. Think, “How do I get 1K people to love me?”

  • It's surprising how small of a community you need (Wikipedia is basically 20K people).

• The best company in every credible category.

  • You can't control the category, but you can control the best team.

  • Category is the hardest thing about the investor's job. Not overly strict about the category because predicting the future is difficult. Very strict on the team.

  • Example: You can be unsure of decentralized social, but you can be sure that Farcaster is the best team.

Cheers

That's a wrap! Thank you, a16z Crypto and London 🍻