Now that I'm no longer at the EF, I can finally say this even though it'll upset some people.
The best founders I worked with all knew one thing, the foundation can't find PMF for you.
They had it mostly figured out, what to build, where they were weak, what they needed, and when they came to us it was always for specific, bounded asks.
Then there were the founders who thought their distribution problem would be solved by an
@ethereum retweet on launch day, who genuinely expected the EF to somehow hand them PMF. (And yes, I offered that retweet myself all the time, plenty of great founders took it, the difference is they treated it as a bonus, not the plan.)
No foundation can make you successful. Building a good product, figuring out distribution, finding PMF, that's all on you.
I always gave the example of
@StaniKulechov or
@gdog97_. Stani built Aave through multiple cycles, pivoted from ETHLend, and kept shipping through thick and thin.
Guy built Ethena into one of the fastest growing protocols in DeFi without waiting for anyone's blessing. These people were going to build regardless of whether the EF supported them or even knew they existed, the support helped at the margins but it was never the reason they won, and the same can be said for the best founders in the Solana ecosystem.
Now, to be fair, the people who criticized the EF for not having founder support teams in the first place were right, that function needed to exist and for a long time it simply didn't. That criticism was valid and it's part of why things changed. But there's a difference between saying the EF should support builders and expecting the EF to make you successful, those are two very different asks and only one of them is reasonable.
I'll also admit that not everyone starts from the same place. Some founders are first timers, some come from outside crypto, some don't have the network or the capital that others do, and they genuinely need more help, which is fair. But there's a difference between needing help and outsourcing your success.
What should foundations do? The fundamentals, an intro for liquidity, an intro to an investor, programs like startup schools, guidance when teams hit walls etc etc.
What they can't do is build your startup or decide your fate. These are open and permissionless networks(at least ethereum is), and anyone can build whatever they want.
There's something Elon(not a big fan btw) says that I've found to be true here too, the loudest complainers are usually the worst people. The teams screaming about lack of support were almost never the ones a retweet would've saved. I am personally guilty of trying to help those teams in the first few months of my job rather than working with the real builders.
And to be clear, if you worked with me at the EF and we had good conversations, this isn't about you.
Lastly, I have to say, If your go to market strategy was a retweet from
@ethereum, I have news for you....