Founder of Xiaoyouling shares entrepreneurial insights: Don't come to start a business if you want to make quick money.

Original Title: "10 Entrepreneurial Insights from Sleepy, Founder of Weirdo Ghost Gang"

Original Author: sleepy.mid

This article is sourced from Sleepy, the founder of Weirdo Ghost Gang, and summarizes ten entrepreneurial experiences based on personal entrepreneurial experience, including entrepreneurial mentality, entrepreneurial direction, and personal growth. How can Web3 entrepreneurs survive in the rapidly changing market? Odaily Star Daily has compiled its experience as follows: Twitter.

Recently, I have been contemplating and making adjustments. The Web3 startup environment has undergone significant changes since we first started. After multiple iterations, our understanding may be completely different from what it was at the beginning. In this article, I will share 10 tips based on my entrepreneurial experience, hoping to provide assistance to those who are currently in the process of starting a business or considering a Web3 startup.

TL; DR 

If you want to make quick money, it's better to become a hacker or invest in cryptocurrency, don't bother starting a business.

The dividend period of doing projects from bottom to top has passed.

Don't try to catch the hot spot, be forward-looking.

Industry genes determine that one cannot succeed in "consumption" within the circle.

Do not blindly trust any KOL, project party, or capital.

Do not treat Web3 Native as a sufficient and necessary condition. In many cases, it is not even a necessary condition.

The importance of marketing has become even more significant in the industry.

To choose between jumping into the "Web3 self-entertainment circle" or following the Web3 sentiment based on the industry format.

Reduce ineffective social interactions.

Find time every day/week to break out of the information cocoon.

1. Want to make quick money? Become a hacker or invest in cryptocurrency, don't start a business.

If your goal is to make quick money, then don't come to start a business. From my own perspective, this industry has too much stigma; from your perspective, there are too many ways to make money faster than starting a business.  

When hacking or speculating on cryptocurrencies, the difficulty lies in the fact that you must learn. As a hacker, you need to understand technology; speculating on cryptocurrencies is a job with a low entry barrier and a high profit threshold. If you don't know anything and can make money just by casually operating, it can only be said that you are lucky. However, if you want to seriously consider it as a means of financial investment, you need to learn some financial knowledge, secondary trading knowledge, and conduct in-depth analysis of some projects. Value investment or emotional investment needs to be based on these.  

Entrepreneurship is a much more complex thing. You need to consider compliance, team building, development planning, capital investment, and so on. And you must know that the probability of entrepreneurial success is less than 1%, which is already an extremely small probability event.  

Of course, if your goal is not to succeed in a project, but to quickly Rug-Pull, I think this article cannot persuade you. I can only tell you that everyone in the industry is now broke and there is no more money to be made.

2. The dividend period of doing projects from bottom to top has passed 

At the early stage of our industry, there was a popular saying that Web3 projects should grow from the bottom up, with the community first and then together deciding how to develop in the future. 

Here I can clearly tell you, as of today, if you are still using this term, it is highly likely that your team has not thought through the future development plan. 

Actually, I think the reason why such a statement has been circulating is due to the confusion between Web3 startups and DAOs, and there has been a long-standing debate in the industry about whether Web3 startups should choose corporate operation or DAO operation. If not operated as a corporation, it will seriously affect efficiency, but if DAO mode is not adopted, there will be concerns about not getting support from the community. In fact, I have always felt that many of the hotly debated topics in the industry have already been concluded and verified in Web2, such as this issue can be completely referenced by early Xiaomi.

3. Don't just chase hot topics, be forward-thinking

This refers to the choice in the entrepreneurial direction, not the marketing direction. 

Web3 hotspots iterate at a speed far beyond other industries, and a new story may emerge every day during a bull market, while a bear market may be more difficult without any stories to tell. The completely virtual industry is best suited for storytelling. Unless you have a highly efficient technical team and can discover it at the very beginning of each wave of hotspots, it is impossible to seize the opportunity to launch a product, and you also need to consider that it may quickly become outdated, resulting in poor cost-effectiveness of your investment.  

Therefore, you need to have your own understanding and comprehension of the industry and the macro environment. Don't be a trend entrepreneur, but always stick to the direction you believe in and wait for the hotspots to come to you.  

4. Industry genes determine that you cannot succeed in "consumption" within the circle. 

This is something we should all keep in mind. If you want to focus on consumer-oriented projects, don't define yourself as a Web3 project and don't spend too much energy in this circle.  

Actually, the conclusion we reached is strongly related to what we are doing, and it is precisely what we are doing that drives me to think in this direction and reach this conclusion.  

Recently, it was discovered that a project in the consumer field had ceased operations. The team members were sent to learn from this experience and the feedback received was that "the willingness to pay was low". This actually contradicts the story that many people in another circle used to tell.  

Why is it difficult to enter the consumer market in this industry? During my college internship, I worked for a new consumer brand for a period of time. I would like to share my experience with you. The description may not be completely accurate, but as long as you get the point I want to express, it is enough.

 The general process of selling a product is as follows: users see it, become interested, click into the product details, and place an order. Most users will not proceed to the next step at each stage, and if the conversion rate from "seeing" to "placing an order" can reach 0.05%, it indicates that the product is very easy to sell. From the quality, design, and price, this product is excellent. 

Web3 people are also human beings and cannot escape this objective law. However, there are billions of people in the Web2 funnel, while the number of real active users in Web3 is much less. So, instead of saying that people in this circle have "low willingness to pay", I prefer to understand it as "too few active users".  

When you read this, you may wonder: "Isn't Web3 supposed to make users more loyal fans?" Let's take a look at how this viewpoint is formed.  

Actually, the original idea of this point is that you can quickly gather a community through the sale of NFTs. Ideally, community members will actively build the community, promote it, and engage in CX in order to increase the price of NFTs. Some people believe that this is "loyal fans". However, this is actually the misuse of Web2 terminology in the context of Web3.  

"Consumption" is the hope of selling products that fans like and need. The underlying logic is "liking" and "needing". However, once Web3 adds financial product attributes, it is easy for entrepreneurial teams to make wrong judgments. You may think that they really like it, but they just want someone to take over. And if you can't understand your users' true attitudes, this will be a fatal problem. 

Therefore, it is better to fully utilize the financial product attributes in Web3, and give back to your community after achieving profitability, whether it is legally "dividend" or repurchasing Token.  

So, reading up to this point, I think we have reached a consensus, which is to make money from Web2 after the capitalization of Web3. After that, it becomes very clear that we need to target the market where the money comes from and make localized changes accordingly, just like you can't use the strategy of targeting the Japanese market to target the European and American markets. If you want to make money from Web2, then participating in Crypto's Twitter Space and attending Web3 offline summits every day is not very meaningful.

5. Don't blindly trust any KOL, project party, or capital

I am personally the project party, also a small KOL, and have also worked in capital, which is a sincere suggestion based on my own experience.

There are too many people who call for others to take over their shipments, and this article will not go into detail about it. 

And some "positive" views from KOLs, project parties, and capital should not be blindly trusted. As an entrepreneur, you need to have your own clear judgment of the current and future market situation. You can take their views as supplements, but you must internalize these contents into your own views and constantly improve your cognition. You are starting a business for yourself, not working for KOLs, project parties, or capital.

6. Don't treat Web3 Native as a sufficient and necessary condition. In many cases, it is not even a necessary condition;

Previously, I wrote in an article: "Are we Web3 people overestimating Web3?" 

Is Web3 Native still important? From the perspective of entrepreneurship and work, I believe it is completely unimportant.  

Previously, we emphasized that Web3 Native (Crypto Native) is actually more like sticking a label on oneself, boasting that one is different and has been involved in this industry for a long time, with the main purpose of showcasing one's uniqueness. 

This threshold that we set up artificially often blocks people who want to join the circle, and also gradually disconnects those inside the circle from the world.  

Before, I have seen many teams claim that their biggest advantage is Web3 Native, but they cannot explain what advantages native brings them; I have also seen many communities claim to have hundreds of active users when there are only a dozen diners in a hot pot restaurant downstairs from my home; Recently, when our team was recruiting, we interviewed dozens of people and clearly felt that the average ability of candidates from a Web2 background was higher.  

Previously, people in the industry looked down on those who came from "big companies", but those who can withstand the polishing of Web2 are likely to have their own work methodology. Which is more important, a mature methodology or familiarity with Web3? I hope to have both, but if I can only choose one, I will definitely choose the former. To be honest, I don't think there is anything in Web3 today that can only be learned by Native.

7. Market marketing is more important 

Previously, I saw someone compare this industry to an entertainment circle, which I think is quite accurate.  

Actually, marketing is a very important job in any industry. However, due to the particularity of our industry, the difficulty of marketing has become greater. The 24-hour trading market, constantly changing hot events, cross-cultural memes... Start-up teams need to put more effort into marketing to continue to attract attention. Also, don't equate data with marketing.

8. Choose to jump out of the "Web3 Self-entertainment Circle" or follow the Web3 sentiment according to the business format. 

Web3 often indulges in self-appreciation, and I think this is an indisputable fact. 

So how should this problem be approached? It really depends on where you want to make money. This doesn't necessarily mean that choosing A is disrespectful to B, after all, doing business is not charity. You always have to choose a more suitable track as a starting point. The unique charm of Web3 is that it often bursts with emotions that contradict the macro environment. This sentence is actually the same as "self-indulgence". Entrepreneurs need to choose based on what their company is actually doing, whether to break out of the self-indulgent circle or to make money by following market emotions.

Both paths will face significant challenges. The former means you will enter a more turbulent environment, and you need to choose the right weapon from the Web3 arsenal to create differentiation. The latter means you need to repeatedly discover and accurately gauge market sentiment, guiding it instead of being led by it. 

9. Reduce ineffective social interactions 

This is what I have been doing recently as a practitioner in the encryption industry. As an entrepreneur, the problems that need to be solved in work every day are heavy and trivial, unlike employees who can focus on a certain detail, or freelancers (KOL, full-time cryptocurrency traders, etc.) who have a lot of free time.  

You need to ensure that work progresses smoothly, the company operates normally, and your knowledge continues to improve to ensure that you stay at the forefront of the industry. With so many things piled up, there is almost no time left for you to socialize. Therefore, before the company grows, remember that every move you make should be for a purpose. Although I strongly advocate the need for work-life balance for sustainable development, since you have come to start a business, you should be prepared to work hard. 

10. Find time every day/week to break out of the information cocoon 

Previously, I always immersed myself in the information of Web3, constantly refreshing Twitter and listening to Space... afraid of missing any news.

However, after a period of time, I did not feel any additional gains. Instead, I found myself trapped in the Web3 information cocoon. I often only learned about various things in Web2 after a week, far behind my friends. I realized that this is actually a dangerous signal. As an entrepreneur, we cannot fall behind in terms of memes, news, economic situations, trends, and business models. "Self-indulgence" is still okay, but "lagging self-indulgence" is too scary. I have had similar experiences. Sometimes, during team discussions, we would propose some ideas that we thought were very clever, but after further research, we would find that some company in the Web2 field had already done it, or many things that we thought were interesting were not actually of interest to the public from a data perspective.

The above are some personal opinions based on personal experience, for reference only.

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