Solana Co-founder Interview: When the entire industry sentenced Solana to "death," it became my motivation

Original Title: "Solana Founder Raj Gokal Shares MINDSET SHIFTS That Built $83B Company"

Interview Source: Silicon Valley Girl

Compilation and Organization: BitpushNews

Introduction: In this interview, Solana co-founder Raj Gokal shares his entrepreneurial journey in the cryptocurrency space, his collaboration story with co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, and the growth and future vision of Solana. He emphasizes the importance of a good co-founder relationship for entrepreneurial success and delves into the value attributes of Bitcoin, Solana's technological innovations, the potential of NFTs, and the application of DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) in business. Additionally, Raj reflects on the toughest moments in Solana's development and shares his firm belief in the future of the cryptocurrency industry.

The following is the full text of the interview, organized for easier reading:

Host: Raj, you are building an exciting project, and Solana's valuation is so high now. Today, we want to talk about your entrepreneurial story and how you built Solana. Raj, your LinkedIn profile shows that you founded many companies before joining Solana. Can you share your entrepreneurial journey with us?

Raj Gokal: I didn't list all the companies I founded because most of them failed. But this has always been my commitment to myself— to keep trying to start businesses in the tech industry in San Francisco and Silicon Valley until I find a truly successful direction.

My earliest entrepreneurial experience was in my early twenties when I co-founded a glucose sensor company with a good friend from college, mainly targeting consumers and athletes. Although it ultimately didn't make it to market, the company was acquired by One Drop. This was the starting point of my entrepreneurial journey.

Host: Your first company was acquired?

Raj Gokal: Yes, but it was mainly due to my co-founder's efforts. I left before the acquisition because I realized it would be a long process. This experience taught me an important lesson—finding the right co-founder is one of the most important things in entrepreneurship. For me, the core of entrepreneurship is going through this journey with the right partners; I never thought about going it alone.

My co-founder Ashwin continued to lead that company after I left, and about six years later, the acquisition was finally completed. I hope that technology can be released soon! This experience also made me realize that in a highly regulated industry, if you want to reshape a key aspect, you must be clear about your product's value and understand when you will encounter those vested interests who want to maintain the status quo.

Host: Later, you entered the health tech field?

Raj Gokal: Yes, for the next six years, I was in the health tech industry. I worked at Omada Health, where I was exposed to cryptocurrency. In the health tech field, I founded or participated in several startups, and I found that health insurance companies and regulators in the U.S. (mainly the FDA) are extremely conservative and hold the decision-making power over the entire industry. Without their approval, no new product can enter the market or receive payment.

I always wanted to use technology to reshape these areas because the giants in these industries have long avoided reform in various ways. But then I realized that the vested interests in the healthcare industry are too powerful, making it nearly impossible to shake things up in the short term.

Of course, things are slowly changing, like Apple developing many sensing technologies that allow consumers to access health data directly without relying on insurance companies. These changes require tech giants like Apple, Amazon, and Google to drive them.

Host: So how did you enter the crypto industry?

Raj Gokal: Yes, the crypto industry is also heavily regulated, but there is one difference—many of the regulatory rules in the financial industry are built around "intermediaries." In the traditional financial system, all transactions must go through intermediaries like banks, while cryptocurrency aims to eliminate intermediaries, allowing us to reshape the industry more quickly.

The healthcare industry is different; you can't bypass doctors or licensed professionals, but in finance, we can achieve peer-to-peer transactions directly. This makes it harder for existing financial giants to fully control cryptocurrency.

Host: But the volatility of the crypto market is very high. How do you adjust your mindset?

Raj Gokal: Any truly important innovation experiences severe fluctuations when it first enters the market. The same was true during the internet bubble; many companies went through rollercoaster ups and downs, but the ones that survived became industry giants.

I believe that the more disruptive a technology is, the greater the bubbles and shocks it will experience. We now see that the pace of technological development is accelerating, and the user growth curve is becoming steeper. From electricity, telephones, the internet, mobile devices to now AI and cryptocurrency, the speed of technology adoption has significantly increased. Therefore, the speculative sentiment in the market is understandable because these technologies can indeed change our lives quickly.

Host: However, compared to the healthcare industry, the value of cryptocurrency seems to rely more on people's "faith." If a celebrity spreads the word on social media that "Bitcoin is a scam," the entire market could be affected. What do you think about this?

Raj Gokal: That's a great question. The value of Bitcoin does rely on people's faith, but that's also one of its core attributes. Bitcoin is the bellwether of the entire crypto industry; it is the first asset to prove that a decentralized ledger can exist.

In the past few years, Bitcoin has faced various challenges, but it has survived. Now, we see financial giants like BlackRock launching Bitcoin ETFs, and CEOs discussing the value of Bitcoin in public. Additionally, some countries, like El Salvador, have already adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. These trends indicate that Bitcoin has grown from a "crazy idea" to a truly globally recognized store of value.

Host: So do you think Bitcoin has crossed the chasm of faith?

Raj Gokal: Yes, Bitcoin has entered an asset class similar to gold and art; it is a decentralized, global store of value.

Of course, the payment space is still in its early stages, but we have already seen Visa choose Solana as the settlement network between banks, merchants, and card issuers. This shows that even companies with large tech teams and significant opportunity costs are beginning to adopt crypto technology.

Host: How do you view the future of this technology and make judgments independent of market cycles, believing that future settlement systems will be built on these chains?

Raj Gokal: We see some companies already starting to lay the groundwork, like Stripe restarting its acceptance of crypto payments. In a demonstration, John Collison showcased USDC transactions on Solana that were almost instantaneous. For them, the speed and reliability of networks like Solana are crucial. So, in the payment space, we have already seen some progress.

However, in other use cases, the market still experiences significant volatility. But this reminds me of the internet's adoption process from 1995 to 2005. At that time, the internet was not just a single product; new things emerged periodically. Initially, people needed an email address because it was the way to access various services, and over time, different major applications gradually emerged, ultimately bringing billions of users online.

Host: You joined Solana before it was widely recognized. What was the opportunity?

Raj Gokal: Yes, that was between 2017 and 2018. At that time, Ethereum had already proven that blockchain is not just a tool for storing value; it can also serve as a programmable decentralized application platform. This concept was very novel, and projects like CryptoKitties emerged, attracting tens of thousands of users, but the high gas fees and network delays that followed indicated that Ethereum's scalability was facing significant challenges.

The bottleneck in infrastructure was evident, and the consensus in the industry was that new scaling solutions must be explored, so funding was provided for scaling research in various directions. Solana's approach was that we believed sharding should be the last scaling option; the priority should be on parallelizing transaction processing and creating a decentralized time synchronization mechanism within the network. This would allow us to build a high-throughput, non-sharded global state machine that could scale with Moore's Law.

Host: So your idea was to start from scratch and focus on optimizing performance?

Raj Gokal: Exactly. Our idea was to start from Ethereum's scalability issues, assuming that hardware costs would continue to decline, and leverage Moore's Law to design a brand new system. Every engineering decision we made revolved around performance optimization so that when truly high-performance application scenarios emerged, our platform could be the optimal choice.

Host: In the early stages, did you have a clear idea of the specific application scenarios for blockchain?

Raj Gokal: Not really. At that time, there was a lot of discussion about how blockchain could change the world, just like in the mid-90s when people were trying to imagine future YouTube, Uber, or Instacart. These visions were valuable, but more importantly, we needed to build an infrastructure that could support future applications.

We believe that truly successful products can grow from 30,000 users to 300 million or even 3 billion users in a short time, so the infrastructure must be able to support that level of scaling. For example, could CryptoKitties potentially grow to 3 million users in six months? Maybe, but the high transaction costs at the time made it impractical. So our bet was to first solve the scaling problem and then wait for application scenarios to naturally emerge. It turned out that these applications came faster than we expected.

Host: Regarding the idea of Solana, how did you form the team?

Raj Gokal: The idea came entirely from Anatoly (Yakovenko). He had been focused on scaling distributed systems, and we met at Omada. At that time, I was closely collaborating with a former particle physicist, Eric Williams, who was responsible for data science while I handled product management. Later, he told me that Anatoly was researching blockchain scalability issues and was passionate about this direction. He suggested I meet with Anatoly.

Host: Before this, you were mainly focused on health tech startups, right?

Raj Gokal: Yes, Omada was my second company. Although I wasn't a founder, I was involved early on. After that, I tried nine different health tech startup projects within a year.

Host: Nine companies in one year? What was that process like? How did you decide when to abandon an idea?

Raj Gokal: Initially, my thinking was results-oriented. I wanted to create a product that could quickly find product-market fit, be capital efficient, have technological breakthroughs, and make an impact with minimal funding. I didn't want to just create a company that could make money; I wanted to genuinely improve the healthcare industry.

The main criteria were twofold: 1. Is there enough potential—does this product have the opportunity to change the industry within a reasonable timeframe? 2. Team compatibility—are the partners and team suitable?

Host: How did you find the right partners?

Raj Gokal: During my time in Silicon Valley, I was always meeting potential startup partners. My idea was that finding someone you can truly work with long-term is as important as finding a life partner. I would constantly meet people to see if we clicked and observe if they knew suitable candidates.

Typically, we would code together on weekends or even start a small project to see if the collaboration was smooth. It's like musicians often jamming together in the studio to see if their styles mesh.

Host: After trying multiple startup projects that year, how did you ultimately decide to join Anatoly?

Raj Gokal: I had tried many times, even getting into discussions about equity distribution and fundraising with some people, but none gave me the confidence for a long-term collaboration. However, when Eric told me that Anatoly had a deep understanding of blockchain scalability and was constantly thinking about it, I decided to meet him.

Anatoly made me realize that the main bottleneck for blockchain is indeed scalability, and we have already solved similar problems in other fields, such as wireless networks, the internet, and data centers. Blockchain is not the only distributed system that needs scaling, so we can draw on existing solutions.

At that time, I didn't intend to commit ten years to this project; I just wanted to give Anatoly six months to help him with proper fundraising and team recruitment. I knew how to build an early-stage team, and the first ten people would have a significant impact on the company's future. During this process, I gradually became attracted to the potential of this project and ultimately decided to commit full-time.

Host: It sounds like your decision-making criteria were primarily about the idea itself, and then the team, with the team being the most critical factor. Is that one of the reasons you shifted directions?

Raj Gokal: Yes, this was a significant mindset shift for me. I realized that instead of focusing on a specific problem and then assembling the most suitable team, it was better to spend time working with someone I already knew I could collaborate well with, and that person happened to be a global top talent in solving that problem.

Host: Can you explain the overall structure of Solana? For example, what are the roles of Solana Labs and Solana Foundation? How would someone from a traditional business background understand this structure, such as ownership, valuation, etc.? Because the trading price of Solana tokens in the market and the company's valuation are two different things, right?

Raj Gokal: Yes. In my view, the gold standard of the industry is Bitcoin. Bitcoin has no centralized foundation or management organization; it is entirely community-driven. Satoshi Nakamoto is one person or a group of people, and we don't even know their true identity, which has disappeared and no longer appears. Therefore, I believe an important feature of a crypto network is that it should ultimately become something akin to a public resource, like the internet. No one cares who maintains the internet because it is a decentralized ecosystem, and the companies maintaining it are just part of it; their influence may even be smaller than that of the developers who truly build, use, and contribute to the internet.

From this perspective, even Solana is already moving in this direction. Ethereum is in a similar situation.

Anatoly and I created two organizations: Solana Labs and Solana Foundation. Both organizations are currently small, with only a few dozen people, and many people will leave to establish new companies and innovate within the Solana ecosystem.

Solana Labs primarily focuses on building products on the Solana network. Initially, it built some DeFi-related reference implementations, such as lending protocols and automated market maker (AMM) protocols, which are the infrastructure needed for trading and financial activities. Additionally, it launched Metaplex, which is the protocol supporting all NFT markets, and these markets have now developed into billion-dollar businesses.

Host: How does Solana Labs generate revenue?

Raj Gokal: Solana Labs launches these products and holds a small equity stake in them, like an investor. But our team is small, so we don't need to make a lot of money to sustain operations.

Host: So, assuming you created Solana, you would retain some tokens to support operations, and as these tokens appreciate, your capital would grow? Or do investors purchase Solana tokens instead of directly funding you? I'm trying to understand this process from Satoshi Nakamoto's perspective. If you were to raise funds, how would that work?

Raj Gokal: Yes, Ethereum conducted an ICO when it launched, allowing anyone to purchase ETH, which became the foundational model for many similar projects. However, later on, in the U.S., regulators clearly stated that tokens could not be sold indiscriminately to everyone, regardless of whether they were accredited investors.

When we started Solana, we could no longer issue tokens for fundraising like Ethereum, so we had to be more cautious and compliant. Our early fundraising method was to sell SOL tokens, but through SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens). A portion of these tokens was reserved at the genesis block for early fundraising.

At that time, the scale of funds we raised was very small; for example, the first round of financing was only $20 million, while many other networks raised hundreds of millions at the same time. But our fundraising method complied with U.S. regulatory requirements, and the funding sources were mainly accredited investors in the U.S. and overseas.

However, this model is different from traditional centralized companies; we organizations do not extract fees from network transactions. Simply building products within the Solana ecosystem is enough to support a strong engineering team.

Host: You are building an ecosystem, and you develop products within that ecosystem and profit from those products?

Raj Gokal: Yes, that's right. I believe that at some point in the future, the network itself can meet all needs, and the entire ecosystem will be able to autonomously build all the products it requires. The initial development team will no longer hold unique advantages; rather, the entire developer community will drive ecosystem development. If that truly happens, Solana Labs may no longer exist.

The same applies to Solana Foundation. It currently manages a reserve of SOL tokens, with the primary goal of enhancing the network's decentralization and censorship resistance. For example, Solana Foundation supports newly joined validators through delegated tokens, which may find it challenging to compete in the early stages. The foundation provides some support, and as they mature, it gradually withdraws these delegated funds.

In the long term, the responsibilities of Solana Foundation will gradually decrease, ultimately focusing only on those core issues that truly impact the next hundred years.

But at this stage, the foundation can still do some things that other ecosystem participants find difficult to accomplish. For instance, if Visa wants to assess the design of the Solana network, their engineering team needs to conduct in-depth research, and they hope to communicate directly with the people who initially built the network. Currently, we have not yet entered a fully mature stage, and Visa still needs to consult the Solana team. However, I expect this situation to change soon, possibly even this year.

For example, PayPal has already issued their stablecoin on Solana, and Stripe has just completed the Solana integration. These developments are not because Solana Labs intervened, but because developers have become familiar with this network, just as they know how to use email protocols or internet protocols.

Host: So do these companies, like PayPal and Stripe, pay you any fees?

Raj Gokal: No, they are completely independent. If they come to us, it's just to better understand how the network operates.

Host: So these companies do not pay you any fees? That means Solana Labs or Solana Foundation also does not gain any direct revenue from these projects?

Raj Gokal: Yes. In fact, we could obtain more revenue through different means, but that is not our goal. If an organization's primary goal is to profit from the network, it may resemble a commercial company rather than a public infrastructure provider. We prefer the Solana ecosystem to grow autonomously rather than rely on Solana Labs for intervention.

Our goal is to make the entire network more diverse, sustainable, and capable of self-growth. From what I see now, I believe the Solana ecosystem has basically reached that state. Many times, people ask us, "What have you done to facilitate the birth of a certain project?" In reality, our understanding of that project is the same as theirs; we learned about it from news or Twitter. That feeling is great, as it means the ecosystem's development is organic and happens autonomously.

Host: What is your current specific role?

Raj Gokal: I am currently a board member of Solana Foundation and serve as the president of Solana Labs. Anatoly and I mainly focus our energy on Solana Labs, developing new products, such as the Saga phone, with subsequent versions set to be released. In addition, we are also researching and launching other new products at Solana Labs. Solana Foundation also has a very talented team; I participate in management at the board level but do not handle the day-to-day operations of the foundation.

Host: So you are a co-founder of Solana, right? From the perspective of company structure, how are your shares or equity calculated? Does the founding team receive Solana tokens?

Raj Gokal: Yes, our founding team received some tokens. This information is public because it is all recorded on the blockchain.

When the genesis block was generated, we reserved a portion of the tokens to reward those team members who contributed to the network's construction. This model is also common in the open-source software field, such as operating systems and development tools; many people develop software not for direct profit but because they hope the software will be used and solve real problems.

However, in the crypto field, tokens have an additional role: they not only serve as an incentive mechanism to reward developers but also play a role in network governance and security. Because these protocols manage real-world value and involve assets that can be exchanged for fiat currency, they can easily become targets for attacks.

To some extent, tokens act as a "spam prevention mechanism" for the network. Without tokens, anyone could abuse network resources at will, leading to system crashes. Therefore, holding tokens is not just about economic returns; it also signifies a contribution to the network's security and long-term development.

Host: In the design of crypto protocols, how do you prevent potential attacks and abuse?

Raj Gokal: You might try to attack the protocol through wash trading or trading floods, or attempt denial-of-service attacks (DoS), and there are many ways to manipulate the protocol if it is entirely free. So you need some mechanism to pay for using the protocol. This is also one way we can understand tokens; they act like a spam prevention mechanism. Just like if the cost of sending an email is one-thousandth of a cent per email, which company would let you send emails for free? No company would; you must have a mechanism to pay for using the protocol. Therefore, many early internet designers, including Mark Andreessen and the founders of Netscape, would say that if they could go back in time, they would consider some form of value and anti-spam mechanism that allows you to pay for using open protocols. If we could have anticipated the second and third-order effects of not having this mechanism, it might look like what we have in cryptocurrency today.

Host: So to some extent, do you think there is a similarity between cryptocurrency and early internet protocols?

Raj Gokal: Yes, this is indeed something new. I think the way companies start, especially for those who are used to equity in startups, is a mindset shift. But I prefer to see it as how to build open-source software with anti-spam measures. I don't think any serious person would overly consider things like "exits." Saga is the first device we launched; it is a high-end device made of titanium, designed by the chief designer of the iPad Pro long before the iPhone used titanium. It is a truly high-end crypto device with no restrictions on NFTs and tokens. However, today, in the App Store, as a developer, you cannot freely publish crypto-related content; in fact, it is very restricted. The fee model of the App Store, such as the 30% fee for digital content, means that if I create an NFT and want to sell it to you, I don't want to pay a 30% fee or let 30% go to Apple. This is a peer-to-peer relationship. Many of the models we see in the crypto space do not work in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. It turns out that many people in the U.S. are satisfied with this.

Host: Can you briefly introduce the background of the Saga device? It seems to have received a good response in the market.

Raj Gokal: A total of 20,000 Saga devices were produced, and they sold out in about two days at the end of 2023. We found that heavy crypto users, if they live in the U.S. and primarily use iPhones, usually carry two phones. Many use it for work, trading, and signing very urgent transactions. In fact, it doesn't quite feel like a phone; some people even use it to make calls. I'm not sure if we have tracking tools, but I know someone once told me they received a call on the Saga. It is an Android phone, but I think its use case will be more in trading and similar scenarios. Ledger also launched a display that provides a more configurable interface for interacting with transaction signing, but they are not focused on making this device usable everywhere.

Host: It sounds like the use cases for the Saga device are very diverse. So, how does it compare to mainstream platforms like Ethereum in terms of clear advantages?

Raj Gokal: We see that the frequency of NFT transactions on the Solana network is 5 to 20 times higher compared to slower networks like Ethereum. Its user base is very active. So, I think unlocking mobile is a very important bet, and no other company in the industry seems prepared or willing to make this bet. Therefore, we made this decision. As for the sale of 20,000 devices, that was just a proof of concept. We now see over 150,000 reservations, and the next batch of devices has far exceeded the user numbers of most applications in the current crypto industry. We haven't started delivering these devices yet, but we see developers lining up to develop applications for these devices because they align very well with their target market. So we call it Saga because we know this will be a long story. This is not a bet that will pay off in one or two years, similar to the decision to launch the Solana network and bet on the future need for high-performance applications. You must continuously increase your investment and commitment.

Host: Are there any challenges to the success of the Saga project? For example, the competition with large tech companies?

Raj Gokal: We initially thought that all these signals would eventually reach Apple, expecting them to have a great product launch. However, the result was completely the opposite. You see, I mentioned earlier that Apple is the existing giant, and its business model extracts 30% from digital content, which is a model that cryptocurrency could potentially disrupt. So Apple is not in a hurry to make positive changes in the crypto space. As part of the crypto industry, we should invest in mobile rather than wait for these giants to give us permission.

Host: Can you imagine what it would be like to use a Solana phone two years from now? For example, for myself, I might just use it to buy cryptocurrency without engaging in any trading, but what do you envision for the future?

Raj Gokal: One phenomenon is that every day, 23,000 new tokens are launched on Solana, almost as easy as posting a YouTube video or an Instagram picture. Take NFTs as an example; the cost of issuing NFTs on Solana used to be thousands of dollars, but with the development of compressed NFT technology, the cost of issuing 10,000 NFTs has dropped to $100 or even lower. It has become almost as cheap as sending an email.

Imagine if NFTs were merely a way to communicate with a large audience, and the audience might even own the "messages" they receive, just like a letter. Tokens are similar. If you interact with the audience by issuing tokens, it could be a brand new way of communication. Although this idea is strange, it is actually happening.

Creators can interact with their audience through tokens, and 100% of the revenue goes directly to the creators. You can co-invest with your audience, supporting each other, and the design space is almost limitless.

Compared to centralized platforms (like Instagram), creators are no longer incentivized by ad support and do not have to create content that caters to algorithms, avoiding platform revenue cuts. Based on the direct relationship enabled by crypto, there is only one contract between creators and audiences, with no intermediaries and no ads. Although this is still in a very early stage, it seems unlikely to disappear.

Two years from now, five years from now, as breakthroughs continue in the crypto industry, the relationship between creators and audiences will become increasingly indistinguishable. Interacting through NFTs and tokens to create new value exchanges is an important innovation in the crypto space.

DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) is a new use case that increases network value through distributed activation of hardware. Traditional wireless networks require significant capital investment, while through DPIN networks like Helium, anyone can participate in building the 5G network by connecting hotspots from their homes.

Hive Mapper is also a similar example. It incentivizes users to install in-car cameras and record 4K videos through token payments, creating a decentralized street view map. This approach is more cost-effective and flexible than traditional Google Street View methods.

Another example is Teleport, a decentralized Uber platform created by a former Dropbox engineer. Unlike traditional Uber, drivers receive 100% of their income, with no platform cuts.

Host: After trying so many companies, is this a project you will stick with long-term?

Raj Gokal: I hope the healthcare industry can be rebuilt. I am paying attention to this field, and there are crypto industry practitioners returning to innovate in healthcare, but I am not ready to do that at the moment.

I believe Solana still has 99.9% of its potential to be developed, and it is steadily moving toward that goal. There is nothing that can stop it from solving this problem. Many people have said that Solana will die, but that has only been a source of motivation for us. This negative feedback serves as a value signal for entrepreneurs, prompting us to become stronger.

Host: Have you ever thought about giving up?

Raj Gokal: Yes, but I have never had the determination to give up. As long as I persist, I can get through every difficulty. My DNA is that of an entrepreneur, and the Solana ecosystem similarly attracts those resilient entrepreneurs. Each of us motivates one another.

Host: You have gone through many tough moments. Can you tell us what the most challenging moment was in building Solana?

Raj Gokal: I don't know how to choose which was the hardest. If I had to pick one, it might be those moments when many people thought Solana should die. Many times, the entire crypto industry did not believe in Solana's existence and thought it should perish. Anatoly taught me one thing: when people have such strong opinions about you, that is actually a very valuable signal. It can become a source of motivation; although it is negative, it is still energy, and you can feel it.

However, I don't think all these negative voices are meaningless. I believe most people mean well, and if they express negative opinions, there must be some truth in it that you should listen to. For any entrepreneur, the worst thing is not being criticized but being ignored, with no signals at all. If you post a YouTube video and receive no views, likes, or dislikes, you learn nothing; there is no feedback. Getting negative feedback at least lets you know what is wrong, and at least you know what people think of you. So for any entrepreneur, whether positive or negative feedback is valuable information.

Host: Have you ever thought about giving up?

Raj Gokal: Many times. To be honest, I am not someone with strong willpower; Anatoly is the real ironman challenger. He is an endurance athlete, and I had never done such things before. All my endurance training has been honed while building something valuable. But as I mentioned earlier, everything you do is to complete it with the people you work with. If you can tell yourself that even if the whole world collapses and everything goes to zero, and the work you do no longer has any value, but you are still willing to work with your team members, then at least you can get through it and weather the storm. Moreover, time always changes everything; the worst times are ultimately temporary. You just need to persist day after day, and things will change.

Host: Did you have a similar mindset in the early stages of your entrepreneurship?

Raj Gokal: Yes, completely. Entrepreneurship is about constantly experiencing failure and not knowing what difficulties you will encounter next. If you have failed three companies, you might think it’s time to leave Silicon Valley for somewhere else. I set the most basic requirement for myself: as long as I have not succeeded, I will continue to start businesses until I find a successful path. In fact, I told myself that if I start 100 companies, I will still be doing it at 90 years old. I have that belief until these things can succeed.

Host: Has your mindset changed compared to before?

Raj Gokal: Yes, now I feel that the DNA of the Solana ecosystem embodies this spirit of perseverance. Every entrepreneur joins Solana with that tenacity and determination, hoping to work with like-minded people. In fact, now I feel that I might be the least tenacious person in the entire network; the truly tenacious ones are those founders building and contributing to Solana. Watching their perseverance inspires me to be more resilient.

Host: Will you focus on these entrepreneurs rather than the comments on social media?

Raj Gokal: Yes, external noise will always exist; the key is to stick to your goals. No matter what the outside world is like, you must focus on yourself and those like-minded people. You can always find infinite motivation from that.