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.

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

We attracted developers who were looking for new capacity and were willing to endure the challenges of building on Solana, which ultimately led to successful projects.

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 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.

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.

The resilient part of being a founder is to continue working on a problem while others tell you it’s not worth solving, and I had to put everything I have into Blockdaemon without a clear promise of a better market environment, just to make it last as long as possible.

I had to make tough decisions during a crisis, including shrinking the team and raising funds, which ultimately extended our runway and allowed us to launch successfully despite market challenges.