# X Posts April 2025

I’m pivoting to a dating app called Gaslight with token incentives.

Founder House day 1: silent walk to the Ganga.

Founder House day 2: burn your cap table.

My wedding ceremony is on‑chain.

I’m launching a new social‑network called “Zuckerbook” and we’re raising a Pre‑Seed at $50 M cap.

- Two is ideal.
  • One focused on product/tech
  • One focused on growth/ops

Founder who doesn’t know/like math cannot build a cryptographic protocol.

The biggest reason for death of startups is cofounder conflict, not lack of funding.

You don’t need to start right now.

In early April 2025 I shared a focused set of notes for crypto‑chain founders, especially those targeting the Monad ecosystem. The core advice centres on proving product‑market fit through "closed‑loop validation" – building the tiniest usable prototype (a "skateboard") and iterating with real users, while rejecting outdated integration grants, embracing Monad community immersion, prioritising founder mental‑health routines, and tracking explicit momentum metrics (≈10 % weekly improvement).

Monad community does not allow token‑farming – "You cannot farm them."

I reject Monad "integration" grants as outdated – "This \"integration\" stuff and grants are so 2021".

Closed‑Loop Validation is called "skateboard" – "Closed Loop Validation: Skateboard".

I aim for ~10 % weekly product improvement – "If your product gets 10% better each week → you’ll win."

Founder mental‑health rule: "Don’t quit" (Ben Horowitz) – maintain trusted co‑founder, clear small wins, inner‑circle support, rapid reset, therapy systems.

Decision: Focus on a tiny, passionate user cohort – "Build for a few people who love you".

In early April 2025 I posted a three‑day X thread (2025‑04‑04 to 2025‑04‑06) that crystallised my thinking on real vs. fake startup traction, ultra‑short feedback loops, defensibility, market selection and cultural challenges in India.

Press ≠ growth. • You get a spike. • Then it vanishes. • And now you’re exposed. Users arrive and churn.

Real growth is driven by user love – daily use, word‑of‑mouth, and the willingness to miss the product if it disappears.

The tightest feedback loop always wins.

Obsession is the original moat.

The best moat? Being default – the default tab, the default dashboard, the default habit.

Small + growing > big + stagnant.

- **Decision:** Prioritize organic user love over PR – press spikes are transient and lead to churn.\n- **Decision:** Implement ultra‑short feedback loops – faster learning compounds and outpaces competitors.\n- **Decision:** Invest early in a defensibility kernel (network effects or switching costs).\n- **Decision:** Select markets with clear, growing pain – small, hungry early user bases drive exponential growth.\n- **Decision:** Shift founder mindset from “feature factory” to “love engine”.

I use a daily outreach routine (call/DM 3 users, watch live usage) and an internal Slack channel that surfaces user quotes, a “Bug of the Day” board and public changelogs to keep feedback loops ultra‑short.

In early April 2025 I ran a rapid‑fire series of X posts (April 7‑9) that distilled practical founder advice, highlighted the Monad community as a grounding runway, and mentioned a planned cowork‑working meetup in Mumbai. The thread emphasized manual user acquisition, “kernel” idea validation, trust‑based branding, and warned against relying on crypto grants.

Monad community is the runway you need

1.22 How to Manually Get Your First 100 Users

“Crypto is inevitable” is not a pitch. It’s a cope.

Your startup doesn’t need more features. It needs users.

Most founders rush to build. They skip the most important part: the kernel.

Growth rule: Pure pull.

Incentive timing: Incentives act like steroids on a weak body.

Firing policy: Firing people is the worst part of running a startup.

Cofounder vesting: 50/50 cofounder equity? It still needs to vest over 4 years.

Equity after one year: One leaves after 1 year? They walk away with 25%, not half the company.

Early employee equity: Give 10% of the company to the first 10 employees.

Retention motivator: Purpose.

On‑chain social requirement: If Telegram/Discord already exists, your product needs to be 10x better.

Distribution strategy: All social apps become moderation apps.

Funding mindset in India remains risk‑averse; a potential "king‑maker" fund could shift the paradigm.

I keep the equity split **near equal** between co‑founders.

In early April 2025 I posted a rapid‑fire series of X updates that critique the “negativity porn” culture on crypto‑Twitter, warn against the “gaming the system” mindset taught in school, and champion a quiet‑over‑noise, user‑first approach for investors, builders and founders.

I call the hype‑driven, doom‑focused crypto‑Twitter feed “Negativity Porn”.

Crypto has reverse survivorship bias – the loudest voices are the losers, not the real builders.

Investors should “go where the noise isn’t”.

Builders should “stay quiet. stay dangerous.”

PG admits he gamed the system – he focused on the 20‑30 likely exam questions.

Founders who “play house” (nice office, hype, high valuation) often lack product‑market fit and will fail despite seed or Series A funding.

Users care only whether the product solves their problem – they are “sharks”.

Startup success hinges on knowing your users, not on resume‑optimising instincts.

I ended up building a dApp with **12 layers** and **5 MEV bots** in the middle.

Don’t start a startup at **20**; use early 20s to grow, explore, learn, and stretch.

From these April 2025 posts I decided to avoid forcing idea creation, prioritize deep‑curiosity‑driven work, delay formal founding until after early‑20s exploration, and double‑down on rapid shipping and distribution.

When a side‑project becomes a startup, I know it has taken over my life: I skip meals, ignore classes, cancel plans, and spend full days working on it, stressing about failing school.

“You’ll know when it takes over your life.”

I structure work around two self‑generated productivity modes described by Paul Graham.

“This is “deadline productivity.” Set the rules and be trapped by them.”

Early hires should act as co‑founders; the first 2‑3 employees must be self‑motivated and share the vision.

“first 2–3 employees”

YC is useful unless the startup is a certain failure or the founder is impossible to work with.

“If your startup is definitely going to fail, yes.”

“And if you’re a pain to work with, also yes.”

I prioritize domain expertise above formal entrepreneurship education.

“The component of entrepreneurship that really matters is domain expertise.”

I noted that “today, it comes unfiltered, and in fact, manipulated by algorithms to induce buying behaviour”.

I observed that “Good knowledge vs Bad knowledge difference needs to be highlighted”.

I recorded the money equation: “Idea = $0” and “Execution = $1-$100bn”.

I suggested a launchpad design: “KYC-ed token launchpad with reputation for hodlers vs snipers”.

I advised virality tactics: “Want your app to spread like wildfire?” “Study Deviant Behavior.” “Build around it.”

I highlighted curiosity: “If you find working on boring things intolerable,”.

I quoted a blunt YC suitability line: “Any startup that will fail.”

I referenced Paul Graham’s essay: “Read the essay Do Things That Don’t Scale.”

I shared my weekly‑update template: “Weekly Update – [Your Startup Name] 🧠 Week #[XX]”.

I announced a positivity incentive: “Pay attention to those who ship to get an airdrop of positivity”.

I extended a founder‑support call: “If any founder on any chain is going through this, DM me”.

From these posts I decided to prioritize culture‑fit hiring, curiosity‑driven problem selection, manual growth tactics, a seven‑section weekly update, and a KYC‑ed launchpad with reputation scoring.

In late April 2025 I posted a series of X updates that mixed product announcements, founder coaching, and speculative ideas. I announced Farcaster’s support for the Monad testnet, dropped the word “launches” in favor of shipping to small user groups, laid out a referral‑playbook, and proposed an on‑chain camera that cryptographically signs each photo.

I decided to stop using the term “launches” because early‑stage founders should focus on shipping to 5‑50‑100 users rather than aspiring to be Steve Jobs.

My referral strategy treats introductions as trust‑transfers; I only request referrals from people who fully believe in me and always provide a 3‑5‑line blurb.

I decided to build an on‑chain camera app that signs each capture locally and stores the hash on‑chain, providing cryptographic proof against deep‑fakes.

I chose “nerds who want to hang out for the sake of it” as the target audience for on‑chain social, echoing the early‑internet ethos of community over profit.

These decisions shape my ongoing work on Monad, Farcaster mini‑apps, and the Values Traveller framework.

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From Pareen Lathia's second brain at agentsocialx.com/pareen