Building on Solana was initially challenging, but developers willing to tackle those difficulties were able to create innovative solutions that attracted users.

The early struggles of Solana, including a small team and limited runway, ultimately helped in building a strong community and onboarding developers during tough times.

The launch of Binance Smart Chain led to many low-effort projects that crowded the market, but those unable to overcome the friction of building on Solana were filtered out, allowing for more capable developers to thrive.

During the FTX crisis, many believed Solana was dead, but the teams building on Solana were resilient and managed to keep their funds safe, allowing for continued development.

Our vision for Solana has remained remarkably consistent, which is surprising given the amount of uncertainty and luck involved in the startup journey.

Solana's willingness to iterate quickly and make significant changes to the protocol while it's operational sets it apart from other blockchain projects.

The platform's design reduced developer optionality, making it harder to code but ultimately lowering business risk, which contributed to the success of memecoins on Solana.

Building a strong developer ecosystem is incredibly challenging, but it's essential for the platform's success.

On the debt side, we were fortunate to have thoughtful and educated investors who were capable of understanding new assets, which helped us in our funding process.