Zerion is 9 years old. Time goes faster in crypto, so that’s at least 3 decades elsewhere. Below is my view of what helped us get this far.   

Have a good partner

Your work partners are just as important as your spouse. 

You have ups and downs, go through market cycles together, argue, debate, fight (sometimes), bond, and align. It’s as complicated as any other human relationship. That’s why you should choose the right people—people you can rely on.

I’m lucky to have two Zerion co-founders who started with me. And while it hasn’t always been easy, I’m proud we’ve worked through challenges as a team.

Even though the number of successful solo founders has been growing recently, the setups with several co-founders are still dominant and the most stable. 

Commit to solving the right problems

Crypto is a young industry and offers many attractive “low-hanging fruits.” These are problems with high value and low effort. 

But given how competitive crypto is, it is often hard to move faster than everybody. If you pick these obvious problems, you end up competing with way too many people. One example is launching an Aave fork on a new hot chain. You’ll fight for limited liquidity with other projects. And eventually the original Aave might choose to deploy on that chain. 

Alternatively, you can focus on high-value, high-effort problems. New market entrants dismiss them, so you will have more time to come up with the best solution and become a leader of a category. If we continue using lending as an example, a high-effort problem could be uncollateralized loans or a privacy-focused platform. 

Pivot, but not every time 

Don’t get distracted by every trend that is “going to change everything.” 

Crypto is volatile and heavily narrative-driven. Prices move fast and usually outpace fundamentals. As a result, industry participants are often overly bullish or bearish on certain themes. Meanwhile, other themes are completely ignored. 

Apply your own thinking to assess the importance of market changes. Speak to users to deeply understand their needs. Consult other founders to get different perspectives. If it makes sense, move fast. 

For example, account abstraction (EIP-4337) was expected to revolutionize wallets. At Zerion, we got lots of “wen AA” questions. Yet, despite all the hype, there is still no real adoption. Of course, we continue to closely watch account abstraction, especially EIP-7702. We have much more confidence in the success of this implementation.

Meanwhile, Zerion was one of the first wallets to introduce simulation for every transaction. There was no hype preceding that feature. Many people didn’t even understand it until they tried it. But now every user wants it, and most wallets support it. 

Retention is key

This is true for any industry, but it is even more relevant for crypto because of the incentives game.

Crypto is unique because you can incentivize user behavior. However, most products turn to points or airdrop tokens too soon. Without reaching product-market fit, products aren’t sustainable and gradually (or quickly) die when the incentives are turned off. 

While it’s tempting to game retention, don’t lie to yourself about the nature of your metrics. Focus on “real” usage first. Then, introduce incentives to enhance products that are already working.

Invest in your culture

Company culture is a form of moat that is often ignored in crypto, which is usually remote-first and often anonymous. 

But culture isn’t about meeting IRL every day. When you’re remote (Zerion always has been), it’s even more important to have something that brings people together.  

Aim to build an environment where your team loves solving hard problems and is not scared by uncertainty. Resilient culture helps you navigate inevitable pivots and gets you through tough times. 

Culture starts with shared values and the company's purpose. It is then built through standups, team offsites, #kudos on Slack, New Year gifts, and human connections that form over time. 

It’s not all about fun and games, though. Any good culture is complex and dynamic. It took us many iterations to develop the systems to hold ourselves accountable and make sure that our culture is highly performant and adaptable. 

Culture is what’s left when you solve that hard problem—and move on to the next one.