I caught up with a founder friend yesterday to hear about his new Web3 startup that uses blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFT technologies.
We last spoke when we both lived in Phoenix a few years ago. Now I’m in Dallas and he’s somewhere else.
He has been through this cycle twice in the last five years: join a growing startup, grow faster, get acquired, join the bigger company, then leave to do it again.
Now he’s a savvy entrepreneur with deep operations experience. He’s ready to start his own thing.
He and his cofounder are already getting big seed funding offers from investors of all types–before they have a product, customers or revenue.
There is a crazy startup gold rush happening here, just like the old dot-com internet boom of 1999-2000, the Web 2.0 boom of 2008-2010 and the early SaaS boom of 2014-16.
Is he crazy for chasing a big dream in a undeveloped new market with big funding so early?
For him, I don’t think so. Here’s why:
1) He’s in his early 30s and wants to play big to change the world and build a very big company.
He’s aware that starting with a big vision with big funding will either pay off big or bust completely.
He’s ready to invest the next few years and play all out to see what he can build.
2) I think most crypto, blockchain, and NFT startups right now are experiments that won’t last, but this is a huge wave that is coming fast. There will be many more big winners in just a few years.
He’s in a perfect spot to join the revolution and stake a claim that could be really big.
3) He’s aware that eager investors with crazy startup valuations have high expectations. He knows what sport he’s signing up for.
4) One of the best ways to create a big company is to start early in a new market and ride a wave that grows and grows and grows.
Crazy adventurers should go to the frontier and develop a new civilization for the rest of us.
5) The arms race is already happening with serious startups and big funding in this space. It’s hard to bootstrap a startup slowly in this exploding new market.
I wished him well on his crazy big adventure!
