# CSX: Week 10 + Summary By [Jayme Hoffman](https://newsletter.jaymehoffman.com) · 2024-06-19 --- 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**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-1-notes) * **Achieving PMF is like holding a winning hand. -** [**Jason Rosenthal (a16z)**](https://x.com/jasonrosenthal) * 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)**](https://x.com/benrbn?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) * 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**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-2-notes) * **Web3 is the hardest place to be an entrepreneur. -** [**Mo Shaikh (Aptos Labs)**](https://x.com/moshaikhs) * 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)**](https://x.com/jinglejamop) * 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**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-3-notes) * **Network tokens are the most interesting token type -** [**Eddy Lazzarin (a16z)**](https://x.com/eddylazzarin) * 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)**](https://x.com/HilmarVeigar) * 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**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-4-notes) * **More cryptography is better -** [**Valeria Nikolaenko (a16z)**](https://x.com/lera_banda) * “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)**](https://x.com/skominers) * 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**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-5-notes) * **Regulation should reflect democratic values. -** [**Brian**](https://x.com/CFTCquintenz) **and** [**Michele**](https://x.com/MicheleKorver) **(a16z)** * Shouldn't: create new powers, censorship * Should: support innovative tech, freedom, right to transaction, promote competition ### [**Week 6**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-6-notes) * **A brand is a collection of beliefs people have about your company. -** [**Steven Ebert**](https://x.com/stebertstebert) * 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)**](https://x.com/ariannasimpson) * 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**](https://paragraph.xyz/@jayme/csx-week-7-notes) * **All decisions in the beginning compound more than you think. -** [**Alex Blania (Worldcoin)**](https://x.com/alexblania) * 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)**](https://x.com/chrislyons) * 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)**](https://x.com/ShaneMac) * 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**](https://x.com/jaymehoffman/status/1799015885795131521) * **Communities are the most powerful force. -** [**Chris Dixon (a16z)**](https://x.com/cdixon) * The moat is your community. * [1K True Fans](https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-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 🍻 ![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4816674fcdff339fdf9aefd82b05ace6.gif) --- *Originally published on [Jayme Hoffman](https://newsletter.jaymehoffman.com/csx-summary)*