If only there was a way to directly pitch A16z without the connections.
Some of us crazy people are consumed by Web3 ideas so much that we spend years thinking about it full-time aren't necessarily the most social or well-connected people.
Creating an MVP for a vertically-integrated company that's carefully designed to rip the guts out of the entire existing tech monopoly is extremely difficult at best. Applying with large-scale ideas like this to YC as a solo founder without an overachieving background offers an almost infinitesimal probability of success.
Likewise, it'd be cool to see pre-seed funding from these types of initiatives. I'd love to spend another year or two just refining the notes generated by tens of thousands of hours of thought into a cohesive design document. It's so much content I'm having to create a custom spatial interface to map and organize it all into a kind of living design doc.
I suppose the point is that the deep thought required to envision things like this is at odds with creating a personal brand or playing the traditional traction-based startup game. Some of us are just out there in left field, alone. We want to bring incredible amounts of value to the table, but it's very difficult to do so.
I would look into getting a head start by leveraging one of the existing blockchain companies that's looking for developers to build on their platform. Usually they are very happy to promote your project(s) on their social media, and/or offer you seed/bridge funding if you can create a compelling MVP. I would also urge you to look for the blockchain companies that are hosting hackathons, since that means they have money to blow on attracting developers. I know all this since I'm in the same boat as you :) Good luck!
This is an amusing truth in the industry. The VC's have given much of their money to "layer 1" blockchain projects that are supposed to have lots of application projects building on them.
But VC's aren't investing as much in application projects, since there often isn't a clear path to profitability with a decentralized application. A big reason for this is that the layer 1 blockchain will capture most of the value of the applications running on it (for a real life example of this, see Uniswap on Ethereum).
At the same time, the success of a layer 1 blockchain is judged by how many applications it has. So maybe one could argue that applications are valued more highly by VCs for enhancing the appearance of success of layer 1 blockchains than for their own sake.
This leads to the situation you portray, where it's sometimes easiest for a founder to get investment money from VCs that has first passed through the hands of a layer 1 project.
Blockchain isn't required for an MVP, so I am fortunate in that regard.
You know, it's funny to watch Silicon Valley years ago and laugh at the "new internet" part. Then realize shit, I've actually become this person now. :)
Appreciate the advice and kind words, best of luck to you as well!
Some of us crazy people are consumed by Web3 ideas so much that we spend years thinking about it full-time aren't necessarily the most social or well-connected people.
Creating an MVP for a vertically-integrated company that's carefully designed to rip the guts out of the entire existing tech monopoly is extremely difficult at best. Applying with large-scale ideas like this to YC as a solo founder without an overachieving background offers an almost infinitesimal probability of success.
Likewise, it'd be cool to see pre-seed funding from these types of initiatives. I'd love to spend another year or two just refining the notes generated by tens of thousands of hours of thought into a cohesive design document. It's so much content I'm having to create a custom spatial interface to map and organize it all into a kind of living design doc.
I suppose the point is that the deep thought required to envision things like this is at odds with creating a personal brand or playing the traditional traction-based startup game. Some of us are just out there in left field, alone. We want to bring incredible amounts of value to the table, but it's very difficult to do so.